Pros and Cons of Booking with A Travel Agent

[ReneeFLL]

I’m starting this thread because of another one on here about perks and travel agents. Sometimes the perks might need to be compared to their other policies. Here are a few and I’m sure there are others.

 

Cancellation policy. Some places charge for cancelling.

Booking fee. I have seen this before.

Do they honor price drops from the cruise line without incurring any fees?

Are you booking a refundable rate or non-refundable rate? Royals best rate is non-refundable, but they don’t tell you that unless you ask.

 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

For me it's response time and attention to my cruises. My outstanding TA who I can not mention is incredible in responding to my emails usually in minutes but his attention to price fluctuations in price is invaluable. He has saved us hundreds. I am blessed to have him.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Sea Dog

[neverbeenhere]

Don’t put me in a group rate fare without telling me. 

[brillohead]

3 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Don’t put me in a group rate fare without telling me. 

Why is that?  Group rates are typically fully refundable, and lower than the Royal rate.

[brillohead]

For me, I look for lower rates (group rates), responsiveness to emails, and looking out for me (like messaging me if they see a low rate they think I'd be interested in.

 

[ReneeFLL]

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

For me it's response time and attention to my cruises. My outstanding TA who I can not mention is incredible in responding to my emails usually in minutes but his attention to price fluctuations in price is invaluable. He has saved us hundreds. I am blessed to have him.

I have also used him, but haven’t had any price drops after booking. He also can’t do interline bookings. Not sure why, but only Royal and a few TA companies can.

I guess I should have worded my title differently. What are pros and cons of booking with a TA. How do I get a mod to change it?

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by ReneeFLL

[Biker19]

16 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

How do I get a mod to change it?

Ask via the three dots in the upper right. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Biker19

[ReneeFLL]

57 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Ask via the three dots in the upper right. 

Thanks

[loman]

I thought i would check that site where they bid for your cruise .

I got 2 responses , both identical prices and both offer OBC .

One stated how much , the other didnt disclose it .

But one of them isnt open all week, and the other is .

This would be problematic if a price drop were to occur , so i would check the operating hours also. 

[dani negreanu]

9 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

Cancellation policy -- No charge for cancelling.

No booking fee.

Do they honor price drops from the cruise line without incurring any fees? Yes. The only time I've seen my OBC adjusted to less 50$ was when the drop in price was 1432$....

Are you booking a refundable rate -- always, and prefer group rates.

 

9 minutes ago, loman said:

But one of them isn't open all week, and the other is .

This would be problematic if a price drop were to occur , so I would check the operating hours also. Open 7 days.

 

[openwater]

We're getting ready to book a cruise.

Regarding booking direct with RCCL vs using a travel agent, do they both have access to the same cabins for new reservations?  If we want a specific cabin type, deck, location; which would be more likely to offer it to us?

[Canadianmama3]

13 minutes ago, openwater said:

We're getting ready to book a cruise.

Regarding booking direct with RCCL vs using a travel agent, do they both have access to the same cabins for new reservations?  If we want a specific cabin type, deck, location; which would be more likely to offer it to us?

 Yes they do.  A travel agent would either call into royal or log into the reservation system.   They see the same cabins royal reservation agents can see. 

[Hlitner]

10 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

I’m starting this thread because of another one on here about perks and travel agents. Sometimes the perks might need to be compared to their other policies. Here are a few and I’m sure there are others.

 

Cancellation policy. Some places charge for cancelling.

Booking fee. I have seen this before.

Do they honor price drops from the cruise line without incurring any fees?

Are you booking a refundable rate or non-refundable rate? Royals best rate is non-refundable, but they don’t tell you that unless you ask.

 

 

 

All good point.  This is why we have long recommended that folks "shop around among reputable high-volume cruise agencies," for the best overall deal!   These days things have become much more complicated because of various "packages" which are often part of a booking.  Our suggestion is that folks price-out overall deals (including packages) by assigning a dollar value to each package, based on what the package is really worth to the cruiser.  Once you come up with a complete cost (including the real personal value of packages, on board credits, etc) than simple use division to determine the real "cost per person/day" which you can use to compare apples to apples.

 

While this sounds complicated it is actually quite simple (it takes me less than 5 min to compare deals from multiple agencies vs the cruise line's own web site).

 

I do have some feelings about fees charged by agencies.  1.  I will not deal with any agency that charges a "booking fee."   2.  I have an open mind on cancelation fees.  Agencies need to protect themselves from clients who will often book multiple cruises (for the same weeks) and ultimately cancel the one's they do not want to use.  This is too common and costs any agency money in terms of time/effort.  

 

So, why deal with agencies and agents?  On many of our bookings we save 7-10% by using agencies.  Since we tend to book longer more exotic/expensive cruises are savings by using a decent cruise agency is often measured in thousands of dollars of savings on a single booking.  Those booking a basic 7 day cruise would likely save a few hundred dollars.   We also do not need to sit on hold (sometimes with hours) with cruise lines as all we do is send a quick/easy e-mail to our cruise agent and let them deal with the hold times.   And finally, we cruise on many different lines (16 to date) and like having a travel professional who can interact with all these lines.  We currently have bookings (for the next few months) with MSC, Seabourn and HAL!  One cruise agency can handle all this for us (and save us thousands of dollars) instead of me needing to deal with 3 different cruise lines.

 

Hank

[loman]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

 

Sounds like you have an excellent TA . Nice to know some have a good one .

 

[hazeleyes46]

The OBC and free things we have gotten in the past.

[ldubs]

12 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

I’m starting this thread because of another one on here about perks and travel agents. Sometimes the perks might need to be compared to their other policies. Here are a few and I’m sure there are others.

 

Cancellation policy. Some places charge for cancelling.

Booking fee. I have seen this before.

Do they honor price drops from the cruise line without incurring any fees?

Are you booking a refundable rate or non-refundable rate? Royals best rate is non-refundable, but they don’t tell you that unless you ask.

 

 

Those are good items to consider and might be overlooked by a lot of us.  I'm happy to see that our TA does not have these kinds of add on fees.  

 

I would reinforce the previous advice about finding a TA that will meet your needs.   For years we weren't seeing the benefits and booked directly.  Now that we have found what is for us a good TA,  we save on every booking.   

[klfrodo]

After spending many years on CruiseCritic (since the AOL chat room days), my limited experience tells me there are about 5% GREAT travel agents. The rest are hit and miss. Some with good intentions to most being clueless other than making a sale and getting that commission. They might be good on Disney World but haven't a clue about the cruising world.

 

The biggest problem I have are the ones who make great commission on Travel Insurance but don't have the first clue about the limitations of what they are selling. Let alone, being there to help if something goes TU in your travels.

Edited August 1, 2022 by klfrodo

[Toofarfromthesea]

Personally I wouldn't rule out a TA who charges a modest cancellation fee.  They did work for you in the expectation of being compensated for the work by the commission.  If you cancel there is no commission and they lose that compensation and, in my opinion, deserve at least some minimal recompense, as no one wants to work for free.

[YourWorldWithBill]

18 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

I’m starting this thread because of another one on here about perks and travel agents. Sometimes the perks might need to be compared to their other policies. Here are a few and I’m sure there are others.

 

Cancellation policy. Some places charge for cancelling.

Booking fee. I have seen this before.

Do they honor price drops from the cruise line without incurring any fees?

Are you booking a refundable rate or non-refundable rate? Royals best rate is non-refundable, but they don’t tell you that unless you ask.

 

 

 

Lots of good comments here. I've used travel agents as well as booked directly with the cruise line. I found that sometimes when I use an agent I still do most of the research with the cruise line, and the $ I get from the (large) TA might not be worth it. Sometimes I can even get the cruise line on the phone more quickly.

 

The comments here about finding a great travel agent are appropriate, but that's also something I've spent time doing; it's hard to know who's really special, and I haven't been that impressed with those I've found. As someone here said, about 5% are really worth it. 

 

ReneeFLL, I wonder if deciding this is based on how much time you (or I) will spend doing our own research. I enjoy finding out the details, and can find out more online (and calling the cruise line) than I usually can from an agent. Still hoping to find a great agent who works at an agency that gives discounts or some bonuses. Any other suggestions here?

[iancal]

Next cruise we book will be with a different TA.  Our former TA left the business.  Don't know what we will do......shop around or perhaps a big box.  Certainly will not bother booking direct.  No percentage in that for us.  We do our own research.  Our trip, so in the end we are responsible.

 

She saved us money.  She saved us time.   She gave us recent customer feedback from ships we were considering.  She was incredibly responsive.  When I worked she respected my time and we worked primarily though email.  Same when we were retired and travelled. She conquered time zone challenges through email.   The last one she arranged while we were in Sicily.   Sixteen hours later we had confirmation, a quote, and a detailed invoice  for a last minute Med cruise plus cruise air home from BCN nine or ten days prior to embarkation in Rome.

 

More than once when we asked her to book a last minute cruise she said ....wait until next week I believe the price will be better.  Or...she would say .....you know XXX cruise line have an unpublished special fare on the same itinerary, same time, great ship.   Are you interested?   Or...yes I can call my contact and hold this late booking cabin until 5PM my time in order for you to lock in air.   

 

At the end of the day it was not only  about the 8-12 percent discounts off list.  It was about the service, the insight into our preferences, and her integrity.   

 

I hope that she is enjoying her well earned retirement.

Edited August 1, 2022 by iancal

[Mary229]

All good reasons to use a TA. I believe in getting the best price possible upfront.  I use a TA as a favor to a family member and she is very good.  All of that said as someone who has managed my business travel for many, many years I really prefer to manage my own travel, it is simply a personal preference.   I do monitor and adjust as needed .  

[donaldsc]

Unless I missed it everyone is ignoring one big advantage of a TA - how they handle it if things go wrong and trust me they will occasionally go wrong.  If you deal w the cruise line directly or even with the supposed TAs employed by the cruise line they basically do give a hoot about your problems.  If you deal w a TA they will fight for you as they know that you won't come back if they ignore your problems.  Sometimes with regard to fare issues the response that I get my very good TA is that "what the line offered me was not as good as what I already have" when you analyze the offer but I know that she tried.  I like that attitude.

 

DON

[ldubs]

5 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

Personally I wouldn't rule out a TA who charges a modest cancellation fee.  They did work for you in the expectation of being compensated for the work by the commission.  If you cancel there is no commission and they lose that compensation and, in my opinion, deserve at least some minimal recompense, as no one wants to work for free.

 

That is a good point.  I wonder, assuming they lose a commission for "no shows" do they charge a fee for that too?  Seem the same rationale would apply.   

 

Nonetheless, I'm happy ours does not have a cancel fee.  

[brillohead]

3 hours ago, ldubs said:

That is a good point.  I wonder, assuming they lose a commission for "no shows" do they charge a fee for that too?  Seem the same rationale would apply.  

No-shows don't get a refund, so the cruise line wouldn't have a reason to remove the commission from a TA.  

[ldubs]

26 minutes ago, brillohead said:

No-shows don't get a refund, so the cruise line wouldn't have a reason to remove the commission from a TA.  

 

Yeeeahhh.  I kinda missed that small detail.