EU booking via US TA

[El_Rolfo]

Hi all, have earlier been using a UK TA for my cruise needs as the Finnish ones are not that price-competitive. Now the prices through the UK site is higher than vs booking through a US TA.

 

The question is: what are the pros and cons for me booking through a US TA?

 

I understood there is some pro with cancelling and getting value from price drops, but how do those actually work?

 

Regards,

Christian

[ThomasZ]

Hi,

 

We are from Germany and always compare the UK pricing, the German pricing and the US Pricing. We do not know pros and cons. But the promos are different in the countries and the Exchange rates. This time we booked with cruisebrothers.com

[dutchclogs]

Having experience of booking in both UK and US, I have concluded that on balance it is usually more favourable to book in the US but that this should not be taken as an absolute given.

 

As others state, there are different promotions in different regions. You are more likely to find better 'deals' from US travel agents in terms of obc, pre paid grats, speciality dining and, possibly, group rates. Cons are shifts in currency exchange rates (but this applies to UK too of course) and differences in time zones impacting on access.

[gerelmx]

Celebrity air, hotel, pre and post cruise packages are only available for USA and Canada guests, also some promos

 

I have a Silhouette Caribbean B2B and Eclipse Hawaii B2B2B, the discount for booking continuous cruises was denied to us.

 

Now we prefer to book here in Mexico because the booking is in pesos, the exchange rate is going up constantly so we are protected in pesos, is like a big discount without asking for it. Here still present the rules of reduced deposit, 75 days for final payment and refundable deposit

[zanderblue]

Celebrity air, hotel, pre and post cruise packages are only available for USA and Canada guests, also some promost

 

This is not quite correct. Probably more accurate to say that packages are only available to bookings made via a US based travel agent.

 

Folks living in EU are able to use US travel agents. I have used several and they are quite happy to take my money.

 

WRT changes in prices. Some TA,s will monitor, a lot won’t. Personally, I use a website that tracks prices for drops and notifies me by email. I recently upgraded from balcony to concierge for less money and additional OBC.

[gerelmx]

This is not quite correct. Probably more accurate to say that packages are only available to bookings made via a US based travel agent.

 

it is correct forgiveness for the error

[dutchclogs]

I've never put it to the test, but there are some discounts for US / Canadian residents/nationals only e.g. military and particular US state residents. Not sure what proof is required for the latter?

[nomad098]

Having booked using UK/EU and US both direct and with a TA there are a lot of pros and cons and some are not that obvious.

 

On a recent NCL cruise we booked in the UK

NCL tried to bump us to a later excursion time meaning we would loose half a day waiting on the ship because they had overbooked the ferry. Under UK/EU regulations overbooking is not a legitimate excuse. As soon as it was pointed out to the excursion manager the booking was made through NCL UK we were immediately put back to the early time.

 

If we had booked in the US we would not have had a leg to stand on.

 

On the flip side to this people on our roll call for this cruise were upgrading to haven cabins, cancelling before final payment with no penalty and getting lots of OBC.