Ever wondered why your TA final payment is different from RCI

[flagger]

I have seen posts on here about the fact that some have noticed the final payment their travel agent has given them is usually earlier than the actual final payment date given by RCI. There is a reason for this.

 

As policy, we list a date that is one week before actual payment date and we start to remind people one week before that the final payment is coming due. It may be a bit more if the date falls on a weekend or a holiday. In the past 60 days over 60% of bookings through our agency have had an issue when final payment has come due. Most have been due to a change in credit card due to identify theft, some have been due to a limit they can charge on a debit card in one transaction and some have been closed accounts.

 

When you are relying on someone to make payments to the cruise line on your behalf they can only work with the information they have been given. When you do it yourself, you more than likely will give the right information. However an agency has to take time tracking down a client who doesn't always answer emails or phone calls when that number has changed or there is an issue. Customer service does work both ways, but that is for another post. :rolleyes:

 

Anyway, you may have wondered why your agency is doing it, I thought I would share our policy and why.

[Papanick]

Yes I have. Thank you for explaining why.

[GSuitesailing]

I have wondered about the time difference for the final payment. Thank you for your explanation. For my upcoming cruise in Sept., the online TA wants final payment a full month before RCI would have. Having never used a TA before, I wondered why.

When asked, they said it was their policy.

[CruisinMommas]

I have seen posts on here about the fact that some have noticed the final payment their travel agent has given them is usually earlier than the actual final payment date given by RCI. There is a reason for this.

 

As policy, we list a date that is one week before actual payment date and we start to remind people one week before that the final payment is coming due. It may be a bit more if the date falls on a weekend or a holiday. In the past 60 days over 60% of bookings through our agency have had an issue when final payment has come due. Most have been due to a change in credit card due to identify theft, some have been due to a limit they can charge on a debit card in one transaction .

 

When you are relying on someone to make payments to the cruise line on your behalf they can only work with the information they have been given. When you do it yourself, you more than likely will give the right information. However an agency has to take time tracking down a client who doesn't always answer emails or phone calls when that number has changed or there is an issue. Customer service does work both ways, but that is for another post. :rolleyes:

 

Anyway, you may have wondered why your agency is doing it, I thought I would share our policy and why.

 

That happened in or situation once and the TA never notified us. I found out when I went on line and found out that the cruise was canceled. I was in a panic. It was straightened out in about an hour. This turned me off from using a TA for some time, but now I know better. I think the TA was not up on what he was doing because I spoke to another agent at the same place who was very helpful and we were able to take our cruise.I was not happy that the agent didn't tell me there was a problem with the limit. The second agent knew right away and told me how to remedy the matter. Needless to say I do not use that agency anymore. So a week early is a good thing.

[TPKeller]

I have wondered about the time difference for the final payment. Thank you for your explanation. For my upcoming cruise in Sept., the online TA wants final payment a full month before RCI would have. Having never used a TA before, I wondered why.

When asked, they said it was their policy.

And I wonder how many travel agents are going to cancel your cruise and return your deposits when you don't meet "their policy" on final payment?

 

Here's a clue: NONE! They might bug you about it, but I bet you would be hard pressed to find a TA willing to give up a commission simply because the customer didn't obey their "policy" for final payment a month early.

 

Theron

[anonymousegirl]

I usually send a reminder email or a phone call one month prior to the cruise line due date and then another reminder one week prior. And I always build in a three day gap for unexpected problems.

[worldspan]

Another reason too is some lines, Princess in particular, are becoming intolerant of final payments even one day late. If your final is not paid on due date, they cancel you out at midnight and keep your deposit.

 

Hence agents are understandably building a little margin of time for things that can go wrong, like credit card rejecting or something similar.

 

Cruise lines are becoming more and more "airline like" and such policies as those above are typical of that.

 

Worldspan

129 Cruises strong

[aeonix01]

I had gone on RCCL's Website, and searched the cabin next to mine to see the current price. The taxes and fees online were lower than those on my statement by quite a lot.

I immediately called him up and asked about the difference, and this is what he said:

 

He explained that it had something to do with where he put in his commission cut (in the taxes and fees) as compared to RCI which includes it in the base per person ticket price. That's why his per ticket price was lower. Even considering that, I did save a bundle with him by evening out the differences.

 

There were some other differences as well, but, overall, that's his explanation, and when I did the math it made sense.

[travelpeon]

I had wondered and asked my TA as well. In the case of my next booking, we've agreed to pay earlier than RCCL's final payment date so the agency can book the TA benefits they're offering. They made the final payment date pretty clear but not that it was different than the cruise line's final payment. Glossing over this probably kindly nudges people who were thinking of canceling to do so before the TA pays for the benefits when final payment is really final.

[MJN]

I did the main booking of our cruise myself, a year + out from sail date so we would get the aft balcony we wanted for our upcoming Alaskan cruise. Once I was sure we were going to be able to go about 85 or 90 out from the cruise I turned it over to a TA friend of mine who personally prefers Carnival to RCI so she was not quite as up on RCI billing etc. as Carnival, she also does a lot of Honeymoon resort work as well. I told her what we owed at the time I gave it to her and afterwards booked a couple of excursions and our wine package. These last things were paid for at the time I booked them. Never in a million years did I realize they would show up on the final billing, even though they were already paid for. Since she was not familiar with their billing she went by the total at the bottom and tried running our card for the amount, even though it included the excursions etc. When she called me a few days later to say we were over our limit, which I knew should not be possible, since I knew what the amount was suppose to be and what was left on our card. When we poured over the details together and she sent me a copy of the bill she saw on her end I realized they had added in the excursions and wine...at the very bottom it shows them coming off as credits, very confusing billing and I can see why she was so confused by it....it would have confused me and I knew what I had paid for already. It eventually worked out correctly but they also made a mistake when she took over the booking. Instead of giving me the rate that they had reduced our cabin to back in November when they had a price drop, they mistakenly charged the current price of the cabin in April, which was $1,000 more than what I had been given for early booking and diamond discount and price drop! They were trying to charge us an extra $2,000. No wonder our card was over limit! Thank God for that, or it could have been a while before we even realized the error and it would have been harder to correct down the road. So PLEASE! Don't be afraid to question these things. They instantly corrected it all once she pointed it all out to them. But if your not paying close attention....no telling what you're paying for!

[flagger]

That happened in or situation once and the TA never notified us.

That one week window gives us time to contact you to make sure there are no changes to the card you gave us. Debit card issues are really tough because the cardholder has to talk to the issuing bank to authorize the out of normal charge.

[CruisinMommas]

That one week window gives us time to contact you to make sure there are no changes to the card you gave us. Debit card issues are really tough because the cardholder has to talk to the issuing bank to authorize the out of normal charge.

 

I learned my lesson from back then. Not sure if the person who booked my cruise or left the agency or what. Never got a call. After that I booked on my own for awhile and always made sure it was in before FP. I have learned how much better it is to have a great TA who is in the know. Oddly enough I have met some really good TAs while I have been cruising.

This is another reason why I think Cruise Critic is so helpful to both old and new cruisers.

Carol

[ZoeyVictoria]

I don't usually use a TA, but turned over my upcoming Allure cruise to an online agency when they offered great perks recently. I was assured that my final payment via RCI Visa will be made directly to RCI so I will receive double points (and push my point level up to enough for a four-night companion cruise). I appreciate your explanation of the earlier due date; can you also (honestly) reassure me that payments are made directly to RCI? I want to have faith in them, but I also want that free companion cruise :)

[flagger]

Can you also (honestly) reassure me that payments are made directly to RCI? I want to have faith in them, but I also want that free companion cruise :)

When you see your CC statement, you will see the charge your TA made to RCI. You would have to verify that with your agency.

 

There are times in group booking and package situations where your card is charged by the agency, but I will not get into those. For an individual booking, the card should be processed by the supplier.