TA - new service fees

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

I am a pro at navigating on my own so a TA has no value. It is like a game for me and I do very well. I have gotten too many ' lectures' on here about what I am missing out on but I am smart enough to compare . It all takes time and becomes a bit of a hobby

We're also very adept at researching and planning as well. We always use a TA to do the job we can easily do ourselves for two very important reasons. One is the Perqs that come as a result of their big annual Sale, but the most important reason is that in the event of a booking change, a problem etc, I MUCH prefer having her do the leg work and sitting on the phone with the cruise line than doing it myself. We occasionally re-book, change, upgrade etc and she takes care of all that for us.  Luckily we have been using a TA for some years now and she is excellent

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Like I said, it is a personal choice....  I also love the investigation and the planning but use the TA after booking for the perks.

That's my approach as well. Do all of the research first and know exactly what I want before booking, then enjoy the TA's perks. For our upcoming Hawaiian cruise, these perks amount to just over $1,100. I this particular case, I had booked directly with the cruise line, but transferred the booking immediately after. Not a bad payout for the few minutes spent filling out the transfer request.

[SilvertoGold]

6 hours ago, Fouremco said:

That's my approach as well. Do all of the research first and know exactly what I want before booking, then enjoy the TA's perks. For our upcoming Hawaiian cruise, these perks amount to just over $1,100. I this particular case, I had booked directly with the cruise line, but transferred the booking immediately after. Not a bad payout for the few minutes spent filling out the transfer request.

Excellent!   What I wonder is does the TA give more perks if you book straight with the agency or if you book with the cruise line and then transfer the booking to the agency. Any difference?

[latebuyer]

Are any people here from BC? I don't understand where people are getting these perks. I know you can't share, just curious if you are from BC.

[SilvertoGold]

9 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Are any people here from BC? I don't understand where people are getting these perks. I know you can't share, just curious if you are from BC.

Yes, from BC and I agree with you. The TAs I have used (small agencies, one large one in Vancouver, one on Vancouver Island, do packages which are seldom a good buy, especially if you have decent past passenger status.

Anyways, they give very little if anything, maybe a few $$ off the bottom line price. They just quote the cruiseline pricing. I know what it is, they don't do anything for me in that way. Some are charging $29 per cruise to book. Some add the agency fee onto the taxes.

I get the impression that booking is so good they can afford to give the customer NO incentive to book, let alone with them. 

For the first time this year we booked two cruises straight with HAL, mostly because we didn't like the TA's attitude and lack of interest. Our regular TA, whom we have used for many years and really like working with, missed out on two commissions.

Edited June 19 by SilvertoGold

[Fouremco]

55 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

Excellent!   What I wonder is does the TA give more perks if you book straight with the agency or if you book with the cruise line and then transfer the booking to the agency. Any difference?

No, the perks are the same either way, at least with my TA. For example, my TA's website states exactly what perks you'll receive if you book with them, and for the Hawaiian cruise that I booked with the cruise line and transferred to the TA, the perks I received were identical to those advertised on the TA's website.

 

58 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Are any people here from BC? I don't understand where people are getting these perks. I know you can't share, just curious if you are from BC.

The TA in question sells exclusively to members of its affiliated big box store, right across Canada. There's no brick and mortar office for you to visit, as booking are conducted online or by telephone, just as you would if booking directly with a cruise line. You can book from BC just as easily as I can book from Ontario.

[Milhouse]

22 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Are any people here from BC? I don't understand where people are getting these perks. I know you can't share, just curious if you are from BC.

 

From BC.

 

The Travel Agency/Travel Agent may pass along some of their commission to you as a customer.  Some Travel Agencies, like the aformentioned big box store, as standard practice, pass part of their commission onto you as a perk since it's their marketing/sales strategy.  Other Travel Agencies may do so strategically as part of sales promotions, etc.  Travel Agents may do so to try to make you a repeat customer.  

 

Back in the day, we booked our first cruise via a "moderately sized BC regional" Travel Agency and the Travel Agent gave us a bottle of wine on the cruise because the trip was for a special occasion.  At the time, I didn't realize it likely came out of her commission and didn't appreciate that enough.  

That Travel Agency eventually got rolled into another larger "brand" and our Travel Agent retired.  We got assigned a Travel Agent in West Vancouver.  We received nothing from her even after booking a a handful of cruises through her and referring friends.  I suspect our cruises weren't generating enough value for her (even though we were basically an easy sale:  Book this cruise and this category) so she likely focused on giving her other customers booking more expensive cruises, perks instead.  We didn't whine about it since it is her discretion but we didn't feel valued as a customer (not just for the lack of perks) so we ditched her and have tested different booking strategies to find somethat that aligns with what we want from the booking experience.  For us, that doesn't necessarily mean maximizing all the perks we can but it's a balance/alignment between perks, feeling valued, ease/convenience, if someone has the chops to advocate for us in certain situations, etc.  YMMV.

[latebuyer]

I'm finding it not very flexible. For example for this booking i have to cancel a booking before final payment for a personal reason but i may be able to rebook after final payment date. But then because the travel agent only seems to have a minimum number of rooms available i don't think its possible to rebook with them. Not sure if that's like most travel agents where they don't have all the rooms available to them on the cruise ship.

[Milhouse]

5 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Not sure if that's like most travel agents where they don't have all the rooms available to them on the cruise ship.

Some Travel Agencies may book a block of rooms on certain sailings at a discount or perk from the cruise line.  (It's kind of like a typical group buy/bulk purchase.)  They can then pass those savings/perks onto you for these cabins.  However, I'm guessing they should also have access to all available cabins on the sailing but not necessarily with the same discount/perks as the block of rooms they originally committed to. 

Conversely, maybe another Travel Agency #2 does not have access to the block of rooms that Travel Agency #1 had originally committed to(??).

[SilvertoGold]

17 hours ago, Milhouse said:

 

From BC.

 

The Travel Agency/Travel Agent may pass along some of their commission to you as a customer.  Some Travel Agencies, like the aformentioned big box store, as standard practice, pass part of their commission onto you as a perk since it's their marketing/sales strategy.  Other Travel Agencies may do so strategically as part of sales promotions, etc.  Travel Agents may do so to try to make you a repeat customer.  

 

Back in the day, we booked our first cruise via a "moderately sized BC regional" Travel Agency and the Travel Agent gave us a bottle of wine on the cruise because the trip was for a special occasion.  At the time, I didn't realize it likely came out of her commission and didn't appreciate that enough.  

That Travel Agency eventually got rolled into another larger "brand" and our Travel Agent retired.  We got assigned a Travel Agent in West Vancouver.  We received nothing from her even after booking a a handful of cruises through her and referring friends.  I suspect our cruises weren't generating enough value for her (even though we were basically an easy sale:  Book this cruise and this category) so she likely focused on giving her other customers booking more expensive cruises, perks instead.  We didn't whine about it since it is her discretion but we didn't feel valued as a customer (not just for the lack of perks) so we ditched her and have tested different booking strategies to find somethat that aligns with what we want from the booking experience.  For us, that doesn't necessarily mean maximizing all the perks we can but it's a balance/alignment between perks, feeling valued, ease/convenience, if someone has the chops to advocate for us in certain situations, etc.  YMMV.

This is an interesting post, lots of ideas and info. Thank you. We have used a certain BC travel agency for a couple of decades, on and off, not exclusively as we book packages once in awhile from other agencies. Lately our agent has been getting on my nerves, Takes a long time getting back, and the response to my last enquiry (28 days Europe cruise) was missing answers to a few specific questions. This agency had a package which we were not really interested in but the agent pushed it as a better deal which it wasn't with our cruise line Mariner pricing. Also, agent is somewhat passive/agressive: if I so much as hint at some perks our agent is not pleased and gets defensive. Much more of a take-it-or-leave it manner. So, we booked two 14 day cruises with the cruiseline directly: not something we have done before but we will see how it goes.

[SoloAlaska]

I haven’t seen much of any benefit of using a TA in Canada yet. It seems the itineraries I book have no perks really when I have looked through the big box store mentioned above. Right now I have a booking through a local TA affiliated with a big online company and I hate it. No OBC, the hotel she way overcharged us on, it takes longer for any changes because she is travelling herself or something. 

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, SoloAlaska said:

It seems the itineraries I book have no perks really when I have looked through the big box store mentioned above.

That's surprising, as I've found decent perks for all of our cruises booked with them. In addition to the annual 2% cash back, the gift card or OBC for our last three bookings have been $925, $215. and $975. That works out to 10.00%, 7.73% and 10.75% of the booking prices. We've received similar amounts/percentages with all of our bookings. Maybe we've just been lucky with the cruises we've chosen, as we've never based our selection on the available perks.

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, Fouremco said:

That's surprising, as I've found decent perks for all of our cruises booked with them. In addition to the annual 2% cash back, the gift card or OBC for our last three bookings have been $925, $215. and $975. That works out to 10.00%, 7.73% and 10.75% of the booking prices. We've received similar amounts/percentages with all of our bookings. Maybe we've just been lucky with the cruises we've chosen, as we've never based our selection on the available perks.

 

Yes, if you are booking cruises and packages that this agency actually represents, then the savings are significant.

 

Agreed.

 

The challenge is that our preferred line is not bookable through this TA.

[SoloAlaska]

13 hours ago, Fouremco said:

That's surprising, as I've found decent perks for all of our cruises booked with them. In addition to the annual 2% cash back, the gift card or OBC for our last three bookings have been $925, $215. and $975. That works out to 10.00%, 7.73% and 10.75% of the booking prices. We've received similar amounts/percentages with all of our bookings. Maybe we've just been lucky with the cruises we've chosen, as we've never based our selection on the available perks.

Good to know I’ll have to check it out again. Right now I’m booking through casino at sea program and am saving about 50% on my cruise. I don’t gamble I just like playing games on my phone. When I book a cruise out of pocket I’ll try it again though.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

43 minutes ago, SoloAlaska said:

Good to know I’ll have to check it out again. Right now I’m booking through casino at sea program and am saving about 50% on my cruise. I don’t gamble I just like playing games on my phone. When I book a cruise out of pocket I’ll try it again though.

Interesting, never heard of this , can you post a link 

[SoloAlaska]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Interesting, never heard of this , can you post a link 

It’s through the MyVegas games. You can get between 250-750 USD towards your cruises main fare (not taxes or gratuities). The promotions vary and you have blocks of time you have to book within but it’s possible to get a really good deal. You can also combine it with FCC but warning if it’s one you can use on the Canadian website they will have to switch it to US when you book with CAS.

[gold1953]

On 6/20/2024 at 6:40 PM, Milhouse said:

Some Travel Agencies may book a block of rooms on certain sailings at a discount or perk from the cruise line.  (It's kind of like a typical group buy/bulk purchase.)  They can then pass those savings/perks onto you for these cabins.  However, I'm guessing they should also have access to all available cabins on the sailing but not necessarily with the same discount/perks as the block of rooms they originally committed to. 

Conversely, maybe another Travel Agency #2 does not have access to the block of rooms that Travel Agency #1 had originally committed to(??).

The block of rooms has to be turned in a couple of months before the cruise

[gold1953]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:40 PM, Fouremco said:

That's surprising, as I've found decent perks for all of our cruises booked with them. In addition to the annual 2% cash back, the gift card or OBC for our last three bookings have been $925, $215. and $975. That works out to 10.00%, 7.73% and 10.75% of the booking prices. We've received similar amounts/percentages with all of our bookings. Maybe we've just been lucky with the cruises we've chosen, as we've never based our selection on the available perks.

The 2% back is for executive members only and is capped at $1000, so all you get is $20. Also you don't qualify for the move up program. I have done exceptionally well with bottom bids on move up

[Fouremco]

15 hours ago, gold1953 said:

The 2% back is for executive members only and is capped at $1000, so all you get is $20. Also you don't qualify for the move up program. I have done exceptionally well with bottom bids on move up

The $1,000 cap is for the total of your total 2% rewards annually. So if you book a $10,000 cruise, your cash back reward for that cruise would be $200, not $20. If you purchased nothing else during the year other than booking 6 $10,000 cruises, the total would be $1,200 in cash back, but because of the cap, you'd only receive $1,000.