Azamara best price guarantee

[gogo65]

We have recently booked an Azamara cruise for next year, I had read about their best price guarantee, so figured we would be ok if the price dropped.

Unfortunately we booked through an agent who is now saying that we need to cancel and rebook for the best price guarantee to kick in.

While paying the $100 cancellation fee (and $50 change fee from the TA), we are still better off, it just seems ridiculous that the only way to honour this is to cancel.

To be honest the T&C’s are fairly non descript.

Has anyone had any experience with Azamara and their best price guarantee?

Thanks

[Hammer61]

20 hours ago, gogo65 said:

I had read about their best price guarantee, so figured we would be ok if the price dropped.

Is this still current though? We had a cruise earlier this year with Azamara that we used the best price guarantee a couple of times when prices dropped or OBC was increased but i thought it was only for cruises booked before a certain date?

 

The new website doesn't seem to have anything about it either in fact for the current upgrade deal it says in the T&C that any existing bookings wanting to take advantage of the offer need to cancel and re book and fee is involved!

 

Also, FWIW, Azamara is one of the cruise lines we book directly with, the price maybe slightly higher (often less than $100) than the online agents and also i have never seen an agent offer more (OBC etc) than booking direct, and if you do need to change a booking it's only the $100 fee to pay (unless under the price guarantee in which case its free), no additional agents change fee, they also don't charge Credit Card fees when you pay for the cruise but be careful with which card you use as foreign exchange fees may apply even if you pay in $A as it gets processed in Ireland, lastly the call center is always easy to get hold of and they are very helpful in our experience. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Hammer61

[gogo65]

2 hours ago, Hammer61 said:

Is this still current though? We had a cruise earlier this year with Azamara that we used the best price guarantee a couple of times when prices dropped or OBC was increased but i thought it was only for cruises booked before a certain date?

 

The new website doesn't seem to have anything about it either in fact for the current upgrade deal it says in the T&C that any existing bookings wanting to take advantage of the offer need to cancel and re book and fee is involved!

 

Also, FWIW, Azamara is one of the cruise lines we book directly with, the price maybe slightly higher (often less than $100) than the online agents and also i have never seen an agent offer more (OBC etc) than booking direct, and if you do need to change a booking it's only the $100 fee to pay (unless under the price guarantee in which case its free), no additional agents change fee, they also don't charge Credit Card fees when you pay for the cruise but be careful with which card you use as foreign exchange fees may apply even if you pay in $A as it gets processed in Ireland, lastly the call center is always easy to get hold of and they are very helpful in our experience. 

Thanks Hammer, that’s interesting as we originally booked through Azamara but transferred to the TA  who is an acquaintance of one of our travelling companions. The agent at the time advised about the best price guarantee. I normally book everything myself (except expedition cruising as I have found they can offer significant savings (5-7%).

I also weighed up the cost of credit card fees (again I normally negotiate with an agent if necessary or book myself) but against my better judgement went with an agent that i dont have any relationship with…)

 

Interestingly she has just called and Azamara have waived the fee, we have moved into a club continent suite for a $478 saving (from a P1), we loose the excursion OBC ($300) and the upgraded drinks package, being a port intensive cruise not sure how much benefit we would get from the the upgraded drinks package and happy to book excursions on our own, so happy for the upgrade.

[MicCanberra]

Unfortunately, these offers only seem to work when booking directly, the only other times it has w orked was when booked via a US TA, and then currency conversions can be your undoing.