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

[SusieV]

Do I win?

 

I had booked with Cruise Value Center when they went under, and they stole my final payment for a resort trip. As in, charged me, and never paid for the trip. Fortunately the resort was willing to work with us and since we kept all our paperwork, they honoured our price and allowed us to keep our booking. The credit card company refunded the stolen money.

 

Unfortunately, there was a huge swing in currency conversion that cost us around $400, which sucked, but it could have been much worse.

[Kellie Poodle]

Do I win?

 

I had booked with Cruise Value Center when they went under, and they stole my final payment for a resort trip. As in, charged me, and never paid for the trip. Fortunately the resort was willing to work with us and since we kept all our paperwork, they honoured our price and allowed us to keep our booking. The credit card company refunded the stolen money.

 

Unfortunately, there was a huge swing in currency conversion that cost us around $400, which sucked, but it could have been much worse.

 

 

This is a very good reason to get good quality travel insurance. A good policy will make you whole if the travel supplier goes under.

[Tommy3putts]

I booked my own 2014 Med cruise with X and had 60 days to transfer to a TA. A friend of mine is in the travel business so I asked him if he knew of a young TA needing the business and all I wanted was a few perks and mainly someone to watch the cruise fare and X promotions. Talked to the TA and she was all excited and recommended waiting for 60 days to see if X had promotions and she offered minimal OBC but promised to get better as the 60 days approached. She never called me back! I had to call her after the 60 days had run. Needless to say she was no longer my TA and my friend was embarrassed and will not recommend her to anyone else. Good news I got far better deals on my own 2 price drops and 123 Go.

[fleckle]

........ 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.

Something we disliked about some of TAs we have used in the past was needing to play telephone tag with them.

Most of the time when calling them, we would get their voice mail and need to leave a message.

 

Then when they got around to calling back, they would leave a message, and if we had a follow-up question, we needed to repeat the entire cycle.

 

When I have a reason to call a TA, I have the documentation for whatever it is right there in front of me and my concentration is on that matter.

By the time the TA gets around to calling me back, I am typically somewhere else, doing something else.

 

 

That is why I prefer to deal with an agency where there is always someone else available to talk with you when your regular agent is not available so you can conclude the matter right then and there and be done with it.

 

I have no need to talk to the same person every time.

I just want to talk to someone competent who can process a price drop or cabin change or payment or whatever and send me an updated invoice documenting that the change has been made correctly.

 

It is not rocket science. I would make the payment or change myself if I could, but once the booking has been given to a TA, that is no longer possible.

 

[dodger1964]

For those that are new to this, I put travel agents into two categories. Full service and limited service. I use a TA only to get the benefits they provide. Mainly obc's, so we only need the limited service type. Others might need more hand holding and need to have access to the agent more quickly than a limited agent might provide.

 

We watch our own cruise prices and airline schedules and contact the TA if they need to make any changes. There can be times when they are not available, but that is the exception.

[SusieV]

This is a very good reason to get good quality travel insurance. A good policy will make you whole if the travel supplier goes under.

 

So will a credit card, though, and for free. I happened to lose on the exchange rate this time, but it could just as easily have been the other way and come out in my favour.

 

I'm personally not a big fan of trip insurance (as long as you have medical coverage). After all, they wouldn't sell insurance if they didn't make money on it. I understand why people buy it, though- we just prefer to self insure.

Edited January 24, 2014 by SusieV

[shofer]

Having used the same TA for 20+ years, we would never change.

 

She helped us when we forgot our passports at home by sending her locksmith friend to our house to retrieve them and then FedEx the required docs to us at our hotel. So glad we went down a day early! We were able to continue our family cruise with our adult kids and their spouses.

 

Sue

[ccletzgo]

Always make sure your payments are processed by the cruiseline, NOT the travel agency or travel agent. YOu can ask that they do this even if it is not there regular practice. If the agency bellies up then at least your cruise is paid for. There is one online book it, agency that cant be named, that is leaving people up a creek without a paddle as far as all inclusive resort vacations right now. Resorts are demanding payment on arrival because this agency is not paying for them... :eek:

[ORV]

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.

 

Which Jr Suites did your friends have on X?

[junetraveler2014]

This goes back to 911. Booked TA in our town. Great agent but now deceased. Left NY on Zenith went right past towers. In Bermuda first morning and 911 happened. Found out Celebrity not going back to NY but not sure where it is going. We stayed in Bermuda and left on schedule, still not sure where we were to be dropped of. Got together with few passengers from our town who also used TA. No answer to our drop off. TA called ship night before port and had spoken to Celebrity and found out we would be in Delaware and she would have a bus there for us that needed it. Still love the agency. So many people that day were running around aimlessly. We were lucky we had a TA. I don't think you can get service like that from anywhere else.:cool:PS, that bus did take people to Staten Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. All were helpful that day!

[TMLAalum]

This is a very good reason to get good quality travel insurance. A good policy will make you whole if the travel supplier goes under.

 

Our corrupt agent offered optional trip insurance for a fee. I wonder if we had taken it, would she have forwarded the premium to the insurance company....

 

We've purchased an annual trip coverage policy prior to last year's Italy trip & Silhouette cruise so we will be good for our next journey, too.

[mikechass]

One of our agents, quit!! While we were on the second week of our b2b on Oasis. She hadn't arranged our shuttle from the pier to the airport even though, we had all paid for the service. I had 32 people with me, all had booked to take a "hosted cruise" but we dealt with an agent to do all the bookings.

RCCL was amazing, gave us unlimited calling back to the agency till we had things ironed out.

Also, she hadn't run our group member's VISAS to take advantage of the bonus they got for putting a certain amount on the account by a certain day... and she double charged 10 of us for our prepaid tips.

Many of my group members were seniors and they were very very upset. Most of them thought she had taken their tips money for herself.

We spent about 8 hours dealing with it while aboard.

RCCL gave my hubby and I a free nights meal the steak house, and a bottle of wine for our troubles.

They didn't have to do ANYTHING for us, but we couldn't have been happier with their service and their wonderful compassion for what ended up being something they didn't have to involve themselves in.

 

Chass

[Anubi]

Once...and that once was enough.

This was our second cruise in 1992, pre-internet so we had no way to keep an eye on things like we do today.

We had booked with a now defunct travel agency. It was a great deal and we had also booked our a pre-cruise hotel and the airfare thru the cruise line. We booked almost a year out, typical for us, and paid off in April, which was 4 months before the cruise. So we're all set right?? Wrong.

We dropped by the Friday before we were due to fly out and there were no tickets. We weren't that worried. Then on Monday, no tickets; on Tuesday, no tickets. Now we were worried. On Wednesday the TA finally told us the truth; there was no booking for us. What about the final payment, what about the deposit, we asked. He had no answer for us then he sort of sighed and said, I don't know what happened.

My DH who is not a confrontational person almost went over the TA's desk and demanded that he get us on the cruise. On Thursday he told us that we had a booking, apparently someone had broken his leg and had to cancel last minute. It was an upgrade but we had lost the hotel in Miami and our late dining choice but our flights were intact. At that point we did not care. But we flew off to this cruise with nothing but a piece of paper confirming our flight, nothing for the cruise! Talk about a tense flight. The TA went out of business very shortly after that.

Oh and he also "forgot" to tell us that the cruise line had changed to a no cash system. Yeah, this was not a great TA.

Now that we have internet access, I constantly check my booking.

Personally, I feel the right TA is worth their weight in gold.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Anubi

[parallax]

Back in 1999/2000, I had just been out of law school for a year and my wife and I and another couple decided to go on the Voyager of the Seas. We decided to use the TA who had booked our honeymoon and had also taken care of my the travel needs of my wife's family needs for over 20 years. When we were three or four weeks out from the cruise, we had not yet received our travel documents. Our TA said she was holding out for an upgrade. When it got to two weeks, she called to tell us we had been bumped from the cruise. She said there had been a huge mix up and that RC had accidently failed to apply our final payment. Well we called RC and they said to talk our TA as they would only deal with the TA. She was a certified RC TA. Our TA was still feeding us the same line and it sounded fishy. We went back to RC and they still wouldn't disclose what was going.

 

The next day our TA called back and informed us that we were booked on one of the older ships that was leaving the same day. We said no way. It was a lesser value, older ship and the ports of call were different. She called back later that RC would give us a free cruise due to the mix. We said ok if they threw in free airline tickets and OBC and provided it in writing on RC letterhead, but she would not give it to us. We informed her that we wanted all our money back. Finally, we got the letter from RC that promise a free cruise, but the airline tickets and OBC weren't mentioned. We decided we would work that out later.

 

Well the cruise we ending up going on was a disaster. Our friends were upset about what had gone on and it was just not a fun time. When I got back, I went to work to solidify our free cruise and other guarantees. It was like pulling teeth. Eventually, I found out that our TA had never submitted the final payment. RC took the position that it was not responsible and would not provide the other benefits. However, I told them that they were equally responsible because we had no way of knowing that we had a bad TA. They would not respond to any of our inquiries. Each time there response was they would only talk with the TA.

 

Eventually, RC honored our request. It took 6 months and the resolution came about when I reached out to the RC's legal department. I thought they were paying lip service when I faxed them the documents to review. However, an hour later I got the call that it was approved and was faxed a copy of the certificates. I was shocked. When I thought it about it later that day, it must have scared the hell out them because my coversheet had the Department of Justice seal, my employer at that time, and the cruise line was having issues with the DOJ. It was not intentional and was probably inappropriate but I was too lazy to create my own coversheet.

 

What became evident over time is that the TA was have financial issues and used our money to pay other expenses. Years later she was arrested for fraud.

[BocaRoo]

This goes back to 2009. We had always booked directly with Celebrity, but decided to use a well-known TA for our first transatlantic on the Equinox. We, and two other parties, booked well in advance, at least a year + out. We were a total of 9 pax who wanted to link dining and eat together. On embarkation day, we met to check out our table, as we all normally do; we were not linked - 3 separate tables. Long story short, it was a mess to get us all at the same table and the Maitre d' wasn't exactly easy to deal with or happy to help resolve the problem. He stated we had never been linked. After at least an hour, we finally had a table for the 9 of us. The TA didn't have any answers and didn't seem upset or concerned for the trouble it caused us when we reported back upon our return.

 

This wasn't a biggie in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn't a great start for what turned out to be a wonderful cruise!

 

So, we now have a wonderful NEW TA who is professional, pleasant and efficient! If you don't receive good service, I say move on!

 

Jill

Edited January 24, 2014 by BocaRoo

[rjg41]

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

 

Someone does not know what they are talking about. Celebrity has no category 1A and no bunk bed cabins for the first and second passenger. Carnival has a category 1A, double occupancy cabin, that are bunk beds, one bed up and one bed down. Did someone confuse Carnival with Celebrity?

[Nebr.cruiser]

Sometimes I book direct, but usually use a TA only for the perks and (on some lines) lower prices. I can do it all myself without problems, but like the OBC and other extras.

 

We have used several online agencies, with mostly good results, including the compete site. For the South America cruise, in December, we used a huge online agency (the one that sends enormous emails) for the first time. I was apprehensive about that one as there seem to be so many disclaimers.

 

Everything went fine, except that the TA we dealt with told us a couple of things that just weren't true. Namely, that we needed to pay a reciprocity fee in Chili to fly home and that we needed yellow fever (and some other )shots. I don't think she was trying to fool us, just was ignorant about requirements.

 

I pretty much knew that neither of these were true, but trying to find confirmation took a lot of research and a little bit of trust, in the end, that we wouldn't be denied getting off the ship in certain ports without yellow fever shots and wouldn't have to pay the reciprocity fee. These boards were very helpful in figuring out what was and wasn't true.

 

Other than dealing with an agent that just wasn't up on what was actually required for our cruise, things went fine, we got the OBC promised and a good deal.

 

If we had been on the itinerary that went to Brazil, then yes, those requirements would have been necessary, which I knew. I think a travel agent should know these things, though.

 

Also, after we booked, we were then handed over to a different person for any questions or changes, not the original TA, which I did not care for.

[20pluscruises]

Someone does not know what they are talking about. Celebrity has no category 1A and no bunk bed cabins for the first and second passenger. Carnival has a category 1A, double occupancy cabin, that are bunk beds, one bed up and one bed down. Did someone confuse Carnival with Celebrity?

 

I think Celebrity does have a A1...this may be the gaurentee cabin....but only at most two to a cabin in aqua class

[vacation luvver]

In the late 1980s, I booked a singles cruise with a TA a few blocks away from my office. The singles group was arranged by another company that went out of business in the 1990s. FWIW I eventually found out that the TA and the other company shared the commission.

 

I was never called when my documents arrived, so I called the agency and was told that my TA had left the company. But that didn't explain why no else called me. When I said that I had booked a cruise with the company that had the singles group on the cruise, the woman I was speaking to said, "Oh, we received an envelope from them! But we didn't open it, because we didn't know who it was for!"

 

I asked her to get the envelope and open it. She did, and guess what? It contained my cruise documents! I told her that I would go there during my lunch hour and pick them up. But when I got there, that woman was out to lunch, and my cruise documents were nowhere to be found. They weren't in the 'out box" that held envelopes, packages, etc. waiting for someone to come by and pick them up. So another employee tore through that woman's desk, looking for my cruise documents. He eventually found them, and I sat down and looked through them. As I was looking through them, the woman returned from lunch and saw me looking through them. She said, "You said you would get here after 1:00 PM!" No, I had never said that. I had said that I would go there during my lunch hour. I never went back there again.

 

On another singles cruise arranged by that same company that went out of business in the 1990s, at the welcome aboard party, two guys said that they were very upset with their TAs, because they had been told that the entire ship would be 100% full of single people. One of the guys even said that his TA said that all of the single people would be in their 20s or 30s.

 

I said that it was obvious that they had never seen that company's brochure, because it clearly said that the singles group would be only a small portion of passengers on the ship, that the singles group was not a Lonely Hearts group, and that equal numbers of men and women were not guaranteed. Obviously, their TAs did not work for the actual company that organized the singles cruises.

 

I have no idea why their TAs lied to them. It wasn't a good way to get repeat business.

[Gunner22aa]

Still use her even though she is in a different city than me now. Big problem is I can't drop by for the Friday evening happy hours she hosted for her regular customers!

[sandancer]

Someone does not know what they are talking about. Celebrity has no category 1A and no bunk bed cabins for the first and second passenger. Carnival has a category 1A, double occupancy cabin, that are bunk beds, one bed up and one bed down. Did someone confuse Carnival with Celebrity?

I hope you mean Celebrity does not have 1As with bunk beds and not that they don't have a 1A category as we are booked in one for 6 weeks this Spring.

[ontheweb]

The only problem I have had with my regular on line cruise only TA is that he once sent me an unsigned check. (I had recommended a potential client to him who had ended up booking 3 cabins.)

 

We did have a major problem with one of the major on line large agencies in 2012. Before we booked a Carnival cruise with the type of booking in which you could lose part of your deposit with our regular TA, we checked that we could get airfare that worked. We then booked the airfare with the major company .

 

Soon afterwards, we received an e-mail from the airline. Our direct flight from JFK to Fort Lauderdale now went by way of Dallas-Fort Worth. There was now no way we could make it to our cruise on time. I explained the problem to the big agency, and asked for a refund, and then to look for another flight. They refused. They said the booking belonged to the airline. My options according to them, were to book another flight with that airline (none worked), or to book another set of flights and have a credit good for a year with the airline. I argued with them that they were my travel agent and were supposed to work to help me. No matter how high in the supervisory chain I went, I got the same answer.

 

I then called my credit card company, and they sounded like they would look out for my interests. My DW then suggested I call the airline directly. I did, and explained what had happened and why it was a problem. After being put on hold while the agent spoke to a supervisor, I was told our credit card would be credited with what we had been charged for the tickets.

 

After a few days, I checked with our credit card company, and it had been credited. At that point I asked them to drop the complaint.

 

BTW, I later did some research and discovered that they were required to give a refund when asked when the problem was caused by their change even if it was for a non-refundable ticket.

[Guest maddycat]

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

 

What an amazing story. I would definitely report the TA. First I'd start with his supervisor, if he had one, at the travel agency. Then I go on to any professional organizations.

[TMLAalum]

I hope you mean Celebrity does not have 1As with bunk beds and not that they don't have a 1A category as we are booked in one for 6 weeks this Spring.

 

Celebrity's S-class ships all have Category 1A (the M-class ships do not). The 1A's are considered by many to be the most prized of the veranda category cabin because they are located on the angle where the ship juts out and the balconies are double or triple those of other veranda cabins. It can get confusing because Celebrity's AquaClass categories have the reverse designation of A1 for the "best" located cabins in that class followed by A2 & A3.

 

I don't believe any cabin on any Celebrity ship has "bunk" beds unless they are in the 2nd bedroom of S-class family verandas. There are cabins with beds concealed in the ceiling that can be opened if the cabin sleeps more than 2.

Edited January 24, 2014 by TMLAalum

[TC1957]

The TA we have been using is a small, one man shop. We met via a discussion board (and several times in 3D). He is a great guy, but can be difficult to get in touch with. There was a slight problem before our last cruise but when I finally made contact with him, he fixed it in the nick of time. I didn't know that any bookings made while on a cruise are automatically put under the TA that booked the cruise you are on (that may just be RCI). We went ahead and booked to get the OBC. However, since he is small he cannot afford (or will not give) perks/incentives to book with him. He is fine for other travel...but then I do a lot or research ahead of time and he basically just books what I find.

 

I am also a helicopter customer and keep checking for discounts/price changes. We recently got a Texas resident discount on our cruise out of Galveston but I found it and it took him three days to get it in place with RCI.

 

We have decided that going forward, cruises will be booked through a VERY LARGE local agency that specialized in cruises in hopes they can do better for us...and let this guy handle other vacations.