My TA cancelled my cruise!

[agabbymama]

Princess cannot take over an agent's booking on just your say-so. The agent 'owns' the booking and must agree to officially release it back to Princess. Your agent chose to cancel the booking rather than take the 'effort' to release it to Princess. He notified you of this, which is all he is obligated to do since he 'owns' it. Many agents will allow you to release a booking if you are not happy with them, but many do not.

 

 

Wow, I didn't realize you can't transfer your booking. Sounds like a good reason to NEVER use a TA to me.

 

Think I will stick to booking directly with the cruiseline.

[Pia1913]

Wow, I didn't realize you can't transfer your booking. Sounds like a good reason to NEVER use a TA to me.

 

Think I will stick to booking directly with the cruiseline.

 

By never using a TA you will always pay more.

[JimmyVWine]

By never using a TA you will always pay more.

I think it is more accurate to say that you will never pay less. Sometimes, Princess sales prices are as low as anything a TA can get you. But the TA should always be able to get you that. So you wouldn't be paying more to book direct. But you won't be paying less either.

[Pia1913]

I think it is more accurate to say that you will never pay less. Sometimes, Princess sales prices are as low as anything a TA can get you. But the TA should always be able to get you that. So you wouldn't be paying more to book direct. But you won't be paying less either.

 

No matter how low the price, I stand by my statement that I will always get a lower one from my TA. Perhaps not a lot, but always less.

[5326jan]

All's well that ends well, but too bad you can't tell us who the BAD guy is. Would be good for others to know to keep away.

Meanwhile, since your cruise is still so far away, you have lots of time to watch the pricing yourself and transfer to another TA when you feel comfortable to do so.

 

Pia, You have no idea how much I would love to!!! But I value my membership on CC, so I'll restrain myself.

 

I'm going to keep my eyes on things for a while. Final payment isn't until December, so I've got time to find someone new..:)

 

Jimmy, what you say may be true, but most of those rock bottom "sales" are non-refundable, payment in full deals. With elderly parents, I don't want to take that chance....even with insurance. By using my FCC's I can delay payment until 90 days out and at least then, I have a good idea of potential problems with their health and to be sure my sister has worked it into her schedule to be in town.

[Coral]

I think it is more accurate to say that you will never pay less. Sometimes, Princess sales prices are as low as anything a TA can get you. But the TA should always be able to get you that. So you wouldn't be paying more to book direct. But you won't be paying less either.

 

This is not true. Travel Agents have access to the same prices as Princess (if they enter the Captain Circle number in) so the price should never be higher. If you work with an agent who discounts, it will always be lower. If Princess is the lowest price, you are dealing with the wrong agents.

[compozer]

No matter how low the price, I stand by my statement that I will always get a lower one from my TA. Perhaps not a lot, but always less.

 

same here. I have five cruises booked and whenever someone on the rollcalls say they got a discount, I check and it still is higher than what I paid or it's sold out - which happens most of the time. I have NEVER received a discount for a lower price than when we booked.

[nyc12345]

No matter how low the price, I stand by my statement that I will always get a lower one from my TA. Perhaps not a lot, but always less.

 

I also agree that when booking through my TA, I always pay less than the price I would have paid if I were to book directly through Princess.

[JimmyVWine]

This is not true. Travel Agents have access to the same prices as Princess (if they enter the Captain Circle number in) so the price should never be higher.

We are saying the same thing. The TA price will always be equal to or better than Princess. Which means you will never pay less by booking with Princess. But the price might be the same. With the non-refundable caveat noted above.

[Coral]

We are saying the same thing. The TA price will always be equal to or better than Princess. Which means you will never pay less by booking with Princess. But the price might be the same. With the non-refundable caveat noted above.

 

Correct :) Sorry if I mis-read your post.

[lovevacadays]

Yes, definitely lesson learned. I also learned that "pedigree" doesn't guarantee good service. He is independent, owns business and has ASTA awards and specializes in cruises. He was even featured in a NYT article about travel agents. Go figure. :rolleyes: Maybe he's gotten too busy and doesn't have time for people that don't cruise multiple times per year. It doesn't matter any more.. it's over.

 

Best thing of all is that nothing is going to dampen my excitement for the cruise! :)

 

Great attitude! The excitement prior to a cruise is part of the fun.:)

 

All's well that ends well, but too bad you can't tell us who the BAD guy is. Would be good for others to know to keep away.

 

Meanwhile, since your cruise is still so far away, you have lots of time to watch the pricing yourself and transfer to another TA when you feel comfortable to do so.

 

I agree. Once I stopped booking directly with Princess and had a good TA referred to me I was amazed at the savings on the two cruises I booked. Plus, I got OBC and wine:D

[sjbj]

You should write a scathing review on Yelp. The younger generation (as well as some older ones) really use these reviews. There are no restrictions on mentioning suppliers by name.

[DrivesLikeMario]

What he should have done is told you of the problem and given you an OBC of the price increase. If that caused him to lose his commission it was his fault. He probably had no way to doctor the books to make it look like you paid more without Princess finding out.

 

It is possible that by cancelling the booking he recouped his losses. I am not sure exactly what happens when you transfer from a TA to Princess when the price was misquoted. Maybe the TA would have had to take the loss with no commission.

 

TAs do not get a penny of commission until sometime between a few weeks after final payment has been made and up to 4 months AFTER sailing. There is no commission whatsoever paid before then.

 

OP-How do know the agent cancelled the booking? :confused: Just wondering, cuz I wouldn't be surprised if Princess cancelled the booking. Once you send in one of those (for lack of the proper name) Transfer-My-Booking forms, Princess has control and can cancel the old booking. It's not the normal way to do things - usually, they just transfer the TA name on the booking to their name - it makes their life easier because the funds transfer to them along with all the booking details. But, in the hands of a novice Princess rep., it could be that they thought they had to cancel the booking FIRST and then completely re-book it.

[Princess Chatterer]

He stated clearly that "Princess had changed their policy and didn't allow discounts anymore".

 

Buzzzzzz, wrong.

[5326jan]

TAs do not get a penny of commission until sometime between a few weeks after final payment has been made and up to 4 months AFTER sailing. There is no commission whatsoever paid before then.

 

OP-How do know the agent cancelled the booking? :confused: Just wondering, cuz I wouldn't be surprised if Princess cancelled the booking. Once you send in one of those (for lack of the proper name) Transfer-My-Booking forms, Princess has control and can cancel the old booking. It's not the normal way to do things - usually, they just transfer the TA name on the booking to their name - it makes their life easier because the funds transfer to them along with all the booking details. But, in the hands of a novice Princess rep., it could be that they thought they had to cancel the booking FIRST and then completely re-book it.

 

Hi Mario, I know he did it because after he cancelled it, he emailed me and told me he cancelled it!

[cathi]

same here. I have five cruises booked and whenever someone on the rollcalls say they got a discount, I check and it still is higher than what I paid or it's sold out - which happens most of the time. I have NEVER received a discount for a lower price than when we booked.

 

I have received a price reduction several times from what I booked. And here goes my clients have often received price reductions. Princess even honoured a price drop after final payment was made. Doesn't happen often but when it does sure makes the client happy!!!!

[pris993]

Years ago, we cancelled a cruise when we found a TA's price was $1000 more for 2 then we could book with another TA. We advised the initial agent why we were cancelling.

 

Later we found that she was trying to tack on her booking fee to our new booking with another agent thru the cruise line. Our new TA had it fixed. I am not sure how this could be done or if it could still be done.

 

Needless to say we never did business with the "bad" TA again.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Hi Mario, I know he did it because after he cancelled it, he emailed me and told me he cancelled it!

 

Oh, okay, thanks for clearing that up. Since that's the case, it was dumb of him to do that and done in malice. Now, on to better TAs! :)