Ta Says Rccl Says

[curlyd]

I have a problem. We booked our first cruise through TA - including air and hotel - We had already checked RCCL prices on their web site with and without air. So when we booked we knew that price quoted for cruise portion was exactly what was shown on RCCL web site. We booked in June and prices have gone steadily up. At the beginning of Oct we asked TA about canceling air and booking our own, that way we could pick our flights. (RCCL couldn't give us deal on custom with the flights we wanted.) After being told by TA that we could cancel air portion and book on our own, we did. Now TA says that RCCL says our cruise price is higher because we no longer have air booked through them.

 

Now CC has taught me a lot since we booked our cruise, and I know for certain that the RCCl Passenger Confirmation receipt that I have in my hands shows the breakdown of cruise, air, taxes etc correctly. Who is wrong. Is RCCL's infamous customer service wrong when saying that cruise price is increased without air. (even though their own web site at time of booking matched my receipt) or is TA just inexperienced in dealing with RCCl? I don't want to assume that she is trying to make more money off of me as I like her. But right now she is telling me that she has been on the phone with RCCL and they are insisting my cruise price has gone up. I am not going to take that for an answer and will call anyone I have to so that this can be fixed. I know RCCL almost always won't talk to me since I booked through TA but if TA proves to be my problem what next.

 

Please offer your advice. I know many TA's are out there. And from everything I have read on these boards I have never seen this question.

I hope I haven't been too broad or too windy.

 

Thanks

Dawn

[tupper]

They should be able to take the air off without affecting your cruise only price. If it was the other way around, Yes, there are cruise only prices and if you add air, it could change the price. However, you never know with these kooky new policies that are ever changing in this industry (especially with RCCL)...I usually call 3 times if I don't get the answer I want the first time and if 3 different people say the same exact thing, I usually trust that answer....however sometimes I do end up with 2 different answers and that's why I make at least 3 calls. Ask her to try someone else maybe in another department or a supervisor.

[cruisingking]

NO ,No and no.somethings not rite in TA land.dropping air and hotel has no effect, i do it all the time.in fact just did recently so their is no policy change or whatever.

[CruisinDawn]

The only way I can see it being true is if you booked some kind of special but it sounds like you didn't. If they are broken down cost and the price for cruise only was the same either way I would question it big time. It's kinda like if you add transportation, delete it and add it all you want and your cabin price does not change. Goodluck, doesn't seem right to me and I would not give up without a fight.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[Retired not Expired]

Two thoughts come to mind. First, that the TA told the agent to cancel that booking and rebook with just the cruise. Second, the RCI agent just cancelled it all and rebooked the cruise. Either way would result in the higher fare then on the books.

 

If your TA messed up, she should make it good. If it was the agent who messed up, the TA should go to bat for you with RCI and insist they go back to the original booking and drop the air.

[curlyd]

Two thoughts come to mind. First, that the TA told the agent to cancel that booking and rebook with just the cruise. Second, the RCI agent just cancelled it all and rebooked the cruise. Either way would result in the higher fare then on the books.

 

If your TA messed up, she should make it good. If it was the agent who messed up, the TA should go to bat for you with RCI and insist they go back to the original booking and drop the air.

 

First thanks to all - I almost knew what you were going to say because I have followed all of your advice. Too bad I didn't learn about CC before I booked with TA.

 

RetirednotExpired:

 

My thoughts exactly which is why I am not going to accept the answer I have received so far. TA is supposed to call again tomorrow.

 

I'll keep everybody posted. Thanks again.

[beth4652]

Try telling your TA that you would like a three-way call (you, TA, RCCL) to straighten this out. That way, there's no "he said-she said." I did this when prices for my cruise went down after final payment. My TA said "no way." I insisted and got a refund of $200 per person.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Try telling your TA that you would like a three-way call (you, TA, RCCL) to straighten this out. That way, there's no "he said-she said." I did this when prices for my cruise went down after final payment. My TA said "no way." I insisted and got a refund of $200 per person.

 

 

Excellent advice! :D

Sounds like the TA is not up to par on this one. :eek:

 

 

***

[FitzLA]

Once you pay your deposit, the price of your cruise CANNOT change!! Period!!!

[PhoenixCruiser]

Good luck Dawn and please keep us updated :D

 

###

[Coralc]

I booked our cruise at the cruise only price. Then I added air. It is one of the Hawaii one ways. Then I rebooked and kept the air portion on when we were on a Monarch cruise. They had better not tell me that I can't drop that RCI air. Since the cruise was 16 months away, I only added the air in case of an unliklely occurrence that I would not be able to find it cheaper.

 

I was assured that dropping the air add on prior to final payment would have no effect on my cruise price.

 

I agree about a 3 way call to find out what is going on.:)

[curlyd]

Once you pay your deposit, the price of your cruise CANNOT change!! Period!!!

 

That's what I thought. 3-way call sounds like a great idea.

 

Will keep you all posted. Thank for helping out us newbies!

Dawn

[RDeagazio]

I've been in the travel business a long time and I can tell you 100% yout TA is WRONG!! Air can be cancelled and it will have no affect on your cruise rate. The air is an ADD ON, just like cruise care insurance. Both can be added/removed and your cruise price will not change. If you look at your invoice the air add on should be a separate price column.. cancelling the air only deducts that amount from your invoice. You keep the same booking number etc and the new total without air will be updated.

 

If your TA screwed up an cancelled the booking and then rebooked you at the current price, then you will have a toally new booking number from RCI.. if this is the case you have a fight with the TA to resolve the fare increase issue. If your booking number is the same and the TA is invoicing you at a higher cruise fare then they are marking up the price of the cruise and feeding you a line of BS.. that's easy to fix!

 

I hope this helps-- good luck!

[rubrrick]

I've been in the travel business a long time and I can tell you 100% yout TA is WRONG!!

If your TA screwed up an cancelled the booking and then rebooked you at the current price, then you will have a toally new booking number from RCI.. if this is the case you have a fight with the TA to resolve the fare increase issue.

I hope this helps-- good luck!

 

Bob is exactly correct in this posting. If you have the same booking number, then the price for the cruise will remain the same. If you have a different booking number, you have a problem with your TA. It should not be a fight as Bob is saying, it should be a lawsuit if your TA does not honor what they did wrong. I'm not against TA's, I use them, but if your TA is that wrong, they don't deserve to be in the business.

BTW the lawsuit would be brought about in small claims, for the amount of difference, and, by all rights. you should win. Lot's of disclaimers here, but personally that is what I would do if the TA does not correct the price. Be that as it may, I don't know whether you are dealing with a local agency to you or an internet agency. If it's not within your county and state, you need to have your own fight, without the benefit of a court.

Good luck

 

Rick

[PTarbay]

I've been in the travel business a long time and I can tell you 100% yout TA is WRONG!! Air can be cancelled and it will have no affect on your cruise rate. The air is an ADD ON, just like cruise care insurance. Both can be added/removed and your cruise price will not change. If you look at your invoice the air add on should be a separate price column.. cancelling the air only deducts that amount from your invoice. You keep the same booking number etc and the new total without air will be updated.

 

If your TA screwed up an cancelled the booking and then rebooked you at the current price, then you will have a toally new booking number from RCI.. if this is the case you have a fight with the TA to resolve the fare increase issue. If your booking number is the same and the TA is invoicing you at a higher cruise fare then they are marking up the price of the cruise and feeding you a line of BS.. that's easy to fix!

 

I hope this helps-- good luck!

I would call and ask for your current booking number and compare them.

[curlyd]

Thanks again - Actually I went on line and pulled up our reservation on RCCI web site - everything the same, # etc only now shows no air. So I know that resv # didn't change.

 

Thanks for info. will talk to TA tomorrow.

 

Dawn

[curlyd]

Also hope no one minds - but living south suburbs of Chicago - got to say it.

 

WE WON!!!! Way to go WHITE SOX!!

[juliew]

Bob is exactly correct in this posting. If you have the same booking number, then the price for the cruise will remain the same. If you have a different booking number, you have a problem with your TA. It should not be a fight as Bob is saying, it should be a lawsuit if your TA does not honor what they did wrong. I'm not against TA's, I use them, but if your TA is that wrong, they don't deserve to be in the business.

BTW the lawsuit would be brought about in small claims, for the amount of difference, and, by all rights. you should win. Lot's of disclaimers here, but personally that is what I would do if the TA does not correct the price. Be that as it may, I don't know whether you are dealing with a local agency to you or an internet agency. If it's not within your county and state, you need to have your own fight, without the benefit of a court.

Good luck

 

Rick

 

A lawsuit? Come on - and we wonder why prices continue to go up and up for services (ie medicine, etc.). For the little amount we are talking here, I think the resolution can come from talking with the travel agent and asking exactly what happened - not in a court of law. What a waste of the court's time.

[rubrrick]

A lawsuit? Come on - and we wonder why prices continue to go up and up for services (ie medicine, etc.). For the little amount we are talking here, I think the resolution can come from talking with the travel agent and asking exactly what happened - not in a court of law. What a waste of the court's time.

 

juliew, I hope you noticed that I said "if you TA does not honor what they did wrong". Obviously I would try to resolve the matter with the agency. That being said, if there was still an unresolved problem with the TA, ie, they tried to change the price when it had not been changed by RCCL and are trying to pocked extra money, yes, I would go after them in small claims. There are lots of honest TA's out there, that would never think of doing such a thing. There are a few questionable ones as well. The questionable ones need to go away. That's all.

 

Rick

[Lynnees]

Once you pay your deposit, the price of your cruise CANNOT change!! Period!!!

 

You're absolutely wrong - RCL honours almost all price reductions.

[curlyd]

I will try and be clear - I talked with TA today - she repeated that RCI kept saying that our cruise and air were a package. I told TA that was not the case - I gave her dates and prices quoted on RCI web site for same period for cruise only. She said owner was talking to RCI and she would get back to me. 3 hours later she called and said they got RCI to put the cruise price back to original booking price. I don't know if someone at RCI realized the error or if TA knew more than she was telling me. I don't want to assume any fowl play, only I knew that the cruise price should not have changed with the cancellation of non-custom air. I now have in my hands a corrected-updated copy of my reservation (same #) showing the correct amounts for cruise, hotel, ins. etc. I am happy.

 

Before this happened I was going to try for the hotel stay through Priceline. However even though I believe I could save more money I am afraid of what might happen if I try to cancel my hotel pkg with RCI.:confused: So DH and I have decided this time to keep the hotel and be grateful that all is back the way it should be.

 

Too much stress. Next time we will book everthing directly ourselves. So all is well in cruiseland! Thanks for all the help. You all are a mountain of information that I am very greatful you have shares.

 

Dawn

[cruiseco]

I'm glad everything worked out. But just for everyone's info, in some rare cases RCI could be right -- but this probably didn't apply to the OP's situation.

 

Sometimes on an "exotic" sailing RCI will offer some sort of package deal which includes the cost of the cruise air from the client's home city to the ship's departure point, a one, two, or three night pre-cruise hotel stay, a one, two, or three night post-cruise hotel stay, then return air from the debarkation port back home. This will be booked under a special fare code. They're making so much on the hotel and air arrangements that the cruise portion can be dicounted significantly. Just like ordering a combo at the burger joint -- the total should be less than the sum of the individual components.

 

If at a later date the client drops the whole air/hotel package the booking would move from the special fare code to whatever cruise-only fare code is being offered at that time, which will almiost certainly be higher than the original fare quoted.

 

Anyway, the lesson is if you are booking some cruise/hotel/air package be sure that you won't be penalized on the cruise portion if you change your mind and don't want the combo deal.

[juliew]

juliew, I hope you noticed that I said "if you TA does not honor what they did wrong". Obviously I would try to resolve the matter with the agency. That being said, if there was still an unresolved problem with the TA, ie, they tried to change the price when it had not been changed by RCCL and are trying to pocked extra money, yes, I would go after them in small claims. There are lots of honest TA's out there, that would never think of doing such a thing. There are a few questionable ones as well. The questionable ones need to go away. That's all.

 

Rick

 

Sorry - I still think that for the little amount we are talking here, it isn't worth the court's time and it's a waste.

 

But it sounds like the situation got resolved.

[Ericknow32]

Sorry - I still think that for the little amount we are talking here, it isn't worth the court's time and it's a waste.

 

But it sounds like the situation got resolved.

We don't know what the amount is, so it is quite possible it is not that little.

[sas80]

Just as an afterthought - from here on out I am always checking the price of my cruise against several travel websites AND RCI.

 

I figure, if everyone is offering the same price, why not book directly with RCI?

 

It really saves the headache of "he said, she said" when stuff like this comes up - and I have had to deal with the same sort of stuff!

 

My TA tried to convince me that RCI wouldnt honor my coupons or my platinum balcony discount. TA said she "had" called and checked, and that RCI said 'nope'. I had to call RCI, have them say 'of course we will honor your discounts but you have to go through the TA', then call TA back and push her on it.

 

Just recently, when I was talking to RCI about booking my next cruise (May '06) I asked again if there would be any issues with applying the discounts deserved should I go through TA and I was told by the RCI customer service rep that TA's dont like applying coupons and discounts because it cuts into their commissions.

 

This may be what was happening to you. Can't be certain and I agree that I hate thinking someone could be being dishonest with me...

 

Anyways, from now on it's probably always going to be a direct booking with RCI for me - hopefully I can stave off future headaches!!!