Is there a downside to booking with a TA?

[DawgDad93]

[quote name='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.[/quote]

This is exactly how it worked for me. The discounted fare was only in a private, emailed quote. If you price the same thing on the TA website, you get the exact same price as the NCL website.

[cdnsteelman]

[quote name='littlelulu01']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.[/QUOTE]

littellulu I can categorically confirm based on more than ten heavily discounted and incented bookings with agents sourced through the site you used that you are in absolutely in no danger of losing your booking. In fact, NCL changed it's policy with respect to that site where you identify the [B][I]CRUISE[/I][/B] your're interested in and TAs [B][I]COMPETE[/I][/B] for your business a few years back so that it is no longer an open bidding process as it is for most other cruise line offerings on that site. As you may have learned they now provide you a list of three or four agencies who are "allowed" to quote on NCL offerings and you email them directly.

As for all the noise about what travel agents can and cannot do or how much commission they should or should not make or should or should not share in any form with clients, it's just that - noise. The consuming public and the legitimate enterprises that service it are free to make whatever choices they want within the bounds of intra-enterprise contractual obligations and tort and criminal law. If a TA is doing something NCL doesn't like - it's up to NCL to deal with them.

Travel Agents are compensated in a variety of ways and at a variety of levels for a variety of reasons and I haven't met one yet who doesn't understand how his or her bottom line is impacted by each transaction. One TA may not appreciate the tactics of another TA (discounting, incenting, etc) but "progress" has brought about evolution in many businesses... pretty sure the buggy whip manufacturers of the day weren't big fans of Henry Ford.

Most importantly, enjoy your cruise!

[Into Cruising]

Sorry, I should have quoted the comment I was referring to.