Best Sale Ever and TA

[dstables]

Just wondering if anyone who uses a TA that discounts their fares when booking with them have asked to add any of the perk packages allowed under this sale to be added to an existing booking?  Did your TA add the cost of the package to your booking and discount their price again? Or is this added cost not being discounted by TA’s who discount?  

[Ken the cruiser]

31 minutes ago, dstables said:

Just wondering if anyone who uses a TA that discounts their fares when booking with them have asked to add any of the perk packages allowed under this sale to be added to an existing booking?  Did your TA add the cost of the package to your booking and discount their price again? Or is this added cost not being discounted by TA’s who discount?  

As far as we can tell, our TA did not change their discount on any of the 6 bookings we either had refared or had perks added. But that's fine with us. We made out quite well on all of them.

[Steelers36]

39 minutes ago, dstables said:

Just wondering if anyone who uses a TA that discounts their fares when booking with them have asked to add any of the perk packages allowed under this sale to be added to an existing booking?  Did your TA add the cost of the package to your booking and discount their price again? Or is this added cost not being discounted by TA’s who discount?  

Our TA has the best discount rate I have ever encountered or heard of.  I did make this precise inquiry of our TA and she ran it up the flagpole to management and the answer came back "No" for the B.S.E. Add-On packages.

 

Yes, they form part of the cruise fare and they are commissionable, but IDK if at the same rate.  Or perhaps agencies don't earn whatever type of bonus points or other incentives that might exist for large sales volumes.  I was not given a reason why not.  Had I decided to switch to B.S.E. re-fare, then of course I would have received the full discount.  But adding on to a 3FF booking would mean no discount on the BEST2xx package.  

 

I am curious to know why, but I have to assume they couldn't do it financially.  OTOH, they also did not come back and say they could discount it X% rather than the usual 15%.

 

We are not doing an Add-On since even the good rate offered would cost us more than we spend on drinks.  Even if I did add it, I don't think I would be shopping around for a TA to discount the Add-On (notwithstanding we would be outside the 60-day transfer window).  OTOH, with a 15% discount, I likely would have booked the Add-On. 

 

We can always hope that if these Add-Ons are treated the same as cruise fares by Princess when compensating TA's, that some of our collective discount agencies will see with experience that they can afford to offer a discount to their clients.  It could be that it was so new that agency management just doesn't realize how they will be compensated/treated by Princess.

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by steelers36

[Steelers36]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

As far as we can tell, our TA did not change their discount on any of the 6 bookings we either had refared or had perks added. But that's fine with us. We made out quite well on all of them.

But there is a difference.  On a cruise you re-fared, you should have received a new discount off the new fare at the same percentage rate as your original booking.  On a cruise where you simply added on a BEST2xx package, did you pay full price for the package or was it also discounted at the same rate as the original booking that you kept?

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

But there is a difference.  On a cruise you re-fared, you should have received a new discount off the new fare at the same percentage rate as your original booking.  On a cruise where you simply added on a BEST2xx package, did you pay full price for the package or was it also discounted at the same rate as the original booking that you kept?

Our refared bookings, which didn't have any attached promotions, were ones we had recently booked that were in mid and late 2021 and early 2022 whose prices had already dropped prior to the BSE and only rose a few hundred when we had them refared. As far as the add-ons go, their prices had also dropped a few hundred from the time we refared them a few months ago to pick up an earlier promotion, such as 3FF. 

 

Since we only get around 9.3% fare reduction from our TA, any resulting commission change from these modifications would be negligible and to be honest not a real concern as our TA usually refares each of our bookings at least 3-4 times before we sail.

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Our refared bookings, which didn't have any attached promotions, were ones we had recently booked that were in mid and late 2021 and early 2022 whose prices had already dropped prior to the BSE and only rose a few hundred when we had them refared. As far as the add-ons go, their prices had also dropped a few hundred from the time we refared them a few months ago to pick up an earlier promotion, such as 3FF. 

 

Since we only get around 9.3% fare reduction from our TA, any resulting commission change from these modifications would be negligible and to be honest not a real concern as our TA usually refares each of our bookings at least 3-4 times before we sail.

I was seeking to clarify as the OP was interested in knowing if anyone's discount TA gave a discount when simply adding on a B.S.E. package, such as BEST2DW, to an existing booking.  I was also curious to see any responses as I had already inquired what our agency was going to (I had asked within the first few days of the new sale).  Let's say a TA discount is 10%.  If they were offering a discount on the Add-On's then a $30 package would cost $27.

[franktown]

No my discount TA did not discount the cost of B.S.E. when they added it to my existing booking.  If I would of refared she would of but the new cost would of been higher as the cruise fare under the sale was much higher.

[HappilyEverAft-ers]

When I originally booked my cruise, Princess was offering free tips and OBC.  When I turned it over to my TA, she discounted the cost of the cruise, and increased my OBC.  When the BSE came out, she applied the drink package & wifi for $25 pp per day.  Everything else stayed the same. 

[Steelers36]

So far, it looks like discount TA's are not discounting the B.S.E. Add-On packages ($25 to $40 /pp/day).

 

[Bizziecruzer]

We received a 10% discount by adding the daily amount to our current booking.  We did not refare. 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Bizziecruzer

[jeanandjim]

Anyone have clarity on what the different levels of add-ons are?. We got beverage and wifi for $25pp per day. Have heard of $30 and $40. What else is included in these add-ons?

Jim😎

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, jeanandjim said:

Anyone have clarity on what the different levels of add-ons are?. We got beverage and wifi for $25pp per day. Have heard of $30 and $40. What else is included in these add-ons?

Jim😎

Gratuities

[Tedferg]

The new confirmation from our TA showed the discounted price per person for cruise and then a second item showing BEST2DG at #30 pp pd

[loohoo1]

21 hours ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I can’t wait until I get to a point where I can understand what the heck is being talked about in these types of threads.

 

LOL! Same!