Travel Agent expectations

[seannaes12]

Background:  I have been on and planned a handful of cruises in the past that I booked directly on the cruise line website.  I think my favorite part of vacations, in general, is researching and planning the trip.  However, I did reach out to a travel agency on a near future Alaska cruise because it's mere weeks away and I know how popular the Alaska cruises are.  I thought I may need help in make a final decision on the ship, port city and excursions.   

Disclaimer:  I am fully aware the issue is with me and not the my experience with the travel agent to this point, so this is why I'm reaching out to the forum.

So far, I have had one conversation with the agent.  She did have some helpful suggestions when it came to general excursion questions, but all she did is take my information, preferences, timelines and put together prices on 2 ships I have already narrowed down the list to.  So obviously, I did a fare amount of research before we spoke, but it's now left me with the question - "What is she doing for me?"   I can easily (and have) pulled price quotes.

Since I narrowed it down to two ships leaving from two different port cities, she could give a run down of the pros and cons of each ship and port city.  In her defense, I didn't ask for that - I guess I just assumed she could break it down based on the feedback I gave her.  Since then, I know the ship and port city I want to use based on further research on my own.  

Questions:
-At this point, what should have expected from a travel agent?  Did my solo research negate the benefit she would have provided?
-Should I expect a benefit of using a travel agent at this point since I know exactly what I want?

I have no issue with asking the agent these questions.  However, my thought process is if I contact her further, I feel I have an obligation with booking with her because she did put in the work (whether I feel like it benefits me or not).  On the other hand, I don't necessarily give up utilizing a travel agent because there may be a benefit and I don't want to just dismiss it/her.   

[MCC retired]

The next step is she going to give you a good deal and/or amenities compared to booking Direct.

TA should always be able to do better than booking Direct.

\

[Essiesmom]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  As MCC retired said, see what she may be able to offer beyond what the cruise line website offers.  If nothing, book online.  We have many resources here for Alaska information, primary of which is the Alaska board, located under Ports of Call.  Well traveled Alaska cruisers there, as well as locals full of info and advice.  EM

[mnocket]

There are lots of people who sing the praises of their travel agents.  They claim they offer steep discounts - 10% is often mentioned - and swear they are responsive, knowledgeable, and provide outstanding service.  I've never met such a TA.  I've always found that high discount TAs aren't much more than order takers - essentially call center employees.  That's actually understandable since they rely on volume to make money and don't really have the time or motivation to provide time consuming, personalized customer service.  Then there are the full-service TAs. They don't offer large discounts/perks, and some even charge above and beyond the ticket prices for their service, but as a result they have the time and motivation to offer top-notch customer service.  Why?  Because that's how they make their money.  These are the true professionals of the travel industry.  They know their worth.  That said, the majority of TAs fall in the middle.  They provide neither high discounts/perks nor exceptional, personalized service.  Most TA employees are not cruise experts.  In my experience, what you've experienced is actually pretty normal.  I'm not saying high-discount, high-service TAs don't exist, but if they do, they are the unicorns of the industry and near impossible to find.

 

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

I think you did the TA's work and answered your own question.  Were you looking for professional validation, having narrowed the choices yourself to the two cruise options?  Did you want the TA to recommend one over the other?

[Toofarfromthesea]

The real question is what are YOUR expectations.  If you want a lot of hand holding that is one thing.  If you want a lot of pre-booking advice and guidance that is another thing.  If you want a great deal that is yet another thing.  But you can't get all three. 

 

I do my own planning and do not require any handholding.  I've never looked to a TA for booking advice and I've never called on my TA for assistance while on the cruise.  So I look for the TA who will give me the best deal.  I don't care if they are just order takers because taking my order is all I expect from them.  So I look for a great deal and usually can get that 10%.  

 

But that TA wouldn't be suitable for people looking for other things and that's fine.  It's not a one size fits all world and it's nice that there is a choice to fit everyone.  I will say that I think it is easier to find an order takers who will give a great deal than it is to find the other kinds.  I know what I want, I know exactly what the cost would be from the cruiseline, so it is very easy to exaluate and compare TA bids.  Pre-cruise advice or hand holding are much more subjective and are very hard to judge without trying someone and seeing how it goes.

[dickinson]

I found my TA from someone who was on my cruise.  They own a franchise of a large company.  They are NOT just order takers and they DO discount.  They will help if needed and answer emails seven days a week.  Probably a unicorn but who knows.

 

In the OP's situation I would just book online because they don't have time to look around.  If they want to just save some money (because they have done all their own research) then they could book with one of the online agencies that discount.  Googling helps.

[Elaine5715]

6 hours ago, mnocket said:

There are lots of people who sing the praises of their travel agents.  They claim they offer steep discounts - 10% is often mentioned - and swear they are responsive, knowledgeable, and provide outstanding service.  I've never met such a TA.  I've always found that high discount TAs aren't much more than order takers - essentially call center employees.  That's actually understandable since they rely on volume to make money and don't really have the time or motivation to provide time consuming, personalized customer service.  Then there are the full-service TAs. They don't offer large discounts/perks, and some even charge above and beyond the ticket prices for their service, but as a result they have the time and motivation to offer top-notch customer service.  Why?  Because that's how they make their money.  These are the true professionals of the travel industry.  They know their worth.  That said, the majority of TAs fall in the middle.  They provide neither high discounts/perks nor exceptional, personalized service.  Most TA employees are not cruise experts.  In my experience, what you've experienced is actually pretty normal.  I'm not saying high-discount, high-service TAs don't exist, but if they do, they are the unicorns of the industry and near impossible to find.

 

 

It isn't helpful when you find a TA hasn't been on a cruise or even been to your debarkation port.  Many budget TAs don't travel. 

[seannaes12]

Thank you for the feedback.  

 

I believe what got me questioning the TA was when I got the quote for the 2 different lines, there were just options for selecting one or the other and signing to proceed with the reservation.  I realize this is likely the software the agency uses, but it was still a turn off.   There wasn't a follow up (to this point) to say I sent some options, but wanted to talk out potential options to choose one or the other or if either option was what I wanted.

I assumed the TA has traveled to the area, sailed on each line, from each port and could give me some insight.  Yes, the opinion would be subjective, but I would hope better than what I could find online that were limited or "paid" opinions on YouTube.   

I wasn't looking for a "deal" per se - I know the price they give is not likely any better than what I find online.  But, I somewhat hoped she might say she could offer some discounts on drink package, excursions or something similar.   

The feedback has been helpful.   I think I was hoping for an actual TA to tell me whether my experience was common or my expectations were off.   I like the advice about asking what the benefits of proceeding through the TA would be.   If all she is going to do is select the trip and details I give her, I'll just book myself.   Again, I realize this isn't necessarily the fault of her or the agency - I just wouldn't be the type of traveller that would benefit from a TA.   

[clo]

5 minutes ago, seannaes12 said:

I assumed the TA has traveled to the area, sailed on each line, from each port and could give me some insight.

Our upcoming cruise begins in Amsterdam over to Belfast and back to London. Then from there we'll head north and east hitting some Scandinavian ports and wind up in Stockholm. My TA has been in the business and is highly rated with a particular line but I doubt she's been to those ports. Never even asked her. 

[Toofarfromthesea]

50 minutes ago, seannaes12 said:

I assumed the TA has traveled to the area, sailed on each line, from each port and could give me some insight.  Yes, the opinion would be subjective, but I would hope better than what I could find online that were limited or "paid" opinions on YouTube.   
 

 

With the utmost  respect, just about everything in this paragraph is mistaken.  Even on a very common itinerary like Alaska I doubt any TA has sailed on every line and visited every port.  And watching 20 YouTube videos and getting 20 subjective opinions, between which you can compare and contrast, is going to give a much better assessment on what will fit YOU rather than relying on one person's subjective opinion.  You won't find a TA who has been on every line but you can probably find multiple YouTube videos of people on each line.  Same with ports.

[ldubs]

We have used a TA for some time now.  Because Mrs Ldubs likes to scope out options, we always know exactly what cruise we want before contacting them. And I would say just about every time we also know what cabin we want (we look at them on our TA's site).  We use them because we get good discounts and occasionally even an upgrade.   And yes, a 10% savings (or more) is routine.  

 

We don't expect or want handholding.  We book our own excursions.  They are very easy to deal with. If post-booking changes need to be made, we have never had an issue with the TA handling them.  

 

The way we interact with our TA I suppose they could be called glorified order takers, but that is what we want, and we save a fair amount.   We are very happy to have found our TA.  

[2BACRUISER]

Here in the UK there are quite a lot of specialist cruise TAs and a lot of people use them and swear by them. So far we have always booked direct as we feel more in control and we saw when covid appeared that the cruise lines looked after their own clients whilst those who had booked thro TAs were pretty much left to fend for themselves having to get in touch with their TAs as their contract was with the TA not the cruiseline. As someone mentioned it depends how much confidence you have in DIY and I find it's mainly first timers who use TAs. 

[CDNPolar]

We specifically found and used a TA for our Antarctica Expedition cruise.  We decided ourselves on Hurtigruten as the line we wanted to sail and we found this TA listed on their website and she was supposedly "certified" for their sailings.

 

Just as a bit of background, we typically book what we want and then transfer to a TA for the OBC or whatever they offer.

 

We went to this TA because she was "certified" and because this was our first expedition and we thought that we did not know what we did not know.

 

In the end, she knew as much as we did.  Yes, she got all our questions answered, but she could not answer them on the spot.  She had to take them to her Hurtigruten rep and get them answered for us.

 

What kept us with her for this booking is in our opinion she got us a price that was a big discount from the cruise line website.

 

The advantage of using a TA here was price or OBC and that is what has kept us using TAs.  We don't expect the TAs that we use to have any better knowledge than we do.

[MCC retired]

16 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

It isn't helpful when you find a TA hasn't been on a cruise or even been to your debarkation port.  Many budget TAs don't travel. 

Best to intewervi the TA's cruise experience and training first.

[lenquixote66]

We have always had wonderful TA’s .One TA gave gifts for each cruise booked .The gifts grew in value .For our first cruise we were given a canvas bag .For our fifth cruise good quality binoculars.

Later that year she got married.Her husband convinced her to stop giving gifts.

[ldubs]

10 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

 As someone mentioned it depends how much confidence you have in DIY and I find it's mainly first timers who use TAs. 

 

Universally, it looks to me like a lot of experienced people use TAs for any variety of reasons, with cost usually high up the list.  I really have no idea or way of knowing the number of TA users who are first timers vs frequent cruisers.  Seat of the pants speculating, I would have expected heavier use from frequent cruisers who have, through that experience, learned the value of a good TA.  It sounds like just the opposite could be the case.  

[donaldsc]

Everyone in this discussion is in my opinion wrong about why you should use a good TA. 

 

1. They are on your side when the cruise company decides to screw you over which is something that cruise companies do more often than you think. 

 

2. Also when last minute problems occur they can get them fixed very quickly.  I have 2 recent instances issues recently where problems occured on the day of departure that would have wrecked our trip.that they were prepared to fix.

 

To me this is more important than any discounts or a few perks such as a canvas bag or binoculars.

 

DON

[ldubs]

9 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Everyone in this discussion is in my opinion wrong about why you should use a good TA. 

 

1. They are on your side when the cruise company decides to screw you over which is something that cruise companies do more often than you think. 

 

2. Also when last minute problems occur they can get them fixed very quickly.  I have 2 recent instances issues recently where problems occured on the day of departure that would have wrecked our trip.that they were prepared to fix.

 

To me this is more important than any discounts or a few perks such as a canvas bag or binoculars.

 

DON

 

Sounds like you need a new cruise line! 😀

 

That aside, if you are being screwed over a lot, having a TA to fix things would be incredibly valuable.   

[clo]

14 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We don't expect the TAs that we use to have any better knowledge than we do.

Well, maybe an expedition cruise to Antarctica?!?!? I think they're going to become more and more popular but maybe not yet. We also were on Hurtigruten but also part of an escorted land/sea trip through Patagonia so a tad different. We liked Hurtigruten so much that the following year IIRC we did their Norwegian coastal cruise. 

[donaldsc]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Sounds like you need a new cruise line! 😀

 

That aside, if you are being screwed over a lot, having a TA to fix things would be incredibly valuable.   

 

They are not major screwovers but annoying things such as not getting stuff that I should be getting or trying to get reservations for stuff or activities which I only ended up getting because the agent waved her magic wand.

 

The 2 last minute problems were potentially more serious.

 

1. We were flying from Las Vegas to Atlanta to Athens.  I am always conservative so I allowed three plus hours for my Atlanta connection.  Because of issues in Vegas I was uncertain if I would make my Atlanta connection.  This would not have ruined the cruise since I had planned for several days pre-cruise in Athens.  I called my agent from the plane before takeoff and asked her if she could find alternative flights just in case.  We landed with just 1/2 hours to make the connection.  As we landed she called us while we were taxiing to the gate to tell us that she had found and had put a hold on a flight.  Turned out that we did barely make the flight but we knew that if we didn't make it we had an alternative flights already arranged.

 

2. This one was on me.  We got to the airport for a flight to Japan.  This was last summer and there were a lot of people going to Japan and flights to Japan were almost completely booked.  Turns out that my wife took an expired passport with her so we obviously were not going to get on the plane.  Called out TA again.  She got us flights on the same day and we got to Japan that day as expected.  The connections were not good and the tickets were expensive but we got there.   Again we were not going to miss the cruise since we planned for several days in Tokyo before the cruise but with her help we did not miss any of our Tokyo cruise.

 

I guarantee that we would not have gotten that level of service if we used a big box travel agency or had booked through the cruise line.

 

DON

[Nebr.cruiser]

I admit we mainly used travel agents because of the often better price and almost always good perks.  But, we have also had them go to bat for us when issues came up or changes needed to be made in our booking. For instance, we had to cancel a cruise last December 3 days out.  Our agent handled it all.  Luckily we had cancel for any reason insurance and our expenses were reimbursed without issue.

 

One thing I do expect is that a travel agent responds to an inquiry I have in a reasonable time. I don't mean in an hour, but the same day if possible.

 

I really don't need or expect agents to give advice on most common aspects of cruising or traveling in general.  I do my own research and also we have a lot of travel experience of our own. I can't think of a time I used one for flights, hotels, etc.

[clo]

14 hours ago, donaldsc said:

annoying things such as not getting stuff that I should be getting

Could you give an example please? I sincerely can't imagining what that 'stuff' would be.

Edited April 1 by clo

[mnocket]

13 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

One thing I do expect is that a travel agent responds to an inquiry I have in a reasonable time. I don't mean in an hour, but the same day if possible.

And that's where we differ.  If I use a TA, I expect them to answer the phone when I call.  If, for example, my flight is delayed/canceled at the last minute, I need a TA who is available to make alternate arrangements immediately.  Since they booked the flight, the airline won't even talk to me - I have to go through the TA.  Since many cruise "specialists" are one-man franchises, you really can't expect them to be available at a moment's notice.  For that reason alone, I am hesitant to book flights through TAs.  There's really no savings and you lose control of your booking. 

[Nebr.cruiser]

1 hour ago, mnocket said:

And that's where we differ.  If I use a TA, I expect them to answer the phone when I call.  If, for example, my flight is delayed/canceled at the last minute, I need a TA who is available to make alternate arrangements immediately.  Since they booked the flight, the airline won't even talk to me - I have to go through the TA.  Since many cruise "specialists" are one-man franchises, you really can't expect them to be available at a moment's notice.  For that reason alone, I am hesitant to book flights through TAs.  There's really no savings and you lose control of your booking. 

Right.  I've never booked a flight through a TA--just cruises, mostly.  We also use miles for almost all of our flights.