Why You Need a Good TA

[capriccio]

2 hours ago, jtwind said:

I imagine cruise lines occasionally offer last minute cabin upgrades at reduced prices.  If so, how do they prioritize who would get such offers first?

 

Princess, like many other lines, in recent years has changed from offering free upgrades to 'upsells'.  This is how Princess usually handles it.

 

We usually mark our cabins do not upgrade (because we know exactly what we want) but sometimes, especially if it is a last minute cruise, you don't have much choice.  If we have a reservation for a popular cabin category that could be filled easily and there is availability in a more costly, less popular category Princess sends an email burst to a group of passengers usually with wording "due to your elite status we are offering you an upsell for $XX or $XXX" to a new cabin category.  If interested you then call and leave a message saying so.  They respond to those interested in the order the messages were left.  We have had very reasonable upsells for balcony to mini-suites (one I remember was $129 each for a 10 day cruise over Christmas) and mini-suites to full suites (I can't remember the additional costs) and totally (in our mind) unreasonable mini to full suite offers that we turned down.

 

I think NCL and MSC have a system where passengers bid on higher category cabins.  Maybe someone else can describe that process.

Edited December 3, 2020 by capriccio

[rkacruiser]

13 hours ago, Hlitner said:

major travel consortium groups

 

The national agencies with which I have booked have been a member of such consortiums.  That membership has provided me many benefits and lower Business Class air fares over the years.  

[drsel]

On 11/26/2020 at 1:49 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

As for "control of the booking," if your TA goes "belly-up," call the cruise line and they will take back control of the booking.

I think you can take control of your booking back from the travel agent anytime, and even later on transfer it to a new travel agent.

 

But a manager of the travel agency has to give the cruise line an officially written letter on the company's letterhead, surrendering control of the booking.

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by drsel

[ColeThornton]

51 minutes ago, drsel said:

I think you can take control of your booking back from the travel agent anytime, and even later on transfer it to a new travel agent.

 

But a manager of the travel agency has to give the cruise line an officially written letter on the company's letterhead, surrendering control of the booking.

 

 

Policies and procedures on this vary by cruise line.

[ontheweb]

17 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

Policies and procedures on this vary by cruise line.

And they may have to be developing new ones as the pandemic forces TAs out of business.

[ORV]

I usually don't get out to other parts of CC other than a couple of cruise line boards. Must be bored on a Sat. night. After reading this whole thread I'm reminded of the old saw that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. 

 

I have to admire those that pound their head against the wall trying to help those that really don't want to be helped. For those of us that know it's quite obvious what a good TA does for you. I've had things happen that my TA has requested that I don't post on CC as the average cruiser doesn't have them available to them. For my first 10 years of cruising I didn't have a good TA. For the past 10 years I have. It makes all the difference in the world. 

[drsel]

6 hours ago, ORV said:

I've had things happen that my TA has requested that I don't post on CC as the average cruiser doesn't have them available to them. For my first 10 years of cruising I didn't have a good TA. For the past 10 years I have. It makes all the difference in the world. 

I am very happy with my curren TAs. Kindly enlighten us what your TA has done for you. Thanks

Edited February 7, 2021 by drsel

[ORV]

6 hours ago, drsel said:

I am very happy with my curren TAs. Kindly enlighten us what your TA has done for you. Thanks

I'm not going to cover ground that's already been covered on this thread. Obviously you're happy. You get what a TA can do for you. Of course some people get hung up strictly on the financial aspects and suffer on the service side.

 

Concerning using the site where agencies bid for your business. Years ago while searching for a TA I tried it. I have to agree with what Flatbush mentioned earlier in the thread about that. Also I've never seen such poor grammar and word usage from the 3 that replied in their emails. Also unanswered or ignored questions seemed to be the order of the day. No thanks. 

 

As far as what my TA has done for me, as I mentioned she requests that I not post certain things on CC. I take that to mean if I want to have those things continue to happen then I should respect her wishes on that. Let's just say that there are many stated Cruise Line policies that can be circumvented with the right connected TA. Not to mention free or low cost upgrades. 

 

Have you ever met your TA? Have you ever gone on a cruise with them? Have they ever met you at a port and taken you to lunch? Do they answer their email pretty much 24/7? (well within a short period of time). Have they ever arranged for family members to pick you up and take you on an excursion? Arranged a private tasting at the Cruise Lines President's winery? Probably not going to get any of that from those big online agencies. That's without getting into the everyday nuts and bolts of taking care of anything that has to do with my bookings. 

 

The bottom line is I just can't understand trying to convince people that what they are doing is not the best for them. Even though I don't understand those people's logic either(the book direct, keep control crowd)

[drsel]

15 minutes ago, ORV said:

There are many stated Cruise Line policies that can be circumvented with the right connected TA. Not to mention free or low cost upgrades. 

 

Have you ever met your TA? Have you ever gone on a cruise with them? Have they ever met you at a port and taken you to lunch? Do they answer their email pretty much 24/7? (well within a short period of time). Have they ever arranged for family members to pick you up and take you on an excursion? Arranged a private tasting at the Cruise Lines President's winery? Probably not going to get any of that from those big online agencies. That's without getting into the everyday nuts and bolts of taking care of anything that has to do with my bookings. 

 

The bottom line is I just can't understand trying to convince people that what they are doing is not the best for them. Even though I don't understand those people's logic either(the book direct, keep control crowd)

Wow! you seem to have the most amazing TA!.

 

Compared to all the benefits that you get, I only get a 7- 10% discount or OBC on only the basic Cruise fare, email replies within 24 hours, no change fee, no cancellation fee, no travel agency fees whatsoever.

 

But other than that, nothing else.

No taking me out to lunch or having family members take me for excursions or any of the amazing things that you mentioned.

Your TA is more like your close friend or relative.

[ORV]

16 minutes ago, drsel said:

Wow! you seem to have the most amazing TA!.

 

Compared to all the benefits that you get, I only get a 7- 10% discount or OBC on only the basic Cruise fare, email replies within 24 hours, no change fee, no cancellation fee, no travel agency fees whatsoever.

 

But other than that, nothing else.

No taking me out to lunch or having family members take me for excursions or any of the amazing things that you mentioned.

Your TA is more like your close friend or relative.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? Make no mistake, it's a business relationship, but there's nothing that says a friendship also can't exist. Hope it doesn't burst your bubble to know I get all those other things you mentioned. I'm not sure what your argument is. It sounds like we both have a situation that we're happy with. 

[drsel]

18 minutes ago, ORV said:

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? Make no mistake, it's a business relationship, but there's nothing that says a friendship also can't exist. Hope it doesn't burst your bubble to know I get all those other things you mentioned. I'm not sure what your argument is. It sounds like we both have a situation that we're happy with. 

No sarcasm intended. I am happy for you

[Hlitner]

Interesting discussion (the last few posts).  I will admit to not wanting anything more then a good business relationship with my cruise agents.  The agencies/agents we use (currently 3) understand that they are only as good to me as the last deal.  We always shop between our favorite agencies (and they are all aware we shop around) and are constantly checking out new additions to our "short list" based on recommendations we have received from other cruisers.   Our favorite agent/agency (with whom we have dealt with for over 25 years) knows they will only get our bookings if they offer the best deal.   For my part I do not jerk around our agents, bother them with lots of questions, and generally keep it a pleasant business relationship.  But we also do not cancel bookings (have only cancelled one booking out of more then 100 and that was for a death in the family) and try to take as little of our agents time as possible (time is money for agents).   

 

Hank

[drsel]

After reading all this, I am sure most of those who are against travel agents would like to have one now.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, drsel said:

Wow! you seem to have the most amazing TA!.

 

Compared to all the benefits that you get, I only get a 7- 10% discount or OBC on only the basic Cruise fare, email replies within 24 hours, no change fee, no cancellation fee, no travel agency fees whatsoever.

 

But other than that, nothing else.

No taking me out to lunch or having family members take me for excursions or any of the amazing things that you mentioned.

Your TA is more like your close friend or relative.

I get what you get, and I do not expect those other things. I also like when I call, he knows who I am.

 

One time, DW found from one of the super big agencies that does more than cruises, a super great price on a cruise we wanted. I called him, and asked him if he could match it. It turned out he could not as he said they must have purchased a large block of cabins and were not allowing him to do so. He said he understood that we would take that great a price. And when we booked our next cruise after that with him, he very much let me know that he appreciated us returning to him. As far as I am concerned, both his prices and level of service are excellent, almost always better than I could find spending a lot of time trying to do better,

[drsel]

8 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I get what you get, and I do not expect those other things. I also like when I call, he knows who I am.

 

One time, DW found from one of the super big agencies that does more than cruises, a super great price on a cruise we wanted. I called him, and asked him if he could match it. It turned out he could not as he said they must have purchased a large block of cabins and were not allowing him to do so. He said he understood that we would take that great a price. And when we booked our next cruise after that with him, he very much let me know that he appreciated us returning to him. As far as I am concerned, both his prices and level of service are excellent, almost always better than I could find spending a lot of time trying to do better,

Nice. I also call my agent, but I find it faster and more efficient to communicate by email.

how does one find out if any agency has booked a large block of cabins at a big discounted price on The Cruise that you are interested in

[ontheweb]

Just now, drsel said:

Nice. I also call my agent, but I find it faster and more efficient to communicate by email.

how does one find out if any agency has booked a large block of cabins at a big discounted price on The Cruise that you are interested in

I do not know. We had picked out a cruise for our 35th anniversary, and she just happened to find a great price. On the cruise we picked out for our 30th anniversary, it turned out that our regular TA had a group of cabins plus Princess was a line that allowed TAs to discount.

[iancal]

The ONLY time we use a TA is for a cruise.  And only because of the OBC's and extended hours of service.

 

All of our other travels are done on the web.  We planned to book an African safari though a local TA that specialized in Africa.   Instead, we got in touch directly with a safari operator in South Africa and dealt direct.  Better information, better prices, and easy to deal with since there was no third party TA.

[Hlitner]

41 minutes ago, iancal said:

The ONLY time we use a TA is for a cruise.  And only because of the OBC's and extended hours of service.

 

All of our other travels are done on the web.  We planned to book an African safari though a local TA that specialized in Africa.   Instead, we got in touch directly with a safari operator in South Africa and dealt direct.  Better information, better prices, and easy to deal with since there was no third party TA.

Same here.  Our cruise agents save us a substantial amount of money (sometimes measured in the thousands of dollars) on every cruise so, for us, it is a no brainer to use our favorite cruise agencies.  But like you, we make our own travel arrangements for just about everything else around the world.  The only time we needed to reach out to an expert was when DW and I went to Egypt for a couple of weeks and traveled all over the country from Abu Simbal in the South to Alexandria in the North.  For that trip we needed the services of an expert since we did our own thing (traveled alone).  There are certain things in Egypt (such as taking the convoy from Luxor to Dendera) that need the services of local experts.

 

Hank

[iancal]

The web is pervasive-especially in countries that are not considered first world..  A few years ago we were sitting at our small beach hotel in Phu Quok, Vietnam not certain of where to go next.

 

Got on the web and decided on a homestay in the Mekong Delta for a few days.  It was as easy as that.  Booked a flight to Can Tho and we were picked up at the airport..  Stayed with the family.  Got a cooking class after a visit to the market to select our menu items.   Tour the next day to the river markets, local area,  etc.   It was rustic to say the least but we enjoyed it very much.

 

Next day they got us on the bus to Saigon.  No problem  Who would have thought?  Why would we need a TA when we were able to arrange this in about an hour thanks to our ipads, the internet, and our gracious hosts.

 

I doubt whether a local TA where we live could have achieved this in so little time and been able to check on the level of satisfaction of past homestay visitors.

Edited February 8, 2021 by iancal

[drsel]

We almost always combine a land tour with our Cruises and never use any agent for booking flights, hotels, internal transport, etc.

 

But we always use a discount agent to book  every Cruise, except for our first 2 Cruises, when we did not know about discount Cruise agents

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 11/25/2020 at 9:58 PM, jtwind said:

I think I understand that travel agencies will sometimes buy a block of cabins and be able to sell them for a lower price than booking directly.  But if one has a specific cruise in mind, is booking through a travel agency generally less expensive?  I've heard folks say that they got extra perks from their travel agent, but when I go to the cruise line's website, I see the same perks offered.

My big-box warehouse store travel division gives me about 8% off of every cruise I book - and I still receive all of the perks the cruise line is offering.  Their large sales volume allows them to take that 8% out of their commissions and it is that 8% savings that creates member interest in using them and maintaining their large sales volume.  I could probably shop around for other TAs that might share an additional 2 or 3 percent, but to me it is not worth the time and effort since we only take one cruise per year (at least we used to!)  I should also note that their 8% is in the form of a gift card for shopping in their warehouse store - which to me is the same as cash since I would be shopping there anyway. But to them it is 1) also attracting us to their store and 2) the 8% is not really costing them the full amount since they are making an additional profit off my purchases at their store.  And yes I probably do purchase more goods there when I have several hundreds of dollars just sitting there on their gift card.