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THE ADVANTAGES of Using a USA TA


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After losing nearly $7000.00 by booking with Celebrity Oz direct on 3 b2b's this year, and watching my US fellow travellers move from insides to suites for far less than what we paid for aquaclass and not being able to do a thing about it without losing $4000 to cancel and rebook, we decided even with the $A to $USA difference to book with an American TA for next years cruises. Well has that paid off!!!

We have just been able to upgrade to a N1 suite on Azamara Quest from a V2 stateroom and we are paying $1800US LESS than what we were going to pay originally. So we are two very happy vegemites and thank goodness we booked overseas!

Once burned never again will we book direct and our prices are ridiculous even using an Oz TA, Its a no brainer to use a US TA instead.

 

 

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After losing nearly $7000.00 by booking with Celebrity Oz direct on 3 b2b's this year, and watching my US fellow travellers move from insides to suites for far less than what we paid for aquaclass and not being able to do a thing about it without losing $4000 to cancel and rebook, we decided even with the $A to $USA difference to book with an American TA for next years cruises. Well has that paid off!!!

We have just been able to upgrade to a N1 suite on Azamara Quest from a V2 stateroom and we are paying $1800US LESS than what we were going to pay originally. So we are two very happy vegemites and thank goodness we booked overseas!

Once burned never again will we book direct and our prices are ridiculous even using an Oz TA, Its a no brainer to use a US TA instead.

 

 

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Sounds like a good result for you.

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Good job, it is a trade off, some of the same flexibility that the US TAs can offer is eroded by risk on losing the money totally and also on exchange rates. The important thing is that people research and make informed decisions before deciding on what suits them best.

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some of the same flexibility that the US TAs can offer is eroded by risk on losing the money totally and also on exchange rates.

 

What do you mean the risk of losing money totally? - my US TA never actually has the money - the payment to the cruise line using my credit card is processed directly by the cruise line. I never make a payment to the TA - they receive their commission from the cruise line

In my case the cruise line I use prices in US$ so the currency risk is the same whatever channel I book through

The advantages I get in using a US based TA include in no particular order:

  • No credit card surcharge
  • No cancellation or change fee up to 3 months out from sailing
  • A generous On Board Credit provided
  • Complimentary shore excursion provided
  • TA specials on fares which are never offered by ANZ TA's
  • A knowledgeable TA on my preferred cruise line who can leverage that knowledge to get me good cabin locations and in some cases upgrades

Why wouldn't I use a US TA?

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I'm using a US TA do a couple of cruises:

 

- A Mediterranean cruise in September where the price, at the time I booked was not only lower than the Australian price (taking the exchange rate into account) but also included the drinks package. Subsequently the TA was able to refare that cruise for a very substantial (thousands of dollars) saving although we lost the drinks package. Last time I checked the price I'm paying was still significantly less than the Australian price.

 

- We have also booked another cruise through that TA, a Panama Canal cruise. That cruise was sold out (apart from some TA cabin allocations) when we booked however the TA was able to secure us a cabin.

 

I did enquire about moving a Celebrity booking to that TA but the price would have been higher so it wasn't worth doing it.

 

However for local cruises on Princess, I usually book direct with Princess and if I see a price drop before final payment I phone Princess and get my booking refared.

 

On our first Celebrity cruise we booked another direct with Celebrity whilst onboard and I never noticed any price drops on the cabin we'd booked, most times I looked the price was higher. I now have another cruise which I booked directly onboard the last cruise.

 

For last minute cruises I book with whoever has the best price and perks at the time.

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What do you mean the risk of losing money totally? - my US TA never actually has the money - the payment to the cruise line using my credit card is processed directly by the cruise line. I never make a payment to the TA - they receive their commission from the cruise line

In my case the cruise line I use prices in US$ so the currency risk is the same whatever channel I book through

The advantages I get in using a US based TA include in no particular order:

  • No credit card surcharge
  • No cancellation or change fee up to 3 months out from sailing
  • A generous On Board Credit provided
  • Complimentary shore excursion provided
  • TA specials on fares which are never offered by ANZ TA's
  • A knowledgeable TA on my preferred cruise line who can leverage that knowledge to get me good cabin locations and in some cases upgrades

Why wouldn't I use a US TA?

If you are paying the cruise line direct, that is a broker not a TA. That eliminates the risk.

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If you are paying the cruise line direct, that is a broker not a TA. That eliminates the risk.

 

That may be interpretation but trust me they're Travel Agents - with Crystal Cruises that's the way it works unless an agent is bundling in flights and/or accommodation with the fare - or in the case of some Australian agents adding on an exorbitant currency conversion to add to their margin and offer their customers "certainty" on the currency

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I'm using a US TA do a couple of cruises:

 

- A Mediterranean cruise in September where the price, at the time I booked was not only lower than the Australian price (taking the exchange rate into account) but also included the drinks package. Subsequently the TA was able to refare that cruise for a very substantial (thousands of dollars) saving although we lost the drinks package. Last time I checked the price I'm paying was still significantly less than the Australian price.

 

- We have also booked another cruise through that TA, a Panama Canal cruise. That cruise was sold out (apart from some TA cabin allocations) when we booked however the TA was able to secure us a cabin.

 

I did enquire about moving a Celebrity booking to that TA but the price would have been higher so it wasn't worth doing it.

 

However for local cruises on Princess, I usually book direct with Princess and if I see a price drop before final payment I phone Princess and get my booking refared.

 

On our first Celebrity cruise we booked another direct with Celebrity whilst onboard and I never noticed any price drops on the cabin we'd booked, most times I looked the price was higher. I now have another cruise which I booked directly onboard the last cruise.

 

For last minute cruises I book with whoever has the best price and perks at the time.

 

Were you able to book Princess through a US TA?

I have booked Celebrity and Royal with a US TA, always thought Princess had to be done here, unless you had booked through one years ago or something??

Like you said, local cruises always seem to work out cheaper booking here, but overseas, like everyone else has said, even factoring in the exchange rate, it is usually cheaper.

At least other lines offer drink packages included in fare here..........Princess never do:rolleyes:

I see there is another Sip n Sail promo for Princess US, not us!!

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Were you able to book Princess through a US TA?

I have booked Celebrity and Royal with a US TA, always thought Princess had to be done here, unless you had booked through one years ago or something??

Like you said, local cruises always seem to work out cheaper booking here, but overseas, like everyone else has said, even factoring in the exchange rate, it is usually cheaper.

At least other lines offer drink packages included in fare here..........Princess never do:rolleyes:

I see there is another Sip n Sail promo for Princess US, not us!!

 

The US TA I use has offices in Sydney as well. :D

 

I'm not convinced that the Princess Sip and Sail is actually a good deal. The big price drop on the Med cruise came after the Sip and Sale promotion finished. After our last Princess cruise we're thinking twice about the drinks package. It's borderline for us but the wines by the glass aren't great, and we had a very slow assistant waiter at dinner and barely managed to get two glasses of wine most nights instead of our usual three. We're hoping the wine package will be available on the Med cruise and, if so, we'll get that for wine and just buy the rest of our drinks individually. We don't see that wine package down here either but Carnival have them.

 

The Celebrity drinks package perk seems reasonable though, and the somelliers really look after you. When we were booking our first Celebrity cruise I calculated that a balcony cabin with drinks package perk wasn't much dearer that an inside cabin plus purchasing the drinks package. So we booked a balcony.

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  • 1 month later...

Just another little rant about MSC up to their silly antics/rules again. Yesterday I was helping a friend with little cruise exp research a British Isles cruise for 2018.

We were using U.S based cruise sites for their quick and efficient search engines. She saw one on the MSC Magnifica she liked. I had sailed MSC once before and told her I was happy with the cruise and MSC would be an ok choice. We then looked into this cruise further and looked at the oceanview cat availability. So right there and then we could see a number of cabins available and the total US price which would have converted to $3400 AUD total for the cabin. I thought it was bit much for a 10 day ish cruise but she was happy with it, so all good.

Anyway, we already knew being Australian that we couldn’t book MSC using an overseas agent, but we rang one anyway just in case, They did say sorry, cant help you. So we then looked up the same cruise and cabin choice on MSC Australia’s website as well as another oz agent. Surprise, surprise, Exact same cabin on offer for $5450.00 AUD total. A whole $2000 more! That’s more than the cost of a return flight to Europe. We then rang MSC OZ to see if they could somewhat discuss a better deal. And they just were not interested at all. Didn’t even ask for the cruise details or look up the price, etc. Just ‘No, we have nothing to do with the USA pricing, nor are we interested in matching them bla, bla, bla.” I also told her that we checked MSC Uk for their pricing and they were also about as cheap as USA but were even throwing in a drinks package, still No. And started talking to me like I was a cruise newbie and didn’t know how the whole cruising system worked. lol.

So we just said thank you very much, we’ll look at other Lines instead!

In fairness to the girl at MSC, I realise she was just doing her job, but MSC Australia really needs to look at issues like this if they want to entice even more aussie cruisers. $2000 is a massive difference. They are building more mega ships than any other line and are starting to place more ships across the world, and will have many, many berths to fill. This isn’t the first time I have come across silly pricing at MSC and now today they just lost two separate customers. It would take a pretty good deal to entice us back in the future.

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What are the requirements for using a US based T/A if you live in Australia? Do you have to have a US address? Can you be refused boarding when they see your Aussie Passport and a ticket issued in Australia?

 

 

After losing nearly $7000.00 by booking with Celebrity Oz direct on 3 b2b's this year, and watching my US fellow travellers move from insides to suites for far less than what we paid for aquaclass and not being able to do a thing about it without losing $4000 to cancel and rebook, we decided even with the $A to $USA difference to book with an American TA for next years cruises. Well has that paid off!!!

We have just been able to upgrade to a N1 suite on Azamara Quest from a V2 stateroom and we are paying $1800US LESS than what we were going to pay originally. So we are two very happy vegemites and thank goodness we booked overseas!

Once burned never again will we book direct and our prices are ridiculous even using an Oz TA, Its a no brainer to use a US TA instead.

 

 

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What are the requirements for using a US based T/A if you live in Australia? Do you have to have a US address? Can you be refused boarding when they see your Aussie Passport and a ticket issued in Australia?

 

No to needing a US address based on my experience at least - we book through a US agent. Although they have both US and Australian companies so can book either way depending on which is best (usually booking via the US is better)

I believe there are some lines which won't let US agents book Australian guests however think about how could they possibly even know your residential address based on your passport? There are thousands of Australians resident overseas who travel on Australian passports

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The TA usually supplies a US address, if necessary.

Tickets aren't really issued these days, you print them from the cruise line website.

Passports are irrelevant in this case, they just prove country of citizenship not country of residence. Many people travel using a passport from a country different to which they reside in.

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I think US TA's are now allowed to book Princess cruises, which they weren't a year or so ago so give it a try!

 

 

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That would be nice as the current sip and sail promotion has prices lower than ours for some cruises :mad: even if you had to add in gratuities

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I prefer to book within Australia and give an Aussie a job. In 20 cruises and other overseas trips, never booked with overseas agencies.

 

I concur Uncle Les, though I wish crusielines would offer the same deals to all passengers who book a cruise rather than different rate based upon where you live..... Pet peeve is seeing cruises in Aus being sold at lower prices and with more perks to the US market than what is available here, great give discounts in your local market but if you are going to discount cruises worldwide then don't geo-discriminate.

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I think it is all swings and roundabouts, some overseas cruises are really cheap and the same can be said for local cruises. The one thing they both have in common is last minute sales and limited cabins at that price.

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I prefer to book within Australia and give an Aussie a job. In 20 cruises and other overseas trips, never booked with overseas agencies.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't pay to book many things locally. My experience is you can't beat local knowledge. Recently read in letters to travel editor of people having seats booked on non existent rail carriage. They were on their own shifting seats when the people who booked those seats got on. When we booked first class (?) rail from Berlin to Frankfurt, the lounge only let us in once they checked that we had actual first class tickets, not through Australian Rail Pass ticket. When we flew to Hawaiian outer islands, it was less expensive to buy tickets from Honolulu to islands, rather than as an add on to Australian tickets. There are just too many people clicking the ticket in Australia, without the expertise and protections. Now I'm not sure you are even covered if you buy from an Aus TA and the overseas provider goes bust (unlike UK). Insurance certainly doesn't cover you.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I think it is all swings and roundabouts, some overseas cruises are really cheap and the same can be said for local cruises. The one thing they both have in common is last minute sales and limited cabins at that price.

 

I wish you'd start your own Blog so the rest of us could benefit from your undoubted wisdom and experience.(y)

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  • 2 weeks later...
The US TA I use has offices in Sydney as well. :D

 

I'm not convinced that the Princess Sip and Sail is actually a good deal. The big price drop on the Med cruise came after the Sip and Sale promotion finished. After our last Princess cruise we're thinking twice about the drinks package. It's borderline for us but the wines by the glass aren't great, and we had a very slow assistant waiter at dinner and barely managed to get two glasses of wine most nights instead of our usual three. We're hoping the wine package will be available on the Med cruise and, if so, we'll get that for wine and just buy the rest of our drinks individually. We don't see that wine package down here either but Carnival have them.

 

The Celebrity drinks package perk seems reasonable though, and the somelliers really look after you. When we were booking our first Celebrity cruise I calculated that a balcony cabin with drinks package perk wasn't much dearer that an inside cabin plus purchasing the drinks package. So we booked a balcony.

 

Hello we are looking at an overseas cruise, are you allowed to give out TA information as would love to use same agent as you?

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Hello we are looking at an overseas cruise, are you allowed to give out TA information as would love to use same agent as you?

 

CC rules don't allow details of TA's to be published on the forums. Best to ask people outside the forums for their recomendations

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  • 4 months later...

I know this blog is old but I just tried to book an extra Couple on Ovation next Xmas and over the last few weeks the price shot up from AUS$3000 to over $6,000 on Aus website where there is a ??? 45% off a AUS$11,000 starting price. Their US website has 30% off at just US$2,000 This stinks, if the ACCC are listening I have all the screen shots.

Peter

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