Question Regarding Travel Agents

[jagoffee]

Commissions that TA gets is based on total $$$ volume they sell for particular cruise line, there for they can affort to give their customers OBC. Only large agencies really can do it.

Small agency can give OBC only when cruiseline runs promotions.

 

You sound confident in what you say. I certainly see where a TA doing a lot of volume can afford to give more OBC because of the additional benefits that they receive, Therefore a small agency or an agency that does not do a lot of business with Celebrity will not be able to compete, but how does this prevent them for giving some amount of OBC to insure that they keep some business? Or you saying that Celebrity prevents them from giving OBC or are you just saying that they do not make as much in commission, so they cannot afford to give a very large OBC?

[Sabbycat]

I stopped using TAs a few years ago since they did not seem to provide any additional value, and there was the issue of only being able to communicate w/ X through the TA. (Who was never available)

 

This year we decided to put our cruise plans out for bidding by various TAs. (We were told about this process on our last cruise and thought we would give it a shot!) We got 5 bids back. One was $900 less than the X website. (all the others were around X's price but included a couple of hundred $$s in OBC or pp grats). While we did not get an OBC, or PP grats, I was/am happy w/ the savings and to me, was worth more than OBCs or pp grats.

 

(Note: We did research each TA that provided us w/ a bid to ensure they were legit, i.e. checked w/ BBB, and online reviews)

[Oceangoer2]

I stopped using TAs a few years ago since they did not seem to provide any additional value, and there was the issue of only being able to communicate w/ X through the TA. (Who was never available)

 

This year we decided to put our cruise plans out for bidding by various TAs. (We were told about this process on our last cruise and thought we would give it a shot!) We got 5 bids back. One was $900 less than the X website. (all the others were around X's price but included a couple of hundred $$s in OBC or pp grats). While we did not get an OBC, or PP grats, I was/am happy w/ the savings and to me, was worth more than OBCs or pp grats.

 

(Note: We did research each TA that provided us w/ a bid to ensure they were legit, i.e. checked w/ BBB, and online reviews)

How did you find the TA's...?? This sounds interesting. Only in Canada ??

[ISABELLA]

You sound confident in what you say. I certainly see where a TA doing a lot of volume can afford to give more OBC because of the additional benefits that they receive, Therefore a small agency or an agency that does not do a lot of business with Celebrity will not be able to compete, but how does this prevent them for giving some amount of OBC to insure that they keep some business? Or you saying that Celebrity prevents them from giving OBC or are you just saying that they do not make as much in commission, so they cannot afford to give a very large OBC?

 

I had a small TA before and OBC was very small comapre to large online TAs. The only time we could ge OBC form this agent is when OBC will come direct from the cruiseline or he had " group booking" - I cannot go into specifics of the source that give TA extra $$ to give his clients, otherwise we would get a nice bottle of wine and very good customer service. Also, keep in mind, you will be surprise how many first, second time cruisers don't even know about OBC, therefore, they don't even ask for it.

[Bars7816]

"...put our cruise plans out for bidding by various TAs."

 

Easy to find these sites online. They're great. We booked our last cruise this way. You will get bids from several TA's. You just input cruise, cabin type, etc., and they email you.

 

Just googled "cruise bidding sites." One of our favorites popped up. :)

[jagoffee]

I had a small TA before and OBC was very small comapre to large online TAs. The only time we could ge OBC form this agent is when OBC will come direct from the cruiseline or he had " group booking" - I cannot go into specifics of the source that give TA extra $$ to give his clients, otherwise we would get a nice bottle of wine and very good customer service. Also, keep in mind, you will be surprise how many first, second time cruisers don't even know about OBC, therefore, they don't even ask for it.

 

Thanks. I would suspect that it is most people.

[retired067]

"...put our cruise plans out for bidding by various TAs."

 

Easy to find these sites online. They're great. We booked our last cruise this way. You will get bids from several TA's. You just input cruise, cabin type, etc., and they email you.

 

Just googled "cruise bidding sites." One of our favorites popped up. :)

 

Hi, what's the cancellation policy, you buy it you own it, or is the cruise line's policy followed. Is the cruise price charged to the cruise line or to the agency? Thanks for the replies.