Do most TA's refund when a price lowers?

[8esther8]

I'm fairly new to this--my cruise which leaves on 6/3 just lowered their price by $30. I know I could just call and ask, but do most agencies issue a refund or credit? I'd like to know if there's a standard policy before I call. Thanks in advance---

[cp556]

IF the cruise line will lower the price, and IF you ask the TA, you MAY get a refund. There's definitely no standard policy.

Others on CC have likened it to airline tickets ... if the price goes down after you've purchased, they don't refund the difference.

Let us know if you're successful and Bon Voyage

Carol in SC

[kitty9]

It's not your travel agent who refunds you---it's the cruise line. Your travel agent is the one who calls the cruise line to request a refund, but the cruise line is under no obligation to give you a refund, especially if you've already made final payment. Just remember, if the cruise line refuses to give you the $30, it's not the fault of your agent, your complaint is with the cruise line.

[firefly333]

Some online sites dont like to give refunds, but have heard some of them will if pushed hard enough.

 

Iv also heard after final payment some give OBCs, which at least does not lower the Travel Agents commission.

 

Iv also even heard of some agencies who will not refund anything under a specific dollar amount, say $50. best to ask first, before you book

[Krazy Kruizers]

For HAL, the price must drop at least 10% of the original price you paid. Our TA contacts HAL only when we have notified her of the price drop. And that hasn't happened in a coupld of years.

[julieanne]

Most times, they will refund it. The TA usually won't notify you, you will have to contact them. Our recent cruise dropped $50 per person on RCI. They dropped it immediately, plus they made all cabins in our category the same price and we ended up with a 2 cat upgrade. Definitely call and ask. :D

[ddonalds]

I guess it must depend on travel agents, because I received a note from my TA telling me about a price drop, and that our price was being reduced because of it. I can't imagine having to look at pricing every day to track it myself - would kind of put a damper on looking forward to the cruise, so I'm thinking I have a really, really good TA....:D

[JkyLovesRuss]

My TA did. The fare for our cruise was reduced $1000 dollars less. She took care of it for us. We even upgraded to a veranda. Of course it was way before 90 days of our cruise date!

 

Good luck! I hope you get the credit! Let us know! Happy cruising!

[Martin and Lindsey]

We heard through CC that our cruise had received a price drop so called our TA. They contacted Princess, but were told that the reduction wasn't available to cruisers from the UK! :(

 

Are there other people from the UK who have also experienced this?

[Martin and Lindsey]

Shame they couldn't at least give us some on board credit. :)

Are you reading this Princess? :D

[daisysheridan]

Is there some sort of residency rate restriction causing the UK people not to get the lower price?

[Ivanova]

Is there some sort of residency rate restriction causing the UK people not to get the lower price?

 

Some times the rate reductions are residency restricted ... like restricted to specific states ... in these case they wouldn't be available to residents of the UK.

 

Also, another scenario is when new rates are only available to new individual bookings ... meaning existing reservations cannot be reduced (or upgraded or given onboard stateroom credit) ... in these cases your existing reservation would have to be CANCELLED and REBOOKED ... if you are already in the cancellation period then you would be subject to cancellation fees. Sometimes the savings outweights the cancellation fees though, sometimes it isn't worth it (like when you're in the 50% cancellation penalty period and the savings would only be a few hundred dollars). A prime example is a recent Happy Hour fare on an upcoming RCCL cruise we were booked on ... after the $250 per person cancellation penalty we still saved $1960 per stateroom by cancelling and rebooking.

[Christen99]

I know with RCI, the price dropped $50 a person, so I called and requested a credit. What I was told by the reservation spec. was that they wouldn't issue the credit because I didn't purchase air with it as well. I tried to explain that I did a dummy reservation exactly the way I placed my original reservation and the rate was different. She supposedly asked her supervisor, who said no. I ended up making a duplicate reservation and called back to show them exactly what I meant when the rates changed, and the person I spoke with said he'd give me a credit because the rates had dropped. I told him what had happened on my prior call, which was the reason for my extra reservation and he said for some reason sometimes their res. spec. give cooky answers and he has no idea where they get this stuff. I was given $100 bucks back, and it paid for our train tickets to Seattle. I'd call the cruise line directly and give them the res. # and ask their policy. I check my rates daily because they do seem to fluctuate. I know the two cruises before us have dropped quite a bit, so I'm just waiting to see what happens with ours.

[Ivanova]

I check my rates daily because they do seem to fluctuate. I know the two cruises before us have dropped quite a bit, so I'm just waiting to see what happens with ours.

Everyone doesn't have that kind of time ... also if you book through a TA the cruise line will not talk to you about rates or anything financial regarding your reservation, you would have to go through your TA.

[red sox girl]

I just checked mine today for the Pride sailing in Jan.20,2008 and it did go down by 40.00 pp so I called my PVP and he adjusted my price no problems no questions. He even checked my sailing for me in Aug. but that has gone up 400.00 pp for the balcony I have and 500.00 pp for the inside I have booked he said it doesn't look like I will get anything for that one unless alot of people dont make final payment and cancel. O well Im happy with the 80.00 I got for the '08 sailing