Can you "fire" your travel agent?

[Phamer55]

Hello. I booked my RCL cruise for next May through an online agency and I was wondering if I can "fire" them? The reason I want to do this is because we have 4 booked to a room but we may want to leave our young son (age 1) with the grandparents instead of taking him. RCL doesn't charge me anything for cancelling my son for this cruise so far in advance, but TA wants to charge me $75 to do this. Is it possible to fire my TA and call RCL directly to make this change to my booking and avoid paying this rather large fee?

[Mr_Cruise]

You might be SOL on this one. Every agency has their own terms; it's up to clients to ask and be informed of them before booking with an agency... at this stage of the game, you are bound by any contract you have agreed to.

 

You can not have a cruise line do anything to your booking directly if it was booked with a TA. They will not touch the booking unless the TA authorizes/requests it.

 

Did you receive documents in the mail? If so, check the policies. etc.

 

 

I work for an online agency, but we charge no service fees, no change fees, no cancellation fees... etc. But like I said, every agency is different.

 

Check their terms. Maybe they havn't included any stipulations about transferring reservations. Find a TA you do like and their terms, then you can have your reservations transferred to them, make sure your rates are protected before doing that though.

 

 

Good luck.

[Coralc]

Nope, unfortunately you are probably stuck paying any fees that the travel agent imposes. You have a contract (booking) with them. Others may disagree, but I have found that TA"s will almost NEVER release a booking. It's hard to find a good one. I sort of gave up and book direct with RCI. Better luck with future cruises and a new TA!:)

[Mr_Cruise]

I've offered to release and or cancel clients bookings before... Sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth to work for some people (everyone's different). Although these situations are extremely rare, I take great pleasure in reminding some people that it works both ways; they chose to book with me, and I chose to book them and that either of us could terminate our business relationship if desired.

 

In the long run those clients elected to be more professional with their communications with me and I retained their respective bookings. (Likely because they knew full well that most TA's, or people in general, would also not put up with them)

[masterbaker]

This TA probably included in the contract that any change in the booking incurs a charge so if they were to turn the booking back over to you the charge would be x4. :eek: It might be best to incur the charge for your son and let it go this time. Next time make sure when you choose a TA that you ask about cancellation or change charges. Actually there are lots of questions you should ask before contracting with a TA. A search here at CC about what to ask will clue you in.

[Linda/Ohio]

Is there a cost associated with cancelling the whole cruise and rebooking? Is that fee cheaper?

 

Also-agencies usually have policies--that can be over-ridden by a supervisor or management. I woulld politely request that it be waived--by talking to a supervisor. However-you this would work best if you had some other recourse-like they were going to lose this booking.

[steve20832]

I would go to RCCL website and see if there is a cabin you like in the same catagory. If the TA won't charge fees to cancel the whole cruise, book it on RCCL website. I would also call RCCL and ask them if the TA has the right to do this. I'm sure TA's have rules a TA has to follow that RCCL gives them in order to resell the cruises. Maybe a TA can comment on this.

[CruiseFever]

Hello. I booked my RCL cruise for next May through an online agency and I was wondering if I can "fire" them? The reason I want to do this is because we have 4 booked to a room but we may want to leave our young son (age 1) with the grandparents instead of taking him. RCL doesn't charge me anything for cancelling my son for this cruise so far in advance, but TA wants to charge me $75 to do this. Is it possible to fire my TA and call RCL directly to make this change to my booking and avoid paying this rather large fee?

 

Of course you can fire your TA. They work for you.

 

This might be a lousy reason for doing it though.

 

I hate these junk fees charged so commonly for cancellations, changes or even to send you your documents.

 

But!

 

and I don't know how to say this to make it come out in a pleasant way as the truth isn't always pretty

 

But!

 

...consumers kinda created these fees themselves by demanding the rock bottom lowest price at any cost. These TA's have to eat too and making close to nothing on each sale does not put dinner on the table or pay the rent.

 

But wait!

 

This is a Royal Caribbean cruise right? TA's are not supposed to discount cruise fare on Royal Caribbean cruises right?

 

Did they?

 

Get online and compare what you're paying for your cruise to, say, Travelocity.com and see if you have a discounted price. If you do, that might be your answer

 

Blackmail your TA or shush up and eat the fee because you saved so much

 

If RCL finds out your TA sold you a discounted cruise they could be in big trouble.

 

I agree with the above though, find out about this stuff up front next time. Your change is a common everyday one that is made all the time. I can't imagine charging for something like that.

 

I WOULD feel like a crook.

 

I REALLY don't think you should have to pay that and if you're not happy with your TA you should change to someone you can establish a good working relationship with. Go to the RCL website and click on "Find an Agent". To be listed there they have to have achieved and maintained a minimum sales goal so they should at least know how the rules work.

 

Don't feel bad though, you just really don't know until you try somebody.

 

Great question

[AFT_LOVER]

Just email RCCL that you want to change from ++++ TA to them. Also print it out & mail to them.

[rubrrick]

Just email RCCL that you want to change from ++++ TA to them. Also print it out & mail to them.

 

You seem very confident that this works. Have you or anyone on the CC board tried this successfully in the past? It seems like a very simple solution.

 

Rick

[Alexis]

RCCL cannot and will not take a booking from a TA. You have a contract with the TA and not RCCL. They are not allowed to take it from the TA. What they can do for you is possibly give you a hint on how you can do that yourself. I think it depends on who you get on the phone. I was told I had to get a release from the TA. I was also told by RCCL that I could possibly lose my cabin by the time it took to do this because it had to be re booked with RCCL after I was released and my cruise canceled by the TA.

They gave me this information when I had a large problem and I pleaded with them to help me..

[CruiseFever]

"They did for me when I had a large problem and I pleaded with them to help me.."

 

They DO own the ships. If it comes right down to it they'll do what they need to do.

[Alexis]

"They did for me when I had a large problem and I pleaded with them to help me.."

 

They DO own the ships. If it comes right down to it they'll do what they need to do.

 

Whatever their reason for helping me, I was sure thankful to get it. ;)

[Firefighterhoop]

You could always cancel your cruise thru your travel agent and rebook thru another one if they want to play games.:p

[jkrislc]

I'm guessing that a cancelation will involve fees as well since remove a 3rd or 4th person is costing her a cancellation fee. In the end, it'll probably cost her 3x as much money to fire the TA than to each the $75 expense.

 

The best alternative is a rational argument with the TA and/or his/her supervisor explaining that you know that they aren't being penalized by RCI by the reservation change and that you know that their commission is only slightly being affected. In addition, argue that they should do this as a goodwill gesture and on faith that you will become a returning customer. Of course, I wouldn't go back to them or recommend them after this hassle, but they'll have nothing to lose if you say otherwise. If you threaten to never use them again, then they'll see no reason to help you this time.

[CanadianMAG]

You could always cancel your cruise thru your travel agent and rebook thru another one if they want to play games.:p

 

I am sure she will still get the $75 fee. I think anyway you look at it there will be a charge I am sure they have policies in place so there is no loop whole afterall they are a business and want to make $$$. Some TAs do it the sneaky way by locking you in with them and making it impossible to leave!

[RDeagazio]

You can find another TA and have RCI transfer the booking to them at your request. If I were you, I would go out and find another TA who doesn't charge cxl fees and then call RCI and tell them you would like your original booking to be transferred to the new TA. I doubt the original TA will then be able to charge you a cxl fee for a booking they no longer have possession of. Even if they tried you could probably dispute the charge with your credit card company.

 

I recently went to work for a new agency and all of my bookings with the old agency I left were transferred to me at my new place. All I had to do was have each client email me their wish to have their bookings transferred to me which I in turn forwarded to my RCI Sales Manager and she called Miami and had the bookings moved in a matter of seconds.

 

Good luck, but you do have an out!

[AFT_LOVER]

to ax a TA that has your account. I did it. Worked great changing from one TA to another.

 

 

 

You seem very confident that this works. Have you or anyone on the CC board tried this successfully in the past? It seems like a very simple solution.

 

Rick

[Ericknow32]

I think that a TA should be required to show the customer their policy before booking. If a person doesn't know of such policies how would they know to ask about them. It kind of seems like entrapment. I don't know what happened in this case but if the TA didn't make their policy clear or available prior to booking I would call the better business bureau.

[Phamer55]

I have already found a new TA that lives in my hometown that I am going to use for future bookings. I will look into writing an official letter to RCI to do the transfer. For the record, I was not given any discounted price, but I did receive free travel insurance with this TA. This cancellation fee was not prominent before booking, it was only shown after I had booked. I could have also clicked the terms & conditions link to see this fee before booking, but that never really occured to me as I incorrectly assumed that since the cruise lines don't charge a fee for cancelling well in advance, the TA wouldn't as well. Live and learn.

[AFT_LOVER]

so check them out.