What is the worst problem you have had with a Travel Agent

[steveweese]

Please believe me I am not trying to slam Travel Agents. But the question is "What is the worst Problem you have ever had with a Travel Agent and what did you do to resolve it?"

[Shermcruiser]

So far I have never had a problem with my TA. She is a gem!

[sandancer]

Me neither. Have used the same one for the past 12 years. We tried one of the large chain of travel agents once. Never again, could not speak to the same person twice. Every time we called with a query, we were issued with a new invoice, identical to the previous one. If they do this with every client they could deplete the rain forests single handedly.

[ariawoman]

I've not had any issues with a TA, however its like anything. There are great ones, and there are not so great ones. That's why it's typically best to go with one that you can find out about their track record. Referral from a friend, etc. Some issues aren't the TA at all, but often they will be blamed. It's tough when everyone is pointing blame to the other to know who was in the wrong unless you're really in the industry.

[ariawoman]

So far I have never had a problem with my TA. She is a gem!

 

Considering how many cruises you have booked coming up, she must love you! :-)

[CaroleSS]

I use online TAs without exception for the perks they offer us.

 

I'm a "Helicopter" client, so I watch everything. If I could give myself perks and do it all myself I would, but I can't. Anyway, this latest cruise has been a bit shaky, the data was input incorrectly to begin with and I didn't see much of it until after final payment. A quick email to the TA got everything squared away.

 

We have a river cruise coming up in July and the TA I'm using for that is a real gem! She answers emails nights, weekends, etc....most of the time within minutes of me sending them! I asked her if she ever slept....she said "no"!

 

Given that X's website is just sooooo awful.....I'll take my chances with a TA!!

 

Just a quick edit......I've watched enough Judge Judy to know that I need to get EVERYTHING in writing. If the TA says "boo", I say "put that in an email and send it to me"......has saved me a lot of hassle over the years! Words to the wise!

Edited January 23, 2014 by CaroleSS

[Gonzo70]

Not being able to reach them in time when there was a massive, but short lived, price drop.

[kyriecat]

Worst problem recently was some OBC that my TA offered as a booking incentive never posted to my onboard account. I sent her an email while onboard to let her know about the missing OBC. She sent a reply that she would try to get it resolved before we disembarked, but if it wasn't, to send her a copy of my onboard statement as proof the OBC was not applied and she would send me a check. It did not get resolved so I scanned a copy of my statement and emailed it to her. Within a couple of weeks I had a check for the missing OBC amount.

[Want2Cruise 701]

Never again. I booked once with American Express for the benefits. The least of my problems was that every time I needed something they would have to put me on hold to call the cruise line. Annoying.

 

The biggie was that we booked with friends. We each had 2 cabins. One for the parents and the other for the kids. We each paid the same fare except we had an OBC. After final payment, the prices dropped significantly. My friends had both their cabins upgraded to jr suites immediately after calling. Since we booked with a travel agent, our travel agent had to call X and was told we weren't eligible. We were and by the time it all got straightened out there weren't 2 jr suites left near each other, and we couldn't have the kids that far away. Had we booked direct, we would have had the jr suites. Wasn't worth for the little OBC we received.

 

I like being in control of my reservation.

[mylove]

I've had the same TA going on 15 years,he is the best of the best.He bends over backwards for us,he even surprizes us with gifts in our stateroom.

[steveweese]

Here is what happened to us once. Booked through a TA that we had used several times and really liked them. Booked on Princess a corner aft cabin for a B2B. It was a great cabin that we had had before and we were really excited. About 10 days before the cruise TA calls me on my cell phone while I am driving and tells me that cabin has a plumbing problem that they were notified by another of their clients and would not be fixed until dry dock. They wanted me to switch to a different cabin on the other side of the ship a couple of decks down. I said ok. Then I got thinking and ran to a computer to check things out. The new cabin was right over the nightclub and cabin reports at cruise critic said it was very noisy. Called the TA back and told them no way put us back where we were. They said we could go back for the first week but not the second and I said that did not make any sense as they had already told me the cabin would not be fixed until dry dock. They hemmed hawed around and said the problem was not continual just every couple of days and they didn't want me to have a bad experience. Again I said I want my cabin back for the 2 weeks I booked over a year ago. They Called me back and said could not do it as It is already booked.

 

I then called Princess and they told me several times I had to talk to my TA. Finally about the 5th call I was told my agent dropped me out of the cabin for the second week 2 days after I booked. I told them all of my invoices said I had that cabin for both weeks including final Payment. They said that is what happened and you invoices are from the TA not the cruise line.

 

Called TA and they denied everything. Called Princess back several times and was told that they were very sorry but there was nothing they could do.

 

My wife then called several times and finally she said that I was upset and going to cancel the cruise and go to Vegas and that she was heartbroken. The Lady said she would call her back the next day.

 

Guess what? She called back and put us back in our cabin. More to come. Sorry for the typo's

[bbqoug]

I had a travel agent that kept insisting that the 1A cabin I booked on the Eclipse was bunk beds (no normal bed).

She even added the notation to my invoice from the travel agency that I had been informed about the bunk bed only situation.

 

I knew better, but could not convince her. She even said this had been confirmed with Celebrity.

 

When we got back from our fantastic cruise I sent her a message with attached photos showing that there was indeed a standard bed.

 

Jeff

[MamaKD]

Booked our very first cruise in 2005 with a local TA to celebrate our 25th anniversary, taking our two kids with us. Three weeks before sailing TA called to tell me that our reservation had been lost! The money had been paid but the broker they were using had no record! We ended up on a different ship couple of weeks later and had a wonderful time. Never used that TA again!

 

Tried another local for next 2 cruises and was frustrated as she was so slow getting back to me....moved on to an online TA out of the US who has always given us GREAT service and have never looked back! Number 13 coming up in April (lucky 13!) and 14 in October - can't wait!

[d4m]

Not being able to reach them in time when there was a massive, but short lived, price drop.

 

Ditto. Has happened twice in two times with the same outfit. Mega $ lost

[SixOneTwo]

Used a traditional travel agent who doesn't charge fees for air booking when you book a cruise. For for our South American cruise, she said the air travel was too complex and charged us a fee because she felt we needed an extra level of service if something went wrong.

 

We arrived at the airport after our cruise and "something went wrong." The agent had booked us on a non-existent flight (no idea about how that happened.) Luckily our tour guide insisted on standing in line with us at the ticket desk and was able to help us with translations to resolve it. And thank goodness we weren't stranded or charged more $$$.

 

When we got home, I phoned the agent and stated the situation. "So sorry," was all we got.

 

I have a new agent.

[Kellie Poodle]

Big Box on line TA quoted me a price and then sent me paperwork with a different, higher price. The excuse was that the cruise line didn't honor the quote to the TA.

 

After the second time this happened, I cancelled that cruise and booked on my own.

 

Once, maybe, but twice???

 

I have dealt with other TAs and the price they quote over the phone is the price I pay.

[CaroleSS]

Ditto. Has happened twice in two times with the same outfit. Mega $ lost

 

I've not had this problem, but I wonder if you could send an email to the TA and then use the time stamp on the email to negotiate with the TA to give you the price drop?? You would have to do so early (i.e, don't wait until 11pm when there is a midnight deadline).

 

AND from what I'm reading on these boards, trying to call X directly during a price drop might result in long wait times or a missed opportunity as well!!!

[snyniew]

This is my first cruise and first time usinga TA. Went with the TA a friend at work has used in the past when her entire family went on cruises (22 people) and her mom has used for years. Problem first started when she quoted me the wrong price for the travel insurance. When I asked her she just couldn't believe I was over 35 even though I had just given her my birthday to book the cruise.

 

Then next issue was when I went to book my airfare. She e-mailed me the itinary which I didn't look that closely at other than the times since it was on my phone and I was at the gym but figured she'd have the correct airports. She then kept asking me for my birthdate since she didn't want to go thru the file to look for it (was later it the day about 5pm). The next day I realized she had me flying into FLL instead of MIA where the cruise departs from. While I realize that they are close why would I fly into FLL when MIA was the same price. So she corrected. She was also supposed to adjust my travel insurance since I changed my reservation from Double occupacy to single. She never did that and I had to call and talk to another agent months later to get that done.

 

I then asked her to upgrade my free classic beverage package to the premium to which she responed that I could do that once I get onboard. While I realized that was true I didn't want to have to do that once onboard I wanted everything done so I didn't have to mess w/ it. But I let it drop for the time being. I e-mailed her a few months later once I read on CC that it may possibly be more expensive to upgrade onboard. After not hearing back from her for weeks I called Celebrity and upgraded myself. After 3 weeks I get an e-mail from her stating she saw an e-mail from me weeks ago but for the life of her can't find it so what was it that I wanted.

 

Final straw was that I went online to look at my airline reservation because I was getting nervous of having only a 1/2 layover in Chicago during Spring Break (at least where I live). However I was very surpirsed to find out that I now have a 5 hour layover since they changed my departure time from 10:50 am to 5:50 am but never changed the connection. After e-mailing her again and getting no response I called the airline and luckly was able to get the final seat on an earlier connection.

 

I have talked to the management at the travel agency and told them of all my troubles dealing with her and let them know that basically I've been doing her job so I didn't think some type of compensation wasn't uncalled for. The agreed and gave me OBC so I'll just have to wait to see if that actually comes thru. I now have a new agent there to work with so I don't have to deal with the original nitwit anymore. I would have switched TA's but didn't want to be charged again since everything is really done. Needless to say this will probably be the last time I ever use a travel agent again.

[RickT]

The first time (and last time I might add) that I used an on-line TA everything was fine (good price, good communication, etc) until my cruise booklet arrived (this was a long time ago when you got mailed your cruise booklet that included all the necessary information).

 

There was a big red sticker on the front indicated I had a "special rate" and to refer to page XX of the book for details. Well, page XX was missing. A call to Celebrity indicated I had been booked with a Senior rate :eek:

 

I reminded Celebrity that I had cruised with them many times and they had confirmation of my age which was (and still is :)) far too young to qualify for a Senior rate. As expected a call to the TA was met with a "don't worry about it". I had to call Celebrity back and get assurances that there would be no problems boarding the ship and having my fare honoured. It took a few calls but everything worked out OK. Suffice to say I've never used that on-line TA again.

[steveweese]

Here is what happened to us once. Booked through a TA that we had used several times and really liked them. Booked on Princess a corner aft cabin for a B2B. It was a great cabin that we had had before and we were really excited. About 10 days before the cruise TA calls me on my cell phone while I am driving and tells me that cabin has a plumbing problem that they were notified by another of their clients and would not be fixed until dry dock. They wanted me to switch to a different cabin on the other side of the ship a couple of decks down. I said ok. Then I got thinking and ran to a computer to check things out. The new cabin was right over the nightclub and cabin reports at cruise critic said it was very noisy. Called the TA back and told them no way put us back where we were. They said we could go back for the first week but not the second and I said that did not make any sense as they had already told me the cabin would not be fixed until dry dock. They hemmed hawed around and said the problem was not continual just every couple of days and they didn't want me to have a bad experience. Again I said I want my cabin back for the 2 weeks I booked over a year ago. They Called me back and said could not do it as It is already booked.

 

I then called Princess and they told me several times I had to talk to my TA. Finally about the 5th call I was told my agent dropped me out of the cabin for the second week 2 days after I booked. I told them all of my invoices said I had that cabin for both weeks including final Payment. They said that is what happened and you invoices are from the TA not the cruise line.

 

Called TA and they denied everything. Called Princess back several times and was told that they were very sorry but there was nothing they could do.

 

My wife then called several times and finally she said that I was upset and going to cancel the cruise and go to Vegas and that she was heartbroken. The Lady said she would call her back the next day. And she did and put us back in our cabin Qoute

 

Need to finish up on this. While talking to Princess I explained that we had done nothing wrong. We booked early and paid our deposit, made final payment did everything right but we were paying the price for this.

 

TA tells us that it is Princess's fault. Princess tells us that is TA's fault we are paying the price. That is when she informs us that the TA was in the system and was moving people around in different cabins and someone else took our cabin.(Maybe a TA can tell me what the purpose of this is?) She also told me that the TA was well aware of this.

 

Anyway we enjoyed our first week on the cruise and was hanging around trying to NOT get off the ship between our back to back when an Officer saw us sitting very comfortable and told us we needed to get off the ship so it could be cleared. We laughed and told him we were trying to hide and avoid getting off. He laughed and said guess what I am going to escort you off and he did.

 

We got back on and met up with 2 other couples that were joining us on the 2nd week, had lunch and so forth. I went to the cabin to get a camera and there was two suitcases in front of our door with our cabin number on them. I called guest services and told them about the suitcases and explained our situation and was told not to worry.

 

20 minutes later the PA started calling my name to go to guest services. I did and the same Officer that escorted us off the ship came to meet me . He apologized about the problems and wanted to put us into a mini suite for the problems. I very nicely refused and told him we wanted to stay where we were and that in our opinion we had a better cabin. After a few minutes of this he gave up and told us to enjoy our cruise. I always wonder what the other people thought about what happened to them and felt a little bad for them.

[TMLAalum]

Using the cruise competition site, found a terrific deal on our first Celebrity cruise. The agent we spoke with was delightful, and promised all kinds of perks including a pay-in-full-now huge OBC. I bit because my cc was offering a huge mileage bonus for charging a certain amount within a given time frame. The 3 couples with us followed my lead and also booked with this agent.

 

Long story short, learned about this agency's deceptive practices from a HA poster whose around-the-world paid-in-full cruise was not paid to HA by the agent by the due date! She couldn't reveal the name of this agency per Cruise Critic rules, but thru research online, lo & behold it was the same TA we'd used. And of course, only our deposits had been transmitted to Celebrity.

 

I did everything I could to get the agency to forward our full payment immediately to Celebrity but it didn't happen. Then 10 months prior to our cruise, the agency went belly-up and filed bankruptcy!

 

We all did get our monies back via our various credit cards, but it was a stressful time for me because I was the one who chose this agency and encouraged our cruisemates to book with them, too.

Edited January 23, 2014 by TMLAalum

[hulamoon]

Price drops and finding them are a sad and painful affair. Some price drops are so fleeting there is little time to adjust or upgrade.

 

Now having a TA a lie about a price or plumbing. That is terrible.

[d4m]

I've not had this problem, but I wonder if you could send an email to the TA and then use the time stamp on the email to negotiate with the TA to give you the price drop?? You would have to do so early (i.e, don't wait until 11pm when there is a midnight deadline).

 

AND from what I'm reading on these boards, trying to call X directly during a price drop might result in long wait times or a missed opportunity as well!!!

 

Could not call X to get the price drop since the cruise had been transferred to the TA. I did send two e-mails to the TA while the sale was in progress, to no avail. Unfortunately the TA seems not to work weekends and by the time they read the e-mail, the price drop was over. Had a screenshot but didn't matter. The same (huge on-line) TA rep also later told me that when she had days off, nobody else took care of the e-mails or calls.

 

Since we live in a very small town, we don't have access to any local TA's.

[going2cruz]

Booked with Celebrity for first time and found it from email from C-Con.....no issues with them, we just don't like that we can't act on our own with the cruise line from here out ......will never do it again ...were just too engaged to let go like this again.....

[grandgeezer]

There are good and bad agents no matter if they work for a local travel agency, online agency, or even the cruise line. Just because you've had a bad situation with one of them, you can't paint all the other ones with the same brush. There are good agents in all categories, you just have to do yourn homework to find them. In my mind, the biggest question is, who takes my money? If it's not the cruise line, move on. I have used 4-5 online agencies and have nothing but praise for them. I book all my cruises based on costs. I'm retired so I can cruise whenever the price is the best. Hence, I've never seen any of the huge price drops other people have reported. I do my homework, I never have called a travel agent after I book a cruise. All other communication is done by using e-mail to either get a price reduction, or change cabins.

One size doesn't fit all. Peace of mind is important. If it helps you sleep at night, use whoever you want and ignore the naysayers.