Book direct or through Travel Agent?

[DaisyUK]

Apologies if this question has been asked and answered previously. I have searched the forum and cannot find anything that refers. I am wondering whether most of you book direct with Cunard, or through a Travel Agent and, if the latter, the reason why and whether you receive a discount by so doing? 

[Victoria2]

Unfortunately, I can't give any names out here but I have been lucky enough to find a wonderful agent. He has been the go between Cunard and ourselves for many years. He does not discount but the service he gives us is beyond a discount and everyone I have recommended him to, books with him.

 

There will be others like him ''out there'' and it's often a question of word of mouth which unfortunately, as I said, can't be done on here.

 

Good luck. 🙂

[majortom10]

Always book through a specialist cruise tA and not a High St national TA. They always are cheaper than booking direct with Cunard direct. Can be as much as 5% discount which can be a significant amount.

[Victoria2]

35 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Always book through a specialist cruise tA and not a High St national TA. They always are cheaper than booking direct with Cunard direct. Can be as much as 5% discount which can be a significant amount.

I do agree about a cruise specialist  rather than general travel agents but I will add not all agents add a  discount to any Cunard pricing so are therefore not necessarily cheaper but find a good one and the personal service given will be beyond discounts. However, if discounts are important to anyone, there's plenty of research to be done via Google etc.

 

 

[exlondoner]

I use a well known cruise specialist. I think it is important to have someone who is used to doing business with Cunard. If you saw them, you could probably recognise them by baldness, as a result of the hair they have torn out over the years. 😀 But I much prefer having them deal with problems then having to gird myself up to do it myself.

[majortom10]

11 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I do agree about a cruise specialist  rather than general travel agents but I will add not all agents add a  discount to any Cunard pricing so are therefore not necessarily cheaper but find a good one and the personal service given will be beyond discounts. However, if discounts are important to anyone, there's plenty of research to be done via Google etc.

 

 

Well I have very good cruise specialist TA who has won many awards on a yearly basis, gives excellent service and gave me 5% discount on price booking direct. When you are paying thousands of pounds for you cruise that 5% discount can run into a considerable sum of money.

[Victoria2]

9 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Well I have very good cruise specialist TA who has won many awards on a yearly basis, gives excellent service and gave me 5% discount on price booking direct. When you are paying thousands of pounds for you cruise that 5% discount can run into a considerable sum of money.

Excellent.

 

Then we are both happy bunnies.

[Bell Boy]

I book onboard (Cunard voyage sales office)  The benefit is that the deposit is low and the OBC is often 'very generous' and as a return guest a 5% discount is offered  . The voyage sales office transfer the booking to my preferred 'CRUISE SPECIALIST' here in the UK ( who is a Cunard preferred agent) This cruise specialist in turn offers me a further discount ( approx 3%)   from the original booking invoice .  

[Victoria2]

21 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I use a well known cruise specialist. I think it is important to have someone who is used to doing business with Cunard. If you saw them, you could probably recognise them by baldness, as a result of the hair they have torn out over the years. 😀 But I much prefer having them deal with problems then having to gird myself up to do it myself.

I think mine will also have suffered from the same cruise induced Trichotillomania!  😀  It's been a heck of a few years for our agents and here's hoping for a return to some sort of new normality for them all. We are certainly doing our best to help ours return to ''normal''. 👍

[exlondoner]

7 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I think mine will also have suffered from the same cruise induced Trichotillomania!  😀  It's been a heck of a few years for our agents and here's hoping for a return to some sort of new normality for them all. We are certainly doing our best to help ours return to ''normal''. 👍

To be fair, I imagine it has been equally awful for the Cunard staff at Carnival House, perhaps more so. And I will say that when I have spoken to Cunard direct, say about blankets rather than duvets, they have been universally charming and helpful, and nearly always effective.

[Victoria2]

5 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

To be fair, I imagine it has been equally awful for the Cunard staff at Carnival House, perhaps more so. And I will say that when I have spoken to Cunard direct, say about blankets rather than duvets, they have been universally charming and helpful, and nearly always effective.

I'm positive Cunard agents have been equally challenged over the last few years and my hope for a sort of normality extends to all agents, independent or at Cunard. 

I'm glad you got the bedding issue sorted. Our agent sorted that out for us years ago.

[Victoria2]

28 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

I book onboard (Cunard voyage sales office)  The benefit is that the deposit is low and the OBC is often 'very generous' and as a return guest a 5% discount is offered  . The voyage sales office transfer the booking to my preferred 'CRUISE SPECIALIST' here in the UK ( who is a Cunard preferred agent) This cruise specialist in turn offers me a further discount ( approx 3%)   from the original booking invoice .  

Excellent way of booking if the cabin ''you'' want is available at the time. We used to do exactly as you described before our choice of cabins became more limited. Now we book on release.

 

Or we used to buy future credits to be utilised if the itineraries hadn't been released. Maybe one day those will be re introduced.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Victoria2

[Solent Richard]

 

40 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Well I have very good cruise specialist TA who has won many awards on a yearly basis, gives excellent service and gave me 5% discount on price booking direct. When you are paying thousands of pounds for you cruise that 5% discount can run into a considerable sum of money.

 

26 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

I book onboard (Cunard voyage sales office)  The benefit is that the deposit is low and the OBC is often 'very generous' and as a return guest a 5% discount is offered  . The voyage sales office transfer the booking to my preferred 'CRUISE SPECIALIST' here in the UK ( who is a Cunard preferred agent) This cruise specialist in turn offers me a further discount ( approx 3%)   from the original booking invoice .  

 

I use the same one @Bell Boy. The preferred Cunard agent that got you to the Queen Anne event in London a couple of moths ago I believe. 

[exlondoner]

14 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Excellent way of booking if the cabin ''you'' want is available at the time. We used to do exactly as you described before our choice of cabins became more limited. Now we book on release.

 

Or we used to buy future credits to be utilised if the itineraries hadn't been released. Maybe one day those will be re introduced.

Indeed the demise of further cruise deposits for UK bookers is much lamented. But seeing how much prices have risen of cruises I booked when they were released, I’m glad I didn’t wait to book on board.

[majortom10]

Unfortunately there are no direct Cunard staff in Southampton anymore as they are all employed by Carnival UK and deal with both Cunard and P&O. I phoned Southampton on 2 occasions last year one for. Cunard and one for P&O with regards price and availability and was dealt with by the same person even though different telephone numbers were rung. Sign of the times and personally think service has suffered that is why I don't book direct.

[Victoria2]

15 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Indeed the demise of further cruise deposits for UK bookers is much lamented. But seeing how much prices have risen of cruises I booked when they were released, I’m glad I didn’t wait to book on board.

I agree. Let's hear it for ''Dynamic pricing''! 😀

 

The price of one of our cabins rose dramatically and yet still sold out. Mind you, cabins selling out now and actually completing the purchase come time to pay the rest of the invoice  might be a different matter.

[NavyPanda]

Cunard (and P&O) provide around 8% commission to travel agents, it is from this they can provide their discounts. 3-6% is my historic range for discounts through booking with travel agents (online/phone) with 5% discounts being where the most competitive (on price) agents currently offer.

 

I always book with an agent due to the discounts, it seems foolish that Cunard/P&O don't post discount codes online of a similar value (5%) like other marketing teams in other companies do to divert price conscious consumers away from agents. Any savvy consumer will know where to look to find these and it's better than coughing up 8% commission (or rather not being paid as much for the cruise because Cunard is paid net of commission, I believe).

 

Agents, for fly cruises (both P&O and Cunard), are available to offer special rates if they create their own packages. In the past, some of these have been extremely well priced, to the point where it is cheaper to book the package with flights and extra nights hotel accommodation in departure/arrival ports included than just pay the cruise only price directly with Cunard. However, from my experience, OBC has never been offered with these cut price deals vs. what you'd get with paying for the Cunard fare. 

 

Finally, it is possible, if you've booked with an agent before, to book on board availing yourself of the extra OBC for doing so and transfer your booking to that agent. You then get the discount and the extra OBC. 

 

The only exception was a recent P&O booking of very low value (<£500) where I booked direct because the discount would have been very small and may not have been honoured due to tiny commission being made. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by NavyPanda

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

Dissenting voice here. Perhaps I’m a control freak,but we tried using an agent once, and I disliked the remove from direct communications. We’ve never had the drama with calling Cunard that many here describe. I prefer direct contact, and we’ve had deals we’re quite satisfied with booking onboard.

[david,Mississauga]

From reading these replies - and those on similar discussions - one might get the impression the best reason for using a TA is to get a discount. In Canada, discounts from TAs are not common. My reason for using a TA is service.  It is not for a possible discount or for the gifts we have received from our TA on board. 

 

This year is the 50th anniversary of our first Cunard voyage. Two of the crossings we had would not have been possible without the assistance of our cruise specialist.  When the cruise line says: "No, it can't be done" an experienced TA - especially one with connections with the line - can get things done.

 

A while back a CC member said it was nonsense to say that a TA works for you as opposed to the cruise line. Based on my experience in the past 50 years that person is wrong.  

 

 Fortunately, Canadians are still able to purchase future cruise deposits so we find there is no advantage for us to book on board.

[DaisyUK]

3 hours ago, 2Oldpeopleinlove said:

Dissenting voice here. Perhaps I’m a control freak,but we tried using an agent once, and I disliked the remove from direct communications. We’ve never had the drama with calling Cunard that many here describe. I prefer direct contact, and we’ve had deals we’re quite satisfied with booking onboard.

Thank you all for your various replies which I read with interest. Generally speaking we have always booked through an agent, mainly in order to get a good discount (in the region of 8-10% with RSSC). However, our agent only gives 2% discount for Cunard cruises (obviously because they don't get as much commission from Cunard as they do from RSSC).

 

The comment above (2Oldpeopleinlove) resonated because I have had problems with indirect communications with Cunard. For example, when we booked our last cruise, I might have missed it altogether had I not booked direct because it was my agent's day off and there was only one suite left in the category we wanted to book. 

 

For an 8-10% discount on an expensive cruise I'm happy to deal with an agent, but in my experience I have had better service from the cruise line direct (Cunard and RSSC). Perhaps I just haven't found the right agent yet!

 

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who responded..

[Victoria2]

3 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

From reading these replies - and those on similar discussions - one might get the impression the best reason for using a TA is to get a discount. In Canada, discounts from TAs are not common. My reason for using a TA is service.  It is not for a possible discount or for the gifts we have received from our TA on board. 

 

This year is the 50th anniversary of our first Cunard voyage. Two of the crossings we had would not have been possible without the assistance of our cruise specialist.  When the cruise line says: "No, it can't be done" an experienced TA - especially one with connections with the line - can get things done.

 

A while back a CC member said it was nonsense to say that a TA works for you as opposed to the cruise line. Based on my experience in the past 50 years that person is wrong.  

 

 Fortunately, Canadians are still able to purchase future cruise deposits so we find there is no advantage for us to book on board.

I heartily agree with all you say.

Superb service from your cruise TA is beyond any offer of a discount and as I have said before, ''you'' really  find out how good your agent is when you  need them to sort ''things'' out for you. 👍

 

 

 

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

I heartily agree with all you say.

Superb service from your cruise TA is beyond any offer of a discount and as I have said before, ''you'' really  find out how good your agent is when you  need them to sort ''things'' out for you. 👍

 

 

 

But even better when you get a good discount and superb service from one of Cunard/P&Os leading cruise TAs and award winning on a regular frequency.

Edited January 4, 2023 by majortom10

[D&N]

We used an agent recommended by a friend who cruised at least six times a year until falling victim to ill health. The agent shows no sign of losing any of her blonde locks.

 

We only travelled on one B2B TA that she booked, but due to the pandemic it was the 5th sailing she booked for us, and we ended up with almost 40% more value than originally paid. She spent 6 months fighting with Cunard over a miscalculation of FCC they had made. Eventually she resolved the matter in our favour. We didn't need to do anything.

 

We won't be going to anyone else for our next booking.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

But even better when you get a good discount and superb service from one of Cunard/P&Os leading cruise TAs and award winning on a regular frequency.

Major Tom.

I am really happy for you to have such a good discount and superb service from one of Cunard's leading cruise TAs and award winning on a regular basis.

 

Some people like to broadcast their savings eg discounts. Others, like myself  prefer to keep a lid on transactions, safe in the knowledge our TAs are indeed, invaluable. 🙂

 

[Solent Richard]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:54 PM, majortom10 said:

But even better when you get a good discount and superb service from one of Cunard/P&Os leading cruise TAs and award winning on a regular frequency.

Good morning Major. 

 

I've noted that here in the UK there are a number of 'TAs' who have in the past been employees of some of the larger online agents and who have purchased a named cruise agent 'franchise'. The majority  of these franchise are sold and overseen  by a reasonably well known cruise company operating in the UK.

 

Hence with good reason an other member has indicated that the usual discounts, that you, I and @Bell Boy receive, are not forthcoming. There is an extra mouth to feed.