Do All TA's give gifts?

[Toad]

I am curious as I have always used an online TA, and never received a gift, (Just what I consider to be a very good rate)....... Another post got me curious to know if brick and mortar agencies usually do give incentives to book and if so what?

[WindyCity]

Nope, we used a brick & mortar TA for our first 2 cruises, never got anything - not even a price break.

Our current TA got us a great price on our December cruise and, as HAL ship's services informed me, we get Pinnacle Grill dinner compliments of the TA

[AAAAmerican]

Which is more important to you?

 

1.) Price

 

2.) Gifts

 

3.) On Board PAy as you Cruise Special Eateries..

 

4.) Flowers, great services with a smile..

 

One and Two actually sometimes go hand in hand.

The larger volume T/A's have more-o-motions with promotions.. as voliume does speak Dollars Sent...:eek:

 

 

Three and Four are never a bore but on Holland American Line, Inc. for your sweet adore..:cool:

[kryos]

I am curious as I have always used an online TA, and never received a gift, (Just what I consider to be a very good rate)....... Another post got me curious to know if brick and mortar agencies usually do give incentives to book and if so what?

A lot of times, the gifts will actually come from the cruise line, though they will be passed along to you by the TA. Let's face it ... TA's have a lot of influence over their clients. If someone wants to book a cruise, but really has no clear idea of what they want, a TA can "steer" a client to one cruise line or another. So the cruise lines often give TA's the added incentive of a "bennie package" they can offer their clients as an extra incentive for booking. Thus, the TA gets to use the cruise line's money to increase her own bookings. Let's face it ... if the commission rate paid by two lines is the same, and their prices are in the same range, often the TA will be able to get the client's booking by saying that if you use HAL, I can get you this nice "bennie package" of a free dinner at the premium restaurant, some wine in your stateroom, etc.

 

So, often you can go with the lower cost TA and still get the bennie package. You just have to be savvy enough to ask about it if the TA herself does not bring it up.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Tricia724]

Once upon a time we had a local TA who sent us a bottle of wine when we booked through her agency.....BUT.....we also paid the cruiseline rate for the cruise. After a few cruises, the wine stopped coming.....but we still paid the cruiseline rate.

 

Then we started to read more positive reviews of the online agencies and began to book with Internet TAs. Still no wine.....but with the money we saved we figured we can buy our own wine.

[kryos]

Nope, we used a brick & mortar TA for our first 2 cruises, never got anything - not even a price break.

Our current TA got us a great price on our December cruise and, as HAL ship's services informed me, we get Pinnacle Grill dinner compliments of the TA

I used a brick and motor agency for three of my cruises ... and always got a couple of nice gifts ... gifts that clearly came from the TA ... things such as a HAL coffee mug filled with pillow chocolates, a small HAL teddy bear, etc. But this was the only agency I've used that gave me those sorts of things. Of course, once I found out I could do better pricewise with another agency, I stopped using the brick and mortar one.

 

So, I guess overall price would be far more important to me than little cabin gifts ... though they are certainly nice.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[tomc]

I use a local person; she always sends me something, even though I ask her not to. "It's coming out of your commission and I really don't need any thanks ... just call me when I get back and ask how the trip was. That's all I need." She keeps in contact with HAL re: promos, price breaks, etc, before I make my final payment.

[babyher]

For several years I used the same B&M TA and many times got a bottle of wine or flowers (honeymoon) or something like that. I attributed that more to the TA being a good friend of my parents more than anything else.

 

Past few cruises our group has used a different TA and on each one have gotten an upgrade (nothing radical, same category better location) and a bottle of wine waiting in the cabin.

[watchdiva]

The only gift we want from our TA is a great price!

[Islandbuoy]

How about prepaid gratuities--from an online TA???

Seemed pretty good to me?

[xeena]

used to use B&M, never got a gift....now use online TA, never get a gift.

 

Never got an upgrade either, even when the online TA convinced me to book a "guaranty" outside so i would get a balcony since i was a repeat cruiser on that line PS: (no blacony, just the worst outside cabin on the deck...under the kids disco) ! no fairy dust for us

 

i would love one but cruising is a gift in itself, so i shouldnt whine !

[whogo]

My wife and I are not wine drinkers. We tried to get our TA's to stop giving it to us. "Thank you again for the bottle of wine last cruise, but please don't give us one this time." We made some attempts to give bottles away to fellow cruisers, but dumped out a few. Gifts are a meaningless gesture to me that smacks of a marketing ploy for return business. I want a cruise. If I wanted flowers or wine I would buy them. I have not received any surprises from online agencies.

[michmike]

We used a different online agent this trip than the one we used our past 3 trips, primarily because the friends we travel with spotted agood deal and contacted this agency.

 

Not only did we get attractive pricing, but each couple got 3 bottles of wine and 2 soda cards. Needless to say, we were impressed.

 

Turns out when we got back, I read here that this was really a HAL promotion that he'd simply passed along to us. Nonetheless, we just booked another trip for fall of '07 and guess who we used? We're good "to go".

[diboja]

I always deal with a "Brick & Mortar" TA....last cruise we received 2 bottles of wine.

On our upcoming cruise - as well as a great deal we are receiving $50 shipboard credit for each of us. A souvenir CD of the trip and a Pinnacle Gift cert for each of us.

 

In this case the TA is CAA (Canadian Auto Agency) and they have booked about 50 cabins. They will also have a Complimentary Wine & Cheese party aboard the ship.

 

The nice part of this is that the CAA reps including the president of CAA will be accompanying the group and they take care of any issues and assist any member during the entire cruise.

[boxer2]

I booked with an on-line TA for our up coming Volendam cruise. Got a great rate for a balcony cabin, 2 Pinnacle Grill certificates and 2 HAL bathrobes to take home. Could have been a HAL promotion, but who cares? Still nice to get something.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have used the same TA for over 20 years and used to get gifts. But after 9/11, West-Penn AAA stopped the gifts -- not a lot of people book cruises in our area.

I do know that AAA in some other states that have a lot of cruisers still give gifts.

[CruisinNana]

I used to get gifts from my TA, but they stopped about 4 cruises ago. My favorite was a $25 credit in the casino! When my agent sends the documents, it comes in the HAL folio and with it also comes a very nice tote bag imprinted with the agency's name on it. I assume that is "the gift." Having a great travel agent who always returns calls quickly, answers my emails promptly, takes care of my requests, and is totally up front about my trips is enough for me.

[Randyk47]

We gave up our brick and mortar TA for lower fares. I could have bought a whole bunch of wine and chocolate covered strawberries for the difference in fares we're now getting through our Internet TA.

[newmexicoNita]

i do always send gifts to my clients but the most important thing to me, is giving good service. The reason I do send gifts: before becoming an agent we traveled a lot and cruised several times. We would watch others get wine or whatever from their TAs and we never got anything. I can't even say we got the best price or service. I made up my mind, if I ever became an agent, I would go that little nice thing and make sure my clients got something. yes, it comes out of my commsiion but it makes me feel good. NMnita

[Spot]

Great Price!

If I get a good price on the cruise, I can purchase the other amenities myself:p

[Old As Dirt Mom]

i do always send gifts to my clients but the most important thing to me, is giving good service....... NMnita

 

The sign of a good TA:)

[grannynurse]

I agree.

Good and caring service is the best gift. I appreciate Nita's perspective and I'm sure her clients appreciate their gifts but appreciate her and her good service more.

GN

[griswalds]

We book with an online TA. The price we save more than pays for any trinkets we got from our past TA's. We are talking about $100's of dollars in savings.

 

Griswalds

 

 

Great Price!

If I get a good price on the cruise, I can purchase the other amenities myself:p

[Sueseb]

On our first few cruises we used a B&M TA and received gifts -- a photo album and champagne. Then I began checking on-line agencies for our next cruise and when I discovered that we could save $700 an a specific cruise I knew I didn't need another album or champagne. Have used on-line agencies ever since. sue

[hammybee]

I am low maintenance. I know what I want, when booking. I have more cruise experience than many agents and certainly spend enough time on CC to gleam anything I may want to know. I do not make special requests. All I need are my docs and the cabin and I am a happy camper.

 

I have never received a gift from a T/A nor do I expect one.