Goofy Question Regarding On Board Booking

[moondoggie]

OK, we have used *****.com for many years, and are considering booking our 2008 cruise when we are on Summit in January 2007. Why would we want to 'transfer' the booking to a TA? Is there a price advantage? Would we 'transfer' it to *****.com and get their price, and just receive an on board credit from Celebrity?

 

Help me understand this, please!

[dkjretired]

Usually people transfer a booking to a TA if they want more personalized service since Celebrity's on shore customer service is not great or they may switch it if they have a problem.

[TN Vol Fan]

Once you book on board that is your price unless the cruise line itself reduces the category pricing. Then you or your TA have to get the cruise line to agree on the change of price. Usually an online service will not do that for you. When you book on board you do qualify for on board credit and that will transfer when you transfer to a TA if they use the same booking number assigned on board. You would have to get your online service to use that booking number to preserve your onboard credit. If they can't (or wouldn't), your onboard credit goes away. We have always gone thru a TA because of the personal service and having someone to deal with any problems that might arise. Her service more than made up for the small amount of savings.

[dmk]

Personally, I keep the booking with Celebrity. I don't have them transfer it to a TA.

Why?

I am retired and have a lot of time. I like to take care of my cruise, air, insurance and hotel myself. I check every day to see if there is a drop in price. If there is I call Celebrity and they give me the new lower price. I did this for my upcoming cruise in Jan.

This way is not for everybody. You need to have the time, and the enjoyment to do it this way.

[wiselindag]

Moondoggie,

 

After reading posts on on-board booking for a long time, I finally booked a cruise on board last year. It was for a RCCL cruise this year during Christmas week (you can book both cruise lines). After we got home and I started checking prices and options with other lines, we decided to change to a much cheaper cruise for many more days on NCL for both Christmas and New Years. I took the booking number and asked my TA to transfer it to a Celebrity cruise at the end of November. Moral of the tale: I saved some money on my Celebrity cruise by booking on board, but it took quite a bit of time to get the booking done because the individual making the bookings was very busy at the end of the cruise. In retrospect, I'm not sure that the time it took was worth the $100 I saved.

 

As for transferring to your own agent, if you have a TA it makes sense to give them the booking... more business for them and better service for you!

 

Best regards,

Linda

 

PS I used ***** to find a great price for the holiday NCL cruise (my agent's company doesn't book NCL).