Online TA Closing

[Aus Traveller]

22 minutes ago, peter1956 said:

in The T&C's it does say that if I cancel they will charge the $300 fee per person which is fine if I decide to cancel. But you would think that as the other party cancelled they would waive the fee or at least charge a small admin charge?

I think what the are saying is that because I don't want their instore credit I am cancelling?

I agree with the others who say you should challenge this. If they don't give you a refund, refer it to your state Consumer Affairs.

 

BTW, my TA charged a $100 pp cancellation fee on our P&O cruise. We cancelled, P&O didn't. But on our two Princess cruises where Princess cancelled, there was no fee charged.

[peter1956]

I am happy for them to charge a small admin fee for all the paperwork, bank fees etc. But not $600. I am sure I am not the only one who went through them that are affected.

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, peter1956 said:

Been in contact with our flighty Center travel agents. will only offer a store future credit for our cancelled Celebrity cruise not a cash refund 😞

So wish I had never used them.

Probably because there have no cash flow, no cash to return to clients.  They would paying out redundancy packages to their permanent employees including long service leave etc.   They also have many casuals who will get zilch from the company but a place on the Centrelink queue and $1500 a fortnight from SCOMO, which is generous in my opinion.

[The_Big_M]

5 hours ago, peter1956 said:

Been in contact with our flighty Center travel agents. will only offer a store future credit for our cancelled Celebrity cruise not a cash refund 😞

So wish I had never used them.

 

They can't do that. If Celebrity have issued a cash refund they have to pass it back in the same form. Cancellation fee I can understand, but conversion is not on. Take it to Fairtrading.

[The_Big_M]

4 hours ago, peter1956 said:

At this point in time the the FCC looks good so long as I don't have to use the FCC through them. I thought as they were a big chain of travel agents I would have no problems.

 

In regards to the cruise I have have the following 3 options:

 

1. Keep the full amount paid for the cruise as a travel agent credit

 

2. Or cancel and get charged a $300 per person cancellation fee

 

3. Get 125% FCC from Celebrity.

 

Oh, okay, they're offering 1) as an extra substitute to cover off their cancellation fee. 

 

Under the terms they're entitled to 2), so if you take that all is compliant. If you wish to book with them again, you can take 1) instead for no loss.

[The_Big_M]

2 hours ago, peter1956 said:

in The T&C's it does say that if I cancel they will charge the $300 fee per person which is fine if I decide to cancel. But you would think that as the other party cancelled they would waive the fee or at least charge a small admin charge?

I think what the are saying is that because I don't want their instore credit I am cancelling?

 

It depends on the specific wording of the T&Cs. If it just refers to cancellation (which is the way I've taken it so far) then it's fine. If it actually refers to you the buyer cancelling only, then they still need to provide a refund.

[ELep]

Yes, I am sorry to see this one go. I have had a couple of good experiences with them. I hope they manage to get my refund back to me before they close up shop. Lots of refunds being offered by all these cruise companies, but I yet to read of anyone actually receiving their $$ back yet.

 

[peter1956]

3 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Oh, okay, they're offering 1) as an extra substitute to cover off their cancellation fee. 

 

Under the terms they're entitled to 2), so if you take that all is compliant. If you wish to book with them again, you can take 1) instead for no loss.

I think I will never book with them again so it is the 125% FCC for us. Looking at their Facebook page there are a lot of unhappy customers complaining about the fee. I think it will cause them to lose a lot of customers once things return to almost normal.

[subaru94]

On 4/1/2020 at 6:39 PM, peter1956 said:

I think I will never book with them again so it is the 125% FCC for us. Looking at their Facebook page there are a lot of unhappy customers complaining about the fee. I think it will cause them to lose a lot of customers once things return to almost normal.

We had the same issue as you, Princess refunded us 70% of our cruise as it finished early in Fremantle,  which was sent to TA, who then said if you want money $300 each off, unless you keep money with them, they were on Current Affair Sunday night, however, I don't think it achieved much, so after our 2 cruises booked with them will either go direct or another TA who has been good with us.

[peter1956]

1 hour ago, subaru94 said:

We had the same issue as you, Princess refunded us 70% of our cruise as it finished early in Fremantle,  which was sent to TA, who then said if you want money $300 each off, unless you keep money with them, they were on Current Affair Sunday night, however, I don't think it achieved much, so after our 2 cruises booked with them will either go direct or another TA who has been good with us.

Hopefully if enough people complain they will change policy.

Surely they realise the damage they are doing to themselves?

[dizzy1948]

22 minutes ago, peter1956 said:

Hopefully if enough people complain they will change policy.

Surely they realise the damage they are doing to themselves?

They have closed 420 stores, so perhaps they are looking to go totally online, and could "rebrand" and pop up again when things die down. You can bet the policy won't change - probably just reword it. Yep...…..I am being cynical but that's a ploy that has been used more than once with other companies of varying types

Edited April 8, 2020 by dizzy1948

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, peter1956 said:

Hopefully if enough people complain they will change policy.

Surely they realise the damage they are doing to themselves?

Maybe they can't afford to change their policy.

 

BTW, I don't think it is fair to charge a cancellation fee when the cruise is cancelled by the cruiseline. We had several cruises booked through a different TA and were charged $100 pp on a P&O cruise that we cancelled. The cruises booked with Princess were cancelled by the cruiseline, so we paid no cancellation fee. We are just waiting for our refunds or FCC.

[subaru94]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Maybe they can't afford to change their policy.

 

BTW, I don't think it is fair to charge a cancellation fee when the cruise is cancelled by the cruiseline. We had several cruises booked through a different TA and were charged $100 pp on a P&O cruise that we cancelled. The cruises booked with Princess were cancelled by the cruiseline, so we paid no cancellation fee. We are just waiting for our refunds or FCC.

That's how I thought it should be as cruise line cancelled cruise, we DID not, comes across as money grabbing.

 

[The_Big_M]

It's a rare person/entity that doesn't worry about their own survival, and are happy to die.

[Peacefulness]

We have three cruises booked through them. One with a Princess future cruise deposit. Two booked on-board Celebrity Solstice and transferred to Cruise Sale Finder. I received an email from them informing me that all our bookings will be transferred to the cruise line directly and we'll have to deal with Princess and Celebrity direct.

 

I haven't as yet witnessed the transfer.

 

I can see the booking on the Princess website, but the booking is still showing 'Online Republic Group Au'. I have no idea what's happening with our two Celebrity cruise bookings. I can't even log into the Celebrity site to check. Have tried for a couple of weeks and I keep getting a message that their website is unavailable and try again soon. Tania

 

[MMDown Under]

On 4/8/2020 at 8:45 AM, subaru94 said:

We had the same issue as you, Princess refunded us 70% of our cruise as it finished early in Fremantle,  which was sent to TA, who then said if you want money $300 each off, unless you keep money with them, they were on Current Affair Sunday night, however, I don't think it achieved much, so after our 2 cruises booked with them will either go direct or another TA who has been good with us.

What does Princess pay TA if they refund 70% of cruise to customer.  Does TA only get 30% commission, or full commission due on the cruise?

[MMDown Under]

On 4/8/2020 at 11:09 AM, Aus Traveller said:

Maybe they can't afford to change their policy.

 

BTW, I don't think it is fair to charge a cancellation fee when the cruise is cancelled by the cruiseline. We had several cruises booked through a different TA and were charged $100 pp on a P&O cruise that we cancelled. The cruises booked with Princess were cancelled by the cruiseline, so we paid no cancellation fee. We are just waiting for our refunds or FCC.

If the cruise line cancels a cruise, does the TA get no commission?  If so, maybe TAs should call their fees administrative fees, rather than cancellation fees. Seems to me, they are entitled to some money for the work they have done.  If they receive commission, they shouldn't be charging for cruises the cruise line cancels.  

[Russell21]

I personally think that the practice of keeping $300.00, or whatever, when a cruise/flight or holiday is cancelled by the cruise line is borderline theft, and should be taken to Dept of Fair Trading, or whatever the dept is called these days.

[Aus Traveller]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

If the cruise line cancels a cruise, does the TA get no commission?  If so, maybe TAs should call their fees administrative fees, rather than cancellation fees. Seems to me, they are entitled to some money for the work they have done.  If they receive commission, they shouldn't be charging for cruises the cruise line cancels.  

I agree with your comment, that the TA has done the work so should not be left without commission, or at least a reasonable amount of money to cover costs. In one of Princess' statements they said they would look after their TA's by paying commission. On a P&O cruise we cancelled, our TA charged us $100 pp. We felt that was quite reasonable.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Without TA,s there would be no cruising . The cruise lines rely on the agents to reel in new clients . 

[lissie]

43 minutes ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

Without TA,s there would be no cruising . The cruise lines rely on the agents to reel in new clients . 

 

Really? Havent found  a cruise line yet that doens't accept bookings via a website? 

[peter1956]

The TA charging the $300 per person fee, changed their rules on Friday. All cruise line bookings can now be refunded free of charge. All other holiday bookings still have the $300 fee but now capped.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

3 minutes ago, lissie said:

 

Really? Havent found  a cruise line yet that doens't accept bookings via a website? 

Of course they will accept direct on line bookings , but not everyone is tech savvy .

 

 

 

[Ondine]

 

The following is from a Princess announcement regarding the cancelling of cruises - updated on April 14th.  I remember seeing it on the original email from Princess cancelling my 23rd March cruise which I received around 12th March.

 

Princess will protect travel advisor commissions on bookings for cancelled cruises that were paid in full, in recognition of the critical role travel advisors play in the cruise line’s business and success.

 

My understanding is that TAs get their commissions from cruises by deducting it out of the final payment.  I may be wrong on this.  However this statement from Princess makes it clear that TAs will keep  payments already received so I do not see why they are charging for cancelling cruises when the cruise lines did the cancelling.  As far as I am concerned when you have paid in full then it should be none of the TAs business.  You have bought the cruise and paid so it should be between you and the cruise company.

 

My reading of this Princess statement is that they will refund you in full and the TA will get to keep their payment also.   

 

When you get a moveover offer they give you a refund of the full amount of the fare plus the TA gets extra for his trouble in rebooking, so this is similar.

[MMDown Under]

6 hours ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

Without TA,s there would be no cruising . The cruise lines rely on the agents to reel in new clients . 

I have never understood that.  I prefer to book everything direct.