Is there a downside to booking with a TA?

[davesgirl51]

[quote name='Golfin55']Your post is a contradiction. If you are a type A. You would not be seeking advice from strangers on the pros and cons of using a TA.

Every true type A I have encountered throughout my life have one thing in common. They have all the answers, they are never wrong and always think they are in control.

Just an observation.[/QUOTE]

LOL Bingo !:D

[Into Cruising]

is it not obvious who goes out of their way to do personal attacks? Was your jumping in, really necessary? Nope, apparently you just have a need.

This revolves around how I am allegedly misrepresenting her comments. Yet she directly says on here that she does not see any way for a TA to rate a $1400 commission for selling a Haven Suite.

Even if I agreed with that basic premise, I still can see no way that she would be "entitled" to any of it.

I guess because she believes the agent was getting more than they "deserved" that automatically she deserved the excess. I disagreed.

I have no issue with TA's giving back part of their commission in the form of OBC or other perks, that is their choice. And if they do not, they may surely lose some business. But I say look at it as a gift for doing business with them, not as a birthright. And never say a TA does not deserve their commission, because that is not your call, it is the call of the cruise line.

as for the other occurrence reference, you immediately jumped on me , butted into a conversation between myself and an OP, calling my response "noise". Way to win friends and to influence people!

All Hail YOU, you have spoken so it must be true!

[jennas_mum]

[quote name='Giorgi-one']As a number of posters have indicated, it depends on the TA. One thing to remember is that there are no discounts. NCL and TA fare is the same. The difference in price is due to amenities offered by the TA. I always book with the same large cruise agency and they almost always offer prepaid gratuities and OBC. I really don't get the infatuation with control of a booking. If there is a problem, my TA has much more leverage than I have. I used to sell cruises and have been on more than 30 cruises so I am not a novice at this.[/QUOTE]

Not true! Just booked a NCL cruise thru an online site and the price on NCL website was $1149 per person. I got it for $629 per person. No the price I paid didn't include the so called free perk that NCL is offering (this is for an inside cabin) but I can drink or eat a lot for $520 per person. I am not a big drinker and never pay to eat at specialty restaurants so this is a good deal to me. May not be to someone else. But it does pay to look around. Not all pricing is the same.

I did call NCL to see if they would match the price without the perks and they said they do not.

Donna

[Into Cruising]

NCL has been offering "Sail Away" pricing, which is bottom line pricing with no perks whatsoever. They may not offer it on every sailing, but I have seen it.

While the no frills Sail Away price is in fact lower than the price with perks, the value of the perks are not carried over into the pricing. With the money difference, you could not purchase the perk separately.

In my case the sail away price for a balcony was 999, while the lowest balcony with promo was 1299, prior to adding the gratuity charges.

Definitely worth looking into, if not a drinker or a foodie. one last caveat on the Sail away option, you get a GTY cabin, to be assigned at a later date.

[jennas_mum]

[quote name='Into Cruising']

TA's can quote any price they wish, but they can not advertise anything other than the NCL stated price. All agencies get the same price from NCL, but they can get various levels of commission depending on their volume. I believe it is allowed to "rebate" back some of the commission in the way of OBC or other options. Booking through a TA, you still get the Perks offered by the Cruise line that are in effect at time of booking.

[/QUOTE]

Not true, see my above post. I booked this cruise last week and just checked the site again. There is no difference in the inside room prices now but the oceanview on NCL is $1699 per person where as on the online site it is $709 per person. No perks but more on board credit than what NCL is offering. That is almost $1000 difference per person. That to me is crazy!!

Donna

[jennas_mum]

[quote name='Into Cruising']NCL has been offering "Sail Away" pricing, which is bottom line pricing with no perks whatsoever. They may not offer it on every sailing, but I have seen it.

While the no frills Sail Away price is in fact lower than the price with perks, the value of the perks are not carried over into the pricing. With the money difference, you could not purchase the perk separately.

In my case the sail away price for a balcony was 999, while the lowest balcony with promo was 1299, prior to adding the gratuity charges.

Definitely worth looking into, if not a drinker or a foodie. one last caveat on the Sail away option, you get a GTY cabin, to be assigned at a later date.[/QUOTE]

The cruise I am going on did not and still doesn't offer the sail away prices (just checked again). I have seen the sail away prices on select sailings but not on this one. Probably because it is a New Years Eve cruise. Not sure how much the drink package costs if you buy it outright but for a 9 day cruise adding 18% would really add up. Just looked on NCL and it would add $127.98 per person for the service charge. Plus I wouldn't drink that much anyway. It's definitely a good option if you would not take advantage of the drink package. You would still be ahead money wise even if you ate in the specialty restaurants and paid for it.

Just letting people know about this option in case anyone is interested!

Donna

[littlelulu01]

[quote name='jennas_mum']Not true! Just booked a NCL cruise thru an online site and the price on NCL website was $1149 per person. I got it for $629 per person. No the price I paid didn't include the so called free perk that NCL is offering (this is for an inside cabin) but I can drink or eat a lot for $520 per person. I am not a big drinker and never pay to eat at specialty restaurants so this is a good deal to me. May not be to someone else. But it does pay to look around. Not all pricing is the same.

I did call NCL to see if they would match the price without the perks and they said they do not.

Donna[/QUOTE]

I agree. I always thought the price would be the same but that perks may be different. When I used the site where you enter dates sailing and category you want and then get bid offers. It is great for getting a lower price. I was truly shocked how much the fares varied as well as the obc and perks. I simply went with the company that offered me both a hefty price discount on the cruise and all the goodies the others were offering me. Did it come out of their commission to offer me the price discount? Probably but like another poster mentioned better for them to get a $200 commission than none.

I will say that on inside staterooms I did not get the wide variety of price differences and in fact the only benefit was like $50 obc. I'm sure that's because their commission is not as big so no room to play with. For a $50 obc I'll pass but when booking a suite and they offer 1k off what anyone else is and also offer same obc and perks plus no cancel or change fees other than what the cruise line charges, I would be crazy not to take the offer.

I also googled the company with the lowest offer and they had good ratings/were a legit company that does lots of business. I assume the online company that gives you bids checks out the companies they give your information to but I'm always the skeptic and want to know the company I am giving my cc information to is legit.

[GeezerCouple]

This is what is currently on the NCL "FAQs":

[B]"For a select group of sailings, we offer a reduced Sail Away Rate on our X categories (IX, OX, BX, MX) at a discount. The reduced Sail Away Rate does not include any of the above Free at Sea choices. [U]The Sail Away Rates are reflected with a yellow icon in our cruise search results[/U]."[/B]
[Emphases added]

[Into Cruising]

I spoke of the legal obligations between agencies/agents and NCL ( and many other lines) A TA can not advertise any discounted rate that is arrived at by rebating any of the commission.

That is the legal agreement...

Now whether or not all agents and agencies live by this, we all know they do not.

They can sell it for what ever they wish.

NCL provides every agency and agent the identical pricing. So the starting price is set. It may be a group price or it may be a FIT price, but it is what NCL is going to collect from the client. TA's book using the NCL booking engine which has all of the pricing set. two agencies looking to book at the same time are going to see exactly the same info as far as availability and prices. They do not negotiate anything, they simply choose to book or not.

That amount can be paid entirely by the client or it can be paid by both the client and the Agency/agent, but the total amount will be the same in both cases. An agency can throwback all of the commission, some of the commission, or none of the commission. In fact they could actually choose to lose money on the deal buy putting in more than they collect from the cruiseline.

Commissions do vary from agency to agency. and there are even some additional bumps based on performance. I know for a fact that the commission received on some inexpensive rooms would not even cover offering prepaid gratuities, without losing money. Commissions are not given on the total price of the cruise, as NCF items are typically deducted first, and the commission is calculated on what is left.

Now it is possible that the agency has a group booked for your sailing, and they can pass on the group perks. But typically, NCL does not offer lower pricing for groups, they offer GAP Perks and TC Credits.

Not trying to be argumentative, just telling it like it is.

I would appreciate you telling me how that agency can stay in business doing business the way it seems it is.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='Into Cruising']is it not obvious who goes out of their way to do personal attacks? Was your jumping in, really necessary? Nope, apparently you just have a need.

This revolves around how I am allegedly misrepresenting her comments. Yet she directly says on here that she does not see any way for a TA to rate a $1400 commission for selling a Haven Suite.

Even if I agreed with that basic premise, I still can see no way that she would be "entitled" to any of it.

I guess because she believes the agent was getting more than they "deserved" that automatically she deserved the excess. I disagreed.

I have no issue with TA's giving back part of their commission in the form of OBC or other perks, that is their choice. And if they do not, they may surely lose some business. But I say look at it as a gift for doing business with them, not as a birthright. And never say a TA does not deserve their commission, because that is not your call, it is the call of the cruise line.

as for the other occurrence reference, you immediately jumped on me , butted into a conversation between myself and an OP, calling my response "noise". Way to win friends and to influence people!

All Hail YOU, you have spoken so it must be true![/QUOTE]

any chance in the future you could quote the person you are responding to so we don't have to scroll back in the thread to try to follow along?

Bill

[jennas_mum]

[quote name='Into Cruising']I spoke of the legal obligations between agencies/agents and NCL ( and many other lines) A TA can not advertise any discounted rate that is arrived at by rebating any of the commission.

That is the legal agreement...

Now whether or not all agents and agencies live by this, we all know they do not.

They can sell it for what ever they wish.

NCL provides every agency and agent the identical pricing. So the starting price is set. It may be a group price or it may be a FIT price, but it is what NCL is going to collect from the client. TA's book using the NCL booking engine which has all of the pricing set. two agencies looking to book at the same time are going to see exactly the same info as far as availability and prices. They do not negotiate anything, they simply choose to book or not.

That amount can be paid entirely by the client or it can be paid by both the client and the Agency/agent, but the total amount will be the same in both cases. An agency can throwback all of the commission, some of the commission, or none of the commission. In fact they could actually choose to lose money on the deal buy putting in more than they collect from the cruiseline.

Commissions do vary from agency to agency. and there are even some additional bumps based on performance. I know for a fact that the commission received on some inexpensive rooms would not even cover offering prepaid gratuities, without losing money. Commissions are not given on the total price of the cruise, as NCF items are typically deducted first, and the commission is calculated on what is left.

Now it is possible that the agency has a group booked for your sailing, and they can pass on the group perks. But typically, NCL does not offer lower pricing for groups, they offer GAP Perks and TC Credits.

Not trying to be argumentative, just telling it like it is.

I would appreciate you telling me how that agency can stay in business doing business the way it seems it is.[/QUOTE]


Sorry, don't believe it. It is a well known online site so they are not some fly by night company. Not sure how they are doing it, just know they are doing it. They are not going to take that much of a hit per room either. So, in my opinion your information is not true. We can disagree!!

Donna

[Kimberlyr22]

[quote name='S.S.Oceanlover']any chance in the future you could quote the person you are responding to so we don't have to scroll back in the thread to try to follow along?

Bill[/QUOTE]

Crap...I can see him if someone quotes him (not the poster I'm quoting)!

By the way, person I'm ignoring, using quotes (" ") infers that I have said something. I never once, ever, used the world entitled (until now) in any communication about this subject; and I do not think I'm entitled to anything from a TA. Your use of "entitled" is how you are twisting my words, by implying that I used that word, which I didn't. Stop "trolling" me (see how quotes work -- you used trolling in a post and now i'm quoting you, because I don't really think you're trolling -- just really opinionated and unable to be okay with others having opinions). Edited March 30, 2016 by Kimberlyr22

[Into Cruising]

Did they advertise that rate, or did you solicit a quote from them.....big difference.

once you ask for a quote they are free to quote whatever makes sense to them and their company...but you will never see it in an ad on a web site or newspaper etc...as that is what is against the rules and regulations.

That is why you see a lot of "call for pricing"

There are reasons to offer a great price....done it myself, where I "subsidized" someone's sailing for $300 more than I was going to get in commissions.

There are some clients who are experienced enough to require bare minimum hand holding and assistance.....Very easy to discount to them,

[Kimberlyr22]

[quote name='jennas_mum']Sorry, don't believe it. It is a well known online site so they are not some fly by night company. Not sure how they are doing it, just know they are doing it. They are not going to take that much of a hit per room either. So, in my opinion your information is not true. We can disagree!!

Donna[/QUOTE]

I've learned in the past 48 hours that you are not allowed to disagree or have an alternate opinion of poster you quoted. He does not allow it. Edited March 30, 2016 by Kimberlyr22

[littlelulu01]

[quote name='Into Cruising']I spoke of the legal obligations between agencies/agents and NCL ( and many other lines) A TA can not advertise any discounted rate that is arrived at by rebating any of the commission.

That is the legal agreement...

Now whether or not all agents and agencies live by this, we all know they do not.

They can sell it for what ever they wish.

NCL provides every agency and agent the identical pricing. So the starting price is set. It may be a group price or it may be a FIT price, but it is what NCL is going to collect from the client. TA's book using the NCL booking engine which has all of the pricing set. two agencies looking to book at the same time are going to see exactly the same info as far as availability and prices. They do not negotiate anything, they simply choose to book or not.

That amount can be paid entirely by the client or it can be paid by both the client and the Agency/agent, but the total amount will be the same in both cases. An agency can throwback all of the commission, some of the commission, or none of the commission. In fact they could actually choose to lose money on the deal buy putting in more than they collect from the cruiseline.

Commissions do vary from agency to agency. and there are even some additional bumps based on performance. I know for a fact that the commission received on some inexpensive rooms would not even cover offering prepaid gratuities, without losing money. Commissions are not given on the total price of the cruise, as NCF items are typically deducted first, and the commission is calculated on what is left.

Now it is possible that the agency has a group booked for your sailing, and they can pass on the group perks. But typically, NCL does not offer lower pricing for groups, they offer GAP Perks and TC Credits.

Not trying to be argumentative, just telling it like it is.

I would appreciate you telling me how that agency can stay in business doing business the way it seems it is.[/QUOTE]

The companies are not advertising a lower price. On the bidding site you tell the site what sail date and category cabin you want. Then the site gives your info to several TA's. They then compete for your business and give you individual offers. Some come in at advertised price with same perks and obc that the cruise line will give you. Others will discount the price for you and I assume this discount comes from their commission. The one with the lowest price offer is the one I took. I have no alliance to a ta or company. I am solely looking for lowest price and best perks. The TA who gives me that will get my business. In my mind it's a sale they would not otherwise have. I don't see how this can be construed as going against their legal agreement. They are not advertising the lower price to everyone. They are offering a price on an individual basis to get a particular sale. If they will offer me a lower price I win and the ta also wins by getting my booking.

[Into Cruising]

are all of your posts going to be about me? I feel so honored to be the focus of your life.

one question to settle it all...

Did you or did you not say that the agent did not deserve the $1400 commission?

now before you say no, check your responses on this thread, where you said it again.

you had no problem accepting the value of their commission that was higher than you unilaterally set as being appropriate. As you said it was offered. So why not accept it.

If you felt they were over compensated, why did you not just have them send the excess back to NCL? Do you honestly believe you earned or deserved it more than NCL? It's NCL's money, and they were paying the agent. It was not meant to discount to you. In fact discounting is frowned upon.

I will gladly continue this banality if you wish, but wouldn't it just be better to just go our ways, and not keep coming back for more and more ?

As you said we can disagree. And we have both been wrong before in our lives, so this would not be the first time for either of us.

[jennas_mum]

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE][quote name='Into Cruising']Did they advertise that rate, or did you solicit a quote from them.....big difference.

once you ask for a quote they are free to quote whatever makes sense to them and their company...but you will never see it in an ad on a web site or newspaper etc...as that is what is against the rules and regulations.

That is why you see a lot of "call for pricing"

There are reasons to offer a great price....done it myself, where I "subsidized" someone's sailing for $300 more than I was going to get in commissions.

There are some clients who are experienced enough to require bare minimum hand holding and assistance.....Very easy to discount to them,[/QUOTE]


I just went to the website and put in the information for the cruise I was interested in and those were the prices I got. Just saying to look around because you can get a different price than what NCL offers.

Donna

[Into Cruising]

that you may be referencing a on line company that has Price in their name.

Maybe not, but I just did a random couple of quotes and compared them to the NCL booking engine and they are spot on dollar for dollar.

However they do offer:
 Bonus Offers Available:

•Haven Suites Get 4: FREE Drinks, Dining & More!
•Double Onboard Spending: Up To $2,000! - Ends tomorrow!
•Get Up to 2: FREE Drinks, Dining & More-Click Here
•Choose Rock-Bottom Savings Or Free Drinks & More!
•BONUS - Call for up to $500 Onboard Spending! - Ends tomorrow!

•Nobody Beats Our Price!

All of those options are current promotions being offered by NCL . The ones that end tomorrow end because that is when NCL's promotion ends.

Now it is quite likely that the representative from NCL was less aware of the pricing options than Priceline is....I was actually surprised that the Priceline site was spot on, as one of the selections I checked had price decrease that only came about last night.

There have been many times that I have directed a client to book it if you can as the price they believe they got was too good to be true. On more than a few occasions they came back stating that the great price did not include taxes and fees. But just as often, they ended up getting a great price that I could not match.

[jennas_mum]

[quote name='Into Cruising']that you may be referencing a on line company that has Price in their name.

Maybe not, but I just did a random couple of quotes and compared them to the NCL booking engine and they are spot on dollar for dollar.

However they do offer:
 Bonus Offers Available:

•Haven Suites Get 4: FREE Drinks, Dining & More!
•Double Onboard Spending: Up To $2,000! - Ends tomorrow!
•Get Up to 2: FREE Drinks, Dining & More-Click Here
•Choose Rock-Bottom Savings Or Free Drinks & More!
•BONUS - Call for up to $500 Onboard Spending! - Ends tomorrow!

•Nobody Beats Our Price!

All of those options are current promotions being offered by NCL . The ones that end tomorrow end because that is when NCL's promotion ends.

Now it is quite likely that the representative from NCL was less aware of the pricing options than Priceline is....I was actually surprised that the Priceline site was spot on, as one of the selections I checked had price decrease that only came about last night.

There have been many times that I have directed a client to book it if you can as the price they believe they got was too good to be true. On more than a few occasions they came back stating that the great price did not include taxes and fees. But just as often, they ended up getting a great price that I could not match.[/QUOTE]


The place I booked from starts with an e and ends in xpedia.

[Merriem]

I always transfer my bookings to a TA. I had one on Celebrity where the cruise planner offered me a bottle of wine...my TA did close to $1000 OBC.....

[DawgDad93]

Thanks to all those who provided such useful information in response to my question. (And to those who provided some entertainment along the way!) For anyone interested, I followed the advice of some in this thread and used a competitive service to solicit quotes from multiple TAs. I ultimately booked with one that offered 10% off the listed fare plus a small OBC (along with the current Free at Sea NLC promotion).

[Renstr]

I work in the travel industry and I can confirm we are not allowed to cut prices on cruises and it must be advertised at the prices provided by the cruise line. There are repercussions for advertising lower than the price given including losing your contract with the cruise line. So most of us play within the rules because losing a contract is not good!

[littlelulu01]

[quote name='Renstr']I work in the travel industry and I can confirm we are not allowed to cut prices on cruises and it must be advertised at the prices provided by the cruise line. There are repercussions for advertising lower than the price given including losing your contract with the cruise line. So most of us play within the rules because losing a contract is not good![/QUOTE]

I understand that you are not allowed to advertise lower prices but are you saying that if you cut the price to a specific client you have repercussions and cutting price to an individual client is not allowed? Advertising a lower price is different than cutting price on a case by case basis. No company advertised the cut prices to me on the bidding site I used but I did receive cut price individual offers and just took the lowest one. It took all of about 10 mins of my and the agent's time and I saved a bundle. If this is not allowed and I can end up losing my booking as a result I would like to know.

[Demonyte]

Some TAs like to claim that they can't advertise at all but the term is that they can't advertise [b]publicly[/b]. For example many agencies have their private member sites that they can use to advertise lower prices than the cruise line.

Also them giving you a personal quote is not advertising, you're fine.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='Into Cruising']are all of your posts going to be about me? I feel so honored to be the focus of your life.

one question to settle it all...

Did you or did you not say that the agent did not deserve the $1400 commission?

now before you say no, check your responses on this thread, where you said it again.

you had no problem accepting the value of their commission that was higher than you unilaterally set as being appropriate. As you said it was offered. So why not accept it.

If you felt they were over compensated, why did you not just have them send the excess back to NCL? Do you honestly believe you earned or deserved it more than NCL? It's NCL's money, and they were paying the agent. It was not meant to discount to you. In fact discounting is frowned upon.

I will gladly continue this banality if you wish, but wouldn't it just be better to just go our ways, and not keep coming back for more and more ?

As you said we can disagree. And we have both been wrong before in our lives, so this would not be the first time for either of us.[/QUOTE]

why are you picking on Little Lulu? She did nothing to you.:(

Bill