Can I take control of my bookings?

[gerelmx]

I'm not satisfied with the service provided by my TA, after I return past Sunday from my Summit cruise the quality of the service I was expecting decrease. I can't give more details but the relation now it's not good I noted in his voice tone and the form she answer my calls that she is upset.

I have 2 silhouette bookings made on  July 24, 2017 and 3 Eclipse bookings made on December 18, 2017. I call Celebrity and they say that it's not possible because the dead line to do that is 60 days after the booking date. The Celebrity operator told me to be patient.

I really do not want to continue with them anymore. And I was planning about booking on the next trip in the Silhouette, my 2020 cruises and I do not want those reservations be controlled by them.

Your advice is welcome.

[Essiesmom]

Just gathering thoughts from various cruise lines...But I think that 60- days is to transfer TO a TA from Celebrity.   But I think you can transfer the bookings back to Celebrity any time before final payment.  But I'm sure others will be along to give a better answer.  EM

[cruisestitch]

For the new booking you are planning on making, there will be no problem going to some other agent or to Celebrity directly.

 

for the current bookings, you MAY be able to take them away from the travel agent but you would not be allowed to transfer them to another agent.  The best you can hope for is to have Celebrity take control of them.  

 

Document, in writing, how the travel agent is failing to provide service and approach Celebrity again with this.

[gerelmx]

8 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

For the new booking you are planning on making, there will be no problem going to some other agent or to Celebrity directly.

 

for the current bookings, you MAY be able to take them away from the travel agent but you would not be allowed to transfer them to another agent.  The best you can hope for is to have Celebrity take control of them.  

 

Document, in writing, how the travel agent is failing to provide service and approach Celebrity again with this.

 

10 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Just gathering thoughts from various cruise lines...But I think that 60- days is to transfer TO a TA from Celebrity.   But I think you can transfer the bookings back to Celebrity any time before final payment.  But I'm sure others will be along to give a better answer.  EM

 

An option has arisen, within the same wholesaler in Mexico I can change the travel agent I have written a letter to the wholesaler authorizing my reservations to be handled by another travel agent (a great friend of years ago that I did not know was dedicated to the business of the cruises). Now I feel calmer since he works by commission and the previous agent works for salary, I am 100% sure that I have taken the correct decision and I feel happy and calm. Thank you all for your opinions.

[helen haywood]

Just a reminder....when you book a future cruise onboard a cruise, I always just say to leave the booking agent with Celebrity as I then have 60 days to shop around to see what different agencies will give me for my transferring the booking to them.  Just make sure to tell the booking agent that you do not want the booking to automatically go to the agency who booked the cruise you are currently on; that is the default.  You may wind up transferring it to the original agent or you may find something better.  No risk in looking.

[Hlitner]

As one who has used many different cruise agents over the past 45 years of cruising I can understand the OP's issue.  Unless your TA is being totally incompetent then just take a deep breath and simply do not deal with that TA for any future bookings.  If you are dealing with a large cruise agency (we only use larger high volume reputable cruise agencies) you can simply call that agency and tell them you want to deal with a different agent.

 

When we are dissatisfied with a cruise agency we never use them again!  You are the buyer and it is a buyers market.   If you do a future cruise booking while on a Celebrity ship you can either have them transfer your reservation to a different TA or simply wait until you get home and shop around among a few decent agencies for the best deal.  These days we would not be happy unless we were getting at least 7-10% back (in the form of lower prices or OBCs) from our agencies...and sometimes we get a lot more.

Hank

[coldweathergirl]

I had booked a sailing on the edge with a TA I had previously used and had been happy with.   He left the company and then the ones taking over my reservation were awful.   Wouldn’t return emails or phone calls.   I contacted Celebrity and was given an email address to send all of my booking information to.  They reviewed the information and after several weeks, the reservation was taken away from the TA and given back to me.