TA Questions

[MrsTrout]

I am booked on a 9 night cruise on Apex, November 4th. I booked directly through Celebrity and was lucky enough to get an SV cabin. As much as I loved Aqua class on Solstice, I am not a fan of the IV and I love aft cabins. I looked at some quotes on CC and I’m wondering what would be the benefit of transferring my reservation to a TA?  Could they give me a better price on the cabin I have already reserved?  I’m sorry if this is a stupid question but I’ve always booked my cruises directly through the line. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Host Anne]

There are no stupid questions, MrsTrout!  For me, the benefit of using a TA has been that they watch everything for me (at least a good TA will do that).  Celebrity isn't going to notify you if there has been a drop in pricing (and that does happen).  I've always been able to call my TA when there's been a issue with anything and they have always been eager to help.  I think Celebrity does try to help when there are issues, too, but I can usually get in touch with our TA more quickly than with Celebrity reservations.  

 

That's just my experience after 30 years of cruising.  

 

Others may have different opinions. I'm sure others will chime in here.

[Ken the cruiser]

Depending on the TA, you'll most likely get a certain amount of OBC applied to your account once you board the ship. I know that's the policy with the last 2 TAs we've dealt with.

 

BUT I will say this in support of the Celebrity personal vacation planners which are different than the folks that answer the 1-800 online booking calls. We've had the same one now for 9 years and we feel so comfortable with him, we have actually never transferred an X booking to a TA. The little bit of OBC we would have gotten from one of those TAs that have handled all of our other non-X cruises just didn't seem worth it when compared to the insider information and wonderful support we have received from our X PVP over the years. But that's just us. 😎

 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Denny01]

Someone can correct me, but in my experience, the OP already has booked a SR and although moving over to a TA may give them some type of OBC, or another benefit, they can’t change their existing reservation cost. I’ve been going with a local TA for many reasons after booking directly, with online and so on, and find my local TA bring outstanding support beyond getting a lower price, which usually only occurs with Celebrity when the TA has a Group booking. 

 

But the OP is transferring an existing booking which is different from a TA starting from scratch.

 

den

Edited July 21, 2021 by Denny01

[Host Anne]

1 minute ago, Denny01 said:

Someone can correct me, but in my expereince, the OP already has booked a SR and although moving over to a TA may give them some type of OBC, or another benefit, they can’t change their existing reservation cost. I’ve been going with a local TA for many reasons after booking directly, with online and so on, and find my local TA bring outstanding support beyond getting a lower price, which usually only occurs with Celebrity when the TA has a Group booking. 

 

But the OP is transferring an existing booking which is different from a TA starting from scratch.

 

den

 Denny ~ I'm not positive but I've booked with Celebrity before and moved the reservation to my TA and she was allowed to change the existing reservation cost and reservation promotions for me (I'm often booking two years out when these kinds of things happen).  That hasn't been recently so things could have changed.  Maybe a TA can answer the question better.  But I definitely have always appreciated the service we've had from our TAs over the years.

[39august]

I think one of the most important aspects of using a good TA is their availablity. Mine works for a large cruise vacation agency which is open for business 7 days a week. If my own agent is not working on a weekend and I need any kind of assistance or a question answered, any of the agency's other personnel can help me. And the TA gets to wait on hold and not I. But there are good TA's and not so good. I wouldn't transfer unless I had some positive feedback from a customer of that TA. 

[grandgeezer]

52 minutes ago, MrsTrout said:

I am booked on a 9 night cruise on Apex, November 4th. I booked directly through Celebrity and was lucky enough to get an SV cabin. As much as I loved Aqua class on Solstice, I am not a fan of the IV and I love aft cabins. I looked at some quotes on CC and I’m wondering what would be the benefit of transferring my reservation to a TA?  Could they give me a better price on the cabin I have already reserved?  I’m sorry if this is a stupid question but I’ve always booked my cruises directly through the line. Thanks in advance for any help!

Unless they have a group rate, at least in the past, TAs price had to be the same as the cruise line charged. They were able to give you obc which normally came out of their commission. My go to online TA usually gave me 10%+ of the cruise price not including taxes and fees.

There is an online site that sends your cruise out for pricing and their quotes come straight back to you. Just for kicks, I sent one out Monday, for a cruise in October. So far I’ve gotten back nine quotes and they all have the same price on them, the cruise line price. All but two included an extra obc, but not as much as I could get on my own.

You only have a set amount of time to transfer the booking to someone else, I think it’s 30 or 60 days from date of booking.

[Jeremiah1212]

You can still take advantage of group rates. They are few and far between for the remaining 2021 sailings but they are out there. You can’t transfer within final payment and the window to transfer is now shortened to 30 days. 

[Lastdance]

Having an exceptional TA makes my cruise much better than Celebrity alone; it is so difficult to find people who do what they say they will do, and are available 7 days a week for price drops etc.  Love the extra OBC and TLC.  I have tried the internet site that people rave about, but for me it was just horrible, so never, ever again.  his person should have never been hired or promoted!  

Edited July 22, 2021 by Lastdance

[Denny01]

I’ll give two examples that go beyond the TA finding lower rates and giving OBC:

 

1. I booked 4 SRs for my family for an Alaska cruise. My TA got us all set up, but there were no Group bookings on the cruise, but she worked with Celebrity and got it set up as a Group Booking even though not large enough and none were being accepted for that cruise. A good savings for us.

 

2. We spent a week in Paris before flying to Istanbul for a Celebrity Black Sea cruise (prior the the Russians invading and taking the Crimea) with friends. Our friend came down very ill and our TA was able to get her husband set up with a special rate near the American Hospital for over 2+weeks, then worked to get them 1st class back and him as her escort, covered by insurance.

 

3. We spent 5 days in Dublin prior to an Ireland land tour. She got us the same low rate the tour company had with the Dublin hotel for the 5 days prior, and got us very low flight costs using some special airline rates by adding a rental car. I kept seeing the rental car on the reservation and would call her to tell her we didnt need one. She reminded me it was part of a special deal and I would just not actually take it.

 

4. On flying back to the US, a snow storm hit NYC and most of the flights were canceled. Ours went OK, but 8 others in our group had no flights. She worked transportation over to another NYC airport and got them out. Most of this done with us still flying into NYC. 

 

So yeah, its ‘nice’ to book directly so you can call the Cruise Line to make changes, but a true TA, not some online Booking Agent who just makes reservations, will save you much more than money. And she or her team respond quicker than I’ve had when booking directly. 

 

Den

Edited July 22, 2021 by Denny01

[DUTRAVEL]

On 7/21/2021 at 2:57 PM, Host Anne said:

 Denny ~ I'm not positive but I've booked with Celebrity before and moved the reservation to my TA and she was allowed to change the existing reservation cost and reservation promotions for me (I'm often booking two years out when these kinds of things happen).  That hasn't been recently so things could have changed.  Maybe a TA can answer the question better.  But I definitely have always appreciated the service we've had from our TAs over the years.

I have been able to get a lower price also through my TA after booking onboard when she had group space available.

[Denny01]

OP/MrsTrout 

 

It sounds as if moving over is a good idea since a TA may be able to get you better costs with group bookings, and OBC, and assistance. 

 

By the way, is your spouse’s name Kilgore? I know, I know, Im a fan of Kurt Vonnegut! 

 

Den