Price drop and TA out of touch?

[Iamcruzin]

2 hours ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Tell me more, I'm listening...

Google Travel Host Agency.  

[travelplus]

5 hours ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Tell me more, I'm listening...

If you Google Host Travel Agencies you can find one that fits your needs.I am not at liberty to recommend one as here on Cruise Critic we are not allowed to do so. A Host agency allows you to use their CLIA number and after so many sales you can get your own IATA and CLIA Card. You book the reservation through the agency and can take Princess and Cunard training courses online in return for Graduation Cruises. 

 

As a Host agent booking your own trips you have full access to Travel Agent benefits and can get your own price drops. Host agencies don't care if the Travel agent is sailing or not and you can get access to savings not only on cruises but on hotels etc.

 

In return for the Host Agency hosting you at little to nothing you share your commission with them . So lets say Royal gives 16 percent you  get 8 percent. You can decide to apply your commission on your own cruise as a discount off the cruise or as a check that comes to you  after you sail.

 

The higher grade of cabin you book the more commission you can make. Also any last minute inventory gets opened to travel agents.

You can open up a group of cabins and use the Tour Conductor Credit for a free birth or bonus commission thus you can plan family reunions, weddings etc. You can be the family travel agent. 

 

With regards to your OP you would not have to sit around and wait for a unresponsive agent all you would do is provide your Host Agency Phone Number or CLIA# and your booking# and voila you can change anything from anywhere in the world. You get access to Cruising Power and can make your final payment either through the Host Agency or Directly on Cruising Power or via the Cruiseline.  Your agency may have access to better cabins as they usually purchase blocks of cabins that gets released before the Final Payment Date and then you can switch cabins or categories.

Even if you do this part time or just for your immediate family you can save money . The commission you earn  is your travel fund for your own cruises on top of any Travel Agent discounts.

 

I hope this helps!

Edited June 29, 2019 by travelplus

[Iamcruzin]

6 hours ago, travelplus said:

If you Google Host Travel Agencies you can find one that fits your needs.I am not at liberty to recommend one as here on Cruise Critic we are not allowed to do so. A Host agency allows you to use their CLIA number and after so many sales you can get your own IATA and CLIA Card. You book the reservation through the agency and can take Princess and Cunard training courses online in return for Graduation Cruises. 

 

As a Host agent booking your own trips you have full access to Travel Agent benefits and can get your own price drops. Host agencies don't care if the Travel agent is sailing or not and you can get access to savings not only on cruises but on hotels etc.

 

In return for the Host Agency hosting you at little to nothing you share your commission with them . So lets say Royal gives 16 percent you  get 8 percent. You can decide to apply your commission on your own cruise as a discount off the cruise or as a check that comes to you  after you sail.

 

The higher grade of cabin you book the more commission you can make. Also any last minute inventory gets opened to travel agents.

You can open up a group of cabins and use the Tour Conductor Credit for a free birth or bonus commission thus you can plan family reunions, weddings etc. You can be the family travel agent. 

 

With regards to your OP you would not have to sit around and wait for a unresponsive agent all you would do is provide your Host Agency Phone Number or CLIA# and your booking# and voila you can change anything from anywhere in the world. You get access to Cruising Power and can make your final payment either through the Host Agency or Directly on Cruising Power or via the Cruiseline.  Your agency may have access to better cabins as they usually purchase blocks of cabins that gets released before the Final Payment Date and then you can switch cabins or categories.

Even if you do this part time or just for your immediate family you can save money . The commission you earn  is your travel fund for your own cruises on top of any Travel Agent discounts.

 

I hope this helps!

I have met a few of these people on board. During roll call they brag about how much their agent saved them and then when you meet them on board you find out that they were their own travel agent and only book for their immediate family and friends. I would consider doing this when I retire and have more time to vacation. At this point it's just not worth it to pay the fees. I had a friend who also tried this as a part time business and gave it up. She would go through the trouble answering questions, making changes to the reservation and offering back part of the commission only to have the clients cancel before finial payment. She gave it up. For a while she was just booking family vacations and then just gave it up.

[johnjen]

On 6/28/2019 at 3:10 PM, AlanF65 said:

At big box store online TA you pay the current list price unless its one of their specials, they then send you a cash card worth about 8% of the fare total after you cruise.

Some do give you free stuff like that, to me, it's not worth the exchange of granting someone to being a "wedge" between me and the cruise line. I did it just that one time. She wasn't around to grant me the $300 price drop and she was the cause and effect of us never doing a TA again.
 

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, johnjen said:

Some do give you free stuff like that, to me, it's not worth the exchange of granting someone to being a "wedge" between me and the cruise line. I did it just that one time. She wasn't around to grant me the $300 price drop and she was the cause and effect of us never doing a TA again.
 

What kind of wedge would that be? All I need is someone to process my order be it a travel agency or the cruise line. I've done enough cruises so I never have any questions hence, I never have to contact them on the phone. If I see a price drop or want to change cabins, an e-mail works just fine. It boils done to economics, nothing more. As they said in the movie "Show me the money". I have two cruises booked, both 14 days, in a suite, with two different cruise lines. I'm getting $1150 refundable obc from one, and $900 refundable obc, plus dinner for two in a specialty restaurant from the other. This is above and beyond whatever the cruise line is offering. The obc is coming home with me via a credit card debit.

I get about 12%, or more, in perks on about every cruise I book, I don't worry about a price reduction because lately they have been pretty rare and quite skimpy.

You got to do what you got to do and I respect that but there is a chance for a bigger and better reward if a person is a little flexible.

[mayleeman]

When I tried to transfer 4 cruises to a well-known TA (all in time after booking, and all between 10 and 22 months away), she said I did as well in booking them as she could have done, if not better, and offered me a total of $50 in OBC for one of the cruises as "goodwill". No thanks.

 

Some of us do our own booking homework and find deals we are happy with.

 

I wonder how many of those high OBC stories we are seeing here are cruises in suites. We only book balconies, and there is possibly less cushion in the fares.

[Clarea]

2 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 ....

I wonder how many of those high OBC stories we are seeing here are cruises in suites. We only book balconies, and there is possibly less cushion in the fares.

 

We get a certain percentage of our cruise fare back as OBC, so as least in our case, the OBC would be more for an expensive suite.

[deepcman]

On 6/29/2019 at 1:35 AM, travelplus said:

If you Google Host Travel Agencies you can find one that fits your needs.I am not at liberty to recommend one as here on Cruise Critic we are not allowed to do so. A Host agency allows you to use their CLIA number and after so many sales you can get your own IATA and CLIA Card. You book the reservation through the agency and can take Princess and Cunard training courses online in return for Graduation Cruises. 

 

As a Host agent booking your own trips you have full access to Travel Agent benefits and can get your own price drops. Host agencies don't care if the Travel agent is sailing or not and you can get access to savings not only on cruises but on hotels etc.

 

In return for the Host Agency hosting you at little to nothing you share your commission with them . So lets say Royal gives 16 percent you  get 8 percent. You can decide to apply your commission on your own cruise as a discount off the cruise or as a check that comes to you  after you sail.

 

The higher grade of cabin you book the more commission you can make. Also any last minute inventory gets opened to travel agents.

You can open up a group of cabins and use the Tour Conductor Credit for a free birth or bonus commission thus you can plan family reunions, weddings etc. You can be the family travel agent. 

 

With regards to your OP you would not have to sit around and wait for a unresponsive agent all you would do is provide your Host Agency Phone Number or CLIA# and your booking# and voila you can change anything from anywhere in the world. You get access to Cruising Power and can make your final payment either through the Host Agency or Directly on Cruising Power or via the Cruiseline.  Your agency may have access to better cabins as they usually purchase blocks of cabins that gets released before the Final Payment Date and then you can switch cabins or categories.

Even if you do this part time or just for your immediate family you can save money . The commission you earn  is your travel fund for your own cruises on top of any Travel Agent discounts.

 

I hope this helps!

You omitted a couple of minor details. There is an initial cost and ongoing rates to maintain your membership with the hosting agency and also the fact that you need to generate a minimum of $5000 per year in commissions to get your own CLIA number.

[Mariketa]

I go back and forth on this issue, but I think in the future I'll be going strictly no TA. I have quite a few cruises booked, 2 without a TA and 4 with. Today I was looking at the prices and found a $250 price drop on one without a TA. I called and got it changed, no problem. The other was a $600 price drop on one with a TA. I message, emailed, and am still waiting. If they don't get that price change for me, that'll be the deciding factor. That's a lot of money, and since the most I get on board is chocolate covered strawberries or something, I'm good with having total control. I've had this happen before with a Disney booked vacation. There was a hurricane (Irma, I think) and I had to scramble to make changes, but I couldn't do a thing. I called my TA so many times, only to get a message back much later that she was at the gym and would get back to me. Since the rooms at Disney were being changed by tons of people for the same reason, time was of the essence, and I missed out.

[cruisinfanatic]

10 minutes ago, Mariketa said:

I go back and forth on this issue, but I think in the future I'll be going strictly no TA. I have quite a few cruises booked, 2 without a TA and 4 with. Today I was looking at the prices and found a $250 price drop on one without a TA. I called and got it changed, no problem. The other was a $600 price drop on one with a TA. I message, emailed, and am still waiting. If they don't get that price change for me, that'll be the deciding factor. That's a lot of money, and since the most I get on board is chocolate covered strawberries or something, I'm good with having total control. I've had this happen before with a Disney booked vacation. There was a hurricane (Irma, I think) and I had to scramble to make changes, but I couldn't do a thing. I called my TA so many times, only to get a message back much later that she was at the gym and would get back to me. Since the rooms at Disney were being changed by tons of people for the same reason, time was of the essence, and I missed out.

doesn't your phone work?

[Mariketa]

1 minute ago, cruisinfanatic said:

doesn't your phone work?

Do your manners work? It's Sunday, they're not open.

[Biker19]

40 minutes ago, Mariketa said:

It's Sunday, they're not open.

Then find a TA that is.

[lovemylab]

I also had problems with getting a price drop applied when my TA was out of the office.  The process ended up taking several days and involved an escalation to a manager.

 

After that, I started booking everything on my own and have still been able to get OBC and various other perks.  We tend to book inside cabins on lower priced itineraries, so a TA won't be offering me a huge savings.   

 

Many people on this board have had great experiences with TAs, but my experience has been the opposite.  I've had issues with both cruise and land trips booked through TAs, so as a result I no longer deal with them. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by lovemylab