Travel Agent Question....

[SunNFunCruzer]

Does anyone know if a TA buys you a bottle of wine, robes or chocolate covered strawberries to be placed in your room pre-sailway -- do they pay full list price? Or is there a special TA rate sheet for "gifting".  Thanks!  

[ghstudio]

Other than curiosity, why do you care?

[SunNFunCruzer]

Harsh.  Do I need another reason?   Is my post that threatening? 

 

There are tons of random questions all over this site.    Is CC full of clandestine Agents....?

Edited May 10, 2019 by SunNFunCruzer

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

Does anyone know if a TA buys you a bottle of wine, robes or chocolate covered strawberries to be placed in your room pre-sailway -- do they pay full list price? Or is there a special TA rate sheet for "gifting".  Thanks!  

No you pay for it with their inflated cruise prices. 😜

[Ken the cruiser]

We get from our TA when we book a cruise either OBC (Oceania, Crystal or Celebrity) or a reduction in cruise fare (HAL or Princess) or a rebate check just before sailing (when we book an all inclusive Galapagos cruise with Silversea or X). If you have a TA that only buys you flowers or some other gift, I recommend finding another TA

[Wine-O]

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We get from our TA when we book a cruise either OBC (Oceania, Crystal or Celebrity) or a reduction in cruise fare (HAL or Princess) or a rebate check just before sailing (when we book an all inclusive Galapagos cruise with Silversea or X). If you have a TA that only buys you flowers or some other gift, I recommend finding another TA

A bottle of wine, whatever the cost, is peanuts.  A good TA should be able to give you 10% OBC after taxes & port fees.  Check around, do some searching, and ask others on cruises.

[oneputt18]

10 hours ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

Does anyone know if a TA buys you a bottle of wine, robes or chocolate covered strawberries to be placed in your room pre-sailway -- do they pay full list price? Or is there a special TA rate sheet for "gifting".  Thanks!  

There is a special gift list TA's purchase from. For example, the robe is $55 on website, it is $41.25 on the TA portal.

[mayleeman]

I would like to know what a TA's commission rate is to be able to give all this stuff.  Does it vary based on total fare? Type of cabin?

 

I contacted one with a major Web presence who told me it is prohibited by their contracts with cruiselines to rebate the commission to passengers, so she offered me a total of only $50 to transfer 3 cruises to her (total fares of $10,000). 

 

Maybe I should have asked for strawberries instead?

 

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by mayleeman

[Wine-O]

20 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

I would like to know what a TA's commission rate is to be able to give all this stuff.  Does it vary based on total fare? Type of cabin?

 

I contacted one with a major Web presence who told me it is prohibited by their contracts with cruiselines to rebate the commission to passengers, so she offered me a total of only $50 to transfer 3 cruises to her (total fares of $10,000). 

 

Maybe I should have asked for strawberries instead?

 

 

Large  TA's get 15% commission (after taxes/port charges).  So if they give you 10%, they still make 5%.  They make their money on volume.  Look for another TA.

[wendychloecruiser]

53 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

I would like to know what a TA's commission rate is to be able to give all this stuff.  Does it vary based on total fare? Type of cabin?

 

I contacted one with a major Web presence who told me it is prohibited by their contracts with cruiselines to rebate the commission to passengers, so she offered me a total of only $50 to transfer 3 cruises to her (total fares of $10,000). 

 

Maybe I should have asked for strawberries instead?

 

53 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

 

 

 

You need a new TA. 

[Hlitner]

We book a lot of cruises (sometimes over 100 days a year) and shop around among our favorite cruise agencies with the goal of getting  OBCs, discounts, and/or amenities worth at least 10%  of the cruise fare.  Sometimes we are disappointed and only get about 7%....but the days of settling for a bottle of cheap wine are long past. 

 

Hank

[grandgeezer]

I think commissions are based on travel agency volume and price. Except if we're lucky and actually find a sale, we are usually in the 12%+ category. The other exception was transatlantics, before they got so pricey, it was in the 5%-7% range.

Unless it's a true group rate, we usually pay the going rate and get it back in the form of refundable obc, spa treatments, or specialty restaurant meals.

[Luvcrusn]

6 hours ago, mayleeman said:

I would like to know what a TA's commission rate is to be able to give all this stuff.  Does it vary based on total fare? Type of cabin?

 

I contacted one with a major Web presence who told me it is prohibited by their contracts with cruiselines to rebate the commission to passengers, so she offered me a total of only $50 to transfer 3 cruises to her (total fares of $10,000). 

 

Maybe I should have asked for strawberries instead?

 

 

You should ask for a different TA. Ours always gives extra perks, OBC (up to 10% of cruise fare), a loyalty OBC and many times a combo of those. Strawberries, a bottle of wine (which we get with Concierge class and up or can order with our BP by the glass) robes (which come with every cabin for use on board) would not be enough for us to transfer 1 , let alone 3 cruises to a TA!

[DrKoob]

On 5/9/2019 at 7:56 PM, davekathy said:

No you pay for it with their inflated cruise prices. 😜

 

Excuse me? Prices you get from a TA are EXACTLY what you pay if you book directly with X. If they aren't get a new TA.

[Luvcrusn]

28 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

 

Excuse me? Prices you get from a TA are EXACTLY what you pay if you book directly with X. If they aren't get a new TA.

Sometimes the T prices are hundreds of dollars pp LESS  than X prices because TAs may have a block of rooms in a group.  In the case of one of our upcoming cruises our TA is currently showing the fare for an Aqua cabin at $500 pp LESS than X website. That's also not considering the extra perks they are offering that X is not. 

[ghstudio]

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

 

Excuse me? Prices you get from a TA are EXACTLY what you pay if you book directly with X. If they aren't get a new TA.

 

You should never pay MORE than the price you find on Celebrity's site, but be careful because Celebrity quotes non-refundable prices so compare apples to apples. (note: believe it or not, Celebrity has also shown "travel agent only" prices on their own web site....yes, I tried to get my fare adjusted and was told it was a special "TA only" price...I still scratch my head about that one). As Luvcrusn said, some travel agents reserve a group of rooms....some reserve only in certain categories, others just reserve a block of x rooms....and they can then offer the cruise at a lower price.  We have saved over $2000 by cancelling and rebooking a cruise through one agency...and we got all four perks as well (actually, we learned about the deal through a cruisecritic newsletter...you should read them).  Most deals aren't that good, but you can generally save a few hundred dollars and/or get additional perks on many cruises...not all. 

 

I agree that a bottle of wine or a specialty dinner is pretty meager and I'd shop on for a better deal.  I consider the "coupon book" of savings and/or the reduced price excursions as essentially worth nothing...(we generally book our own small group/private excursions).  

 

The best source of TA information is talking to people on your next cruise....it's not allowed here.  You'll quickly find the same internet TA's mentioned.  Our experience is that some of the internet TA's are really the same company in different clothing, so to speak.  We now have four TA's that we always check before booking or moving a reservation to one of them.......

[sippican]

4 hours ago, DrKoob said:

 

Excuse me? Prices you get from a TA are EXACTLY what you pay if you book directly with X. If they aren't get a new TA.

 

That's not exactly true. Large travel agencies block out tons of cabins on the day the bookings open . Which is frequently as low as the price is going to get. So say you start looking for a cabin on a particluar cruise six months later. You may find that the price on the X website is significantly higher than what a TA can offer you from their blocked inventory, which is also a group rate.

[Wine-O]

You need to check with your TA to see if they have specials on the sailing you are looking at.  For example, I looked at a Med cruise that was $4100 and change, non-refundable fare.  The TA had a special on that sailing for $3700 and change, plus it was a fully refundable fare.  The only stipulation was you had to put down the full $900 deposit.