TA vs Online Booking

[LadyQB]

Hi

I am new here and new to crusing and have a few questions in reference to price drops and upgrades.

 

I booked a cruise through an online TA and was wondering if the price drops who do I call? Do I call the TA or Celebrity? Who do I call to upgrade from an oceanview to a balcony? This my first cruise on Celebrity and through an online travel agent. I usually book my cruise directly through the cruise line; however, the online TA was offering better incentives. I have only used one cruiseline, Carnival, and generally Carnival calls me when the price drops and offers me an upgrade for pennies on the dollar. Will Celebrity or the TA offer me the same courtesy. Since, I been lurking around here, I now realize that I must watch the prices for myself and jump on the price drop immediately. But again who do I call?

[Lsimon]

Your TA - Generally Celebrity will not talk with you about any changes to your booking if you are booked through a TA.

[DHADEN]

You need to check with your T.A. - some of them do not honor price drops because it takes away from their commissions. Also, upgrade possibilities may not be watched by the T.A. unless you ask them to.

 

If you call Celebrity (same with any cruise line), they can't talk to you about that particular booking because technically, it is not your booking - it is the T.A.'s. Hope that makes sense.

 

This is why I always book direct.

 

Hope This Helps.

[mizLORInj]

I check the celeb web site myself occasionally to see what our category's currently pricing at. Our whse club TA charges $25 for any changes (incl. price drops), but the fees we've incurred have been worth the hundreds of $ we have saved in price drops. And our OBC is slightly less now too, but that's ok.

But I check this myself; no one calls me to tell me of price drops. Then I call the TA to get the adjustment.

[Longboysfan]

TA will make the adjustment with the line.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Since you have a TA, they're the ones who have to call Celebrity.

 

Whether or not your TA will charge for price adjustments depends on the TA, as well as if they will watch for price drops for you. It all depends on what you want. If you find a TA that will do both, you've got yourself a gem!

 

Our TA does not charge for price drops or changes, but we have watch for them. With the additional OBC she's offering, it paid for us to transfer our booking from Celebrity to her, and I don't mind "the thrill of the hunt" looking for price drops. Next time, though, I'll wait to transfer until closer to the final payment date to avoid having to rely on a middleman to manage the reservation.