What I don't like about having a TA with RCI

[PattyG12]

For my freedom cruise I did all the arranging and transferred to a TA since they offered free gratuities. Saved me $280 for the 4 of us. AND I controlled it until I was comfy and then called her. No problems on the last couple I transferred to her.

[Creepella]

Under normal circumstances I won't work with a TA until I have everything set. It's unfortunate in this circumstance that I had to use a TA due to the fact I'm going through Hilton Grand Vacations Club and using some of our points to pay for the cruise. But it's situations like this that keep me from ever wanting to use a TA unless I have everything set and there's no way I'm going to want to make another change.

 

Have you reported the bad service to the Hilton Grand Vacations Club? I don't know what that is, but I can't imagine they want their members(?) treated poorly.

[Autum1031]

As a former TA I have to admit I've also found using a TA to be very difficult with RCL--though as many pointed out, this could be the same with any kind of travel package.

 

As many of you have, I booked on my own, waited til last minute, then converted to my TA (former colleague and good friend) to take advantage of various perks and also so I wouldn't have to worry about making the final payment while I was out of town on a business trip.

 

Long story short, TA (who has his own company and works by himself) had a family emergency come up on the exact same day my final payment was due. He went above and beyond and managed to not only extend the deadline but also get the final payment in while he was in a foreign country.

 

This took a few days though--and being a former TA, I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my travel plans. I panicked and tried to call in my own payment, and RCL wouldn't let me. It makes sense from a commission stand point; if the TA "owns" the reservation RCL will want to make sure the TA is properly credited. What shocked me was the tone of the conversation--the RCl agent told me that, under no circumstances would they take the final payment from me, regardless of what happened to my TA. If the TA didn't call in the payment by the deadline, RCL would take my deposit and cancel the booking. I was lectured and told it was my fault that I had "trusted" a TA to handle my booking and that next time, I should go directly through RCL.

 

Luckily, I was not born yesterday :) and when I was a TA, I sadly became used to this very derrogatory attitude toward TAs. I knew I could escalate through a supervisor somehow, and it would be fixed, but my TA fixed it the next day and everything was fine. The whole situation was a mixed bag for me--I was grateful my TA went to extraordinary circumstances to fix, and was angry at RCL for their attitude and refusal to discuss options, but mostly, I realized that I'll probably not use a TA in the future for things like cruises to keep things like this from happening again. (Moreover I don't think I'll use RCL again for anything).

 

This is just a personal preference--I know from many years of experience how much benefit a TA can be, and heaven knows I went the extra mile more often than not. And my TA is fantastic. But it's like I always said to DH, right before I left the business... "I will be a future TA's worst nightmare" and it is totally true. I need to have that aspect of absolute control over my travel plans. I need to be able to pick up the phone and make a change *now.* If I have a question about my reservation, I want to get it answered immediately and be able to ask my own questions. I've realized that the money I saved by going through my TA for this cruise is not worth it to me because I no longer have control over my own trip. I'm sure if I was booking a group trip, or something complicated, I'd go through my TA.

[Krazy4Kruisin']

We don't "need" one either...but we transfer it for the $150 OBC she gives us for EACH cabin! For $300 it is worth the effort.:D

 

We have used TA on 2 previous cruises, but never again. First time, we cruised out of Barcelona. TA also booked our hotel for pre-cruise. I gave her my credit card number to hold the hotel. Once we were there, we used my husband's credit card (different card, different number from mine). So we get back and on my credit card statement, we are charged on both credit cards. It seems that they thought we were "no-shows" since we changed credit cards. We DID tell the hotel when we checked in what was going on, but it seems like they didn't pay attention. I called our TA and she didn't do anything to help. I had to call from the States over to Barcelona (it was not a chain hotel)a couple of times to get it resolved. By the way, no OBC from TA. She only gave us a RCCL picture frame. Big Whoop!

 

On another cruise, I used a different TA. She also didn't do much for us once we were onboard, even though we were booked as a group for entire family and several cabins.

 

After these experiences, I decided to always book on my own. It's not worth the aggrevation and get so little, if anything in return.

[gr82cu2]

Under normal circumstances I won't work with a TA until I have everything set. It's unfortunate in this circumstance that I had to use a TA due to the fact I'm going through Hilton Grand Vacations Club and using some of our points to pay for the cruise. But it's situations like this that keep me from ever wanting to use a TA unless I have everything set and there's no way I'm going to want to make another change.

 

Doug, I'm curious if you checked to see what the price was to book the cruise outright without going through HGVC. I ask, because this past weekend, we received the latest quarterly Grand Times newsletter. In it was an offer to cruise with Holland America and the prices for the various categories + points. I decided to check the price for the exact cruise and categories directly with HA and found that for LESS money (and no points obviously) I could book an inside room and for only a few dollars more (something like $25) I could book a balcony stateroom. They wanted 14,000 points plus the money which was nooooooooo deal. DH and I were speechless to think that they are actually selling those deals to people. If you haven't checked directly with the cruise line yet on the pricing I would definitely do that.

[Onessa]

We've always gotten exceptional service from our TA. She has noted price drops and has gotten us the difference. She has arranged for cabin upgrades or changes to cabins she knows we would prefer. She rebooked us and got us seat assignments and hotel vouchers from our airline when our flight was cancelled.

 

It's not TAs that are "bad", it is the TA with whom you choose to deal.

[Look2Sea]

Doug,

 

Just curious, what ship and what cabin were you trying to get?

I just like to keep informed on sought after cabins.

 

I concur, next time I book a cruise, I will book direct with RCI.

Despite the onboard credit perk, I would rather have control over my reservation.

[BecciBoo]

That is precisely why I will never use a TA again. I never used them before this last year and then got stuck using a couple because of cruises with them, had a difficult time with both people and making changes with RCI. Not that they didn't do their job. They were both good TAs but the inconvenience of communication and making changes was just stupid. I will do my own just as soon as the last one is completed with the last TA. I have way more time to check on things than they do and the time lag to reach them. Never again.

[dougp26364]

Have you reported the bad service to the Hilton Grand Vacations Club? I don't know what that is, but I can't imagine they want their members(?) treated poorly.

 

 

I will eventually. Right now, other than this post, I'll wait until after the cruise to rock the boat.

 

I don't mind using a TA when they take care of business but, I STILL have not recieved a call back from my last two phone calls. This isn't a small agency either. It's one of the major online cruise TA's out there. It's unfortunate that we're forced to use the TA of Hilton's choosing.

 

Before this particular group they had a different agency. That agency cost me a $200 discount when they failed to apply a coupon by the expiration date. Once it was pointed out and they acknowledged that it was their fault, they were suppose to refund us the money. Needless to say that never happened either.

 

We have a good friend that is a TA. If I could, I would have used her for this booking. I don't have a problem reaching her and, if she's not available, I wouldn't have an issue reaching someone who could handle any issues at her office.

 

Why a TA would book a cruise then ignore the client is beyond me. She knows we're diamond members. She knows we've cruised before. You'd like to think she'd at least return phone calls and try to keep a diamond member happy in order to get additional business. I know that if we use our Hilton points again in the future, I'll ask for someone other than this particular agent to handle our cruise.

[dougp26364]

Doug, I'm curious if you checked to see what the price was to book the cruise outright without going through HGVC. I ask, because this past weekend, we received the latest quarterly Grand Times newsletter. In it was an offer to cruise with Holland America and the prices for the various categories + points. I decided to check the price for the exact cruise and categories directly with HA and found that for LESS money (and no points obviously) I could book an inside room and for only a few dollars more (something like $25) I could book a balcony stateroom. They wanted 14,000 points plus the money which was nooooooooo deal. DH and I were speechless to think that they are actually selling those deals to people. If you haven't checked directly with the cruise line yet on the pricing I would definitely do that.

 

 

The discount was approx. our yearly MF's off the best price we could find.

[dougp26364]

Doug,

 

Just curious, what ship and what cabin were you trying to get?

I just like to keep informed on sought after cabins.

 

I concur, next time I book a cruise, I will book direct with RCI.

Despite the onboard credit perk, I would rather have control over my reservation.

 

I was trying to move from 7314 to 7320 on Voyager. There's not a lot of difference in location but, 7320 is mid hump while is on the forward section of the hump.

 

I had also asked about upgrading to one of two D1 cabins before I noticed the E2 with what we consider the perfect location. Heck, she never even called back about either of those two cabins, which should have been a dollar or two more expensive than what we have booked now. I figure we'll just stay put and the heck with it. If she doesn't want to even take a crack at comission on $400 more in price for the cruise, she really doesn't care about our business anyway. I'm not going to chase someone to spend a little more money for a marginally larger cabin on a higher deck.

[Toddcan]

I suspect that the type of people who are cruise critic addicts would prefer to do their own bookings anyways, and not go through a TA.

 

Searching for price drops, or that cabin in a little better location, or perhaps a deal on a a higher cat cabin.. all of this is so much easier on your own if you know how to do it, which is the type of person that is addicted to CC :D

 

Me, I have transferred my July cruise to a TA to get a perk that I would not normally have received. But, I did all the work myself.. cabin location, etc.

 

My Aug sailing: I booked this myself, and will transfer to a TA as the final payment date approaches, again , only for the perks

[Paul123]

Here's what drives me nuts about having a TA with RCI. I can't do anything unless it goes through the TA.

 

Yesterday a slightly better loction for us became available for our sailing. So I called the TA to see about moving our cabin location. Same catagory, just a little better location. Of course she's not available and I have to leave a voice mail. Call wasn't returned, I checked my reservation online and no change had been made and, of course, the cabin I wanted is gone. This is exactly why I never use a TA for booking my cruises through RCI. It keeps my hands tied when I see something I want.

 

Earlier I had a tough time getting her to return my calls when I wanted to drop the air portion of my cruise. I had finally found a good price for our airfare ($450 total cheaper than RCI) with times that would work for this sailing. It took a couple of phone calls and a week to get a change made I could have done myself in a few minutes. I'm also having trouble catching her to give her our credit card information so that when final payment comes due, she has a credit card number with a future expiration date. When we booked orifinally, the cards expiration date was before final payment was due. Needless to say this is all getting very frustrating.

 

Under normal circumstances I won't work with a TA until I have everything set. It's unfortunate in this circumstance that I had to use a TA due to the fact I'm going through Hilton Grand Vacations Club and using some of our points to pay for the cruise. But it's situations like this that keep me from ever wanting to use a TA unless I have everything set and there's no way I'm going to want to make another change.

 

Change your TA for goodness sake. There are loads of full service agents out there with highly competitively priced packages available.

 

Unfortunately we are not allowed to actually name them here on CC.

[getgoofy]

Doug,

 

It sounds to me like you are using the wrong agent, maybe you should look elsewhere there are a lot of us out their who believe that our clients are our #1 priority ;)

 

Here's what drives me nuts about having a TA with RCI. I can't do anything unless it goes through the TA.

 

Yesterday a slightly better loction for us became available for our sailing. So I called the TA to see about moving our cabin location. Same catagory, just a little better location. Of course she's not available and I have to leave a voice mail. Call wasn't returned, I checked my reservation online and no change had been made and, of course, the cabin I wanted is gone. This is exactly why I never use a TA for booking my cruises through RCI. It keeps my hands tied when I see something I want.

 

Earlier I had a tough time getting her to return my calls when I wanted to drop the air portion of my cruise. I had finally found a good price for our airfare ($450 total cheaper than RCI) with times that would work for this sailing. It took a couple of phone calls and a week to get a change made I could have done myself in a few minutes. I'm also having trouble catching her to give her our credit card information so that when final payment comes due, she has a credit card number with a future expiration date. When we booked orifinally, the cards expiration date was before final payment was due. Needless to say this is all getting very frustrating.

 

Under normal circumstances I won't work with a TA until I have everything set. It's unfortunate in this circumstance that I had to use a TA due to the fact I'm going through Hilton Grand Vacations Club and using some of our points to pay for the cruise. But it's situations like this that keep me from ever wanting to use a TA unless I have everything set and there's no way I'm going to want to make another change.

[DGNY]

Doug,

 

It sounds to me like you are using the wrong agent, maybe you should look elsewhere there are a lot of us out their who believe that our clients are our #1 priority ;)

 

I believe he said that Hilton Grand Vacations Club is forcing him to use a particular TA. So there was no choice.

[flagger]

The biggest perk with using a travel agent is for when you need someone to be an advocate for you, whether it is an emergency or something else. For someone who is inexperienced having a professional is worth their weight in gold no matter who you use.

[cruislovin]

Does anyone know if an existing reservation can be transferred from one TA to another or back to RCI? At what point is the TA paid?

 

I am having problems with a current booking with a TA that I've used many times before. I want to go back to handling the bookings on my own, including the one I currently have if that's possible. I am doing this TA's work on my booking and the TA is getting the commission...:(

[lvtotrvl1]

Change your TA for goodness sake. There are loads of full service agents out there with highly competitively priced packages available.

 

Unfortunately we are not allowed to actually name them here on CC.

 

If the OP is using his HIlton points he cannot change TA's. And in reality, they are not actual TA's...they are reservation agents for that company.

[SusieV]

We always use a TA because the perks are just too good. Getting a significant amount of OBC makes it worth any additional hassle, at least IMO. We have had a few annoying situations (I had a booking that was part of the CVC debacle), but I find that as long as I know what I want and don't expect much in the way of service, it's cheaper to cruise.