Price drop AFTER final payment - info needed!

[ckrobyn]

I have used TA's in the past, but it only took one instance where there was a price drop and I couldn't get hold of my TA - to make me realize I am better off controlling the booking myself. I am by no means suggesting anyone should NOT use a TA, I am only telling you what happened to ME.

 

A few years back I was checking the RCI website as I always do in the months and weeks leading up to a cruise. It so happened that this time it was 10 o'clock at night - and I saw that the price for my cabin had dropped by about $80 (okay, maybe not a HUGE amount of $$$, but $80 would buy a lot of drinks onboard!) I knew there was no way I could get a hold of my TA as their office was closed. I called RCI, but they refused to deal with me since the TA "owned" my reservation :(

 

Got a hold of TA the next morning at about 10 when the office opened, and the price drop that was there the day before was no longer.....it was back to the price I had paid. I knew then and there that I would be the one to "own" my own reservation - because I missed out on saving some money.

 

Having said that - this was a few years back, and my TA was not an online TA, but one that worked out of an office. It is my understanding that many people now use online TA's and can access them all hours of the day - which is great! :)

[ckrobyn]

How much had your TA paid you over the years of booking with her/him in pre-paid gratuities, OBC's, free speciality dining, etc?

 

Seems more like a case of you not asking the right questions ahead of time and finding the right TA than a situation where you should give up on all TA's forever.

 

 

I should have also mentioned that my TA gave me nothing, yes - you heard that right - a big fat ZERO for my bookings. This particular year I gave her almost $16k in cruise bookings = 2 suites for 2 weeks (ourselves and my folks) and she gave us ZILCH.

 

I did not say that I am giving up on TA's forever - but I now prefer to control my own bookings. TA's serve a great purpose, just not for me right now.

[oldsouthcruisingfamily]

We're just going through the process of requesting an OBC for an after-final-payment price drop, which our TA originally said she didn't think RCI would do (:confused:). I found this link on the Royal Caribbean site to support our case and thought it might be helpful to others, should your TA not know (or claim not to know????) if OBC's would be given after final payment.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do;jsessionid=0000NagLzCJkm7JCYIsljjyPEPz:12hbiocak?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&pnav=2&faqSubjectName=Best+Price+Guarantee&faqId=3858&faqSubjectId=389&faqType=faq

 

Happy sailing all - only 45 days to go for us!

[travelntreats]

We're just going through the process of requesting an OBC for an after-final-payment price drop, which our TA originally said she didn't think RCI would do (:confused:). I found this link on the Royal Caribbean site to support our case and thought it might be helpful to others, should your TA not know (or claim not to know????) if OBC's would be given after final payment.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do;jsessionid=0000NagLzCJkm7JCYIsljjyPEPz:12hbiocak?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&pnav=2&faqSubjectName=Best+Price+Guarantee&faqId=3858&faqSubjectId=389&faqType=faq

 

Happy sailing all - only 45 days to go for us!

Very helpful link for others :)

Your TA may claim to "not have known"... but I am guessing they played stupid to avoid reduction in commission ! :rolleyes:

[oldsouthcruisingfamily]

Very helpful link for others :)

Your TA may claim to "not have known"... but I am guessing they played stupid to avoid reduction in commission ! :rolleyes:

 

I cannot agree with you more! Our end result is a reply from our TA stating that the drop we found is only for passengers 55 years of age or older. I would love to do an end-run around our TA to get that confirmed but previous posts indicate that RCCL will not speak directly to me about this.

Oh well. At least we tried.

[mazz1]

thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much for this thread, it's a eye opener indeed

 

i have just checked on the RC website and my cruise has indeed come down in price and by quite a bit since i first booked it, i have phoned my travel agent and she seemed to know what i was talking about when i told her about the best price guarantee, she never tried to put me off just said we have to wait until she can speak to RC tomorrow when they are open

 

it's looking good though ;)

 

i am so pleased i joined these boards :D what wonderful people you are

[SusieQT]

We ended up with OBC on Voyager on the 13 Dec 09 cruise. GR told us we HAD to cash out. That the OBC wouldn't be automatically refunded.

 

Not sure if it's a new policy, or if GR was in error.

 

 

We cashed out as well, just to be safe!

[travelntreats]

I cannot agree with you more! Our end result is a reply from our TA stating that the drop we found is only for passengers 55 years of age or older. I would love to do an end-run around our TA to get that confirmed but previous posts indicate that RCCL will not speak directly to me about this.

Oh well. At least we tried.

In defense of your TA, it is possible that the rate you saw was for Sr. Citizens only (55 years or older).... just go back and check those rates again and see if it carrys that language, and if not, and you are eligible for the rate you are now seeing, print out that page and put it in their face and demand some OBC or a refund ! What ship and sail date are you looking at ?

[kc320]

thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much for this thread, it's a eye opener indeed

 

i have just checked on the RC website and my cruise has indeed come down in price and by quite a bit since i first booked it, i have phoned my travel agent and she seemed to know what i was talking about when i told her about the best price guarantee, she never tried to put me off just said we have to wait until she can speak to RC tomorrow when they are open

 

it's looking good though ;)

 

i am so pleased i joined these boards :D what wonderful people you are

 

 

Is there some reason your TA can't call RC today?? They are open now...

[mommabean]

thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much for this thread, it's a eye opener indeed

 

i have just checked on the RC website and my cruise has indeed come down in price and by quite a bit since i first booked it, i have phoned my travel agent and she seemed to know what i was talking about when i told her about the best price guarantee, she never tried to put me off just said we have to wait until she can speak to RC tomorrow when they are open

 

it's looking good though ;)

 

i am so pleased i joined these boards :D what wonderful people you are

 

RCI is open 7 days a week with much longer open hours than any travel agent. This is another example of why I would never use a TA.

 

Gina

[travelntreats]

RCI is open 7 days a week with much longer open hours than any travel agent. This is another example of why I would never use a TA.

 

Gina

Excuse me, but MANY TA's out there keep late hours for their clients... ;)

 

Please don't lump all TA's in the same basket just because YOU choose not to use their services !

[Tucker in Texas]

Some TA's don't want to get price reductions because it lowers their commission. What they will do is when they see a price reduction, rather than get it for you, they will "upgrade" you to whatever level will bring the price back to what you paid and then call and tell you what a hero they are, they got you an upgrade. TA's don't grant upgrades, only RCI does. So if this happens to you, check for a price drop.

 

Tucker in Texas

[travelntreats]

Some TA's don't want to get price reductions because it lowers their commission. What they will do is when they see a price reduction, rather than get it for you, they will "upgrade" you to whatever level will bring the price back to what you paid and then call and tell you what a hero they are, they got you an upgrade. TA's don't grant upgrades, only RCI does. So if this happens to you, check for a price drop.

 

Tucker in Texas

And then again SOME TA's will give the client both options as the loss in commission sometimes is minimal vs. satisfying their clients. Again, not all TA's are all the same and many will jump thru hoops for their clients satisfaction... it's what keeps there doors open ! :)

[lovemylab]

Some TA's don't want to get price reductions because it lowers their commission. What they will do is when they see a price reduction, rather than get it for you, they will "upgrade" you to whatever level will bring the price back to what you paid and then call and tell you what a hero they are, they got you an upgrade. TA's don't grant upgrades, only RCI does. So if this happens to you, check for a price drop.

 

Tucker in Texas

 

I had an experience similar to this with our price drop on the AOS. I noticed a price drop and emailed my TA. She was out of the office but another TA in the office emailed me back offering an upgrade. After going back and forth I finally got my price drop. Going forward I will not be using a TA.

 

Robyn - we had an onboard credit on the AOS as a result of a price drop. We were told that we could get cash from guest relations. We were also given a good exchange rate - we were told that the Cdn dollars from the price drop would be converted to US dollars based on the bloomberg exchange rate on the first day of sailiing.

[ckrobyn]

I had an experience similar to this with our price drop on the AOS. I noticed a price drop and emailed my TA. She was out of the office but another TA in the office emailed me back offering an upgrade. After going back and forth I finally got my price drop. Going forward I will not be using a TA.

 

Robyn - we had an onboard credit on the AOS as a result of a price drop. We were told that we could get cash from guest relations. We were also given a good exchange rate - we were told that the Cdn dollars from the price drop would be converted to US dollars based on the bloomberg exchange rate on the first day of sailiing.

 

Thanks for your help :):)

[mommabean]

Excuse me, but MANY TA's out there keep late hours for their clients... ;)

 

Please don't lump all TA's in the same basket just because YOU choose not to use their services !

 

I'm sure there are some good ones. I'm just not about to go on the hunt for one when I have no problem getting my own reductions 7 days a week. The biggest problem I've noticed around CC is that no one knows they have a bad one until AFTER the problem occurs. Too bad for that trip. Then they have to look for another one for the next trip and hope for the best...again. Some people have probably gotten lucky with their first choice.

 

I happened to be in my AAA office a few weeks ago - they provide travel agent services. AAA would be considered to be reputable to most people. I saw their list of charges. :eek: :eek: I can't believe anyone would use an agency that has a fee for MAKING the resevation...never mind the one for canceling.

 

I'm not lumping them all into the same basket. I'm just stating why I wouldn't use one. It's not worth the risk to me.

 

Gina

[Tucker in Texas]

And then again SOME TA's will give the client both options as the loss in commission sometimes is minimal vs. satisfying their clients. Again, not all TA's are all the same and many will jump thru hoops for their clients satisfaction... it's what keeps there doors open ! :)

 

I'm not against TA's by a long shot, I've always used one and he does "jump thru hoops" for me. I have gone from booking a cabin for over $1K to finally cruising for less than half that and he has never quibbled a bit about getting me the reduction. When I was given an impossible connection from RCI on a trans-Atlantic cruise, he spent a lot of time arguing up the food chain to get it changed. I was just merely pointing out that if your TA all of the sudden has an "upgrade" for you it might be a red flag that a price reduction is out there and check it out.

 

Tucker in Texas

[demodawn]

Just make sure where you can get the money. Some cruises we were able to get money at the pursers desk, last cruise they wont let us get the money there and we had to go to the casino. Ours was a large obc too. But if you dont use it you lose it. So we took the 3% hit to get the cash. Not sure about the price drop we havent had one in a while after final payment but before they always credited the CC with the differance.

 

As TA we havent had great luck. What I do now it make my own resy then just before final payment transfer to TA offering best package ( at least free insurance) This has worked well with the last few cruises. It is much easier to just call yourself. Last TA did do a room change as a hump cabin came available and she did it without any problems but did have to wait until next day.

[navigator0709]

1. No TA worth booking with would charge for price changes.

2. The best way to be sure you do not miss a price change to which you are intitled is to use a price tracking program that will monitor your cruise prices (hourly if you want) and email + pop up a notification on your monitor when it finds one. Price changes are often temporary and it is impossible to catch them all by doing fake bookings or calling RCCL.

 

Hi,

 

Can you tell us what site I can use to query and monitor my cruise automatically? The "fake" booking on RCCL is a little tedious to run everyday.

 

Thanks!

[kc320]

Hi,

 

Can you tell us what site I can use to query and monitor my cruise automatically? The "fake" booking on RCCL is a little tedious to run everyday.

 

Thanks!

 

 

It may be tedious...but it is the most accurate way..there are shortcuts to monitoring your particular cruise..which I don't remember right now..but hopefully someone else has a better memory & will post them..

[ckrobyn]

I'm sure there are some good ones. I'm just not about to go on the hunt for one when I have no problem getting my own reductions 7 days a week. The biggest problem I've noticed around CC is that no one knows they have a bad one until AFTER the problem occurs. Too bad for that trip. Then they have to look for another one for the next trip and hope for the best...again. Some people have probably gotten lucky with their first choice.

 

I happened to be in my AAA office a few weeks ago - they provide travel agent services. AAA would be considered to be reputable to most people. I saw their list of charges. :eek: :eek: I can't believe anyone would use an agency that has a fee for MAKING the resevation...never mind the one for canceling.

 

I'm not lumping them all into the same basket. I'm just stating why I wouldn't use one. It's not worth the risk to me.

 

Gina

 

Gina - I got a bit bashed for stating my preference was not to use a TA, but to make and control my own bookings. Nowhere did I say OTHER people shouldn't use the services of a TA, I was only stating what I was choosing! FYI - I feel the exact same as you do :)

[justPenguin]

I tried yesterday - Celebrity had dropped $50 pp, and asked my TA for OBC. They checked and said that Celebrity stated it was a 'happy hour' rate that was only good for new bookings, and I was basically SOL. I am a new cruiser, first timer, is this true? I'm not familiar with how this all works. :)

[bajathree]

Does anyone know if there is a daily cash limit you can withdraw against on OBC from the casino?