Personal TA, Cruise Line Planner, Self-Book

[fleckle]

Although travel agents may be very helpful at times, nobody on here has yet mentioned the major disadvantage of using a TA. If you book your cruise through a travel agent, the cruise line will not talk to you. You need to go through your TA as the middle-man (middle-woman) for every question or request that comes up.

 

When I used a TA and saw that a cabin I wanted had become available, the cruise line would not change the cabin for me so I had to phone the TA and leave a message, then wait for the TA to contact the cruise line and get back to me. By the time the TA received my message and acted on it, the cabin that I wanted was no longer available.

 

The following year when I booked directly with the cruise line and a similar situation occurred, I just called the cruise line directly and they made the change immediately. Every time I had a question, I called Celebrity and a live person always answered the phone promptly and gave me an answer. I never once had to leave a message on an answering machine.

[cavkc]

I know this is what our local TA does, he buys the cabins when X first release them for sale, however he holds onto some for a while & sells them at a later date when the prices have gone up, that way he can offer a much cheaper fare than X. He only pays about $300 deposit per cabin & by the time the balance is due, he has the money from the passengers. I have always found our TA to be about 15-20% less than X.

 

One advantage of using a good TA is of course if something goes wrong. We had booked a 3 week holiday last year, which emcompassed a 10 day cruise in the middle from Ensenada to Hawaii. We live in the UK and were in Cancun when we had a call from our TA, 2 days prior to sailing and only 24 hours before we were due to fly to LA, informing us that Infinity was in dry-dock and our cruise was cancelled.

 

Our TA was absolutely fantastic, the MD of the company stayed in his office until very late at night (due to the time difference), he changed our flights, changed and found hotels and made what could have been a disasterous situation into a 'relatively ' painless one. If we had booked all the components independently, we could have saved a few hundred $, however we would not have been able to make all the amendments that our TA could, or as easily.

 

I had booked independently before, but after this experience, I would always use a TA.

 

Relationship wise, this is just something you build up. Try to always use the same person at the TA, that way they also get to know your preferences.

[Sky Sweet]

I see that there are alot of trains of thoughts in booking your cruise. As a Cruise booking professional I can say from experience that you have everything to benefit and nothing to lose when using a TA. My company offers 24 hours a day customer service, 7 days a week and we are here when you need us. Try getting that at the pier because you booked over the internet and are having a problem. From what I see each and every TA I see is working as hard as we can to find the best deal, best cabin and any amenity we can for our clients. We have all been on many cruises, know each cruiseline in depth and can offer you the best of our advice no matter what cruiseline you are interested in. I also know that many people feel that they can solely book on the Internet and I wish them well and hope there is not a issue they need assistance on. Those cancelled sailings that occur can throw your vacation into a disaster and we are here to assist in all matters.

 

What is the difference between a "cruise booking professional" and a "travel agent"?

[Sky Sweet]

Although travel agents may be very helpful at times, nobody on here has yet mentioned the major disadvantage of using a TA. If you book your cruise through a travel agent, the cruise line will not talk to you. You need to go through your TA as the middle-man (middle-woman) for every question or request that comes up.

 

When I used a TA and saw that a cabin I wanted had become available, the cruise line would not change the cabin for me so I had to phone the TA and leave a message, then wait for the TA to contact the cruise line and get back to me. By the time the TA received my message and acted on it, the cabin that I wanted was no longer available.

 

The following year when I booked directly with the cruise line and a similar situation occurred, I just called the cruise line directly and they made the change immediately. Every time I had a question, I called Celebrity and a live person always answered the phone promptly and gave me an answer. I never once had to leave a message on an answering machine.

 

I feel the same way and will only use a travel agent if they can get me the same cabin for less than if I booked it directly through the cruise line.

[cruise expert]

As a cruise professional, I book over a million dollars worth of cruises a year so am up to date on all cruise information, the different cruiselines, their policies, procedures and all information my client might need. A "travel agent " is selling Las Vegas packages, rental cars, land vacations, Cancun hotels, etc. and might book a cruise once a month MAYBE if they have someone asking for information. As a member of a high volume agency we are also frequently honored and visited by all the major cruiselines that are vying for our bookings and are often able to offer additional amenities to our clients i. e. onboard credit, spa credits, upgrades, free shore excursions, wine, etc. We offer the highest level of service as all we do our cruises and it costs you nothing!

[westville]

Booking with a travel agent has given us nightmares for our upcoming cruise on the Constellation 1 July 2006. She had quoted us a certain rate at time of booking. Once final payment was due it was a different amount almost 500 USD more per person. Secondly she promised shipboard credits per cabin : 450 USD. We had booked 5 cabins. At time of final payment she sent out an email notifying all clients that she was ill. Celebrity will not answer any questions...to contact TA was their response for every question asked...very annoying!!!!(We were not able to locate one booking...this was frustrating).

Her agency honoured the price quoted but are not doing anything about the shipbaord credits promised. Thridly this TA owes me a refund from a previous cruise and this refund was supposed to be reflected in my final payment...supposed to be Celebrity sorting it out. Celebrity knows nothing of this.

What do I do to recover this refund and is there anyway of getting shipboard creidts promised...I have all documents from TA confirmimg all this. Hope someone has some answers.

:confused: westville

[cruise expert]

So sorry to hear of all the trouble you are having, not sure why the pricing changed like that, once you deposit your price is locked in. Any reputable agency would honor what was quoted and hopefully sent to you in a invoice and if not, there are legal options I would persue. I don't know what to say about the shipboard credit, again that should've been put in writing. Not sure if your agent made some huge mistakes, but you should be persuing this with the agency absolutely and especially with the confirmations you have in writing. Wish we could've assisted in the booking of your cruises, you would've had a much better experience!

[Leela]

Although travel agents may be very helpful at times, nobody on here has yet mentioned the major disadvantage of using a TA. If you book your cruise through a travel agent, the cruise line will not talk to you. You need to go through your TA as the middle-man (middle-woman) for every question or request that comes up.

If you have a good TA, then that isn't really a problem...but I had an absolutely LEMON of a TA (I booked through United Cruises last year). It was a really useless experience and if any of you were on this board last September and October you've heard me complain in great detail about everything the TA did wrong or didn't know. Thank god for Cruise Critics, or I'd never have gotten the information I needed.

 

I've since met some good TAs, and based on their knowledge and views of customer service, I'd be willing to try booking a cruise through them to see how it goes. But other than that, I've had very very good experiences just going straight through Celebrity's web site -- and especially appreciate the whole lack-of-middleman thing.

 

TA's are not created equal, that's for sure. Especially nowadays when customers can do everything directly online if they want.