TA charged both RCCL and agency?

[ctnurse]

I made our final payment for our cruise a few days ago.  I noticed   on my credit card that he billed RCCL about 90% and the agency had about 10% charge. I also have an invoice that says PIF.   Does anyone know why? I am going to send him an email, but I want to know if anyone knows why this may of happened before I email him.  

[Bee Guy]

Not sure who "he" is, Travel Agent?    Was the total amount different than what you expected?

[ctnurse]

2 minutes ago, Bee Guy said:

Not sure who "he" is, Travel Agent?    Was the total amount different than what you expected?

Yes, he is the Travel Agent.  Charge was the exact total, but I was surprised that the cruise line wasn't charged the full amount.  And if anyone could give me some insight as to why.  🙂

[Wine-O]

Our TA is starting to do that -- I believe what they are doing, instead of sending the entire amount to RCCL, then RCCL sends them their commission check afterwards.  I think they are taking their commission up front.  Must be an agreement they made with the cruise line.  It must be something new, since it just happened to me for one of my recent cruises.

[nelblu]

2 hours ago, Wine-O said:

Our TA is starting to do that -- I believe what they are doing, instead of sending the entire amount to RCCL, then RCCL sends them their commission check afterwards.  I think they are taking their commission up front.  Must be an agreement they made with the cruise line.  It must be something new, since it just happened to me for one of my recent cruises.

 

I'm surprised that this is not the norm.  I worked for a large insurance broker and in addition to investing collected premium prior to paying the insurance company, we paid the individual insurance premium net of commissions or fees.

[suesnake2002]

I only had that happen once. Not a fan of it, because i use a rccl credit card. So i do not get double points on what is charged to ta

[nelblu]

3 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

I only had that happen once. Not a fan of it, because i use a rccl credit card. So i do not get double points on what is charged to ta

 

I'm assuming you're referring only to the double points on the comms that is not remitted to RCL.

[Clarea]

3 hours ago, ctnurse said:

I made our final payment for our cruise a few days ago.  I noticed   on my credit card that he billed RCCL about 90% and the agency had about 10% charge. I also have an invoice that says PIF.   Does anyone know why? I am going to send him an email, but I want to know if anyone knows why this may of happened before I email him.  

 

Did you book with a non-US/Canadian travel agent?

[tutzig]

So, let's use easy numbers.

 

Your cruise is $2000. The commission that the agent gets is $100. As long as the cruise line gets its $1900, you are paid in full.

 

So that is probably why you see 2 charges. I am a TA and never do it this way for clients. It gets them full protection (From Credit Card) for the full amount. I am NOT saying the TA is doing anything wrong, just not the way that a lot of agencies work.

 

 

[ctnurse]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Did you book with a non-US/Canadian travel agent?

No booked with one of the "big" US travel agency using my US credit card and address.  

[ctnurse]

32 minutes ago, tutzig said:

So, let's use easy numbers.

 

Your cruise is $2000. The commission that the agent gets is $100. As long as the cruise line gets its $1900, you are paid in full.

 

So that is probably why you see 2 charges. I am a TA and never do it this way for clients. It gets them full protection (From Credit Card) for the full amount. I am NOT saying the TA is doing anything wrong, just not the way that a lot of agencies work.

 

 

Thank you for this explanation.  I have used this TA in the past and had a good experience, but for this cruise and another one I have booked I haven't been all that happy with his service, and for our next cruise I will most likely use someone else.  

Edited March 14, 2019 by ctnurse

[tutzig]

10 minutes ago, ctnurse said:

Thank you for this explanation.  I have used this TA in the past and had a good experience, but for this cruise and another one I have booked I haven't been all that happy with his service, and for our next cruise I will most likely use someone else.  

 

Would be my best suggestion..

[GEORGIEGIRL]

PIF. Probably means "Paid In Full".

[maria1122]

On 3/14/2019 at 8:48 AM, suesnake2002 said:

I only had that happen once. Not a fan of it, because i use a rccl credit card. So i do not get double points on what is charged to ta

 

That happened to me just today.  I called the agency and told them I was losing points.  They Cancelled the charge and resubmitted it to

Royal.  It was almost $1500. On a B2B.  That’s quite a few points.