Getting the run around from TA?

[Janeille]

Long story!! Forewarned!

I booked through a TA for our first ever cruise. Upfront I explained my budget for everything- about $12 (-$15k), we are a family of 4.

I explained that we’d like a couple snorkel/scuba/caveing excursions, some nice dinners for my husband and I, and a decent but not extravagant room. I explained that I wanted to pre-pay everything possible. I was told that would be what I was getting.

Instead I got an inside room, meant to sleep 3. My husband, myself, my 14 year old & my 11 year old will be occupying this space. We also got flights arriving the day the cruise departs- from across the country.

No transfers, gratuity, or excursions arranged or pre-paid. The TA utilized about $6k.

Upon urging from a family friend I checked into cabin prices on my own, only to find that Central Park, Boardwalk & Ocean View cabins are all still available (Allure). Bringing this to my TA’s attention she stated she would call RC and see what she could do. She called me back to explain that somehow the larger (180~ plus balcony) cabins were a “downgrade” to my inside (170~, not even a porthole) cabin. I was working when she called me & couldn’t really talk, so later that evening I sent an email to her with my concerns & using info from RC deck plans & specific cabins to show that I just did not understand how a bigger cabin with a balcony could be considered a downgrade.

I called her twice during the week to follow up. She did not reply to email or calls.

Today I called RC & explained. While the person on the phone wasn’t able to alter my reservation he did verify that I wasn’t crazy- the bigger rooms with a balcony were in fact cheaper than whatI had booked. He explained the excess charge would be given in the form of on board credit. He also escalated my concerns to the point of RC contacting my TA. About 10 minutes after my call with RC my TA called me and asked me how much more money I was willing to spend to upgrade!?! I explained the cabin numbers I found that were less expensive, therefore I wasn’t interested in giving her another red cent. She said she’s look at things tomorrow, as she didn’t work from home.

I’m so frustrated. I’m sure she made a commission on the cruise and flights, which is the easiest part of the booking. I am apparently on my own to sort out transfers, what to do between flight & cruise (several hours on arrival & departure), and excursions.

I’m not an idiot, I can look up TripAdvisor & forums & spend the time myself to organize a trip. I paid this supposed professional to manage this & feel like I’ve been looped into a mess. RC won’t deal directly with me, my TA ignores my fairly simple follow up on a booking. If you’ve read all of this, thank you, also what advice do you have?

[awestover89]

Wow, that is a terrible travel agent. My main suggestion would be to try and set up a time where you, your travel agent, and Royal Caribbean can all be on a conference call. Otherwise try your luck escalating with Royal Caribbean. I know in some cases with non-responsive travel agents Royal can withdraw the reservation from the agent, but I'm not sure how exactly you'd go about getting that done.

 

In the future, I'd say get the cabin info from the TA before giving them your credit card. They can put the cabin on hold before getting a deposit from you.

[resstation]

Where did you find this TA? Does she work alone or does she have a manager you can speak to? You can have your booking transferred to a different TA. DO NOT stay in an interior cabin with four people. It will be your firsr and last cruise. When are you sailing?

 

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[resstation]

And I hope you mean you paid the TA with the commission she will receive after you have cruised and nothing additional. Travel agents - good ones - work for commissions paid by suppliers not their customers.

 

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[Janeille]

Wow, that is a terrible travel agent. My main suggestion would be to try and set up a time where you, your travel agent, and Royal Caribbean can all be on a conference call. Otherwise try your luck escalating with Royal Caribbean. I know in some cases with non-responsive travel agents Royal can withdraw the reservation from the agent, but I'm not sure how exactly you'd go about getting that done.

 

In the future, I'd say get the cabin info from the TA before giving them your credit card. They can put the cabin on hold before getting a deposit from you.

 

That is good advice, I appreciate it. I’m genuinely hopeful that the cabin change is completed to one of the several specific cabin numbers I gave the TA. After that I will just have to book things on my own, I want nothing more to do with this TA.

Half of my frustration stems from the trust RC places in its TAs. How many people have had unpleasant experiences with RC due to a handful of TAs who don’t do more than the bare minimum? How many repeat cruisers have they lost? I tried to be proactive on my own behalf, but RC has really tied their own hands with whatever agreement they have made with TAs.

[ARandomTraveler]

How frustrating. I’m sure you hired her to save you the time of having to do all the research yourself.

 

The prices she’s quoting you for rooms are probably higher than what you found online because her agency charges an up charge for profit on their end, or, maybe they negotiated a block of rooms that were more expensive at the time than what RC is currently offering.

 

Travel agencies used to have a lot of agents in one office and each would specialize in different things (different cruise lines, different land resorts, different islands or areas of the world). Those days are long gone, and any remaining agencies likely operate very differently, with each agent competing for business (because there’s not as much of it to go around) and trying to be an “expert” on all places at once.

 

Often, you’ll find the people on this board far more knowledgeable than any travel agent. You might even be better off paying a trusted friend to be your “vacation assistant,” have them read Trip Advisor, Cruise Critic etc for you.

 

Have your travel agent transfer the booking back to you so you can do it yourself, (or pay a friend to do it for you if you need to save time).

 

 

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Edited March 12, 2018 by ARandomTraveler

[Janeille]

Where did you find this TA? Does she work alone or does she have a manager you can speak to? You can have your booking transferred to a different TA. DO NOT stay in an interior cabin with four people. It will be your firsr and last cruise. When are you sailing?

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

 

She works for a local travel agency that has been around for as long as i can remember. I haven’t used a TA for any other trips because I am fairly well traveled & happy to book everything from hostels to first class flights on my own. For some reason cruising seemed like an intimidating mess of hidden fees. My husband & I both spend a lot of time working, handing over a sum of cash in exchange for a vacay sounded like a dream. I am not paying her anything additional to whatever she will get from the cruise/flights.

I’m hesitant to escalate it at the agency, it’s this woman & two other people. I do feel like there is hope on the RC end for escalation. We sail in 34 days, I guess we’ll see!

[awestover89]

That is good advice, I appreciate it. I’m genuinely hopeful that the cabin change is completed to one of the several specific cabin numbers I gave the TA. After that I will just have to book things on my own, I want nothing more to do with this TA.

Half of my frustration stems from the trust RC places in its TAs. How many people have had unpleasant experiences with RC due to a handful of TAs who don’t do more than the bare minimum? How many repeat cruisers have they lost? I tried to be proactive on my own behalf, but RC has really tied their own hands with whatever agreement they have made with TAs.

 

Full disclosure: I am a travel agent.

 

There are legitimate reasons to require all communication and changes to go through a travel agent, but unfortunately when there are really bad TAs it does poison Royal Caribbean's reputation and can cause some passengers to give up cruising. There really does need to be a better balance, but at the same time there needs to maintain some protection for TA's who do a lot of work and then have a client decide to take over the reservation or send it to a different agent without a valid reason.

[Janeille]

How frustrating. I’m sure you hired her to save you the time of having to do all the research yourself.

 

The prices she’s quoting you for rooms are probably higher than what you found online because her agency charges an up charge for profit on their end, or, maybe they negotiated a block of rooms that were more expensive at the time than what RC is currently offering.

 

Travel agencies used to have a lot of agents in one office and each would specialize in different things (different cruise lines, different land resorts, different islands or areas of the world). Those days are long gone, and any remaining agencies likely operate very differently, with each agent competing for business (because there’s not as much of it to go around) and trying to be an “expert” on all places at once.

 

Often, you’ll find the people on this board far more knowledgeable than any travel agent. You might even be better off paying a trusted friend to be your “vacation assistant,” have them read Trip Advisor, Cruise Critic etc for you. A travel agent is trying to research too many vacations for various customers at once, and they just won’t be able to do as good a job if that’s not their area of expertise. An assistant/friend will focus just on your one vacation.

 

Have your travel agent transfer the booking back to you so you can do it yourself, or pay a friend to do it for you and save you time.

 

 

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That is the plan going forward! I will find the time to manage the whole process.

I wasn’t aware that I. Plus request the booking be transferred to me. That may be my most effective next step.

[ARandomTraveler]

We sail in 34 days, I guess we’ll see!

 

 

This makes more sense now. If your sailing is only 34 days away, that’s why the prices are cheaper. You can’t get money back for prices being lower after the final payment date (which is 90 days before you sail). At 34 days out, they’ve dropped the prices in order to sell cabins at the last minute. That might be the reason that they aren’t able to upgrade your room and give you a refund (aside from them trying to make a profit). They should be able to upgrade your room for the same amount you already paid though, if I’ve understood other Cruise Critic folks correctly.

 

 

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[Janeille]

Full disclosure: I am a travel agent.

 

There are legitimate reasons to require all communication and changes to go through a travel agent, but unfortunately when there are really bad TAs it does poison Royal Caribbean's reputation and can cause some passengers to give up cruising. There really does need to be a better balance, but at the same time there needs to maintain some protection for TA's who do a lot of work and then have a client decide to take over the reservation or send it to a different agent without a valid reason.

I appreciate the insight- I have worked commission based as a Realtor, I understand the frustration that comes with last minute, beautifully negotiated contract becoming a FSBO.

That being said, do you have any guidance for my approaching this situation? Is there something I am not understanding about the big picture? I feel like I have been clear in expectations & provided an appropriate budget to work within.

[Janeille]

This makes more sense now. If your sailing is only 34 days away, that’s why the prices are cheaper. You can’t get money back for prices being lower after the final payment date (which is 90 days before you sail). At 34 days out, they’ve dropped the prices in order to sell cabins at the last minute. That might be the reason that they aren’t able to upgrade your room and give you a refund (aside from them trying to make a profit). They should be able to upgrade your room for the same amount you already paid though, if I’ve understood other Cruise Critic folks correctly.

 

 

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That is my understanding as well, reinforced by RC customer service rep today. I’m not after a discount. If there is one I imagine I’ll get a massage or dinner, nothing worth this level of aggravation! However if there is a better room available for no additional cost I would like to have it. I would have paid for an upgrade, as I have plenty left in my budget.

My TA specifically said to me that any other cabin would be a downgrade to my current cabin (8443 is my currently booked stateroom).

[Janeille]

This makes more sense now. If your sailing is only 34 days away, that’s why the prices are cheaper. You can’t get money back for prices being lower after the final payment date (which is 90 days before you sail). At 34 days out, they’ve dropped the prices in order to sell cabins at the last minute. That might be the reason that they aren’t able to upgrade your room and give you a refund (aside from them trying to make a profit). They should be able to upgrade your room for the same amount you already paid though, if I’ve understood other Cruise Critic folks correctly.

 

 

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I booked this cruise about 2.5 weeks ago. Last Monday (3/5) I emailed my TA about the lower priced cabins.

I realize that this is all somewhat short travel planning, but that’s my life.

[Johnamac123]

Another change - fly in the day before you sail. Well worth the cost of a hotel room.

[Janeille]

Another change - fly in the day before you sail. Well worth the cost of a hotel room.

Unfortunately I don’t know that I can change the flights at this point. I do have travel insurance, hopefully I won’t need it.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

still trying to figure out how 4 of you are booked into a cabin for 3.

 

:confused::confused:

 

Bill

[ARandomTraveler]

I booked this cruise about 2.5 weeks ago. Last Monday (3/5) I emailed my TA about the lower priced cabins.

 

I realize that this is all somewhat short travel planning, but that’s my life.

 

 

I think they give you a 3 day window? Or maybe just 36 hours??? I’m not sure, but there is a window of time that you can get a refund if the price goes lower on your booking, if you booked it within that 90 day window.

 

You should still be able to get an upgraded room even if they don’t refund any money. I hope your travel agent will get it taken care of for you first thing in the morning. It would be so frustrating to have to wait on someone to do that for you. Let’s hope she makes it right for you in some way that will make you feel better about your booking so you don’t feel like she messed up what you asked for.

 

Sorry you’re having to stress about it.

 

 

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[gerif]

That is good advice, I appreciate it. I’m genuinely hopeful that the cabin change is completed to one of the several specific cabin numbers I gave the TA. After that I will just have to book things on my own, I want nothing more to do with this TA.

Half of my frustration stems from the trust RC places in its TAs. How many people have had unpleasant experiences with RC due to a handful of TAs who don’t do more than the bare minimum? How many repeat cruisers have they lost? I tried to be proactive on my own behalf, but RC has really tied their own hands with whatever agreement they have made with TAs.

First of all, this is not one of RC’s TAs, it is an agent you chose. Now, then, you say it is a local agency. If it were me, even if it meant taking a couple of hours off work, I would show up at the agency tomorrow and get all of this mess taken care of. If she’s not there, then insist on seeing someone else. Tell them you feel this is somewhat of an emergency and needs to be resolved immediately. Even if you have to wait a bit until someone is available, don’t leave until all is resolved. Easy for them to ignore an email but not so much a person sitting in front of them.

[sparkieplug24]

4 people cannot be booked into a 3 berth cabin royal system wouldn't allow it for a start. What she means by a downgrade I assume is that you would be moving to lower or less central part of the deck. I still cannot understand how 4 people can book into a 3 berth cabin it is just not possible i would recheck your paperwork and make sure all passengers are on the booking

[resstation]

Let's not put ALL the fault on the TA. You must have given her your money before looking over and accepting the proposed arrangements (you may not know anything about cruising but clearly were not interested in a same day flight, for instance) or blindly just said "Take care of it" and she did. And now you don't want to escalate it with the agency so that an agent you think is incompetent enough to "cause some passengers to quit cruising" can continue to cause issues with other family's hard earned money. This is how incompetent people remain incompetent. If the travel agency has been there "for as long as you can remember" someone in there has been doing something right for a very, very long time. Most "brick and mortar" agencies are long gone since the internet took over.

 

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[cruisinfanatic]

How frustrating. I’m sure you hired her to save you the time of having to do all the research yourself.

 

The prices she’s quoting you for rooms are probably higher than what you found online because her agency charges an up charge for profit on their end, or, maybe they negotiated a block of rooms that were more expensive at the time than what RC is currently offering.

 

Travel agencies used to have a lot of agents in one office and each would specialize in different things (different cruise lines, different land resorts, different islands or areas of the world). Those days are long gone, and any remaining agencies likely operate very differently, with each agent competing for business (because there’s not as much of it to go around) and trying to be an “expert” on all places at once.

 

Often, you’ll find the people on this board far more knowledgeable than any travel agent. You might even be better off paying a trusted friend to be your “vacation assistant,” have them read Trip Advisor, Cruise Critic etc for you.

 

Have your travel agent transfer the booking back to you so you can do it yourself, (or pay a friend to do it for you if you need to save time).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Any TA worth their salt do not do that. They charge exactly what the cruiline does or even less if they have group cabins. Never more!

The OP is past final payment. There is no transferring.

[cruisinfanatic]

That is good advice, I appreciate it. I’m genuinely hopeful that the cabin change is completed to one of the several specific cabin numbers I gave the TA. After that I will just have to book things on my own, I want nothing more to do with this TA.

Half of my frustration stems from the trust RC places in its TAs. How many people have had unpleasant experiences with RC due to a handful of TAs who don’t do more than the bare minimum? How many repeat cruisers have they lost? I tried to be proactive on my own behalf, but RC has really tied their own hands with whatever agreement they have made with TAs.

If you get no resolution pretty soon call the cruiseline and tell them that your TA is not responding and you'd like a 3 way call to get it taken care of. You'll be very surprised at how fast your TA will pick up the phone when Royal calls.

 

As far as your TA telling you that the balcony you want is a downgrade? Looks like that on paper because it's less expensive, but we know better.

Edited March 12, 2018 by cruisinfanatic

[cruisinfanatic]

First of all, this is not one of RC’s TAs, it is an agent you chose. Now, then, you say it is a local agency. If it were me, even if it meant taking a couple of hours off work, I would show up at the agency tomorrow and get all of this mess taken care of. If she’s not there, then insist on seeing someone else. Tell them you feel this is somewhat of an emergency and needs to be resolved immediately. Even if you have to wait a bit until someone is available, don’t leave until all is resolved. Easy for them to ignore an email but not so much a person sitting in front of them.

The OP never said she booked calling Royal. She said she booked through a TA. First sentence in original post

[mjkacmom]

The problem might be that there aren’t any cabins that sleep 4 left, since it’s spring break, and if there are any left, lifeboat capacity has been met.

[fsjosh]

You absolutely should escalate this to her boss. If she is doing a bad job, it reflects poorly on her company. As a business owner, I'd want to know that an employee is hurting my company's reputation.

 

Edit: Not to mention if you told her you were planning to spend $12k and she sold you a package for half that, that didn't even cover what you wanted, it's hurting their bottom line.

Edited March 12, 2018 by fsjosh