No Travel Agents

[sanger727]

17 hours ago, gerryuk said:

A serious question, are those who book online and who don't use travel agents, subsidising those cruisers, who do?

 

 

Yes. I've seen more and more hotels/resorts offer direct booking discounts/perks. It would be an interesting dynamic if the cruise lines began offering direct booking discounts/perks. 

 

As a childless couple, we are constantly subsidizing things for people with kids, so while it's annoying, it's a part of life. All those "kids sail free" promos, and anywhere you go where a child gets a full seat but pays less than full price. 

[SRF]

On 8/4/2020 at 12:02 PM, Hlitner said:

Until Southwest came along and decided not to pay commissions it was also argued that no airline could survive without travel agents.  Not only has Southwest survived, but it has truly done well by tossing aside all the old/normal airline policies and doing their own thing. 

 

Hank

 

Partly by deceptive advertising practices.  They actually caused a law to be passed to stop them.  They started by only advertising the airfare, and not the actual cost of the ticket.  And all their fares were advertised as one way.

 

People thought they were so cheap because of this, and fly them without comparing prices.  There is a reason they will not allow their fares to be listed on the fare comparison sites.

 

A couple of years ago, a friend was looking at flying from San Diego to Minneapolis for a gathering.  She was looking at SW, since they are cheap.   When she told me the fare, I checked Delta and found that Delta was over $200 cheaper.  And had non-stop flights, instead of having to change planes.

 

Years ago I loved the billboard outside BWI about flights to Nashville for $79.95.  One way.  Plus fees and taxes.  Actual price was around $240 or more round trip.  I would just shake my head when heading to my Delta flight, at $135 per person round trip (actual cost) and being upgraded to First class. 😄

[bigrednole]

This is my experience trying to book my first cruise. Going online to the cruise line site was simple, efficient, and everything. I did look at a travel agent site which gave a few more perks. I went through the travel agent site for that. If Covid never happened, I would have NEVER had any communication with the travel agent. I would have booked the cruise there the same way I would have on the cruise line site. I didn't see any real benefit other than the $100 OBC. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

 

Partly by deceptive advertising practices.  They actually caused a law to be passed to stop them.  They started by only advertising the airfare, and not the actual cost of the ticket.  And all their fares were advertised as one way.

 

People thought they were so cheap because of this, and fly them without comparing prices.  There is a reason they will not allow their fares to be listed on the fare comparison sites.

 

A couple of years ago, a friend was looking at flying from San Diego to Minneapolis for a gathering.  She was looking at SW, since they are cheap.   When she told me the fare, I checked Delta and found that Delta was over $200 cheaper.  And had non-stop flights, instead of having to change planes.

 

Years ago I loved the billboard outside BWI about flights to Nashville for $79.95.  One way.  Plus fees and taxes.  Actual price was around $240 or more round trip.  I would just shake my head when heading to my Delta flight, at $135 per person round trip (actual cost) and being upgraded to First class. 😄

You'd have to pay me to fly on Southwest.

[Charles4515]

You'd have to pay me to fly on Southwest.

Southwest is my favorite airline for domestic flights. No change fees or bag fees. Usually my choice is between American and Southwest. Southwest usually wins every time.


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[Toofarfromthesea]

On 8/4/2020 at 1:25 PM, gerryuk said:

Just a thought, but if the cruise lines stopped shovelling 15% of their overheads to travel agents, so they can give you extra perks, the rest of us could possibly get cheaper cruise tickets, if we all booked online.

I await my scolding 😀.

 

It is not a question of scolding.  They just know and understand their business better than you do.

[Toofarfromthesea]

20 hours ago, sfaaa said:

MSC is not very keen on using TAs in N America. It seems to be getting by OK.

 

I have no trouble finding US-based TAs who are happy to book MSC for me and give substantial perks.  I use a compete site, and while the number of offers is lower with MSC than, say, Celebrity, there are some offers and they offer decent perks.  Between 9 and 10% on my most recent booking.

[drsel]

 

I have no trouble finding US-based TAs who are happy to book MSC for me and give substantial perks.  I use a compete site, and while the number of offers is lower with MSC than, say, Celebrity, there are some offers and they offer decent perks.  Between 9 and 10% on my most recent booking.

which cabin category did you book inside Ocean view balcony or suite?

 

Does the percentage of commission given as a discount or OBC depend on the cabin category or is it 10% for all cabin categories?

 

Also if you book through that website referral or directly with the agent, is the price the same because the agent has to pay a small cut to the website.

[Toofarfromthesea]

5 minutes ago, drsel said:

which cabin category did you book inside Ocean view balcony or suite?

 

Does the percentage of commission given as a discount or OBC depend on the cabin category or is it 10% for all cabin categories?

 

Also if you book through that website referral or directly with the agent, is the price the same because the agent has to pay a small cut to the website.

 

In order:

 

YC Deluxe suite

 

No idea.  I book the class I want so I don't see what deals they might have offered on other classes.

No idea here as well.  I appreciate the service the compete site offers, so I would not use them to 'window shop' and then go around them to book.  

[drsel]

yes I agree, and one agent from that website also told me that the price is the same, regardless if you booked through the website or directly.

 

 

 

[iancal]

We very much prefer NOT to book with the cruise line.  Our on line TA gives us good service and better pricing through OBC (commission rebates).

 

One thing we do get is independent advice.  More than once when we called to book a last minute offer our TA advised us to either wait a few days to book, advised of a better offer on a similar cruise line, or in one instance gave us some negative feedback from several of her customers who had recently been on the ship that we were considering.  

 

We doubt very much whether a cruise line employee would give us any of this information.   Even if we had no rebates from our TA we would still deal with her in preference to any cruise line.   Plus......several of the cruise line web sites are a long way from from what we would consider to be  user friendly.

 

[ontheweb]

3 minutes ago, iancal said:

We very much prefer NOT to book with the cruise line.  Our on line TA gives us good service and better pricing through OBC (commission rebates).

 

One thing we do get is independent advice.  More than once when we called to book a last minute offer our TA advised us to either wait a few days to book, advised of a better offer on a similar cruise line, or in one instance gave us some negative feedback from several of her customers who had recently been on the ship that we were considering.  

 

We doubt very much whether a cruise line employee would give us any of this information.   Even if we had no rebates from our TA we would still deal with her in preference to any cruise line.   Plus......several of the cruise line web sites are a long way from from what we would consider to be  user friendly.

 

Good points. Plus before Covid 19, the user unfriendliness of various cruise line websites was one of most frequent topics of complaint on these boards.

[drsel]

I like the Carnival website. It is very simple and user friendly.

I had booked my first Carnival cruise directly on the Carnival website.

At that time I didn't know about travel agents giving rebates or OBC