Upgrade Alaska CruiseTour option on HAL

[annalaska]

I am trying to find out how to upgrade from the Natural History Tour on our 12R HAL Alaska CruiseTour to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. HAL says to get with my TA and they can do it - but when I contact my TA she says she can't do it and we should look into upgrading when we are in Denali. Is there a phone number I can use to get a HAL representative or do I have to do everything through my TA. Also, still trying to get flight upgrades to first class and haven't been getting that information either. Any recourse if we feel our TA is not getting the job done?

[StanandJim]

annalaska-

 

We were in the same boat as you (TA unable to help us with anything) about 5 years ago.

You're really in a bad place, because HAL has an "unwritten law" that ALL CHANGES to an agent booked reservation MUST be made ONLY BY THAT AGENT.

 

You're going to have to either be forcefull with your AGENT (after all, you are paying good money for their "help"); or, you're going to have to scope out the changes that you want, learn how they can be implimented and spoon feed it to your agent.

 

Don't be nervous, I'm not suggesting that you tell any lies or impersonate anyone. When you call Hal, make sure that you've done your research ahead of time. Don't call them and ask what your alternatives are. Know what you want to do, before you call, and ask them how it can be done.

 

Start off by saying "Hi, this is Anna and I'm calling about reservation # XYZ" (If you don't mention that it's your reservation, and they never ask, no lies have been told).

I always find that if you speak authoritatively, they will ASSUME that you are an agent.

Now, you wont be able to impliment the changes that you discuss with them (for that, you would need travel agent codes), but, at least you will have some ammunition when your Agent starts telling you that such and such a thing cannot be done.

All this, of course, is assuming that you choose not to fire your useless agent and rebook the entire cruise on your own. We couldn't do this because we were booked into a very special cabin and couldn't risk losing it.

Best of luck.

 

Hope this helped-

 

Jim:D

[annalaska]

Yes, Jim thanks. It is very helpful.