TA service charge when your cruise is cancelled

[caribill]

3 hours ago, phabric said:

 

That is why I said do a further deposit for just #1 & #2 only.

 

 

 

Understood, but you cannot add to your deposit and specify which passengers it applies to. It applies to the entire booking.

[donaldsc]

I have not read all the replies on this thread but I am going to play sort of a devil's advocate here.  When you book w a TA, you are sort of paying for her services when the cruise is booked and also for her services when problems occur after the cruise is booked.  The fact that Covid occurred  is not her fault and she has to do still more work to either ensure your refund or to arrange a new delayed cruise.  She gets no compensation for either service and she has lost the commisskon for the cancelled cruise.

 

I am not sure what I would do under these circumstances but I do not feel that it is unreasonable for her to receive some compensation to cover her costs for booking and then dealing with the cancelled cruise.  If you have a great TA who goes out of business because of the Covid pandemic, both of you lose.  She looses because she is out of business and you lose because you can no longer get the excellent service that you are used to receive from her.

 

DON

[drsel]

I would not trust my money with a small time agent, because they are more likely to go out of business

[$hip$hape]

28 minutes ago, drsel said:

I would not trust my money with a small time agent, because they are more likely to go out of business

Contrarily, at my age and finance level,

 I would not trust dealing directly

with a  cruise line “personal cruise consultant”.

Edited August 10, 2020 by $hip$hape

[drsel]

Contrarily, at my age and finance level,  I would not trust dealing directly with a  cruise line “personal cruise consultant”.

 

 

I never implied that you should use a personal Cruise consultant of the cruise line. 

Of course you should NOT use a personal cruise consultant of any cruise line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drsel]

use the US bidding site where various travel agents will make different offers to give you the cheapest and best price for your selected Cruise along with the maximum OBC or discount and even other gifts like a speciality dinner, etc

 

 

[$hip$hape]

3 minutes ago, drsel said:

use the US bidding site where various travel agents will make different offers to give you the cheapest and best price for your selected Cruise along with the maximum OBC and even other gifts like a speciality dinner, etc

You are correct.

Thank you for your opinion.

A few years ago, after much consideration,

we chose our favorite TA.

Too bad cruise critic

won’t let us share opinions. 
 

[drsel]

We probably have the same favourite TA from the bidding site

 

 

[$hip$hape]

1 minute ago, drsel said:

We probably have the same favourite TA from the bidding site

 

 

👍😃

[caribill]

11 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I have not read all the replies on this thread but I am going to play sort of a devil's advocate here.  When you book w a TA, you are sort of paying for her services when the cruise is booked and also for her services when problems occur after the cruise is booked.  The fact that Covid occurred  is not her fault and she has to do still more work to either ensure your refund or to arrange a new delayed cruise.  She gets no compensation for either service and she has lost the commission for the cancelled cruise.

 

I am not sure what I would do under these circumstances but I do not feel that it is unreasonable for her to receive some compensation to cover her costs for booking and then dealing with the cancelled cruise.

 

In that case, Princess should provide the compensation. Princess cancelled the cruise, not the passenger.

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

In that case, Princess should provide the compensation. Princess cancelled the cruise, not the passenger.

 

In theory you are right.  But we all know that Princess isn't going to provide her with squat so is there some sort of reasonable plan B  as opposed to just ignoring the problem.  Paying a reasonable cancellation fee is not going to break me and if it helps keep her in business so that she is around to continue to provide me with good service once things open up again is to me a reasonable plan B.

 

I get really annoyed when people on CC work really hard trying to extract a few bucks from the people who work hard to make my trips enjoyable.  I have done business with her late father and with her for years now and I have even cruised with her father.   As I said, I don't have a problem with helping her with a reasonable cancellation fee.

 

DON

[2 cruises a year]

12 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

In theory you are right.  But we all know that Princess isn't going to provide her with squat so is there some sort of reasonable plan B  as opposed to just ignoring the problem.  Paying a reasonable cancellation fee is not going to break me and if it helps keep her in business so that she is around to continue to provide me with good service once things open up again is to me a reasonable plan B.

 

I get really annoyed when people on CC work really hard trying to extract a few bucks from the people who work hard to make my trips enjoyable.  I have done business with her late father and with her for years now and I have even cruised with her father.   As I said, I don't have a problem with helping her with a reasonable cancellation fee.

 

DON

 

I'd give ten likes if I could. 

[drsel]

I agree that travel agents have a right to a decent income, especially in these hard times.

that being said, I am very lucky that my travel agent does not charge any cancellation fee whatsoever

[Ombud]

On 8/10/2020 at 12:38 PM, drsel said:

I never implied that you should use a personal Cruise consultant of the cruise line. 

Of course you should NOT use a personal cruise consultant of any cruise line.

why? My PVP gets me OBC almost every time even when it doesn't show on the website, can transfer FCC while I'm on the phone with her (really important right now), and even got me extra FCC just because full reimbursement took so long (goodwill credit). I'm reading how others are having delays getting TAs to transfer FCC  ..... not me

Edited August 23, 2020 by Ombud

[drsel]

Then you are really lucky

[drsel]

I think the personal Cruise consultants of the cruise line (who are employees of The Cruise lines) do not give any extra, unofficial OBC

 

 

[phabric]

My TA owns 3 offices, does not charge cancellation, added a small OBC.  She said she has not been paid since April.

[drsel]

Actually they receive the commission of 10 to 16% only after the sailing is completed

[Ombud]

3 hours ago, drsel said:

I think the personal Cruise consultants of the cruise line (who are employees of The Cruise lines) do not give any extra, unofficial OBC

my TA has only 15. If I went to Alaska in July there was none but 60 if I went August 9th (+ specialty dinner, 100 rebooking, 15 goodwill). PVPs can give OBC. You're operating on bad info

 

Plus she contacted everyone for me when my British Air EZAIR flight from SFO -> Heathrow was canceled an hour before the flight like any TA would do.  Now granted she did not get me a new flight, American Airlines did that. Maybe that's something TAs do that PVPs don't do. Rebook a flight while you're at the airport 

[voljeep]

4 hours ago, drsel said:

I agree that travel agents have a right to a decent income, especially in these hard times.

that being said, I am very lucky that my travel agent does not charge any cancellation fee whatsoever

" A right" - ??? that's the dealio with commissioned sales business ... highs and lows ... good and bad

[Ombud]

But I do feel sorry for them having to go on unemployment 

[Ombud]

@drsel I apologize for sounding so snarky. Being under pressure for evacuation while Sheltering in Place is the pits. Its my issue not yours. And it has no place on CC. 😔

[Aulanis]

On 8/11/2020 at 8:17 AM, donaldsc said:

 

 But we all know that Princess isn't going to provide her with squat .....

DON

 

4 hours ago, drsel said:

Actually they receive the commission of 10 to 16% only after the sailing is completed

 

I believed that Princess were paying TA commissions on Fully Paid  cruises cancelled by them?

And obviously the cruise would not have to be completed.

Just when it is paid may be another question  after the original cruise end date?  when the client gets their refund?   other?

 

They were also  paying commissions on cruises booked using FCCs   so cant guess what will happen then if the replacement cruise is/ has been cancelled as well .   So conceivably the TAs would

continue to have some commission income all the time. 

[drsel]

  I believed that Princess were paying TA commissions on Fully Paid  cruises cancelled by them?

And obviously the cruise would not have to be completed.

Just when it is paid may be another question  after the original cruise end date?  when the client gets their refund?   other?

 

They were also  paying commissions on cruises booked using FCCs   so cant guess what will happen then if the replacement cruise is/ has been cancelled as well .   So conceivably the TAs would

continue to have some commission income all the time. 

in case Princess cancels the cruise then I think the commissions are paid at the time of cancellation (by Princess and other Cruise lines also) 

 

 

[drsel]

Commissions are paid on cancellation of Cruises, only if the customer has made full payment , not just a deposit.

On deposits there is no commission paid