flagger

Trust me, most travel agents won’t be in need of new clients or those who demand gifts for the honor of booking with their agency. Those who survive this will be in such demand they can turn away business. 

All of you are talking about a monetary savings. What I offer my clients is a savings of time which cannot be replaced.

When a client’s cruise last year from Dubai to Singapore was turned around in India and set sail back to Dubai, it was one email from me of the situation. Their flights were changed, post cruise transfers and hotel in Singapore cancelled and transfers and a day room in Dubai were all changed with confirmation sent to them.

The others on board with agents who offered that big OBC spent hours in line waiting at customer service to make changes. 
 

I don’t take on new clients unless repeats or referrals nor do I pay them to book a cruise with me. You are going to find less and less agencies and agents offering OBC. They need to rebuild their business and there will be less of them around and the TAs can afford to choose our clients going forward. No longer will you see them giving up their commission to beg for clients. 

Mohr Em Hend...nothing beats it!

20 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Those who decide to cut back or eliminate OBC do so at their peril. Passengers will turn to those TAs who continue to offer OBC or other perks, or will simply deal directly with the cruise lines.

You could not be more incorrect. In all my years in business, never once have I given clients OBC and I thrived. If anything from this, I will get more clients who were frustrated with hours on hold with their agencies promising OBC.

This will cause more people to turn to agents and allow agents to pick and choose the clients with whom they choose to work. This has allowed me to fire undesirable clients and become even more exclusive.

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

If your insurance doesn't cover you, fine, say so, or even say "some insurance...", but please don't extrapolate to "most insurance..." My travel insurance has no exclusion for epidemic outbreaks, and several others have posted similar information on this board.

Fact

https://www.google.com/amp/s/feeds.aarp.org/travel/travel-tips/safety/info-2020/insurance-coronavirus-coverage.html%3f_amp=true

Most insurance offers no coverage due to an epidemic outbreak.

This is so concerning:

" None of the four guests being tested by CDC showed any clinical signs or symptoms of coronavirus. "

And people may not show symptoms right away.  Releasing the passengers before a negative test is just downright irresponsible, IMHO.

2019-nCOV is only identified through Nasal and throat swabs and does not come up like Rapid Strep or Influenza right away.

It is unfathomable that authorities did not quarantine the ship until the tests came back negative.

It is shameful the government is not quarantining people in place until the tests come back.  Such a dichotomy between our pitiful government and what Japan is doing with Diamond Princess.

First time I was on Eurodam, I found out my stateroom at 11pm the night before.  I was then called while on board and offered an upgrade from obstructed OV to balcony.

The CFP's I recently interviewed charge either fee or commission. NOT BOTH. You don't build a long term business by being piggy.

Nothing piggy about it. It is called being compensated for your knowledge and worth.

. Now, the Internet has changed everything....when it comes to travel.

 

Hank

Yes it has, It has made the need of a travel professional more necessary than ever. The internet has brought a lot of information and MIS-information. A travel professional gives true knowledge which isn't found on the net!

It has made the job of me and several of my clients easier than ever.

But where a TA gets paid between 10 and 20% depending upon amount of business conducted also charging a customer an upfront fee as well is my opinion scandalous

I find "Flaggers" comments interesting especially those that his/her clients are not looking for the best deal, are prepared to accept limited or no service and are prepared to pay a premium for this inactivity. I wish I could find clients who would pay me on the basis that there is a good possibility that I wont be around to offer you the service you are paying for and my personal interests take priority over yours.

Please show me where I said I offer limited or no service? I said like my client's I take time off too. We have windows when no one is traveling and as such we travel when they are not. We are available at all times during travel, but we are not a 24/7 operation for someone who found a lower price at 3 in the morning. Our clients are not looking to change cabins or looking for lower prices.

My clients know they are part of an exclusive club and not everyone gets to become a client of ours. They also know if they wanted 24/7 availability (outside of their travels) they would have to pay for it.

With all the free resources out there that will help you understand cruising and book it, I can't believe anybody out there would pay a very large consultation fee for something as common as a cruise. Why? There is no financial gain. If there is indeed these people out there, two phrases come to mind 1) You can fool some of the people some of the time, and 2) a fool and their money is soon parted.

All of the free resources are just that free. They are nothing more than information which is not the same as knowledge. Much of the information found on these very pages many times is not corrected. My clients are far from fools. To them time is money and they do not have the time to spend finding the right experience for them. My clients spend a lot of money for my knowledge and I won't work with everyone.

They are not looking for the best deal or the best perks. They don't change cabins after it has been selected for them or they will take an upgrade because they have already budgeted for a certain amount for their cruise. They know I and other travel agents like me are not auditioning nor are we competing for their business.

They know we also travel like they do and we sometimes close our office to new business and don't return phone calls or emails right away. They don't fret if the price went down when we were unreachable.

There are for more people like that than there are who read Cruise Critic. Remember less than 5% of any given cruise has ever heard of Cruise Critic or has participated or even read these forums.

But we are curious since you are making a statement here about your own business. Are you a MCC (Master Cruise Counselor)? This is a designation given by the CLIA and does indicate one has gone through some decent study and has at least some recognized experience. And would you be a IATA Accredited Agency?

 

Hank

No, I hold an ECC and LCS designation and have my own IATA so yes I am accredited.

For a TA to spend time researching and then working out pre- and post- arrangements, flights, transfers, etc. and then to have a customer shop around and take all that info and transfer it to a competitor because they got an additional $50 OBC must be maddening

It is for this reason I collect a very large consultation fee before I begin the work.

So what is the incentive to book with you?

Cruise Critic rules prohibit me from giving exact examples as they consider that advertising my agency. I can tell you more often than not I have been there when the ship has hit the fan either before or during the cruise. Because of volume, I have much higher clout than an individual and get certain perks and higher up the food chain when there are issues.

I have far more knowledge available to me than just the information found on cruise critic including some excursions you cannot find via Googling.

Finally I am willing to put my professional reputation on the line which you will find unavailable with opinions posted on CC. There is a much higher percentage of people cruising who never come to, read or post on cruise critic.

I am a TA and have been for almost nine years and cruised for four before becoming one. I am not desperate for business and as such I charge a pretty high consultation fee for my clients before I even begin the work. None of which applies to the booking. I do not deal in volume, and I do not price match or offer perks beyond what are available from the cruise line and through my franchise affiliation. I also charge a large cancellation fee.

There is more than enough business out there and I am having my best year ever. I am far from an order taker as most of my clients do not know exactly what they want.

If you do not have a passport valid for six months after travel, you will not go to Cuba!

What an absolute mistake!

I cannot imagine a safer time to visit Istanbul than right now. I am so bummed that our 2017 cruise dropped Kusadasi for Malta. It is 569 km from IST. I voted NO!

We leave next week for our Castles of the Rhine Basel to Amsterdam cruise on Uniworld with our 12 year old daughter. It is part of their family program. Has anyone on CC ever done this cruise? We have a double and a single and cannot wait.

Came of Oasis last Saturday with a total of five ships in port. Flew SW and ended up with TSA PRE-CHECK because of our GE and trusted traveler status.

It was great to avoid that HUGE security line at FLL. Best money we have ever spent. Me, my wife and now my daughter has it.

Cruise was good too.

Ever wanted to know why some travel agents list an earlier due date for final payment that shown on the Royal Caribbean website or invoice? Here are just a few of the reasons.

1. In the past month 50% of my clients had their cards compromised due to the Target fiasco and had new cards.

2. 10% of clients had a daily charge limit on their cards and final payment could not be processed.

3. 1% had their cards stolen and had to cancel their cards and use a different one for final payment.

4. 1% had switched cards for the amenity points.

The rest went through just fine. Chasing down the other 62% of people took more than a day in most cases. If I listed the cruise line final payment date as their due date, most of them would have lost their coveted stateroom and have to pay a higher price to rebook!

A reputable travel agent is not trying to get paid sooner, he or she really wants to make sure you get to go on the trip you have been planning for months!