Advice when a lower price is found

[Caris]

I have two cabins booked on the Sun Princess in March through my travel agent. They are a BE guar and we used a future cruise deposit, so we can cancel w/o penalty up until the final payment.

I can find BC cabins online for the same price using Expedia and Travelocity, so I called my TA and asked her to upgrade us to the BC cat. She called Princess 3 different times, spoke to 3 different people and all said that price doesn't exist for that category. I can even find the BC category on another site for less money, although the $200. shipboard credit that was available when we booked is no longer being offered.

Any advice on this? Should I just keep the BE guaranty. My TA told me I can cancel and book through those sites, but then I know she will lose her commission and all of the work she has done on this trip. I'd rather not do that to her.

Any suggestions?

Thanks - Caris

[sue d. miller]

Does Travelocity, and Expedia prices include all taxes and fees???

[Coral]

I probably wouldn't switch.

The balconies and cabins on the Sun Princess are very similiar and truthfully, I am not sure how much you would gain by going up a few categories - the most you would gain would be a different deck and possibly a wider balcony opening on the Sun class - I am not sure if it is worth the switch to a different TA - especially since she appears to be honest with you and is willingly giving up your booking with out causing problems. You also appear to respect the time that she has helped you with your booking.

Unless you are going to gain financially on this transaction - I would keep your current TA and booking. I would ask her to keep an eye on the prices and see if they do change in the next month or two.

[sns]

This happened to me a few weeks ago. I went on Travelocity one Sunday and saw that the mini-suites for our cruise had gone down $199 per person. I called Princess directly and they confirmed that the rates had gone down but they couldn't adjust my price, only my TA could. I questioned Princess to see what would happen if the rate went up the next day and all she could say was that doesn't happen often. Well, I wanted a guarantee that it wouldn't happen. I kept thinking about this lower rate all day long and finally I called Princess and booked another room at the reduced rate. I didn't have to put any money down. The next day I called my TA and told her about the reduction. She called Princess and had my rate changed to the lower one. As soon as that happened, I canceled the room that I booked the day before. I wouldn't have booked the second room if Princess would have just lowered my rate. They told me they could see my reservation but they were unable to do any changes for me. We saved $398, which is paying for almost all our excursions.

Our ship is the Grand. I know it's not the same as your ship but if you can save money or go to a different category, it might be worth it.