Unsure and vulnerable

[Sundance12]

Hey guys, as some of you may know I am desperately trying to organise a cruise with some friends on either the sun or the dawn and i have been to a travel agent and at this point it seems impossible due to their demands.. see we are able to get the final amount in on time but we cant get the large sum of money in at the rate they would like... see they are asking for a $450 deposit per person within a matter of days... the P&O booklet said the deposit was $200... I am aware that the travel agent also needs a deposit but $250?! i was just wondering if this is the going rate or if this particular travel agent is trying to rip us off, as we are not the type to barter we just pay what we're told for convenience sake... but $450 is a lot of money in 3 days... does anyone know of any good travel agencies where the amount of the deposit and the time frim within which it is due is not so high? Id appreciate any advice :)

[karmac]

Maybe you should ring P&O & check with them. We booked both our cruises through a TA and only paid $200 deposit. And we had 7 days to pay it.

Karen

[Matre]

You will find that the majority of TA's will charge anything up to $300 on top of P&O's deposit and I guess they are justified in doing so. The reason I say this is that there is a fair bit of work done and time spent to get bookings done, confirmation letters sent out and then sending deposits off to cruise company. Should the client cancel they have done all that work for nothing. In real terms, travel insurance would cover you for most cancellations (other than changing your mind) so your TA is not really "ripping you off" The whole deposit you pay comes off the end total anyway.

I don't really think any reasonable person could expect TA's to work for free in the event of cancellations.

If you are not prepared to pay a larger deposit then I suggest you just go straight to P&O and book thru them with only $200 down.

Hope that sheds some light for you.

Maria

[Skyrules]

If you book directly through P&O you pay $200 pp up front and then the balance by 2months prior to the departure of the cruise. I think you can make regular payments up to the 2mth deadline. One of the options when you call is "If you want to make a cruise payment press....."

[Star-Man]

We were lucky when we booked the last one. Because we were all still going through year 12 and saving hard to get the money for the cruise in the first place, our TA dropped the agent fee down to $50. Which made the first payment much easier on the wallet.

[Sundance12]

But see thats that thing... it was a travel agent within my university which pride themselves on their "student friendly fares"... you would think they'd be a little more sympathetic towards students' tight budgets... when we tried to reason with them all we were told was "ye well travel is expensive"

[tgard76]

My advice is to shop around. If you don't want to deal with P&O directly. You should find an agent with lower booking fees and you might even get a better deal or a shipboard credit if you're booking for a few.

Trevor

[Matre]

My advice is to shop around. If you don't want to deal with P&O directly. You should find an agent with lower booking fees and you might even get a better deal or a shipboard credit if you're booking for a few.

Trevor

I don't think the $250 is a booking fee. All they do is collect $250 of the balance of payment in advance as an assurance that if you cancel they won't be out of pocket. The overall cost of the cruise is the same...just at the end you pay $250 less because you paid that upfront as "extra" deposit. A booking fee par se is "additional" to the total which this is not.

Maria

[bee_squared]

I presume you are looking at a cruise at the end of the year? If so, why not just wait until you can save enough money to pay the required deposit then go and make the bookings.

Have a look around at some of the internet travel agents as well, the one we used saved us about $1500 (between 4) from what P&O or the local TA quoted. Although we did have to pay a $300 x 4 deposit.

Not a small amount of money for a student!

[tgard76]

I don't think the $250 is a booking fee. All they do is collect $250 of the balance of payment in advance as an assurance that if you cancel they won't be out of pocket. The overall cost of the cruise is the same...just at the end you pay $250 less because you paid that upfront as "extra" deposit. A booking fee par se is "additional" to the total which this is not.

Maria

Unless of course, if you cancel your booking. So in a sense it is a booking fee until your cruise is completely paid for. It's still a fee as you would lose your money...... P&O don't get the extra, the handling agent does. Any monies paid to your agent (aside from the $200 deposit to P&O) is held by the agent until the cruise is completely paid for.

[karmac]

Gee, sounds like we were lucky. I didn't shop around (silly I know) just went to our closest TA at the centre where I do my shopping. As I said earlier we booked both times through them and each time only paid the $200 per adult & $100 per child deposit.

Karen

[howsthis]

Our T/A charged $300 deposit, in fact we have used 3 T/A's and they all charged $300. If you are wanting to book a long way ahead sometimes you get a better deal closer to the cruise date, but I guess if there are a few of you then you may have to book earlier. As the others have said, shop around.

[kate and chris]

I don't really think any reasonable person could expect TA's to work for free in the event of cancellations.


Thats exactly right. It's great to finally see that people realise we're not just a free information service! All our work is done at the beginning of a booking and then we get paid months down the track... It's covering our time, which is worth something.

[qt_esme]

We paid $400 per adult and $200 per child deposit with our T.A who are fantastic! This amount is then taken off the balance which is due 60 days prior to sailing.

[Sundance12]

I realise that the money will come off the total and ill end up paying the same in the end but as students we just cant produce that amount that quickly.. The TA rang P&O and thats where the 3 day deadline came from... P&O told us that the cruise we want is selling out fast and the longer we wait the more we'll have to pay because the cheapest cabins sell out first... If you book directly through P&O do you have to use a credit card or is there an alternate way of doing so