Transferring a Princess booking

[Go-Bucks!]

Does anyone know:

 

If I transfer my booking to another TA, will I lose my room or can I keep the one I already chose? :confused:

 

Thanks for your help!!

[paul929207]

If you transfer the booking, you should keep your cabin. The only think you would lose would be anything promised by the original TA, like an On board credit.

[calliecat]

You can keep your room. Contact the new TA and let them know what you want to do. I was instructed when I did it a couple years ago not to let the original TA know your plans because they could cancel the trip and you would then lose your cabin. The new TA will take over your booking and send the other TA a fax or e-mail letting them know that they now have your booking.

 

I was threatened by the local AAAgent that I transferred from that she had done all the work and I was not going to get away with this! She did try to cancel my cabin only after she had recieved notice that I had transferred my booking. When she realized that she couldn't, she called back with some lame excuse that she didn't have the time to bother and I could do whatever I wanted to do because she didn't have time to bother with me!

 

I transferred my booking because the new TA was $1400 less than the AAAgent that I had originally booked with. I now have booked 5 more cruises with her agency and have not stepped foot in the local travel agency for fear of retaliation!

[Pia1913]

You can keep your room. Contact the new TA and let them know what you want to do. I was instructed when I did it a couple years ago not to let the original TA know your plans because they could cancel the trip and you would then lose your cabin. The new TA will take over your booking and send the other TA a fax or e-mail letting them know that they now have your booking.

 

I was threatened by the local AAAgent that I transferred from that she had done all the work and I was not going to get away with this! She did try to cancel my cabin only after she had recieved notice that I had transferred my booking. When she realized that she couldn't, she called back with some lame excuse that she didn't have the time to bother and I could do whatever I wanted to do because she didn't have time to bother with me!

 

I transferred my booking because the new TA was $1400 less than the AAAgent that I had originally booked with. I now have booked 5 more cruises with her agency and have not stepped foot in the local travel agency for fear of retaliation!

 

Boy, do I wish you could tell everyone who that miserable agent is, so that nobody in your area could be subjected to her in the future.

[Joe Pflanz]

While the agent did react quite unprofessionally, I am not sure that we have enough information to decide how justified it was.

 

Did you give the agent a chance to match your new price? or was he/she simply blindsided?

 

Many times there are price reductions after the initial booking, and a call to your agent should produce the same pricing. Many times it won't. The new fare could have been a flash fare only for new bookings.... But any applicable reductions before final payment are usually attainable.

 

All I am saying is the agent may have indeed did a lot of work on the front end in getting the booking, and should have been given the opportunity to reprice if possible.

 

Not all agents are ethical, but there needs to be some understanding. Based onthe OP's commnet of future travel being booked, I am sure she is a good client. I just would not want to jump to conclusions.

 

Just as some agents should be avoided, some clients should also.

[cruisingready]

This just happened to us and what we did was contact a new TA. We just cancelled our booking with AAA as we could never get ahold of anyone for price drops and after booking we had 3 or 4 TA's so we never knew what was going on with our booking. Our new TA rebooked our same cruise with the same room and has even called me for a price drop so just cancel your cruise and rebook with your new TA.

[DrivesLikeMario]

That's fine IF you don't mind losing your cabin. If you DO mind losing your cabin, you need to:

 

1. Write a brief letter to Princess explaining why you want to change from agent A to agent B. Give their names, cities, your booking number, name and address, sail date and cabin.

 

2. Fax it to Princess.

 

3. In about 3 days, call the new agent and ask them to see if it has been transferred to her.

 

4. Let the old agent know you've moved your booking to the new one.

 

Of course, try to resolve the issues with the old TA first, but if that doesn't work to your satisfaction, then do the above steps to keep your original cabin and booking number. ;)

[Go-Bucks!]

That's fine IF you don't mind losing your cabin. If you DO mind losing your cabin, you need to:

 

1. Write a brief letter to Princess explaining why you want to change from agent A to agent B. Give their names, cities, your booking number, name and address, sail date and cabin.

 

2. Fax it to Princess.

 

3. In about 3 days, call the new agent and ask them to see if it has been transferred to her.

 

4. Let the old agent know you've moved your booking to the new one.

 

Of course, try to resolve the issues with the old TA first, but if that doesn't work to your satisfaction, then do the above steps to keep your original cabin and booking number. ;)

 

 

Are you saying that you think I will lose my cabin if I transfer to another TA?? I don't have any beef with the current TA. I have other reasons. But I don't want to lose the cabin I have booked. If I'll lose it, then I'll just stay where I am. Another poster above said I wouldn't lose it, so who's right? :confused:

[calliecat]

While the agent did react quite unprofessionally, I am not sure that we have enough information to decide how justified it was.

 

Did you give the agent a chance to match your new price? or was he/she simply blindsided?

 

Many times there are price reductions after the initial booking, and a call to your agent should produce the same pricing. Many times it won't. The new fare could have been a flash fare only for new bookings.... But any applicable reductions before final payment are usually attainable.

 

All I am saying is the agent may have indeed did a lot of work on the front end in getting the booking, and should have been given the opportunity to reprice if possible.

 

Not all agents are ethical, but there needs to be some understanding. Based onthe OP's commnet of future travel being booked, I am sure she is a good client. I just would not want to jump to conclusions.

 

Just as some agents should be avoided, some clients should also.

 

 

I did not give the agent the opportunity to match the price. I guess I don't know what all she did to get the booking. I told her which boat I wanted, where I wanted to go and what cabin I wanted 8 months prior to sailing. I didn't have her order special meals, book airfare or anything else....just book the cabin (with my open booking that I had done on the previous cruise). She would not have been able to match the price. Even after I "blindsided" her she asked me if I got this price from the INTERNET! She also told me that there was no way that I could be getting the price that the new TA quoted me and that I would end up losing my money.

In hindsight, maybe I should have done things differently.

Should I have been upfront with here and taken the chance that she would cancelled my cruise because I was getting a better deal from another agent?

All I'm saying is CYA before you transfer the booking if you want to keep your particular room.

I really am a good client/risk. I just felt at that time $1400 was a pretty significant difference in price and worth the trouble (and boy was it trouble for a short period of time!)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Are you saying that you think I will lose my cabin if I transfer to another TA?? I don't have any beef with the current TA. I have other reasons. But I don't want to lose the cabin I have booked. If I'll lose it, then I'll just stay where I am. Another poster above said I wouldn't lose it, so who's right? :confused:

 

No, I don't think you'll lose your cabin if you do it the way I noted above. If you do it just about any other way, yes, there is a chance you'll lose your cabin.

 

The minute you cancel a booking, the cabin falls back into inventory. Someone else can grab it anytime after you cancel it. Also, if someone has a wait-list for your particular cabin, they would get it if you didn't do it the way I suggested above. I have seen cabins go in a matter of seconds while I am on the phone with Princess reservations. Just do it the way I noted and you shouldn't have a problem at all. :)

[donna5]

I did not give the agent the opportunity to match the price. I guess I don't know what all she did to get the booking. I told her which boat I wanted, where I wanted to go and what cabin I wanted 8 months prior to sailing. I didn't have her order special meals, book airfare or anything else....just book the cabin (with my open booking that I had done on the previous cruise). She would not have been able to match the price. Even after I "blindsided" her she asked me if I got this price from the INTERNET! She also told me that there was no way that I could be getting the price that the new TA quoted me and that I would end up losing my money.

In hindsight, maybe I should have done things differently.

Should I have been upfront with here and taken the chance that she would cancelled my cruise because I was getting a better deal from another agent?

All I'm saying is CYA before you transfer the booking if you want to keep your particular room.

I really am a good client/risk. I just felt at that time $1400 was a pretty significant difference in price and worth the trouble (and boy was it trouble for a short period of time!)

 

 

I have received the same attitude from AAA here. If you tell them what you want and the prices, they say that it is not possible and are you dealing with a reputable agency. They tell you, you will have problems and other dribble. I have only booked one trip and it was a Disney(they did have a great deal) and they screwed that up.

AAA doesn't have better deals for members and their benefits just keep going away. Maybe they train their agents to tell people that. If you ask them to search for a price for a certain trip, they demand to know what date you want to go to. I have asked to just let me know if they had such a price for any date for that itinerary and they don't even want to do the work. So if you are doing all the work, go through Princess and if you see a better deal before final payment, then have it transferred.

[Pia1913]

I have received the same attitude from AAA here. If you tell them what you want and the prices, they say that it is not possible and are you dealing with a reputable agency. They tell you, you will have problems and other dribble. I have only booked one trip and it was a Disney(they did have a great deal) and they screwed that up.

AAA doesn't have better deals for members and their benefits just keep going away. Maybe they train their agents to tell people that. If you ask them to search for a price for a certain trip, they demand to know what date you want to go to. I have asked to just let me know if they had such a price for any date for that itinerary and they don't even want to do the work. So if you are doing all the work, go through Princess and if you see a better deal before final payment, then have it transferred.

 

AAA is a joke and I pity anyone who actually books with them. Their guidebooks - great. Road service - great. Travel agents - YUCK. I don't know where their people get training, but there's obviously widespread incompetence and just not in any particular state.

[cruisingready]

Well my sister in Calif.went in the morning and cancelled our booking with AAA and as soon as she did that I went into my TA here in Michigan and got the same cruise and room with no problem!!!

[DrivesLikeMario]

No one said it wasn't possible to get the same cabin. It's luck of the draw. When any amount of times lapses between the cancellation and the booking, you always

run the risk of losing it. You may or may not, it depends on a lot of variables.

 

Glad it worked out for you & hopefully, you got a better price than you were paying with AAA. :)

[LoriPhil]

Is there the same risk of losing your cabin if you simply switch a booking made directly with Princess to a TA? I'm hoping the concerns here are with vindictive TAs rather than transferring the reservation.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Your question is the same as the OP's. Yes, there's a risk. How much is not easy to define since there are a lot of possibilities of losing it (see posts above).

 

If your cruise is far out from now, the risk is low as long as no one has a wait-list on your particular cabin. If it's coming up soon, the risk is much greater.