any benefit to using a travel agent?

[CwuzCwazy]

Well, if you fit in Carnival's guidelines for the Military Rates, a TA is useless to you. There is no way that a TA can beat the Carnival Military rate, and since their commission would be so low, they are not happy to book you. I go directly to a Carnival PVP that I have used and if the rate drops, I get the OBC...no hassles.

 

In general, if you are smart enough to do your own research, a TA is really not much help to you, in many cases particularly after the sale when you notice a price drop. Many will lie and tell you there is nothing they can do about a price drop etc. The days where the TAs had all the available info ARE OVER!

 

I just don't even consider using a TA...there is too much info available via the internet, and a lot of TAs these days are not very knowledgeable. Do your homework and book directly with a Carnival PVP and your satisfaction level will be higher. Also, I would research my flights on-line, then call the Airline driectly to book.....not using the PVP at Carnival.

 

Bottom line is, if you are smart enough to use the power of the Web, do it, then book directly with the carrier.

 

I can hear the TAs on this board screaming already......:D

[Cuizer2]

I was just wondering If anyone has a reason that they would use a TA as oppose to just booking it all their self? My wife booked our cruise with a travel agent and when she asked about excursions they didn't know anything about them and said we had to take care of that. We wanted insurance and it took a good month to get any info from them. I read on the boards here that if the price of the cruse went down it might be possible to get OBC's , so I called the TA and he said nope your already paid in full and one more thing, My wife has handled all of this herself and I just got to look at some of the paper work and seen taxes for almost 600.00 for the 4 of us ... is that right.. for 2 ports of call (freeport nassua)? Ta said it didn't matter what rooms you had or the price of the ticket, another couple has a 4a cat. room and exactly the same taxes. thanks for any info:)

 

Tom

 

I good TA is worth his/her weight in gold. A bad TA can make things worse. Fortunately I found a really good TA, and I am grateful.