Questions to ask a travel agent?

[RocketMan275]

22 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

If they are selling it for less than the published direct price from the cruise line it is coming directly from the commissions they are paid as they are responsible to the cruise line for the full published fare with the bookings they sell. The cruise line will be paid their published rate - they will not accept a discounted amount.  That published fare is the cost of the cruise to the TA for the customer.  They are then (at a time after the cruise is completed) paid a commission out of that amount by the cruise line. They do not add a separate margin on top as profit to them. 

 

But believe as you wish.  I know factually that I am correct.

Simply incorrect.  Suppose I book a cruise with my TA that lists on the cruise line website at $5000.  Suppose further that I charge that cruise on my credit card.  My credit card is not charged $5000.   Instead, the cruise line charges my credit card $4500 . Obviously, the cruise line has accepted an amount less than their published rate.    BTW, the $4500 would be the amount shown on my invoice from the TA.

Edited October 26, 2019 by RocketMan275

[leaveitallbehind]

20 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Simply incorrect.  Suppose I book a cruise with my TA that lists on the cruise line website at $5000.  Suppose further that I charge that cruise on my credit card.  My credit card is not charged $5000.   Instead, the cruise line charges my credit card $4500 . Obviously, the cruise line has accepted an amount less than there published rate.    BTW, the $4500 is the amount shown on my invoice from the TA.

 

Remember I said (when discussing published rates) "the rate issued at any given time"?  As I'm sure you are aware, rates move up and down all the time. What frequently happens is an agency will - usually at first itinerary release - reserve a block of rooms at the initial fare, which often is lower than that issued at a later date.  So, to fit your example, that initial rate may have been $4500.  At some point later, you decide to book a stateroom.  The then published rate is $5000.  Your TA - good marketer that they are - will show you the current issued rate of $5000 but tell you they can offer it at a discounted $4500 and away you go. 

 

They are simply selling out of that block of staterooms that they reserved previously when the rate was more attractive and showing it as a discount to the current price.  Unless you checked rates at the time of release you would not know of that price differential.  But they are not discounting the rate and the cruise line is not accepting a lower rate - they are paying the rate that they originally reserved and as originally published.  Common practice and it happens all the time. 

 

So in the spirit of your example you are correct - you are seeing a reduced rate at the time you book over the then current published rate.  But, again, it is not because the TA is able to to discount it and the cruise line will accept a lower rate than published - it is because they had a lower rate as offered locked in with the cruise line on the block they originally reserved.  

Edited October 26, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[RocketMan275]

10 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

Remember I said (when discussing published rates) "the rate issued at any given time"?  As I'm sure you are aware, rates move up and down all the time. What frequently happens is an agency will - usually at first itinerary release - reserve a block of rooms at the initial fare, which often is lower than that issued at a later date.  So, to fit your example, that initial rate may have been $4500.  At some point later, you decide to book a stateroom.  The then published rate is $5000.  Your TA - good marketer that they are - will show you the current issued rate of $5000 but tell you they can offer it at a discounted $4500 and away you go. 

 

They are simply selling out of that block of staterooms that they reserved previously when the rate was more attractive and showing it as a discount to the current price.  Unless you checked rates at the time of release you would not know of that price differential.  But they are not discounting the rate and the cruise line is not accepting a lower rate - they are paying the rate that they originally reserved and as originally published.  Common practice and it happens all the time. 

 

So in the spirit of your example you are correct - you are seeing a reduced rate at the time you book over the then current published rate.  But, again, it is not because the TA is able to to discount it and the cruise line will accept a lower rate than published - it is because they had a lower rate as offered locked in with the cruise line on the block they originally reserved.  

You're playing word games.  If my TA will book my cruise at less than the amount displayed on the cruise line website, then I'm getting that booking at a discount.  It's not at all important how the TA arrived at the price she charges.

 

I don't call my TA and ask her to pick out and book a cruise.  I call (email) my TA with specific requests:  cruise line, name of the Ship, date of the cruise, and exact cabin number.   For your scheme to work (ie, booking at initial offering) to work, a TA would have to book rooms on every ship, on every voyage, and in every category. 

 

Which brings us to another issue.  Cabins are limited in number and they're not enough cabins to allow TAs to book large numbers of cabins on all cruise lines, on all ships, on all voyages, and in all cabin categories.

11 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

And to be clear - as stated before - my comment on buying business as unprofessional is with regards to giving part of ones paid compensation to a customer as an incentive to do business together.  

 

More word games.  If a business sells a product at less than MSRP, then they are offering a discount as an incentive to do business.  

[leaveitallbehind]

48 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

You're playing word games.  If my TA will book my cruise at less than the amount displayed on the cruise line website, then I'm getting that booking at a discount.  It's not at all important how the TA arrived at the price she charges.

 

I don't call my TA and ask her to pick out and book a cruise.  I call (email) my TA with specific requests:  cruise line, name of the Ship, date of the cruise, and exact cabin number.   For your scheme to work (ie, booking at initial offering) to work, a TA would have to book rooms on every ship, on every voyage, and in every category. 

 

Which brings us to another issue.  Cabins are limited in number and they're not enough cabins to allow TAs to book large numbers of cabins on all cruise lines, on all ships, on all voyages, and in all cabin categories.

More word games.  If a business sells a product at less than MSRP, then they are offering a discount as an incentive to do business.  

I'm not playing word games - I've tried to explain how it works.  And was using a likely scenario for the example you presented. But again, you believe what you want - that's fair for all of us.  But there is no more to be said on this as far as I'm concerned.

 

Enjoy your cruising. 

[RocketMan275]

Just now, leaveitallbehind said:

I'm not playing word games - I've tried to explain how it works.  And was using a likely scenario for the example you presented. But again, you believe what you want - that's fair for all of us.  But there is no more to be said on this as far as I'm concerned.

 

Enjoy your cruising. 

I will enjoy the discounts.

[ed01106]

Taking a SMALLER profit per unit to generate business is not unprofessional or unusual.  A car dealership does this by selling below MSRP.  Grocery stores have sales.  Etc.

 

 If TA A is willing to accept $100 for 5 minutes of work by giving $300  back in OBC and TA B insists on getting to keep the entire $400 for that same 5 minutes of work, then TA A is going to get more business and ultimately make more money.

[SRF]

On 10/26/2019 at 9:34 PM, ed01106 said:

Taking a SMALLER profit per unit to generate business is not unprofessional or unusual.  A car dealership does this by selling below MSRP.  Grocery stores have sales.  Etc.

 

 If TA A is willing to accept $100 for 5 minutes of work by giving $300  back in OBC and TA B insists on getting to keep the entire $400 for that same 5 minutes of work, then TA A is going to get more business and ultimately make more money.

 

Back in the early 70s, there was a local car salesman that sold every car for $25 over dealer cost.  He had LINES of people waiting to buy from him.  Sell 30 cars per day at $25, or sell one car every few days for $250?

Second time my parents went to him, he had assistant to show you cars.  He sat at his desk and wrote sales.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

 

Back in the early 70s, there was a local car salesman that sold every car for $25 over dealer cost.  He had LINES of people waiting to buy from him.  Sell 30 cars per day at $25, or sell one car every few days for $250?

Second time my parents went to him, he had assistant to show you cars.  He sat at his desk and wrote sales.

Some don't realize that dealerships also receive additional money, sometimes called a hold back.  Dealer hold back is paid to the dealer after the vehicle is sold.  It is in addition to any profit made on the sale to the customer.  It maybe a percentage of the invoice or the msrp and maybe as large as 3%.  This is one reason why a dealer can sell a car for less than 'dealer cost' and still make a handsome profit.  It is entirely possible that a similar sales model is used by cruise lines and travel agents.

[seaturtle_808]

I would talk to them about cruises to begin with. 

 

I sold cruises for four years for the largest online travel agency in the world. And it was really hit or miss with the agents, sometimes you'd get someone who had never been on a cruise and struggled to answer basic questions and sometimes you'd get someone like me who has been on a ton, loves reading about every ship, and could give you actual first-hand information.

 

If you're going to Alaska try to find a TA that's been on an Alaskan cruise. Ask them about their favorite Alaskan shore excursion, and if they say something like "Oh we saw a glacier!" move on, and if they're detailed like "The best thing we did was in Ketchikan when we visited the Native American village and you got to see a traditional dance and the totem poles.... etc etc" where you can tell they know what they're talking about then that's who I'd look for information from. 

 

Personally I think any TA that sells Alaska really needs to go on an Alaskan cruise because they're very different from other cruises in my opinion. 

 

And I wouldn't count out online travel agencies that allow you to talk to a real person, because usually for cruises they keep their call centers US side and they offer a lot of incentives to those agents to go on cruises. 

 

But good luck! I'm sure you'll find a great TA, there's lots of them out there 🙂

[NantahalaCruiser]

All of the posted questions for TAs are great. But first you need to ask yourself some questions to identify what services are important to you.

 

Personally, I do all of my own research and only need a TA to:

- make the booking

- when I wish to make the booking,

- at a significantly lower net price (cruise line price minus the value of any incentives, - be they price discounts, OBC, cash, gift cards, specialty restaurants, etc.) than that of a direct purchase through the cruise line

- without any added fees.

 

My warehouse store's travel division meets my needs and provides about an 8% incentive in the form of a gift card - which is as good as cash to me. I probably could occasionally get 2% or 3% more by shopping around with other large TAs, but the time spent is not worth it to me.

 

 

If you wish or need additional services, make a list of what is important to you and make sure your TA can indeed provide them. Such services may well be worth receiving a few percentage points less in monetary incentives.

[SRF]

I just found one more good thing. 

 

I wanted to book a sale price, that was going to open at midnight Sunday.  TA was able to book it during the day on Sunday.  So I did not have to stay up late to book it directly.  😄