Bon Voyage Gifts from Travel Agent

Do all travel agent's send welcome/thank you aboard?

Took my first cruise with a new TA and they sent personalized luggage tags with documents and upon returning sent a vacation photo holder as a thank you. Thought that was a nice touch from the bottle of wine.

What is the most unique gift that you ever received?

We have a wonderful TA who deals mostly with Princess and usually has many buses of cruisers from the CA ports. She gave us on our last cruise to Hawaii $100.00 shipboard credit, a dozen roses in our cabin, dinner for 2 to both specialty restaurants, an ultimate balcony breakfast for 2, a bottle of wine and 1 of champagne. On our next trip on Star she will be onboard (an escorted cruise) and will have a desk onboard we we go each day for a gift. She is also hosting a tournament in the casino.

Before 9/11 our TA was permitted to send gifts from her agency.

But since then -- cut backs -- nothing.

Our TA tends to do OBC(on board credit), but has also sent flowers and wine in the past. last cruise, we were five and she sent a magnum of champagne. Nothing too exotic as the ships are pretty strict now about what comes onto their liners.

I am so jealous of all you people with good TA's......I'm still searching for one.

Hope I find one soon to help me book our Princess cruise!!!

Dianne

Before 9/11 our TA was permitted to send gifts from her agency.

 

But since then -- cut backs -- nothing.

Same here. To be honest, our TA was doing nothing for us that I couldn't do better myself. I like having total control over my reservation - I do all the research myself, and make my own arrangements directly with the cruiseline. It's simple, and I'm much more comfortable not having to go through a middleman every time I have a question or want to make a change. Perhaps someday, I'll learn to transfer my reservation before final payment to a TA that offers perks, but for now, it's not worth it to me to give up control.

Our TA covers items such as gratuities and ship board credit. Over the years we have found that this is the best gift.

Keith

We usually get wine or champagne and a fruit basket. Nothing over the top, but nice still. This coming up trip to Alaska we had her order a romance package for us. So she says, "now what am I going to get you?" It will be interesting to find out.

She gave us on our last cruise to Hawaii $100.00 shipboard credit, a dozen roses in our cabin, dinner for 2 to both specialty restaurants, an ultimate balcony breakfast for 2, a bottle of wine and 1 of champagne.

Wow! That's some generous travel agent. We've gotten wine, canapes, chocolate covered strawberries, free photos...but not all on the same cruise! You need to hold on to that TA!!!:D

Our TA will usually call me to see her a week before we leave to come by and pick up a gift. So far we have collected a set of thermal mugs which we use to keep our drinks nice and cold. Some nice leather photo albums which we have started to collect.

As we booked with her 3 times we had the following gifts on the ship from her: A bottle of wine, bottle of champagne and a basket of fruit with chocolate strawberries.

She has called me a couple of times when the prices went down. This is why I book directly through her as I know she is taking care of us.

Dave

We usually get a bottle of wine and a photo. On longer cruises, we also get a plate of hors deovier (spelled that well did't I).

While it's nice to receive gifts in our cabins, remember Nothing is Free. If your TA skipped the gift, perhaps your price might have been a little lower.

WE have had TA's who sent lovely gifts: One sent a caviar platter and bottle of champagne for sailaway; almost all have sent a bottle of wine; dinner in alternative restaurant (Pinnacle Grill); one sent Spa Credit which was a waste. We never use the Spa....not ever! The Front Office was nice and let us use it as an OBC.

I always appreciate the thoughtfulness but realize we have paid for that gift.

I am so jealous of all you people with good TA's......I'm still searching for one.

 

Hope I find one soon to help me book our Princess cruise!!!

 

Dianne

Wish I was allowed to give out names.

Over 30+ years of cruising most TAs have sent a bottle of wine. We did have one TA arrange for a upgrade to a suite when the $100 OBC did not show up and we questioned it. We had a TA who recently retired who regularly gave us a $100-$200 OBC. We have had TAs who did nothing too. It varies.

We are shopping for a new TA presently -- have booked 3 cruises with 3 different TAs.

While it's nice to receive gifts in our cabins, remember Nothing is Free. If your TA skipped the gift, perhaps your price might have been a little lower.

 

I always appreciate the thoughtfulness but realize we have paid for that gift.

 

Agreed ... further, I would prefer that my T/A provide me with competetive pricing and excellent service rather than gift me with stuff.

Last cruise we used a local TA and received a small OBC ($25/ea) in place of wine (she said they had problems with bottles not being rec'd). For our upcoming cruise this Oct. we went through an on-line TA and we are getting a very generous OBC - their OBC's are tied to the type of cabins selected - and since we always get a balcony we got $250. To me this is way better than a gift.

I feel lucky if our cruise consultant wishes us Bon Voyage! :D

While it's nice to receive gifts in our cabins, remember Nothing is Free. If your TA skipped the gift, perhaps your price might have been a little lower.

 

WE have had TA's who sent lovely gifts: One sent a caviar platter and bottle of champagne for sailaway; almost all have sent a bottle of wine; dinner in alternative restaurant (Pinnacle Grill); one sent Spa Credit which was a waste. We never use the Spa....not ever! The Front Office was nice and let us use it as an OBC.

 

I always appreciate the thoughtfulness but realize we have paid for that gift.

 

Would like to set the record straight.....you did not pay a higher price to cover the cost of your "gifts." As a TA I can guarantee you that your gift either came from points your TA earned, from the commission the agency received, or as I do, out of the commission he or she made. And just for the record, the commission the cruise line pays to the travel agency does not cost you anything extra either. The commission is included in their quoted fare. If it does not get paid to a travel agency the cruise line simply keeps it.

While it's nice to receive gifts in our cabins, remember Nothing is Free. If your TA skipped the gift, perhaps your price might have been a little lower.

 

That wasn't the case with us:( and I even got her 2 more cust's. besides DH and myself. And she worked for a co-worker's sister.

With my upcoming Alaskan Cruise I did better price wise and cabin placement that she did for us last year.

USA TAs send gifts???? Blimey, we normally have to kick our British TAs up the jacksy for the cruise docs and the flight tickets!! :D

Carol

I have to second what the other TA said. Keep in mind that if you are booking a $700pp cruise, almost $250 of that is taxes, so the agency is getting paid commission on about $450 of that (we used to get paid on the entire amount many, many years ago, and then they decided not to pay on taxes, and somehow the taxes have grown from about $50pp to about $250 or more in an effort to pay less to those agents). Some agencies get higher commissions, but many smaller ones get 10-12%. That equals $45-60pp commission. Sending a bottle of wine to a cabin costs $25-30, which is 1/3 to 1/4 of what that agency made on you. When you consider labor costs, the agency doesn't make much, if anything on the inexpensive cruises. If that agent happens to work solely on commission, they are spending that money out of their portion. If they happened to be lucky enough to book you into a group (which you may not even be aware of), they probably used "points" to provide the gift. This also comes at a cost to the agency, since they could have used those points to earn extra commission instead, but rather, chose to send gifts to the passengers.

I always send gifts to my clients, and the value honestly depends on the amount of commission I made. Some of the gifts listed above would take the entire commission, and honestly, I work very hard for the money I make, so I can't afford to give it all away. After client gifts, I don't end up making much per hour, but I do love what I do. The most important thing is to find a travel agent that understands you and gets you what you want. A good agent will work to get you the best price for your trip and get added value for you when possible (i.e. upgrades, shipboard credits). Overall, I wouldn't let the gift be a deciding factor in finding a travel agent as much as being confident that you will have exactly what you want and someone that will be there if anything doesn't go exactly as planned. It is a way of saying thanks for your business, but the travel industry has taken a huge hit in the past 10 years and is no longer the lucrative business it once was.

No gifts wanted here.. I'll take a good TA that is responsive to my needs and gives me the best price..

I have both........a responsive TA that sends gifts every cruise........of course we have booked so many with her I know we have paid her rent :)

No gifts wanted here.. I'll take a good TA that is responsive to my needs and gives me the best price..

I agree 100%. Add to that - and is really knowledgeable no matter what kind of weird question I come up with.

I am so jealous of all you people with good TA's......I'm still searching for one.

 

Hope I find one soon to help me book our Princess cruise!!!

 

Dianne

Wish I was allowed to give out names.

You can.. One of you just needs to "code" your e-mail addy..

IE.. Youraddress AT your isp DOT com