Should I use Usa TA

[nelderwoman]

 am not looking for any recommendations of names.

 

What I want to know generally is whether any UK people here have used US travel agencies to book cruises and if so were there any problems?  I know they don’t have ATOL   Price is much cheaper but am worried I’m not fully covered.  What’s your thoughts folks 

 

[Harters]

It's not something I've ever considered but I think the first question to ask is will they take you as a customer.

 

My guess is that there's a catch somewhere along the line. Otherwise, as they are cheaper, everyone would have started using American TAs and all the British ones would be long out of business

Edited August 18 by Harters

[ziggyuk]

No right or wrong answer, I know people who do use them, I don't personally.
You will not get your rights under ABTA/ATOL and will pay in US$ with associated exchange rate fees, on the other hand you may get a great deal including some OBC sometimes. Also some allow cancellation without losing your deposit. NCL for instance (booked direct) allow cancellation right up until final payment without penalty.
Some agents will not allow a booking unless you have a US address, others will.

[Aulanis]

"Price is much cheaper but am worried I’m not fully covered. What’s your thoughts folks "

Have you factored in that prices in the US until very recently did not include Taxes and Port fees?
I think you would have to have a US address to book and there maybe a query when you
turn up with a UK passport. I have seen other threads on this subject so guess there will be some who have actually booked via a US agent who will advise how it went.

[fruitmachine]

5 hours ago, nelderwoman said:

 

 am not looking for any recommendations of names.

 

What I want to know generally is whether any UK people here have used US travel agencies to book cruises and if so were there any problems?  I know they don’t have ATOL   Price is much cheaper but am worried I’m not fully covered.  What’s your thoughts folks 

 

Protection costs, and with capital at risk there has to be a return and a profit margin.  All other things being equal, you can't have protection at non-protection prices.

 

Like under (or not) insuring your house and contents; having only third-party fire and theft on your car; or skipping travel insurance, you will save money until something goes wrong.  If you can sustain that possible loss, then in the long term you'll still save (to approximately the sum of the capital return and the profit margin above). 

But you might have to take tens of thousands of holidays for that long term trend to average out!

[john watson]

I have used a US travel agent in the past successfully.  I found no problems other than you might get a new loyalty account.

 

Regards John

[John Bull]

It's many years since we used a US agent.

I would  e-mail the agent, the agent would phone me back - their trans-Atlantic  phone call not mine.

 

The main pros were

- massively cheaper

- your deposit was returned in full if you cancelled before "last payment day"

 

The main cons were

- not everything mandatory was included in the up-front price. Things like port fees & tax, though the cost was small-beer compared to the savings.

- We sailed under the US "terms & conditions", which are much less customer-friendly than those required under UK or EU or Aus law. For instance no requirement to pay compensation for big changes of date or itinerary which the cruise line made to suit them rather than due to outside forces such as the weather or port strikes. So not the T's & C's that you see on the web in the UK - we got a US friend to e-mail the much-less customer-friendly US T's & C's.

That's one reason why ticket prices outside North America are higher, but Aus cruisers have the same protection yet are gouged more deeply than Brits, so "what the market will stand" is another factor.

- no protection from ABTA, and there's no US equivalent. So pay only be            credit card to cover the TA going bust or running off to the South Seas with your money.

 

Might be a pro or a con

Your payment is in US dollars, including the large "final payment" - which  will be some months later, so if the pound falls in value it costs you more, if the US dollar falls in value it costs you less.

 

Other hoops

Some but not all  cruise lines only accepted bookings from cruisers with a North American address. Could be overcome by using a N.A. address of a friend or the TA would use their own address.

 

That's from some time ago, the price gap then closed & we felt it not worth the complications.

 

Some things may have changed, I wasn't aware of port fees & taxes being recently included in cruise fares as reported by @Aulanis (but a UK passport isn't a problem, the restriction of US prices to North America is address, not nationality.

 

In recent years we've been lazy, don't know how big the price gap or any other changes.

 

JB 🙂

 

[Aulanis]

9 hours ago, John Bull said:

I wasn't aware of port fees & taxes being recently included in cruise fares as reported by @Aulanis

Hi  @John Bull    its been on various pages on CC for a while:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/how-cruise-lines-will-comply-with-california-s-new-honest-pricing-law

[juicyjuju]

Now that the cost shown up front in the USA, shows the port fees and taxes, get a quote from a UK agent and a US agent. My family member sometimes books with US versus USA agent depending on price and perks offered. She then ended up with two loyalty accounts on Cunard. After emailing Cunard, they were able to combine them. 

[juicyjuju]

If I may add, when I book cruises with USA agents, the payment goes that day to the cruise line. I authorize the deposit (shows up on credit card same day as charged directly to cruise line). same with final payment. Therefore no issue I'm aware of with TA "holding" payment and then going bust

[Sarnia 432]

Getting refunds from your onboard account could be problematic.  If you have a credit balance, they will return a US dollar cheque which may be difficult to cash in the UK.

[john watson]

7 hours ago, Sarnia 432 said:

Getting refunds from your onboard account could be problematic.  If you have a credit balance, they will return a US dollar cheque which may be difficult to cash in the UK.

It is possible to lodge an instrument at your bank on a collection basis. The bank then credit you with the balance less their expenses after they have processed the transaction

 

.Regards John

[Sarnia 432]

We had several issues with US cheques being processed by our uk back (for a £10 fee), then having them rejected.  It took us 18 months to sort out one rather large refund!!! 

[c-leg5]

On 9/11/2024 at 1:59 AM, Sarnia 432 said:

We had several issues with US cheques being processed by our uk back (for a £10 fee), then having them rejected.  It took us 18 months to sort out one rather large refund!!! 

Why wouldn’t you cash out the refund on board or have the refund to your credit card on file?

[sandancer]

We used a TA in the US many times without problems. Did not have an address in the USA. Saved a lot of money and enjoyed the OBC. We no longer take long flights so we either book direct with the cruise line or use a specialist UK cruise travel agent who we find very helpful.