Booking with a US agent compared to UK

[john1970]

Hi There,

 

Has anyone had any first hand experience using a US agent to book Azamara but being resident in the UK? I am looking at a 2025 cruise and the US agent is GBP1000 PP cheaper and offers an additional USD700+ OBC. It just seems to good to be true. I know you aren't allowed to mention any TA names but general feedback about whether this is wise would be welcome.

[uktog]

I have done this. The biggest issue is the exchange rate risk, where will the pound be at the point in time that you have to pay the full balance. So it depends how far ahead you are booking and how far £ would have to drop for you to be out of pocket. 
Id also look at how you would communicate with the agency and how accessible a contact would be based on the communication method. 
And finally I’d check your travel insurance covers booking with an overseas agent. Some don’t 

[donaldsc]

5 hours ago, uktog said:

I have done this. The biggest issue is the exchange rate risk, where will the pound be at the point in time that you have to pay the full balance. So it depends how far ahead you are booking and how far £ would have to drop for you to be out of pocket. 
Id also look at how you would communicate with the agency and how accessible a contact would be based on the communication method. 
And finally I’d check your travel insurance covers booking with an overseas agent. Some don’t 

 

If the saving is enough and you feel fairly certain that you really want to do the cruise, could you pay the balance when you book.  That would remove the danger of a major change in exchange rate.  However it would also remove the possibility of a big saving if the exchange rate goes the other way.

 

DON

[excitedofharpenden]

36 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

If the saving is enough and you feel fairly certain that you really want to do the cruise, could you pay the balance when you book.  That would remove the danger of a major change in exchange rate.  However it would also remove the possibility of a big saving if the exchange rate goes the other way.

 

DON

Or pay half of it.  Hedge your bets. 

 

Phil 

[lisiamc]

I will put in a note of caution. You will need to use a US address for your booking (or at least that’s been the case while Azamara was under the RCCL umbrella.) When Covid stopped all the ships, and Azamara kindly repatriated all the passengers, they naturally wanted to repatriate us to the US address I had supplied! Fortunately they listened to my confession and sent us back to the UK. Covid and repatriation were certainly not on my list of things I had considered might go wrong.
 

Some of the protections that consumers have will vary between the two countries. For a booking with a US agent, the payment generally goes to the cruise line very quickly, so the risk of monetary loss if an agency fails between booking and sailing is much smaller than if the agency kept the money longer. 

Edited November 26, 2022 by lisiamc

[excitedofharpenden]

I've booked through a US travel agent before and had no problems giving them my UK address.  Just made sure they would work with me here. 

 

Phil