TA ghosting me?

[Steelers36]

30 minutes ago, justafem said:

On a side note, has anyone else noticed princess plus has gone up?  It was $40 per day and now is $43 per day. 

Sorry to day, but I am pretty sure this is not true.  You may be looking at a cruise or more where Princess has dropped the Saver Fare to try and sell cabins, but not similarly dropped the Plus Fare.  If you look out to "normally priced" voyages, the Plus up-charge is still $40/pp/day. 

 

This has come up before where people have posted various expensive rates for the Plus package and it is because Princess did a fare-drop on the Saver only.  If there was an official change to Plus cost across-the-board, there would be an extensive thread on it by now.

[justafem]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Sorry to day, but I am pretty sure this is not true.  You may be looking at a cruise or more where Princess has dropped the Saver Fare to try and sell cabins, but not similarly dropped the Plus Fare.  If you look out to "normally priced" voyages, the Plus up-charge is still $40/pp/day. 

 

This has come up before where people have posted various expensive rates for the Plus package and it is because Princess did a fare-drop on the Saver only.  If there was an official change to Plus cost across-the-board, there would be an extensive thread on it by now.

 

Gotcha.  Yup, that was the difference.  Fares went up about $100 (for 2 people) with the new "promo" of getting $100 onboard when you buy the basic cruise (no princess plus), but the price of the plus package was exactly the same.  

 

You got me there!  Thanks!

[Tedferg]

I just compared a saved cruise pricing, and the difference is $41.## the no-frills say 'Spring Sale 40% off' and Plus fare says 'Best Sale Ever'. I agree, no-frills and Plus might be discounted differently

[JF - retired RRT]

On 1/12/2022 at 10:43 AM, cr8tiv1 said:

With limited time, I don't know what your options might be.  Best case:  cancel for any reason and get back FCC and apply it to your new booking with Princess Plus.  Not sure this could be done in time for your sailing.

Doing it that way the price for the Plus fare would be a lot higher than if it had been done at the time of booking.

[jimbo1683]

On 1/13/2022 at 8:32 PM, Steelers36 said:

I was almost in the same place some years ago as I was not finding the right TA that was going to do me any good.  If they aren't saving me money, what's the point?  I like doing my own travel arrangements.  But, I did find out the way to get several agencies to compete for my business and that led me to at least a couple of good choices.  You might hear of a good TA by happenstance from a fellow cruiser.  I'd at least be open to hearing about someone new and talk to them.

There must be a limit on how much of a TA's time you can take up, and how much of a discount they can give you before its not worth their while serving you. A lot of people on here sound like they are phoning their TA every 5 minutes cancelling this and changing that.

[cr8tiv1]

3 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Doing it that way the price for the Plus fare would be a lot higher than if it had been done at the time of booking.

 

I was told that this was the only way to either add on Princess Plus or delete it.  So I kept my Princess Plus fare because it would have ended up costing me to rebook a basic fare Window Suite.  Go figure.

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, jimbo1683 said:

There must be a limit on how much of a TA's time you can take up, and how much of a discount they can give you before its not worth their while serving you. A lot of people on here sound like they are phoning their TA every 5 minutes cancelling this and changing that.

 

I would agree for sure on the time and am sensitive to that.  Online agencies - or those that have primarily online presence and also give good discounts (and those top discounts don't necessarily apply to everyone - it depends on if you know about them and if you came in a certain way, I think.  After all, how can they make money to thrive if every booking is at a large discount?).  I think there is an expectation that they either take over a booking or the customer books themselves on their website.  The ideal customer is going to be one who doesn't need constant hand-holding and is not a newbie to cruising or the line being booked.  It just isn't fair nor make business/common sense to have full-service TA doing all kinds of things and answering questions and then providing rock-bottom pricing.  It's a losing proposition unless they have lots of other business that nets them more.

 

I have made changes to our bookings for OCT 2022, to re-fare, taking advantage of new deals and price drops.  In fact, three changes last Fall since original booking in JAN 2021.  I do think the TA could have made some of these easier on himself in POLAR, but he has a method he likes to follow.  It is especially challenging for TA's in 2021 because cruising started back up, demand was there, but the cruise lines, such as PCL, were short on staff so the phone lines backed up tremendously.  And still are!  Coupling this activity were waves of cancelled voyages, bringing on more calls, and then the Covid-19 protocol changes must have generated even more calls.

 

Busy TA's can be working with multiple cell phones and on hold with perhaps four cruise lines at once, and when they finally get someone, they are looking to handle a bunch of client requests in a row on the one call.  IDK what they do when the next cruise line answers their call on the other phone(s) been waiting an hour or more while they are talking to another line. 

 

I take into consideration the extra time and effort my discount TA spends to make changes, and often end up sharing some of my net savings in a gift to them.  I know the commission net is not great when getting a large discount.  Other than a re-fare, I don't bother the TA.  My re-fares impact the ultimate net commission since I only re-fare to a lower fare.  I look to a fair business transaction and don't mind paying it forward.  But that's me and others would just carry on.  I also don't re-fare for small dollar differences.

 

[Coral]

13 hours ago, jimbo1683 said:

There must be a limit on how much of a TA's time you can take up, and how much of a discount they can give you before its not worth their while serving you. A lot of people on here sound like they are phoning their TA every 5 minutes cancelling this and changing that.

Honestly - it seems to be the people calling about their bookings the most seem to be booking with Princess and with PVPs. The people "who need control of their booking". 

 

I think a lot of agents who discount heavily have clients who are well traveled and know what they want. They need less hand holding.

[Margarita Jane]

If I pay to upgrade when onboard, does my TA get a commission on the paid upgrade? I’m hoping not….