What Happens if your TA (Travel Agent) Goes Out of Business - with your final payment made?

[Smokeyham]

Reading some other threads about using (or not) a travel agent, I am wondering what happens if you just paid your travel agent the final booking amount and then the travel agent goes out of business without having passed your money along to the cruise line?

 

Does anyone know if this has ever happened or is the money you send in immediately and directly transferred to the cruise line?

[Shmoo here]

10 minutes ago, Smokeyham said:

Reading some other threads about using (or not) a travel agent, I am wondering what happens if you just paid your travel agent the final booking amount and then the travel agent goes out of business without having passed your money along to the cruise line?

 

Does anyone know if this has ever happened or is the money you send in immediately and directly transferred to the cruise line?

Typically, you don't pay the TA and the TA then pays the cruise line. ln my experience, the TA takes your credit card info and transmits that directly to the cruise line.  The cruise line is the one who actually charges your card.  The TA shouldn't be taking your payments directly, but is just a facilitator.

[All That Jazz]

5 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

Typically, you don't pay the TA and the TA then pays the cruise line. ln my experience, the TA takes your credit card info and transmits that directly to the cruise line.  The cruise line is the one who actually charges your card.  The TA shouldn't be taking your payments directly, but is just a facilitator.

Exactly our experience. In fact, one of the essential questions to ask a new TA is how your payments are handled. If the TA holds your payment and does not immediately pay the cruise line, that's a deal breaker.

Edited February 20, 2021 by All That Jazz
typo

[Smokeyham]

Thanks to you both.  That is reassuring!

[Flatbush Flyer]

11 minutes ago, Smokeyham said:

Thanks to you both.  That is reassuring!

Not so fast....

The common practice in the US is for a TA to immediately provide the cruise line with your CC info and it is the cruise line who then charges your CC. 
However, in some other countries, the TA charges your CC and then, in turn, pays the cruise line.

FWIW, unless one is purchasing a complex package deal from a TA (i.e., air and ground transport, pre/post cruise land travel [e.g., safari] plus the cruise itself), I recommend NEVER paying a TA direct for just the cruise.

That said, there’s also the pros/cons of using third parties (e.g., TA’s, Big Box stores, travel consolidators, etc.) for air tix, car rentals, et al..

While there may be a significantly discounted price, if there’s a snafu or need for change/refund/etc., you need to work through whoever sold you the item. That can cause delays and added challenges.

[Heidi13]

In North America, our experience is the TA calls the cruise line to provide the number and our card is charged by the cruise line directly. In UK, the TA charges your card and then forwards the payments to the various cruise lines.

 

UK consumers have protection from ABTA, but I'm not aware if that protection is available to foreign nationals. 

[combine]

31 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

In North America, our experience is the TA calls the cruise line to provide the number and our card is charged by the cruise line directly. In UK, the TA charges your card and then forwards the payments to the various cruise lines.

 

UK consumers have protection from ABTA, but I'm not aware if that protection is available to foreign nationals. 

There are many Travel Agents in the UK that take your card details and pass them to Cruise line for direct payment. I use one that does. They are normally  the smaller independent agents.
However , yes the majority of large  high  street agents and UK online agents take your payment and they  then forward it onto the Cruise line when payment is due .

[Heidi13]

29 minutes ago, combine said:

There are many Travel Agents in the UK that take your card details and pass them to Cruise line for direct payment. I use one that does. They are normally  the smaller independent agents.
However , yes the majority of large  high  street agents and UK online agents take your payment and they  then forward it onto the Cruise line when payment is due .

 

Thanks for clarifying, as last time we booked in UK, we used a brick & mortar chain in Dundee.

[combine]

5 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Thanks for clarifying, as last time we booked in UK, we used a brick & mortar chain in Dundee.

With all thats happened in the past year and subsequent refunds,  there has been  a lot of negative publicity here regarding those TAs who processed the payments to be forwarded to the Cruise line and when refunds were made ,were rather slow in returning said funds to customers. Even though Cruise lines had refunded the TA in a timely manner. I guess you never know how good your TA is until the unusual happens. That has certainly been the case this past year.

[SteveH2508]

23 minutes ago, combine said:

With all thats happened in the past year and subsequent refunds,  there has been  a lot of negative publicity here regarding those TAs who processed the payments to be forwarded to the Cruise line and when refunds were made ,were rather slow in returning said funds to customers. Even though Cruise lines had refunded the TA in a timely manner. I guess you never know how good your TA is until the unusual happens. That has certainly been the case this past year.

Imagine that. Who would have thought that could happen?😉

[LHT28]

4 hours ago, Smokeyham said:

Reading some other threads about using (or not) a travel agent, I am wondering what happens if you just paid your travel agent the final booking amount and then the travel agent goes out of business without having passed your money along to the cruise line?

 

Does anyone know if this has ever happened or is the money you send in immediately and directly transferred to the cruise line?

It may depend on a lot of things

Where the TA is located

How you paid

If your State, Province or Country have travel protection that covers your payments