Black Friday sale

[terry&mike]

Azamara Black Friday Sale, November 15-December 1, 2023

 

 

AzamaraBlackFriday.pdf

[tonyl1956]

Interesting. The small print says it's applicable only to 'United States, Canada and select global markets'. I might ask my TA whether they've heard anything regarding the UK, as some of the cruises specified look interesting enough that they would take precedence over one we are looking at right now.

[worldtraveler56]

I made such a rookie mistake (not a rookie, which makes it even worse)!  Two days ago I found an Amazara sailing that I looked at last year.  It's only offered once per year and the itinerary is only offered by Azamara (around Ireland).  Found a great cabin for a total price of $5518.  Working on DH and today he said yes!  Price today is $8782...  😞   I sure hope that Black Friday sale extends to ALL sailings!

[Mackdogmolly]

14 hours ago, worldtraveler56 said:

I made such a rookie mistake (not a rookie, which makes it even worse)!  Two days ago I found an Amazara sailing that I looked at last year.  It's only offered once per year and the itinerary is only offered by Azamara (around Ireland).  Found a great cabin for a total price of $5518.  Working on DH and today he said yes!  Price today is $8782...  😞   I sure hope that Black Friday sale extends to ALL sailings!

It doesn’t 

[Mackdogmolly]

5 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

It doesn’t 

See post #26

[ChucktownSteve]

The restricted sailings aren't anything that interest me.   Typical sale to fill less than desirable sailings that have lots of available cabins?  Doesn't look like anything special.

[worldtraveler56]

Yeah, thanks @Mackdogmolly.  I saw @terry&mike's post post before writing mine, so I agree it's unlikely.  But a girl can hope, can't she?

[Hammer61]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:18 PM, worldtraveler56 said:

Found a great cabin for a total price of $5518.  Working on DH and today he said yes!  Price today is $8782.

The regular price changes from Azamara are frustrating i find, as much as i understand they need to sell cruises they also need to be aware that this can actually put people off, yes i know other cruise lines do it as well but does seem Azamara are more frequent with it and the price swings much higher, a recent Princess and Cunard cruise both barely moved or were slightly higher by the time the full payment was required, both had so called specials at different times, extra OBC etc, but really taking those into account the overall cost didn't move more than $150-$200pp

 

Our last Azamara cruise dropped in price by $1800pp at one point from when we initially booked (on a so-called early booking discount with a few perks etc) at that time they had the price guarantee, so it was no problem changing each time the price reduced, but it did make me track the cruise very closely and on a regular basis and as well as go down, it would then suddenly spike up as well. 

 

My real conclusion for booking Azamara is to have a few choices of departures and wait until close to that final payment date then book as often the upcoming sailings have some very big discounts to what they may have been selling for 12 months earlier, suites are the only category's that seem to go quickly and have the least price movement, Interior (no thanks for us!) you can get some real big discounts close to sailing but not sure i would want one, but that's just our personal preference.

 

We want to do a Med cruise in the early summer (late May/early June) so im tracking 3 separate sailings all with similar voyage lengths, i also look at how they are selling using an online agent site that lets you see cabin availability, i won't book until late February at the earliest and although a price rise has just taken place i would bet 1 of these cruise that's not got many bookings apart from suites will be heavily discounted early next year...........

 

But i do wish they would bring back the Price Guarantee or be more price aware for us customers, as seems to me they try and sell the cruises at high prices, but will slash that price for short periods presumably to get some sales and if its still not selling well slash again before the sailing, why not just offer a competitive price they know makes them a profit from the start?  As said not unique to Azamara but they do seem the most volatile with it.

 

*All the above is just my 2 cents worth! 😁 

[Host Jazzbeau]

 

3 minutes ago, Hammer61 said:

The regular price changes from Azamara are frustrating i find, as much as i understand they need to sell cruises they also need to be aware that this can actually put people off, yes i know other cruise lines do it as well but does seem Azamara are more frequent with it and the price swings much higher...

Compared to airfares?  This is called 'dynamic pricing' and is increasingly common to airlines, hotels and cruise lines.  If this really bothers you, there are a few cruise lines that don't do this:  Ponant starts off with a 30% discount off the rack rate for early bookings; the discount is reduced periodically as cabins sell and the sail date gets closer – so early bookers are always rewarded.

[Hammer61]

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If this really bothers you, there are a few cruise lines that don't do this:  Ponant starts off with a 30% discount off the rack rate for early bookings; the discount is reduced periodically as cabins sell and the sail date gets closer – so early bookers are always rewarded.

Silversea as well.

 

It doesn't bother me really but do prefer the Ponant/Silversea model and have a booking in 2025 with them but does add in another layer to deal with when booking especially now Azamara don't offer the price guarantee as the price swings can be huge, yes you can pay a cancelation/rebooking fee but i don't understand why they don't just offer a competitive fare from the start? but that's up to them i just think it puts people off to a certain extent.

 

Mind you im not very brand loyal, so for our Med cruise i may well end up paying a bit more and going with Oceana, or less and HAL, its value for money i want, if i book and its $1800pp cheaper 6 months later as it was when we booked our last Azamara "early bird special" im left feeling a bit ripped off and thinking well why didn't they offer this cruise at a lower fare initially, if its say a $200 difference, you're not left with that same feeling (well im not!!) and can see they are just trying to sell the remaining cabins etc.

 

But each to there own i suppose.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 minutes ago, Hammer61 said:

if i book and its $1800pp cheaper 6 months later as it was when we booked our last Azamara "early bird special" im left feeling a bit ripped off and thinking well why didn't they offer this cruise at a lower fare initially

I book very early to get the cabin I want, then I never look back*.  If it was good 'value for money' when I booked, it still is even if the cruise isn't selling well and they lower the fares for newcomers.  [* Good advice I got from B. B. King]

 

[Hammer61]

25 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I book very early to get the cabin I want, then I never look back*

Ah! I do get your point.... And that's a good outlook to have, BB King was right!!

 

I however will stick with my value-based criteria, just the way im built more than anything else 😊

 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Hammer61

[tgg]

I'm all for value. But I've found that the money saved by booking a cruise close to the sailing date is frequently eaten up by the airfare increase close in.😟  Driving to the port is a nice option for some of us.

[Host Jazzbeau]

28 minutes ago, tgg said:

I'm all for value. But I've found that the money saved by booking a cruise close to the sailing date is frequently eaten up by the airfare increase close in.😟  Driving to the port is a nice option for some of us.

How long does it take to drive from Florida to Venice?  [Oh, not that one!]

[Hammer61]

34 minutes ago, tgg said:

But I've found that the money saved by booking a cruise close to the sailing date is frequently eaten up by the airfare increase close in

Thats a good point and may be different depending on which part of the world you live in?

 

I'm in Sydney Australia, we already pay high air fares compared to Europe and the USA especially for International travel, competition is less i suppose but it does mean flights to say Europe don't vary as much, they do change depending on time of year and around the major Christmas/Easter times when they are even more expensive but if i had booked flights for May next year 6 months ago it wouldn't have been significantly cheaper than it is now or will be in February next year, always a risk of course but if your flexible with dates often a way around it.

[paf225]

5 hours ago, Hammer61 said:

...especially now Azamara don't offer the price guarantee...

I noticed early last month the fare for a booking I had on Onward for March, 2025 had been reduced by about $3,000 CAD.  I contacted my travel agent and they had the booking repriced to the lower fare for the same stateroom without having to cancel or incur any fees.  I know Azamara has different terms and conditions for their different markets so this may be a case where the "best price guarantee" option was available for the Canadian/U.S. market but not the Australian one   If the fare reduction occurs before final payment you should still be able to cancel for an admin fee ($75.00 USD p.p. here) and rebook at the lower price.  An interesting note is the fare is now back up to the price it was at before the aforementioned reduction.  Regards, Paul

[uktog]

9 minutes ago, paf225 said:

I noticed early last month the fare for a booking I had on Onward for March, 2025 had been reduced by about $3,000 CAD.  I contacted my travel agent and they had the booking repriced to the lower fare for the same stateroom without having to cancel or incur any fees.  I know Azamara has different terms and conditions for their different markets so this may be a case where the "best price guarantee" option was available for the Canadian/U.S. market but not the Australian one   If the fare reduction occurs before final payment you should still be able to cancel for an admin fee ($75.00 USD p.p. here) and rebook at the lower price.  An interesting note is the fare is now back up to the price it was at before the aforementioned reduction.  Regards, Paul

If only ours was the £ equivalent of $75. It’s more like $300.
 

I’m with @Hammer61 the pricing game (ok dynamic pricing to give it its fancy term) is putting us right off committing now the price guarantee has gone. We rarely used the guarantee but at least we knew it was there. Now we’d feel “cheated” if early commitment penalised us.

 

Certainly for UK guests joining European cruises where there’s a range of flight options there’s zero incentive to book early now unless you’re someone who must have a particular room (we are not)

Im not sure in the UK the airline comparison is as relevant yes they use dynamic pricing but you also can buy flexible cancellation at no penalty tickets. We do that for long haul then monitor prices. If the price drops (especially at about 3 months out you can often get a great deal on a more restricted) we swap over. Interesting for our two long haul early next year our flexibile tickets still almost beats current non flexible prices to within £25 but I’m watching Black Friday- I may even change airlines then at no penalty 

It’s a case these days of know the rules for your country and do your homework and regular monitoring 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

Just had a Black Friday e mail (U.K.) but upon clicking through the Azamara website is down 🤣🤣🤣

[anniegb]

1 hour ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Just had a Black Friday e mail (U.K.) but upon clicking through the Azamara website is down 🤣🤣🤣

Not for me.

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

34 minutes ago, anniegb said:

Not for me.

Yes back up and running now.

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

Just had a look - just 13 cruises listed between early Jan 2024 and late April 2024. Not sure if any represented any decent savings compared to earlier listings.

[Mrs Miggins]

Seems to me that the UK deal is no better than those being offered recently plus its a very reduced list.

 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

3 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Seems to me that the UK deal is no better than those being offered recently plus its a very reduced list.

 

Yes it’s a very meagre offering

[Juno1956]

22 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Just had a look - just 13 cruises listed between early Jan 2024 and late April 2024. Not sure if any represented any decent savings compared to earlier listings.

We are booked on the South African trip in January, which we booked on a previous cruise and managed to get a hefty price drop,including our original benefits with a bit of chasing! Pays to track and chase!

It’s Lorraine and Bob here, did we meet you and Gayle on a previous cruise? If not, sorry to bother you! 😂

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

7 hours ago, Juno1956 said:

We are booked on the South African trip in January, which we booked on a previous cruise and managed to get a hefty price drop,including our original benefits with a bit of chasing! Pays to track and chase!

It’s Lorraine and Bob here, did we meet you and Gayle on a previous cruise? If not, sorry to bother you! 😂

Hi Lorraine and Bob. Well spotted. Yes it’s Mark and Gail here. Hope you have a lovely trip in January- sounds wonderful. We are booked on the South of France cruise on 6th July. Gail sends her fondest wishes.