Help!! My final payment is due and my TA is MIA!!!

[laumicmah]

I was in this exact situation many years ago. We, along with our friends, booked an RCI cruise with a small "mom 'n pop" travel agency near where our friends' live in Pennsylvania. All was fine and dandy 'til it was time for the final payment. The TA went MIA and we were freaking out. We called RCI and explained the situation to them and they were very calming. After we gave them all the information, they asked us to give them two weeks to "check it out." Two weeks later, RCI informed us that the TA cancelled our reservations, absconded with our returned deposits (which were paid with checks, not credit cards--learned my lesson with THAT one!) and we no longer had reservations. Oh, and the TA could not be located. Again, we were freaking out. RCI then went on to say that they were reinstating our reservations, and were only requiring us to paid what the original balance would have been. In other words, they essentially ate the difference, we were going on our cruise, and were grateful beyond words. When I asked the rep at RCI why they would do that for us, his response was, "None of this was our fault, and they wanted us to have our vacation."

 

I hope your situation won't be quite as dramatic as ours' was, but if it is, I hope Carnival will work with you and help you out. Good luck, and please let us know what happens.

My folks had this happen to them (in MD) many years ago. I will never book through a TA. I don't really see a point in it.

[Cookie2boys]

Carnival may have told OP they will check into it and get back with her in a couple of days. OP may have went out of town or have guests over for the holiday weekend. If this is the case, I would not give up on hearing from her until Tuesday. Just Maybe.

[crusinpsychRN]

Is his name Greg? That happened to me and I called Carnival. They gave me the phone number of the agency he worked under. They took care of it.

[LucyR.]

I once had a problem last year where my T.A. got fired and I ended up with just one travel agent who owned the agency. That agent travelled a lot. I called the cruiseline to let them know my final payment would be late so they said not to worry.

 

You need to call the Resolution DEPT. at Carnival. I am positive that there have been many cases like yours.

 

I used to have a travel agent who worked from her home and it was a real hassell to deal with her. I dumped her.

 

I decided from now on I would just book directly with the cruiselines...even if I don't get any perks or shipboard credit.

 

It is so easy to deal with the cruiseline directly. Plus, I do have a favorite agent at Carnival.

 

Please let us know what Carnival decided to do about your case. I CARE. Lucy

[quickrate]

My folks had this happen to them (in MD) many years ago. I will never book through a TA. I don't really see a point in it.

 

The point is that many times you can get a lower rate thru a good TA. they rebate some of their commission to get your business. My next cruise is 150 less per person thru a TA.;)

Pat

[n2knight]

Bump - still interested in knowing the outcome

[Cookie2boys]

Guess we'll never know.