Which Do You Use?

[sail7seas]

Without breaking rules of this Board by naming your TA........

 

Do you book direct with HAL either through their website or a PCC or

 

Do you book your cruises using a TA?

 

If a TA, do you use a brick and mortar or an internet TA?

 

Curious how each option will be represented.

[doorcountydi]

For our first few cruises, my sister and I used a TA... but they add 10% and didn't seem to know a lot of details about things, so since then we've used HAL.

 

We have the same rep for each trip, so he can easily find our files, etc. He's been good about staying in touch when we ask about certain things--right now I'm waiting for him to get in touch with progress on my wait-list situation for the Oct 20 Noordam.:confused:

 

We book our shore excursions and do our passport info on line at the HAL site.

 

Diane

[magictam]

I've done both and haven't even cruised yet. I intially booked w/HAL directly, but after making a few blundering mistakes, I transfered the booking to a TA.

 

The company is the "preferred" vendor (brick & mortor) of choice with the company I work for and as employees we're suppose to receive great deals and service. I think the TA has made as many blundering mistakes as I have. I didn't and haven't seen any perks or benefits of having a TA.

 

I do believe in the future I will go directly with the cruise line. I have learned lots from mine and the TAs mistakes and hope I can only get better with the more cruises I do.

 

I do have one question, how do you get a HAL rep so you're always dealing with the same person? When I booked with HAL I wasn't given a name of anyone to return to. Whenever I had questions, I called the 800 number and spoke to whoever answered the phone.

[arzz]

I have never booked directly with HAL -- I appreciate that additional layer of customer service/protection offered by a TA. Have used both a TA that advertises and lists prices on the internet (reservations, however, are made by phone with a personal TA), and used a brick and mortar TA not too far from home. Have had positive experiences with both -- many factors enter into who I book with for a particular trip.

 

For the big, long trips I would only use a brick and mortar TA that comes to me with personal positive experience or well recommended by others. Too much at stake for the extended sailings to risk last minute difficulties or misunderstandings. I also appreciate all the extra support that I get from the brick and mortar agent all along the way on those big cruises that are booked over a year out from sailing date.

[earl_m]

I book 1 time with Hal and 1 time with carnival. Every thing went well

but if there was a problem. I don,t know what kind of service I would recieve 1500 miles away. I found a good TA and she is very inform about crusing and has help me with afew problems in the past

[ekerr19]

Same old Brick & Mortar TA for the past seven years. No complaints at all. :)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We have almost always used a local Brick and Mortor TA. This TA is part of a large company and I have been told they are a "Preferred" company. The office is close to our home and with all the cruises we book we have gotten to know the branch manager quite well. I am her local HAL advisor. But I will say that one time I used an On-Line TA because of an unbelievable price which she encouraged me to book just to see and it all worked great and then I also currently have booked the CC Eurodam cruise thru Crucon (that I know I can mention):) Their price was slightly lower than what my TA could do and since this is a group cruise I decided to keep the booking with the group.

[gizmo]

I have used both local TA's and TA's I found on the internet. I have never used Hal.

 

Not all "InternetTA's" are internet only, many "Internet TA's" are also brick and morter.

 

I have never actually booked on line using a website. It has always been by phone.

 

Before Internet TA's became popular and plentiful I used a TA I who advertised in Cruise Travel magazine.

[jhannah]

I have used both. B & M exclusively for years. Then service flagged a bit so I tried online. I've had wonderful service with no complaints at all. Prices were quite competitive, too.

[mamaofami]

I booked one HAl cruise directly with HAl since I won it playing bingo and decided that since I had to send them a certificate, etc. it would be just as easy to take care of it that way. it worked out fine and we upgraded our cabin since they were having a sale.

 

Since then, I've used a local TA from the same company that Lisa uses. I know because we both mentioned it on a different thread and it wasn't removed. Anyway, they seem to get a preferred price from HAL and so far, so good.

 

If I were booking the CC cruise, I would probably use the TA suggested for that.

 

Sail, since you posed the question, just curious as to what you do.

[MrsMuir]

In the olden days (1970s) I used my traveling pal's TA -- that was before the Internet. I booked our 2000 cruise with a local brick&mortar TA and didn't get good service, so the next two were handled via HAL. They assigned me a PCC, who wasn't a barrel of fun but who, I think, was responsible for a nice upgrade to an SA on the Westerdam. I booked another cruise thru the same PCC, but went with my sister's brick&mortar TA for our two upcoming cruises. Even though he's not in my state, he has time to chat about ships and is more responsive than the PCC, though his office did make a few clerical errors at the beginning. As for price, I don't think there's much of a difference, if at all. That may be due to the kinds of cruises we like and the fact that we book so early.

[O2cruise]

Since we know exactly what we want we've starting using the agency that bids the lowest through a website that provides that kind of service. We always check out the lowest bidder (and have in fact gone with the next lowest, once). So, by doing this we've actually used three (or four) TAs and have been happy with all of them, gotten good service and great prices from each.

[SeaSharp]

I used to book exclusively with an internet TA, and used to get excellent service; but got tired of being one step ahead fixing THEIR errors the past couple of cruises, which became very aggrevating and time consuming, with hardly more than a half-hearted appology. Since then, I've started using my auto club, and although they've made a couple of mistakes that I wasn't happy about at the time, they've all been repaired beyond my satisfaction. Prices were approximately the same, too. The auto club allows me to research via the internet, even book it that way if I want, although it's been rather nice actually dealing with a real live human.

[ANSalberg]

We use a "Brick & Mortar" Travel agent who is one of my dearest friends -as are the owners of the agency. We've only lived in two houses since we married 47 years ago [ exception; apts early on] When we moved here 20 years ago we began using Gold Key a LOCAL agency. We moved here in 1988. In 1990 -2 years later, my Dad died of Cancer on the 4th of July -MAJOR holiday. I called the owner of the agency -Don - and said : "We need a flight back to Boston TOMORROW -the earlier the better- I NEED to be with my Mom & my Sister" Within 2 hours on a MAJOR holiday I had tickets in hand for the 7AM flight from Denver to Boston. We have been fiercely loyal ever since. Laurie, one of my DEAREST friends, is our agent. She has INVARIABLY gotten us a "Good deal" even when I thought I had done ALL my own [internet] homework. She's amazing!! They earned our loyalty BUT WE earned THEIR friendship- which is what matters the most!

Anne

[fcorey]

I have tried conventional TA, auto club, and now use some online TA. a couple of them are somewhat local to me, in NH and RI, and another online TA down in NY. All of the online TA I have used are advertizers here on CC. However I have been lucky and havent had to deal with changes so I dont know how the online agents would be in those situations

[Cruising-along]

We have done all 3. I think we booked our first cruise ourselves through the HAL website, the next time we used a TA (got tired of having to keep on top of her errors though, we ended up having to correct things ourselves because we didn't trust her to get the job done). And this last time we are using a HAL PCC and so far are very happy with her.

[Sundagger]

I live in a fairly small, isolated place and two of the B & M TAs went out of business with no notice, so I am hesitant about the local agencies. I've used one online agency for two HAL cruises, and another online agency for two more HAL cruises. One of them changed some policies without notifying me that has led me to cross them off the list. I'm actually not sure who I will book with next time - I'm on hiatus from cruising.

[rebeljohn]

We have always used an internet agency for booking our cruises. When we tried to book directly with a cruise line once, we were given the run-a-round about price, so we've never gone there again. So far........100% satisfaction, and NO problems..........

[May4]

Years ago I did book directly with HAL a couple of times and all was well. The documents arrived promptly, for example.

 

Since then we found a dandy local agent who really knows her stuff. So we always make cruise/air/hotel arrangements with her now.

[kenevenpar]

We usually book direct with cruise line. I have found the price is usually the same, but I check for "specials" on other web sites, then mention them to the agent, and have not had a problem getting that rate or discount. Both HAL and RCCL/Celebrity have been helpful and knowledgeable.

[TnTom]

When a couple of friends and I booked our Oosterdam cruise last year, we called the 800 HAL number. The agent we spoke with actually encouraged us to use a TA instead of direct booking. We booked it with him, anyway, but I later found a better rate (saves about $150), and I transferred my booking to them... everything else remained the same.

 

I have always looked back and wondered why the original HAL agent acted as he did. It was almost like he didn't want to be bothered. I wonder if they work off of commissions.

[obriendan]

We’ve done both. Our first cruise was booked from a now long extinct local travel agency. Since then we’ve booked most of our cruises through three internet travel agencies. For our long-in-the-future Prinsendam cruise (October, 2008) we booked directly with HAL for the first time. This time HAL had, by far, the best price.:)

[hammybee]

I have never booked directly with HAL -- I appreciate that additional layer of customer service/protection offered by a TA.

 

Arzz,

Did you really mean "protection" from HAL?

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have a real and live TA that we have used for over 20 years!! No internet for us!!

[duck tune]

I have booked online with HAL, used a HAL "Cruise Consultant", booked through a B & M TA in San Diego, booked through a local auto club TA and DH used an internet TA one time when he surprised me with a cruise. All have worked out well. The one and only upgrade we got was when DH booked the cruise throught the Internet TA. He booked an OV 6 weeks before the cruise and we were upgraded at the pier to a Category A Verandah. That was a treat.