My TA goofed....must I pay?

[CruisinDoug]

We have been booked with a deposit on the Summit since May 2004 for a sailing August 19 with a land tour beginning August 14. The trip was set up as a group deal by some friends of ours. It was handled by a very large TA in Florida that participates as a Celebrity Key Account Partner.

 

 

We book as early as possible to avoid any problems and decided using Cruise Air, with the air deviation, would get us the best airfare available, so we booked through the TA. In February this year, my DBIL and DSIL decided to book the same flights (we live in Erie, PA. but will fly out of Cleveland). At the time of their booking the costs was $102 less per person. Someone who works in out TA’s office sent us an amended invoice indicating that we would get this same airfare with a nice little hand written note on the invoice. So far life is good!

 

 

With the final payment due last month, I took the opportunity 2 weeks before the due date to email the TA and confirm the final payment amount and a few other items (not cost related). The final payment amount indicated on the last invoice was confirmed and we sent the payment 3 days prior to the due date.

 

 

Imagine my surprise a week later when I received an invoice from the TA showing a balance due of $204 because “we made an error in the total”. I checked, and of course the airfare was back up to the original price. I called and questioned the TA and she didn’t quite grasp the fact that I had invoices with the old airfare with handwritten notes from her office. I even offered to fax them to her!

 

 

Sorry this is getting so long. After much jibber-jabber and no resolution, she had me on a conference call with the Celebrity cruise air department (?) which stated that my in-laws were booked as a Class Q ticket, while we were a Class M ticket, hence the difference. I assured her that I thought we would all be in coach, and there would be no difference in the amenities, she agreed.

 

 

So I told my TA I thought it was her responsibility to track the airfares and related costs, which is what we are paying for. She then said she would call her Key Account manager and see what she could.

 

 

It has been 3 weeks now with no resolution. I have called the TA and she says she has no answer from the Key account manager. I don’t expect anything for free, but I do feel that this error was made and the TA should rectify the situation. Of course, the bottom line will be, either pay or don’t go. I anticipate that happening this month!

 

 

Should I pay?

 

 

[Globaliser]

This is just a guess as to what's happened, but it may give you some ideas about where or how you can apply pressure.

 

Q class and M class are different booking classes, which the airlines use to control the revenue they get. However, they don't mean that you travel in different cabins in the aircraft - typically Q and M are both used for the economy or coach cabin.

 

The way it works is that the airline will release a certain number of seats in each booking class. In a very simplistic sense, when a cheaper class sells out, anyone who's booking will have to book a more expensive class. But in the real world, seats come into and out of different booking classes all the time, depending on booking levels across the flight as a whole and also on cancellations.

 

I suspect that what's happened is this: When you booked, there were M class seats but no (cheaper) Q class seats, so you were booked in M. When your in-laws booked, some Q class seats had become available. That's why their airfare was cheaper than yours, as they were booked in Q. However, to get the cheaper fare for yourself, you'd have had to have been rebooked into Q class. I suspect that this did not happen, hence you now have to pay the original M class fare.

 

Now, whether this was because your TA didn't know that you'd have to be rebooked into Q to get the lower fare, or because they forgot to ask Celebrity to do it, or because Celebrity forgot to do it for you, is something that you might have to try to find out. The first of those could have happened if the TA had thought (or had been told) that the lower air fare was applicable to all bookings and wasn't because of a different booking class used by Celebrity - so the TA might not have known that there was any need to get you rebooked from M into Q.

 

I wouldn't pay the extra yet, but continue to apply pressure to see what the explanation is. Hope this guessing may help a bit towards that.

[wrp96]

If you have an invoice showing the lower price, then it is definitely the TA's responsibility to come up with the difference and not you. I would keep pushing this issue, especially since you say you have the invoice with the lower price.

[Creole Girl]

The proof is in your invoices. I would ask to speak to the supervisor at the travel agency. I don't see the reason why your TA called the cruiseline, except to try and get out of the situation. They even sent you hand written notes. It was an error on their behalf and they should take the loss if they need to. I feel it is a customer service issue.