TA's Holding Cabins

[barbon2]

Hi,

I was just wondering what others thought about TA's holding large amounts of cabins and releasing them at later dates.

We originally wanted to book the Connie Dec. 10, but when I was looking online there were virtually no cabins available, so we went ahead and booked Dec. 17. (Posters to cruise connections did say some agents were holding cabins) I then saw that some good cabins opened up so we quickly changed our date. Luckily I had not booked air as of yet, but when I re-booked for Dec. 10 went ahead and did so. I was not alone is trying to book this date, several others has posted this same situation on these boards. I have now read on the cruise connections boards that there are agents holding upward of about 500 cabins on this particular date. I know TA's have group bookings to help with cruising discounts, but on the other hand, they are preventing many people from booking their desired dates.

I do have a good cruise TA, but never approached him with the Dec. 10 date (which looking back now was an error on my part), however, I relied on the Celebrity website and other cruise sites when looking into a December cruise. I also thought that perhaps that there was some large type of group or convention on this cruise. My point to all of this is, do others agree that by agents holding such large number of cabins that they are perhaps discouraging people from booking, especially when you are in the early planning stages and browsing the web as I did.

Barbara

[jsaadat]

I dont think an agent can hold a cabin for longer than a week or so with no payment, but I may be wrong. I would surley think that they cant hold a large block of rooms with out some form of deposite.

 

J

[MamaQuack]

Our TA who only books cruises has told me many times that she can only hold a cabin for a week. She has also told me to ignore the website because often it is not accurate.

[C 2 C]

The Century Med cruise in Oct prior to the transatlantic were booked by the bloc.. sold out but who has them?

 

Watch for magical reappearance in the future.. is this like reverse scalping??

Because Celebrity wants TA to avoid price lures, can TAs circumvent this by bloc booking?

[shofer]

I know for a fact that an onsite cruise travel agency is holding about 400 cabins for the Jan 15, '06 Summit to Hawaii. When I received an e-mail offering a higher catagory cabin for $200 less than what we paid, I alerted my TA to see if she could match the price. As she investigated it through Celebrity, she was told that this onsite agency had bought lg amts of cabins as soon as the cruise became available in April '04 for the lowest possible price and is now reselling them for bargain prices. My TA could not match the price but the cabins were not in a location that we wanted (too far to the front of the ship) so we passed on it. I was contacted by the agency and told him that we (10 of us) had decided to stay where we were but that I would pass on the info to whoever was interested. It was then that he told me how many cabins they were holding. If you are interested in the name, you can contact me via email @ shofer1019@yahoo.com and I do not work for this place.

[TWELVEOHONE]

An agent can hold individual cabins for a bout week with no deposit. After that the cruise line will automatically cancel the booking.

 

What many agents do is hold group space, i.e. 8-cabins or more. A small refundable down payment of $25.00 pp will hold these cabins for months

 

There are then several dates to be concerned with, full deposit date which is about 60-days prior to sailing and then full payment date.

 

At full deposit date the cruise line and the agent will evaluate what they have and how many cabins were sold. At this time most if not all of teh unsold cabins are released and put back into inventory.

[barbon2]

An agent can hold individual cabins for a bout week with no deposit. After that the cruise line will automatically cancel the booking.

 

What many agents do is hold group space, i.e. 8-cabins or more. A small refundable down payment of $25.00 pp will hold these cabins for months

 

There are then several dates to be concerned with, full deposit date which is about 60-days prior to sailing and then full payment date.

 

At full deposit date the cruise line and the agent will evaluate what they have and how many cabins were sold. At this time most if not all of teh unsold cabins are released and put back into inventory.

 

Ok, so as I stated above on my original post who really gains by holding these cabins?

If the cruiselines take back the inventory, the cabins that have been sitting dormat for months now have to be sold in a hurry at a much lower price then they originally would be sold for. Again, I really don't see the advantage to anyone by doing this. If these agencies who buy blocks always sold out what they held it would be different, but if they return them to the cruiseline then all it does is inflate the costs for the rest of us who pay a premuim because there are (on paper) 4 or 5 hundred less cabins available to the general public. As I stated earlier, I did not book this cruise at first and others followed suit because of lack of availability. Now I did book another date on Celebrity (and then changed back to the original), but how many others look and see low availability or none at all and end up going to another cruiseline altogether. It would be interesting to really know what is going on.

[Queenk2]

Unfortunately THIS cruise line is taking advantage of the good will of their loyal customer base. They are continually lacking in the customer service portion of their business. I wonder how long they can get away wiht this. Is there a never neding supply of fresh customers who do not feel that they are being taken advantage of?

[hdawson]

Queenk2. Cruising is growing by about 10% each year. Ships are sailing full.

Group bookings have been around for many years. You can try a different cruiseline but I'm sure you will find the same policies.

[Queenk2]

It is not only the gorup bookings, but the general attitude that the individual cruiser no longder matters. Concerns, gripes. or even praise are not responded to. How many tomes have you filled out a cruise comment card? I know I have been on over 30 cruises...Have you ever received a reply? Do you feel it is worht the ink it is printed with? All I am saying is that ALL the cruise lines should respond to their customers. I know from reading the boards how angry people are that Celebrity changed the postion of one of its ships. I hear how upset people are when the are quarenteened<sp>. If the customer care people would listen, perhaps the sles would exceed 10%.

[Moeve]

Twelve... That is not quite correct if the TA holds garantee cabins it is 50 USD per cabin & if they want particular cabins numbers it is 250 USD. Now do your maths even at best this particular TA had to put down 20.000 USD and if he chose cabin numbers it is 100.000 USD. Now most TA who an afford to block are selling their blocks off at the rates they are buying them for or close too

[AFT_LOVER]

whether onboard or thru a TA.

[Ma Bell]

whether onboard or thru a TA.

 

They're talking about the deposit the TA puts down, not yours.

[Desertbelle]

Frankly I don't see any problem with TA's holding prime space. If I was a TA, I would do anything needed to make my customers happy and if I knew that my customers depended on me having certain cabins available for them, I would do anything possible to retain those cabins. It's just good business.

 

Whether the TA's snap up the best cabins and hold them for their customers, or customers themselves reserve them, there are just a few of those coveted cabins available on every cruise and they are going to get booked earlier than most people make reservations.

 

Life is just too short to be worrying over such things.

[Sky Sweet]

Hi,

I was just wondering what others thought about TA's holding large amounts of cabins and releasing them at later dates.

We originally wanted to book the Connie Dec. 10, but when I was looking online there were virtually no cabins available, so we went ahead and booked Dec. 17. (Posters to cruise connections did say some agents were holding cabins) I then saw that some good cabins opened up so we quickly changed our date. Luckily I had not booked air as of yet, but when I re-booked for Dec. 10 went ahead and did so. I was not alone is trying to book this date, several others has posted this same situation on these boards. I have now read on the cruise connections boards that there are agents holding upward of about 500 cabins on this particular date. I know TA's have group bookings to help with cruising discounts, but on the other hand, they are preventing many people from booking their desired dates.

I do have a good cruise TA, but never approached him with the Dec. 10 date (which looking back now was an error on my part), however, I relied on the Celebrity website and other cruise sites when looking into a December cruise. I also thought that perhaps that there was some large type of group or convention on this cruise. My point to all of this is, do others agree that by agents holding such large number of cabins that they are perhaps discouraging people from booking, especially when you are in the early planning stages and browsing the web as I did.

Barbara

 

This probably explains why when a typical cruiser tries to book a cabin ten months in advance it looks as if only a few cabins are available at inflated prices due to lack of supply. Then two months before the cruise, just after final payment has been made, a group of new cabins suddenly become available at lower prices because of the travel agents who were not able to sell the cabins that they had been hoarding. I personally think the only way a travel agent should be allowed to engage in this practice is to actually pay for cabins that are removed from inventory for an extensive period of time, and then resell them or they are out of luck.

[Desertbelle]

Anyone is free to hold a cabin up to final payment time.

 

On our upcoming cruise on the Millennium, at least 3 or 4 couples on our Roll Call have cancelled their cruises. At least a couple of them had prime cabins. When people book a year out things can change and cruises get cancelled.

 

How lucky for those folks who book late that some of these nice cabins become available for a good price. :)

[Sky Sweet]

Anyone is free to hold a cabin up to final payment time.

 

On our upcoming cruise on the Millennium, at least 3 or 4 couples on our Roll Call have cancelled their cruises. At least a couple of them had prime cabins. When people book a year out things can change and cruises get cancelled.

 

How lucky for those folks who book late that some of these nice cabins become available for a good price. :)

 

I wasn't referring to the average person who books a cruise and has to cancel at the last minute for a good reason. My problem is with travel agents who have the privilege of holding a large block of cabins for a substantial period of time that only they can sell. Then if they don't sell them, they can just give them back to Celebrity at a much later point in time without any consequences, while they have created an artificial undersupply for the general cruising public.

[hajekfam]

I wasn't referring to the average person who books a cruise and has to cancel at the last minute for a good reason. My problem is with travel agents who have the privilege of holding a large block of cabins for a substantial period of time that only they can sell. Then if they don't sell them, they can just give them back to Celebrity at a much later point in time without any consequences, while they have created an artificial undersupply for the general cruising public.

Sky Sweet - I do agree with you. A lot of us like to use a local TA who may not be affiliated with a larger agency which is holding these blocks of rooms.

I would rather use a local TA who not only is contributing to my community but also on that I can go see in person if there is a problem, instead of saving a few bucks with an internet mega-agency.

[barbon2]

Sweet,

I agree with you, that is why I made my second post on this thread. I booked the Connie about a month ago for Dec. When I looked at the itinerary for Dec 10 and liked it, I figured no problem, cabins would be easy to obtain. HOWEVER, when I went and looked online, there were NONE available. I did go over to the roll call section and was told that there were "some" TA's holding cabins on this popular sailing. Rather then calling my TA and trying to obtain a cabin, we just decided to go one week later, diffferent itinerary. (I guess my mistaked). Again, not to repeat my story, but about 2 weeks ago several cabins appeared for this sailing, sky suites included (which is what we wanted). I switched dates and it worked out fine. This was the first time I had not purchased my air separately, I did it thru the cruiseline because my original return date would have been Xmas eve day and I did not want any type of hassel. Now with the change I did purchase my own air because we are returning Dec. 17. My point being had I purchased air as I usually do on my own, (for the Dec 17 sailing) I would have had to pay to change dates. What bothers me about this whole thing is that now I read a post where there or agents holding 400 or 500 cabins on this sailing. Now perhaps it is a travel consortium and the cabins will be returned at a later date, but look how it affects price and people wanting to book. There have been other posts in regard to this particular date, and I just wonder who truly is benefitting from this "holding back" of cabins, and as stated is it really advantageous to book early or just wait for the release of cabins. Obviously, if there is a consortium holding these cabins, there must be a waivier of deposits, or such as vast amount could not be held.

Barbara

[canderson]

They're talking about the deposit the TA puts down, not yours.

Nor mine, for that matter. $900? I've never been asked for more than $500, even for a suite.

[canderson]

Sky Sweet - I do agree with you. A lot of us like to use a local TA who may not be affiliated with a larger agency which is holding these blocks of rooms.

I would rather use a local TA who not only is contributing to my community but also on that I can go see in person if there is a problem, instead of saving a few bucks with an internet mega-agency.

While we've seen this story played out in everything from the local hardware store to barber shops, when the difference in price is great enough, you'd probably cave in like the rest of us. Believe me, it isn't always just "a few bucks" as you may have been led to think.

 

I haven't checked in the last couple of weeks, but there has been an ongoing deal (for about 6 months that I can recall) where you could have had an INSIDE on a European run of the Millennium in early May for about $1000 per person less than Celebrity's going rate, and about $800 per person less than most other TAs. Some of you may know who I'm talking about - a little shop in Arkansas that does absolute magic with Celebrity pricing. The playing field isn't even CLOSE to "level".

[canderson]

I wasn't referring to the average person who books a cruise and has to cancel at the last minute for a good reason. My problem is with travel agents who have the privilege of holding a large block of cabins for a substantial period of time that only they can sell. Then if they don't sell them, they can just give them back to Celebrity at a much later point in time without any consequences, while they have created an artificial undersupply for the general cruising public.

RE: "without any consequences"...

 

The contract does stipulate that the TA must "make a good faith effort" to move those cabins. This will be evidenced by the way coop funds are spent, etc. If the effort isn't being made, Celebrity may not choose to do this type of business with that particular TA again.

[Ma Bell]

Nor mine, for that matter. $900? I've never been asked for more than $500, even for a suite.

 

On a two week cruise the deposit is $450 per person.

[dakrewser]

It is not only the gorup bookings, but the general attitude that the individual cruiser no longder matters. Concerns, gripes. or even praise are not responded to. How many tomes have you filled out a cruise comment card? I know I have been on over 30 cruises...Have you ever received a reply? Do you feel it is worht the ink it is printed with? All I am saying is that ALL the cruise lines should respond to their customers. I know from reading the boards how angry people are that Celebrity changed the postion of one of its ships. I hear how upset people are when the are quarenteened<sp>. If the customer care people would listen, perhaps the sles would exceed 10%.

 

Do you still book on Celebrity? If you don't, does that cabin sail empty? Concerns, gripes and even praise don't impact gthe bottom line. When they do, then changes get made.

[Twaincruisers]

I am not a TA, but I subscribe to Travel Weekly, a TA publication. Today I read RCCL (including Celebrity) is doing away with their key account relationships, but they are not sure what will replace them. The holding of cabins is one of their reasons for doing it.