Do Travel Agents provide real benefits??

[MUM AND ME CRUISIES]

Interesting comments but the best I have been able to achieve from a Travel Agent is to get $40 each off the cruiseline's online price on a $3,800 pp cabin. To me that is no incentive whatsoever to stay with a Travel Agent. As I said in my original post it seems to be quite common in USA/Canada for a Travel Agent to give 10/20% off the cruiseline's price and most likely they will get OBC as well. Am I expecting too much?:)

 

I also wondered how so many people seem to get fabulous deals with T/A's, all I have ever found they are useless!! In fact all of my dealings with T/A's have been disgusting. They are not thorough, I always have to correct them on itinerarys, agree with someone who said the Australian ones have no clue about cruising as they have rarely ever been, they don't know layouts or give advice on what is best for certain cruisers, I know more than they do, and what really annoys me is that when you book with an agent, the cruise line does not allow you to speak direct with them, rather they direct you back to deal with the TA, too bad if they are giving you terrible service. We had the worst experience when we booked 4 B2B's on Solstice last year from Alaska to Sydney, and everyone else we met onboard who booked with them said exactly the same thing. I apparently booked during a 123 promo which I had no idea about and get this, neither did the agent!! It was only a couple of months later when I was going to upgrade ourselves that we found out and then she couldn't even tell me which or all the sailings we had it. And the most disgusting thing they did was send me another passengers documents, never mind about the privacy act, I ran into these people on board and they were furious!! I wish I could name them, they would be out of business.

 

I would highly doubt that TA's in Australia are giving discounts, every one I have compared are quite often more expensive, some regular clients might be getting something special but you would need to be a really good client.

[cairns local]

Also agree aussie t/a's not that informed or useful. We had to use an agent on our first cruise a few years ago because we wanted a family suite on RCI, which cant be booked on line. Very attentive until we paid deposit, then like extracting teeth to get info from. Being newbies we didnt even know about obc and our agent kept it that way. Next cruise, again suite, so used a different agent. Promised obc didnt show up. When we returned and I ran into her at the shops I mentioned no obc and she just shrugged and offered no explanation. We are soon cruising on princess with yet another agent. She also looks for answers to my questions in the brochure or online. Im beginning to think 'cruising experienced' aussie agents dont exist (or maybe just in my town anyway)

[OzKiwiJJ]

I mentioned earlier that I ended up booking through an online TA as they were slightly cheaper than Princess itself.

 

Just before Easter I noticed a massive price drop for my cruise. Roughly $1200 worth! I immediately email my TA, late one evening, to see how I could take advantage of this price drop. The TA emailed me back first thing in the morning and two hours later my original booking had been cancelled and I had been rebooked in the same cabin at the lower rate, with the same OBCs. I'm very happy :D:D:D

[Bodogbodog]

I mentioned earlier that I ended up booking through an online TA as they were slightly cheaper than Princess itself...I'm very happy :D:D:D

Given it's Princess is the TA an Australian based online agency?

My understanding is that Princess require all Australian residents booking to be made via Australian agent or directly with them

[OzKiwiJJ]

Yes, look for one that helps you find cruise sales ;)

 

Also I should have mentioned that the prices went back up again a day later. I was very lucky to spot the price drop.

Edited April 26, 2014 by OzKiwiJJ

[Royalty X]

Im beginning to think 'cruising experienced' aussie agents dont exist (or maybe just in my town anyway)

Yes, we exist... :)

[rkmw]

Given it's Princess is the TA an Australian based online agency?

My understanding is that Princess require all Australian residents booking to be made via Australian agent or directly with them

 

i think if aussies booked with a US TA before december 2010 on a princess cruise you can still use that TA....depends on the price as it might be cheaper to use a local TA for an australian cruise

[kjets]

I mentioned earlier that I ended up booking through an online TA as they were slightly cheaper than Princess itself.

 

Just before Easter I noticed a massive price drop for my cruise. Roughly $1200 worth! I immediately email my TA, late one evening, to see how I could take advantage of this price drop. The TA emailed me back first thing in the morning and two hours later my original booking had been cancelled and I had been rebooked in the same cabin at the lower rate, with the same OBCs. I'm very happy :D:D:D

Wow you lucked out! We decided to change from a balcony stateroom to a mini suite a few months ago with Princess. There had been a price drop which meant we would pay an extra $100 each for the upgrade and also get $100 each OBC. Our TA changed our booking and got the discounted Mini price but was unable to get the OBC :(

[Beanb41]

I mentioned earlier that I ended up booking through an online TA as they were slightly cheaper than Princess itself.

 

Just before Easter I noticed a massive price drop for my cruise. Roughly $1200 worth! I immediately email my TA, late one evening, to see how I could take advantage of this price drop. The TA emailed me back first thing in the morning and two hours later my original booking had been cancelled and I had been rebooked in the same cabin at the lower rate, with the same OBCs. I'm very happy :D:D:D

 

What was the cruise line?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Princess.

 

I'm not sure how long the price drop was up for. I had house guests all week so hadn't been monitoring prices. I was just lucky I checked when I did. :D

Edited April 27, 2014 by OzKiwiJJ

[Beanb41]

Princess.

 

I'm not sure how long the price drop was up for. I had house guests all week so hadn't been monitoring prices. I was just lucky I checked when I did. :D

 

You are indeed fortunate, Celebrity will not allow that

[markarmel]

Do it yourself is the best way to go. On the net you can get so much information nowadays, you don't need TA's, deal with cruiselines direct is the best way to go.

[OzKiwiJJ]

You are indeed fortunate, Celebrity will not allow that

 

How could Celebrity stop it?

 

My cruise isn't until December so this was well before final payment date. My TA did have to cancel my original booking, then rebooked as a new booking. I had to pay a new, but much lower deposit, and hopefully the refund for the first booking will show up soon, although I've told the TA to just apply it to the new booking when it does.

[Pushka]

Cruiselines can identify passengers who cancel then rebook to get a price drop.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Well, yes, but unless there is something in their T&Cs about cancelling and rebooking then how could they legally stop people from doing so?

 

Anyway I'm glad Princess doesn't do that. A $1260 saving is serious money.

[Tara Jane]

I have future cruise certificates purchased on both celebrity and royal Caribbean. When it was time to use them I found that the on line discounted companies would not give me their advertised price if I was using a FCC.

This happened with both cruises and I ended up booking them direct with the cruise line, but at a price higher than I could have got on line.

Got some ok OBC because of the FCC but they aren't as wonderful as they seem initially. Just off P & O and didn't bother buying one, same when did a princess cruise. I will use the FCC's that I previously purchased but not sure if I will bother buying again.

[rkmw]

I have future cruise certificates purchased on both celebrity and royal Caribbean. When it was time to use them I found that the on line discounted companies would not give me their advertised price if I was using a FCC.

This happened with both cruises and I ended up booking them direct with the cruise line, but at a price higher than I could have got on line.

Got some ok OBC because of the FCC but they aren't as wonderful as they seem initially. Just off P & O and didn't bother buying one, same when did a princess cruise. I will use the FCC's that I previously purchased but not sure if I will bother buying again.

 

if you cruise princess or p&o again you must buy the FCC's as it saves you putting down a big deposit plus you get obc and the good thing you can cancel out for any reason as long as you dont make final payment and you get to use the FCC on another cruise....if you dont use them you ring the cruise line and get your money back

[Tara Jane]

rkmw - I understand the benefits of FCC but have you been able to use them when purchasing through any travel agent? Sure I got $150 OBC but we had to pay more for the cruise itself which almost wiped out the benefit of OBC.

I ended up booking through the cruiseline itself as the agents weren't prepared to give me their advertised price if I was using a FCC.

[rkmw]

rkmw - I understand the benefits of FCC but have you been able to use them when purchasing through any travel agent? Sure I got $150 OBC but we had to pay more for the cruise itself which almost wiped out the benefit of OBC.

I ended up booking through the cruiseline itself as the agents weren't prepared to give me their advertised price if I was using a FCC.

 

Tara i always book princess cruises with an online agent and never had any problems with the FCC, if the agent doesnt give you the advertised price shop around for another one

 

i have said in this thread i never book with the cruise line as i can get a better price from the online agents and if they are offering obc you can get both from the agent plus from the FCC too

[The_Big_M]

From the comments so far it would seem that very few, if any of you are getting any real benefits from dealing with your Travel Agent and that is my point. We in Aus and NZ don't seem to get from our Travel Agents what many overseas cruisers are getting from theirs.:)

 

There's only one market that gets big discounts with TAs cutting their margins - and they do that because of volume (the old supermarket model). And even there, it's only with TAs who do large volume, many TAs there also won't give OBC because they're not specialists and/or don't have a large volume to cut their margin on.

 

Their cruise market is about 50 times the size of ours... which is a pretty big difference.

 

Other cruisers overseas get similar benefits to us.

[tickford]

Agree with The Big M about the size of the market and what TA's can and can't do for you especially bricks and mortar ones.

 

Also reading these boards I have often wondered why people still use TA's, bricks and mortar ones, I realise there are reasons for some.

 

Princess and not allowing Australians to book with US TA's. Our first cruise I booked with an online Canadian TA, not knowing about all this other business until much later after the cruise. Had no problems, thank goodness, sitting here wondering if Canada is included in that rule.

 

I booked our upcoming cruise direct with Princess this time, last minute deal, quite a good deal. I don't worry about all the OBC business, a good price on your trip can take care of any of those that you might miss out on.