Do I need a new TA?

My TA only books my cruise and I receive nothing from her ( no Incentives whatsoever to use her ) other than an occasional mass email that she sends out to her cruisers. This is the second cruise I booked through her, of which I have to look everything over all the time and tell her the corrections I need made to the booking. Is this normal? Do TA’s give out incentives (OBC ?) that I am not receiving, that I don’t know about? Can I get her off my 2019 cruise booking? Thanks for the answers.

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There are a lot of on-line TA's who give reduced fares, OBC, and other perks. You can transfer your booking to new TA's. I would shop around and ask your friends who they use.

If I were not receiving anything other than mistakes on my booking which I had to correct, I'd be looking for a new TA.

Depending on the TA, some offer discounts on the price of the cruise, OBC, or other perks. At the very least, the TA gets some credit from Princess which can be used to provide you with a small gift--a bottle of wine or whatever. This costs the TA nothing as it really comes from Princess!

I look first for excellent service. After that, any discounts or perks are a benefit. Mistakes are not great service, so that combined with no added benefit...I'd be shopping around.

And yes, you can transfer a current booking back to Princess and then to a new TA. Verify that your TA does not charge a fee for a cancelation (although you aren't canceling, they might try to pull this) and didn't discount your cruise price over what Princess charged.

You would probably be better served by looking for a new TA. However, I don't believe you mentioned whether or not this TA provides a cruise fare that is lower than what Princess is offering. If he/she is not, than it's definitely time to move on. I personally prefer a lower cruise fare over OBC.

You would probably be better served by looking for a new TA. However, I don't believe you mentioned whether or not this TA provides a cruise fare that is lower than what Princess is offering. If he/she is not, than it's definitely time to move on. I personally prefer a lower cruise fare over OBC.

This is a very good point. I dumped one TA for exactly that reason. We booked a 32-day TA cruise with her and received no discount on the pricing and not even a bottle of wine for the cabin.

Now I shop around and try to see which TA's are offering the best deal for me, whether it's a cheaper price, great perks, or a combination of both. :)

Call Princess and ask "how do I get rid of my TA", the rep will explain the process to you (there may be paperwork to do). Once you've dropped your current TA, look for a new one to take over the booking.

Next time, book through Princess first...then shop for a TA that gives you a discount, OBC, etc. There are a couple of websites that will let you get bids from TAs. I've tried one of them and not usually successful in finding a better deal than the one from the TA that I usually use.

While on a cruise, ask everyone you meet...who's your TA? What kind of perks does he/she give?

Search online for the online only TAs, it's a place to start.

You are not getting any value from TA, so I would be looking for a new one

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

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Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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Tell them you are going to look for a new TA and see what happens.

All their mistakes would concern me and why in the UK I use a high street TA.

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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My personal opinion would be to transfer back to Princess and THEN contact TA if you choose to do so to explain why. If you call TA first... what are they going to say? They won't suddenly offer you a lower fare by hundreds of dollars and a cheap bottle of champagne won't cut it for most people.

Some people forgo discounts because they have found a TA who watches out for them. It does not appear that yours does.

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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Not until you are sure you can transfer without any cost. Broaching this question may get you even less service. At the simplest if your TA provides no benefit you can do bookings online yourself with Princess. I like doing the booking myself and maintaining its control until shortly before final payment is due. Then I transfer the booking to a TA for the benefits I can obtain.

I have never been a big promoter of TA's (except in rare cases) but this one sounds particularly bad. Any time you can do better by going directly to the source i.e. Princess your TA is useless.

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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First, find out what a different TA will offer for the cruise then ask you present TA if she can beat that. If she says no and has no cancellation penalty, move your booking to the new agent. If she does have a cancellation penalty that would cancel out and savings from moving, then stay with her but make it the last time you use her.

I have been with the same travel agent for many years. I do all my research and then tell my agent exactly what I want from pre or post cruise hotel reservations, transfers, and which cabin I want on the cruise ship. My agent has given me many different gifts----bottles of wine, onboard credit, specialty restaurant dinners, all inclusive beverage packages, and spa treatment credits.

I must have found a true gem of a TA because he always gives me great OBC!!

I always book on my own and then track pricing, sales, etc. If a good deal comes up that is better than what I have booked I just call Princess and ask to change to the new offer. Shortly before final payment is due I send the booking info to my TA and ask what kind of discounted price he can offer. He doesn't give as much discount as some but it's pretty much 8% less than Princess is charging. When I have his firm quote I transfer the booking to him. We prefer giving him our business as he is local and a good person.

If he didn't offer a discount I would then move the booking to the big box as they offer crazy good OBC that is refundable. You can find out what they offer by simply going to their web site and looking up your cruise. The amount of OBC is clearly listed. I don't call the big box a "real" TA as they offer zip in the way of hand holding or watching out for price drops, etc. but, if you already have your ducks in a row and final payment is almost upon you they could be a good choice for many.

Transferring a booking is extremely easy. First transfer it back to Princess and then you can shop around for a good TA. If you would like to transfer the booking to Princess simply send email to: revenuesupportdepartment@princesscruises.com

In the email include your name, the booking info (voyage number, booking number, etc.) and your contact info. Tell them you would like to transfer the booking from your current TA back to Princess. That's really all it takes. The same process is used when you find the TA you want to use but, of course, you also have to include the TA name and contact info in the email when you move it from Princess to the new TA. Seriously, it's really that easy to do.

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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If you do, she may give you something this time, just to hold on to you as a customer; then, the next time, it just may be back to the old ways. I'd move on.

I have a great TA who watches out for me. Some times we OBC, some times not. I hear of people getting large amounts of OBC. I think it has somewhat to do with how much your cruise cost before the port and taxes are added on. I can't picture getting OBC for a cruise that is on the cheaper side.

Our next cruise is on Princess in a mid ship balcony, price $688.PP for seven nights. At that rate I don't expect any perks fro her. She does give us wonderful service. Will fight for perk from Princess or price drops for us.

As for mistakes, one time she forgot to paid our deposit. and Princess canceled our booking. I saw it when I went to fill in the on line forms. There was plenty of cabins still open on the ship. At the same price that I paid. So, I told her not to worry and just put us in one of the open same price cabins (it was a inside cabin). She called me back later said that she was sorry for the mistake and booked us in a balcony cabin mid ship (no price increase for us, she was paying the difference) and gave us OBC. I was really happy for this. But I had told her that is was not necessary because of all the great service she has given us over the years. But she wanted us to have it.

We are very happy using her.

Thanks for giving me your wise advice. Do you think I should bring this up with the current TA and see what she says?

 

 

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As others have advised, I would simply cancel with the TA that provides substandard service. Look for another TA that offers some perks or a lower cruise fare (and has your best interests at heart).

If I was not getting something substantial from them, either a much lower price than what the cruise line can offer you or a big chunk of OBC, then I'd drop the TA and do it myself.

Do people really think that a TA who does their job without giving any additional perks is not worth having? Seriously? We have only ONCE received a bottle of wine out of all the cruises we have booked with ours. She did help us out of a huge jam once though, really went to bat for us with Royal and we got what we were hoping for. We gave her a bottle of wine and a thank you card. :o

Nevermind - I'm just waxing poetic anyway.

Do people really think that a TA who does their job without giving any additional perks is not worth having? Seriously? We have only ONCE received a bottle of wine out of all the cruises we have booked with ours. She did help us out of a huge jam once though, really went to bat for us with Royal and we got what we were hoping for. We gave her a bottle of wine and a thank you card. :o

 

Nevermind - I'm just waxing poetic anyway.

It really depends on what you are looking for in a TA. If you are looking for extra service over and above merely booking a cruise, then that extra service is your perk. If you do your own research and do not need extra service, then you might well look for a TA that will give you a monetary perk instead. One size DOES NOT fit all.

I have a great TA who watches out for me. Some times we OBC, some times not. I hear of people getting large amounts of OBC. I think it has somewhat to do with how much your cruise cost before the port and taxes are added on. I can't picture getting OBC for a cruise that is on the cheaper side.

Our next cruise is on Princess in a mid ship balcony, price $688.PP for seven nights. At that rate I don't expect any perks fro her.

My "big box" warehouse store TA gives about 8% back (I believe they round the 8% down to the nearest $25) in the form of a gift card to spend at the store - which is the same as cash to me since I would be making purchases there regardless. Using your example cheap cruise with $688 pp ($1376 per cabin) we would get a $100 gift card after completion of the cruise - not a tremendous amount, but certainly worthwhile.

On the other hand, if you are booking a 12N Med cruise at $6000 per cabin, now the gift card is $475! And of course, others would shop around with various online TAs seeking a 10% or 11% savings - while I am happy to get the 8% without having to shop around. To each their own!

If I have a very simple cruise (Just DH and I, driving to port, on a cruiseline we've used before ) I usually just book it myself on the cruiseline website and do insurance through insuremy trip; as a past guest, the cruiseline website gives me offers from which to choose. For a group cruise, one with airfair, pre-and post accommodations, etc., I use a TA who is a former classmate of mine. She is wonderful - she always gives some perks, such as a bar credit and notifies me of fare changes and upgrades available, etc, and handles any problems that occur with trip interruption or delays with no hassle or expense to us.

Get a new TA.

It took us a couple of years to find a good one -- no internet back when we started to cruise and do land vacations.

We were fortunate to find a good one -- have used her for over 26 years.

Yes -- we get shipboard credit, sometimes bottles of good wine, etc.

Before you change TA's, make certain that the present one doesn't charge you a fee for cancelling and changing to another TA.

My "big box" warehouse store TA gives about 8% back (I believe they round the 8% down to the nearest $25) in the form of a gift card to spend at the store - which is the same as cash to me since I would be making purchases there regardless. Using your example cheap cruise with $688 pp ($1376 per cabin) we would get a $100 gift card after completion of the cruise - not a tremendous amount, but certainly worthwhile.

 

On the other hand, if you are booking a 12N Med cruise at $6000 per cabin, now the gift card is $475! And of course, others would shop around with various online TAs seeking a 10% or 11% savings - while I am happy to get the 8% without having to shop around. To each their own!

Extra saving is great. The gift card is great.

But for me her service is worth it even with out a perk. . I never knew (until it happened) how a good TA can help you when something happens. She has helped us when a member of our group got sick and had to be put into a hospital on a island. Another time sister in law had to leave a cruise we were on because her husband got sick back home. My TA went into action, getting flight, got in touch with the cruise line headquarters, hospitals and family back home. She has gotten us back non refundable deposit with one cruise line. I could go on and on. To me her service is worth her weight in gold. While I could handle these thing myself, it just took stress off having some one else do it.

Another time we booked a cruise for my birthday. I was telling her that my DH is not one to send me flowers. Well, on my birthday on board flowers were in our cabin from her. Just a nice touch.