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cirman52

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Why isn't there a forum about travel agents ? Questions could be asked like : how do I find a good online agent or what do I have to do to get my on line agent to return calls/ emails ?

Or is this field covered else where ?

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Those things are discussed. Every day or so, several people ask about finding a TA, or whether an online or brick and mortar TA is better. We just can't name them, recommend them, or discuss them by name.

 

The reason for not naming them was apparent the other day. A TA came on, and on several boards, advertised her services. That was one. How do you think it would be if there were hundreds everyday?

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Those things are discussed. Every day or so, several people ask about finding a TA, or whether an online or brick and mortar TA is better. We just can't name them, recommend them, or discuss them by name.

 

The reason for not naming them was apparent the other day. A TA came on, and on several boards, advertised her services. That was one. How do you think it would be if there were hundreds everyday?

Bruce is so right. I am very thankful that CC does not allow mention of travel agents. We would be inundate with ads and pseudo praises.

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We would be inundate with ads and pseudo praises.

 

This is very true and appreciated, but to the OP I would tell you that you can go to the home page of Cruise Critic and find several types of travel agents.

 

I get emails from Cruise Critic regularly that reflect a collusion between Cruise Critic and some (unnamed) travel agency.

 

Whether they are good or bad I cannot say... I have a great travel agent.

 

Finally, some cruise lines (Princess comes to mind) have listings on their web page of travel agents who are 'certified' to book cruises for them.

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I think some other sites will allow TAs to put their info in their signature line, but they aren't allowed to solicit business by sending emails or private messages to any of the other members (they'll get banned permanently in those cases), but any one can contact them if they get a sense from their posts if they are knowledgeable.

 

In the case of trying to track down a TA (if you don't have friends who could recommend one for cruising), look in the yellow pages for your area under travel agents, and find one that uses the phrase "cruise specialist" in their ad or heading. Then go in to their office and ask questions about the cruises they've been on. They should be able to discuss with enthusiasm their actual onboard experience. If they haven't been on a cruise, they shouldn't be considered a cruise specialist.

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  • 6 months later...

Hi:

Just booked a cruise & the TA said there was taxes & fees but they dont match the cruise $$$...Cruise online fees & taxes where way cheaper $$...TA said there would be another screen online showing more board & landing fees...is there such fees when you book online????

 

thanks

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Hi:

Just booked a cruise & the TA said there was taxes & fees but they dont match the cruise $$$...Cruise online fees & taxes where way cheaper $$...TA said there would be another screen online showing more board & landing fees...is there such fees when you book online????

 

thanks

 

On a TA's bill the costs are broken down differently than on the cruiseline's site.

On the TA bill you will see something like-

 

Non-commissionable: $500

Commissionable : $500

Taxes and fees $100

Total: $1100

 

The TA does not get a commission on the whole amount of the cruise just the commissionable part of the fare. When rates go down it is usually the commissionable part being reduced. The non-commissionable rate rarely changes as it covers fixed costs.

 

As long as the Total is the same I'm satisfied.

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Won't be found here. He/She will be found by word of mouth from those that have used them to their satisfaction. With the proliferation of online booking options TAs need to work very hard these days to keep a client base that pays the bills. One that isn't cutting it with their customers is headed for another form of employment and fast. Thankfully we found a great one over ten years ago and even though she has moved to another city 150 miles away I would never think of switching to someone else local. Ask around to those you know that travel extensivly.

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Why isn't there a forum about travel agents ? Questions could be asked like : how do I find a good online agent or what do I have to do to get my on line agent to return calls/ emails ?

Or is this field covered else where ?

 

 

I don't think the OP was asking about any specific TAs or allowing TAs to post/advertise. I think the question was a forum so that we could ask questions about TAs in general (not specific ones).

 

I posted a topic trying to find out what people look for in a TA and what specific questions to ask a TA when considering using one. It would have been nice if I could have gone to a specific forum to get these types of questions answered.

 

I agree that I wouldn't want to have to wade through advertisements from TAs, or posts from loyal customers advertising on behalf of their TAs, on the forum, but having a place to go for help/guidance would be nice.

 

Just my opinion of course...:)

 

Donna

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I don't think the OP was asking about any specific TAs or allowing TAs to post/advertise. I think the question was a forum so that we could ask questions about TAs in general (not specific ones).

 

I posted a topic trying to find out what people look for in a TA and what specific questions to ask a TA when considering using one. It would have been nice if I could have gone to a specific forum to get these types of questions answered.

 

I agree that I wouldn't want to have to wade through advertisements from TAs, or posts from loyal customers advertising on behalf of their TAs, on the forum, but having a place to go for help/guidance would be nice.

 

Just my opinion of course...:)

 

Donna

Hi Donna. You can ask the questions you've listed here. You can ask any generic question about travel agents. You can ask how others found their agent or what to look for in a good agent or what benefits you can expect from a travel agent. You just can't ask for a travel agent recommendation. You can't give a travel agent recommendation. That includes giving your e mail address to get or give a recommendation. You can't recommend a travel agent and you can't ask for feedback on a specific travel agent. If we allowed that type of discussion, the boards would be inundated with recommendations, real and fake, and then you wouldn't know if the recommendation is genuine or being paid for. But you can definitely discuss generic topics concerning travel agents. This is the correct board for that discussion.
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What are the benefits of using a TA if you already know which cruise you want to take? I was told that a TA could not get you a better price, but that the only extra thing they could do is to maybe give you a ship board credit or something along that line. They said that the TA, the cruise lines or any other "discount" places could not sell the rooms any cheaper than the other. Is this true?

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We salute CCs policy re TAs (the less said the better). Those of us who remember the early days on online Travel blogs and sites can talk about the days when AOL ruled the roost (the World Wide Web was in its infancy). AOL was the first place to have a popular cruise blog and many TAs used the site as their way to boost their own business. Some of these were decent TAs...but others were awful. Now, as to the previous comment about discounting, its just not true. We book a lot of cruises (cruised 101 days in 2012) and always shop around for our cruises by pricing-out what we want with several large online TAs and also the cruise line's own site. In all of our bookings (over 70 now) there was only 1 time when a cruise line's site was competitive. There are always some TAs who can offer special authorized promotions, amenities, or group rates. The price controls now enforced by most of the mass market lines do have some impact, but there can be major savings by looking around. On shorter cruises (10 days or less) the savings might not be huge (often a few hundred dollar on board credit, prepaid gratuities, etc) but on longer more expensive cruises the savings can be quite large (we saved over $3000 on a HA cruise last year). My advice for any cruiser is to simply spend a few minutes shopping around since you have nothing to lose but a little time.

 

Hank

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I'm glad there's no TA business going on here. I can see many inherent problems with allowing TA's to work on a cruise board.

 

I agree with you. With the ease of becoming a "travel agent" these days, when every other person you know is becoming a cruise agent, it would be a real nuisance.

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  • 2 months later...

Travels Agents have designations:

CTC - Certified Travel Counselor is the most prestigious - college level courses

CTA - mid way through the course work for CTC

 

These agents would be most knowledgable of your ports of call & destinations.

 

MCC - Master Cruuise Counselor - there is one level about this - not sure of the letters used

ACC - Accresited Cruise Counselor - 1/2 way to MCC

 

these ppl specialize in cruises only - may not have the expertise for ports/destinations

 

These are not free classes - so an agent who has taken them not only invests time - but money - that has to say somethng about thier level of knowledge.

 

Like every profession - some good - some bad and some indifferent - shop around ....

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What are the benefits of using a TA if you already know which cruise you want to take? I was told that a TA could not get you a better price, but that the only extra thing they could do is to maybe give you a ship board credit or something along that line. They said that the TA, the cruise lines or any other "discount" places could not sell the rooms any cheaper than the other. Is this true?

 

We recently booked through an agent who belongs to an organisation which provides little extra events for their customers. We received a free shore excursion - a very nice surprise!

 

TAs can also be useful if you're having a problem with your booking, although some are more helpful than others. We booked through a different agent last year, who got us a really good price, (a very few cruise lines still seem to allow some discounting) but was no use at all when we wanted to ensure that all of our party was booked for the same table at dinner. We had to wait until we could see the maitre d' to fix that. We might use them again in the future because of the great pricing, but with the knowledge that just booking the cruise directly with the line would have been more helpful when we needed to make a change. So there can be pluses and minuses with using an agent.

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What are the benefits of using a TA if you already know which cruise you want to take? I was told that a TA could not get you a better price, but that the only extra thing they could do is to maybe give you a ship board credit or something along that line. They said that the TA, the cruise lines or any other "discount" places could not sell the rooms any cheaper than the other. Is this true?

 

more true than not.

 

TAs MIGHT give extras like freebies( OBCm a free specialty restaurant dining one night, bottle of bubbly etc) but the fact is, you need to decide if losing control over the reservation is worth that to you. Since we don't feel as though that is necessarily important to us.. as in we really could care less about any freebies or extras.. we don't feel the need to use one. we have a budget and we stick to it. I am not going to pour over ten different sites and make a spreadsheet to compare TA1 who offers $50 OBC to TA2 who offers $25 but also gives us a bottle to TA3 who tries to trump that by tossing in dinner at a specialty.

 

you have to understand that all those extras come out of their commission, or other means. so instead of making $100 on your booking, they may only make $75, but they are hoping that over the long run, you will stick with them and they'd rather have 2 $75 checks than one $100 check.

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more true than not.

 

TAs MIGHT give extras like freebies( OBCm a free specialty restaurant dining one night, bottle of bubbly etc) but the fact is, you need to decide if losing control over the reservation is worth that to you. Since we don't feel as though that is necessarily important to us.. as in we really could care less about any freebies or extras.. we don't feel the need to use one. we have a budget and we stick to it. I am not going to pour over ten different sites and make a spreadsheet to compare TA1 who offers $50 OBC to TA2 who offers $25 but also gives us a bottle to TA3 who tries to trump that by tossing in dinner at a specialty.

 

you have to understand that all those extras come out of their commission, or other means. so instead of making $100 on your booking, they may only make $75, but they are hoping that over the long run, you will stick with them and they'd rather have 2 $75 checks than one $100 check.

 

No need to go to a bunch of sites when there is a reverse bidding site out there that provides you with multiple quotes . . . All the quotes are on one page accessible only to you. You describe the cruise, multiple TAs compete for your business. TA1,2,3 and more with their price all quoted in one page, it's easy to compare.

 

I use that site regularly. I can't remember when I was able to get a better deal from a cruise line. Sometimes one of these TAs has locked in a group rate, lower than the cruise line price. Most of the TAs offer obc, so you need to do a bit of mental arithmetic to get to your net price.

 

A little, very little, work to save 10%. Well worth it to me.

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We have been on quite a few cruises but have almost always booked with the cruiseline. I have not found the huge savings all of you are talking about with TA's.

 

We typically cruise in an aft balcony or an inside. Are more of the big savings for those staying in suites?

 

We have mostly cruised the Caribbean in Feb or March. Are those savings on cruises going to other locations, Europe maybe or during the summer months?

 

You have all inspired me to keep digging for lower prices or more perks on two cruises I am hoping to book in the next month or so! Wish me luck!

 

Lauri

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Some cruise lines do not allow a TA to discount their fares, while others do. If you are booking on a line that prohibits discounts, the only thing a TA can offer is perks like OBC, a bottle of wine, etc.

 

If you are booking on a line that allows disounting, then you can save money if you find a good TA. We sail with Princess. They do not allow a TA to advertise a discount pirce, but if you request a quote, it can include a discount. We usually save 10 to 15% off the Princess fare.

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That 10 - 15% has also been my experience . . . on insides and OVs. Discount the cabin or give me a reduced fare, it's all the same to me.

 

I don't think I have ever "lost control" of my cruise. It's just that I phone a different number if I want to make some kind of change.

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