Member Info for Sparafucile

Simon PL

From experience I’d say they treat shareholders with indifference. The message about possible changes to the cruise operation was emailed en masse to ‘Dear valued customer(s).’ Nothing was sent to shareholders. I recently referred to perks and discounts available to a range of groups; but nothing is offered to shareholders. I’ve also posted about serious issues we had on our last three cruises, following five that were very good. So we gave Saga cruises a fair crack of the whip, and a lot of money. Saga’s response was to admit they got things wrong. However their attitude was patronising and disingenuous. The best the head of customer services couid do was refer to their excellent feedback results and guarantee us ‘an exceptional experience’ on our next booked cruise. I asked her to substantiate that ‘guarantee’ as she’d already volunteered that she’d like to have upgraded us from an aft suite but couldn’t as all four front suites were booked. Her response was she had nothing in mind, but would telephone after the cruise to check all went well. I think even she realised that she had not prepared properly for our discussion, and eventually and unusually agreed to return our deposit. A good outcome as there was an outbreak of norovirus on the cruise in question. So my conclusion is that Saga sees both shareholders and those who raise justifiable complaints as being a mere inconvenience. My comment that we prefer to spend with companies we have a financial interest in provoked no response.

Saga certainly seems to be benefiting from the general demand for cruise holidays. Even if their offering is a little uninspiring there’s still great demand. I read this earlier on a FB group: ‘Nothing to get excited about in 2025 lists. Prices gone way up and same old itineraries, but saying that I know I’ll still book.’

One thing that rankles is the lack of incentive for shareholders. There are many who qualify for 5% discount on top of the normal early booking/demand led discounts. For example members of English Heritage and ORCA.. Also on board there are special receptions for WI members and Freemasons. But there’s absolutely nothing for long-suffering shareholders.

When the sale and leaseback was first mooted we received emails from Nigel Blanks, Cruises CEO, addressed to ‘Dear valued customer’. I replied asking why nothing was sent to shareholders. There was, predictably, no substantive response. However I later read that a group of senior execs, including the new group CEO, had a jolly on one of the ships in the Canaries. There was a Q&A session, and no doubt some excellent meals, with their adoring Saganauts. Sadly shareholder relations and value does not exist for this company.

hi alnwick

firstly saga do not offer any perks to shareholders. the only discounts are those on general offer to early bookers, or for unsold cabins near departure date. my main point is that occupancy levels are high and should remain so. we’ve come across many who dislike the larger p&o ships for example, and saga is benefitting. i see no reason why that should not continue given the demand for cruises from the targeted demographic. where saga fails, in our experience, is its smugness in dealing with individuals when things go wrong. the onboard rudeness was one of a number of issues we had on our last three cruises. others included the changing of the aft suite offering after we’d booked, without any notification, and a **** up involving a medical issue. other posters have recently mentioned an arrogance about saga’s head office. that chimes with the comments a chauffeur business owner made to us. to be told of their ‘sadness’ about the bad service we experienced, and their ‘hope’ we’d give them the opportunity for our ‘faith in saga to be restored’ (by spending a lot of money) was just way too glib. my feelings about saga are as much disappointment as anything else. we had some excellent cruises with them, and who doesn’t want to prefer companies they have an interest in? but saga’s arrogance has lost them our business.

Shareholder and Britannia club members here. Our recent experience on Saga cruises is that they are picking up large numbers of disillusioned P&O customers, which together with the general high demand for cruises and Saga’s late ‘allocated cabin’ discounts means high occupancy rates. Demand seems particularly high for suites. A tip though, avoid Deck A aft suites which are affected by the smoking area. Prices have also risen quite sharply, though how that will feed through is uncertain given the early booking discounts and the late allocated discounts. Certainly getting bums on seats is not a problem. Can they keep high occupancy rates? I suspect they are confident they can. We had issues on our most recent cruises, including being treated with unconcealed rudeness by a restaurant supervisor because we were five minutes early for a booking in a speciality restaurant. Saga acknowledged we had indeed had bad service on three cruises. But their attitude was they hoped we’d give them another chance ‘to restore our trust in them’. Such complacency suggests their cruise numbers are good, but we’ll be spending our 50/60 nights a year holidays elsewhere in future.