UK Bookers - Do you get Discounts?

Just wondering if you booked in the UK does your agent give you a discount or any OBC?

Thanks

We tend to get the Celebrity deal and little else.

From chatting to other UK cruises it seems as though a higher % of UK bookers book directly rather than through an agent - there are fewer gains to be had for us so we cut out the middle man.

I bank with Royal Bank of Scotland and I swear by their Royalties Travel Service which automatically gives you free travel insurance, exec lounge vouchers in the airport - and 10% (excluding airport taxes) off ANY website or travel company's price.

My Celebrity cruises I received 10% off the website price - I am 100% sure on that one :D

Love it. It costs £16 a month to service the account but more than pays for itself in travel insurance alone.

Flights too - 10% from airlines website prices:)

I bank with Royal Bank of Scotland and I swear by their Royalties Travel Service )

Me too! :D:D

depending on the cruise I book through the US

We get a small discount from our TA in the UK. But I gather from talking to a number of TAs that the cruise lines no longer getting the big commissions that they used to, hence why they don't pass on bigger discounts.

It is often a struggle to get any discounts through a UK TA, a bit of OBC free parking, a dinner might be on the list.

I did price up an RCI trip direct got some extra OBC($50) when asked but that was it.

Cashback sites(quidco,topcashback) and other portals(like RBS) seem to give better discounts on cruises.

depending on the cruise I book through the US

How do you manage the exchange rate risk?

Will need discounts, those on board charges in US dollars aren't very attractive this morning

How do you manage the exchange rate risk?

The easiest way is pay in full,

Does depend if a late booking it is often within final anyway.

For earlier bookings it can swing either way but with a US booking you can cancel with full refund, if the UK rates get better.

How do you manage the exchange rate risk?

That, of course, has suddenly become a hugely pertinent question!

OTOH, while our Autumn 2017 NE/Canada cruise has, for the first time, been booked through a US travel agent, the deposit is fully refundable if we cancel. And if the pound has fallen against the dollar since I paid the deposit, I'll get more back!

So, if in a few months' time, when exchange rates have settled down again, it's cheaper to pay Celebrity UK in sterling, we'll cancel the US booking and rebook in the UK.

Stuart

I booked direct as there were no discounts to be had that I could tell. I went via Topcashback though and got a nice chunk of cashback on it, which was paid out a while ago, which did help.

I bank with Royal Bank of Scotland and I swear by their Royalties Travel Service which automatically gives you free travel insurance, exec lounge vouchers in the airport - and 10% (excluding airport taxes) off ANY website or travel company's price.

 

 

 

My Celebrity cruises I received 10% off the website price - I am 100% sure on that one :D

 

 

 

Love it. It costs £16 a month to service the account but more than pays for itself in travel insurance alone.

 

 

 

Flights too - 10% from airlines website prices:)

This sounds good. Just checked the RBS website and it shows the lounge access as only being included in their Black account. (EDIT- Found it, UK Airport Lounge Access)

Last year I booked 2 cruises on board for the OBC and cabin upgrade and they transferred the bookings to my UK TA who gave me further discounts.

I have also booked a RCCL via Quidco and got 5% cash back. My Disney bookings have been made via a U.S. TA and agree with previous posters that the ways to protect yourself from big currency movements are to either pay in full upfront or be prepared to cancel and rebook in the UK. The problem with the latter strategy is that the price might have gone up in the meantime.

We booked a couple of Celebrity cruises a couple of years back with a US agent and saved a lot plus got several perks however the US prices now seem to be on a par or more than UK prices.

Weve used cashback sites before as mentioned above but now go direct and use our bluelight card 10% discount. Have to say booking direct with Celebrity feels easier than using an agent as they know the answers to most questions and make the booking process seem quicker as they are only booking Celebrity cruises.

We usually manage to get discounts in the UK even if we have booked on board and taken the onboard credit available for doing that, usually 4 - 6% but as an RBS customer I will look at their offers although I am not sure how that works for booking on board. Our current TA gets the bookings referred to them and then discounts them so we get all the benefits of on board.

Celebrity UK are only giving drink packages at the moment which is better than what was on offer. Booking on board in February (in a suite) gave Premium drinks, free gratuities, free internet and $300 obc plus $450 for booking on board. Then we got about 5% from the TA.

the exchange rate answer is the same as everyone has said. If I like the rate I normally pay in full or wait until nearer the time. I always double check the US cost against the UK to check but normally its the perks that they offer that are better. We booked on board last time and got a mega deal - transferred to UK.

We booked 2 days ago using a US agent and had to pay in full as it is fewer than 90 days until travel.

Checked today and it has increased by approx £90pp although the dollar price has remained the same. Almost 10% increase

To those of you who have RBS accounts, please check your Travel Insurance small print, They have just refused to payout a claim for us because we hadn't informed them that my husband had seen the GP in the last 6 months, and this was nothing to do with the medical reason we had to cancel our trip.

We normally book in the US but I hadnt thought about RBS as we have accounts so today I looked at the difference between the US and UK web site and for once the cost was cheaper in the UK so I called RBS and got a 190 pounds discount which is good as it just about pays the grats

Cheers

To those of you who have RBS accounts, please check your Travel Insurance small print, They have just refused to payout a claim for us because we hadn't informed them that my husband had seen the GP in the last 6 months, and this was nothing to do with the medical reason we had to cancel our trip.

We always do a yearly check and declare anything

All that happens is you receive a letter stating you are not covered from anything resulting from that condition.

Its just like car insurance and not declaring penalty points.

We had declared the things we needed to do, but my husband went to the GP for with a problem that with a short course of meds settled down so never thought to declare the visit. Even if you get medical advice you need to tell them. It is in the small print.

If you are given medication for a condition after visiting the doctor, it its best to declare it - does not just apply to RBS insurance, but to all.