What Does a TA Really Do?

We've always booked our cruises directly with the cruise line, but we read here how great Travel Agents are, so we booked our current cruise with one.

So it started with paying them a $95 fee. O.K. Next we explained to them what we were looking for and they send us these paragraph summaries from their software reservation system. After a few back-and-forths we find what we want, but the process was certainly no easier than if we just looked ourselves on the web site. We could have found the same cruise for the same price in half the time.

So after we paid a deposit they sent us info on their third-party travel insurance. It was about 50% of the price of the Princess travel insurance so we got it. Good. Then we come to find out the travel agent incorrectly purchased the insurance for 1/2 the value of our cruise and if we wanted it for the real value, we'd have to pay more. No apologies, nothing.

Now we have to make final payment so we call Princess, and they can't take the money, we have to call the travel agent. Just yet another aggravation of using a travel agent.

Can someone tell me what I'm missing and what great benefit a TA provides? Are they for people that don't know how to use the Internet? Was I supposed to get some discount somewhere to make up for their $95 charges? I haven't made the final payment yet, can I have Princess rebook this without the travel agent?

I know people are going to say they are great, you just got a bad one, but we did research them before booking, and they were high rated. I'm just missing where the value is.

Fee?? You don't need to pay no stinking fee!

For many, a travel agent is so that you can get extra perks (OBC). Many TA sacrifice part of their commission and give it to the customer as OBC or other perks.

Now we can't mention any travel agency names on this site. But, if you were to do research into who gives OBC for booking cruises you might find some that do.

(That was a pretty safe posting)

We'll when you contact them having never used one before, and they say there is a fee for service, you pay it. I know many charge a fee now. So the fee isn't bad if they actually provided something for it, but that is not what I'm seeing. Were we just conned?

You should have run when they said they have a Fee just to book .

All TA's are not the same nor are the agencies that they work with .

So much for the reviews that you read about this agency.

There is no test to become a TA . It is up to the agency to train and

Point the agent to other training available from cruise lines and CLIA.

You keep mentioning "they" and "them" . If you don't get the same TA assigned to you , that could be trouble , and you got trouble .

That's easy...you used the wrong TA. Never pay $$ upfront to a TA.

You'll always have to send your payments to the TA rather than Princess. The honest ones immediately send the payment to Princess and your credit card will show the payment to Princess, not the TA.

A good TA will give you something for your business. The one we use most often gives us OBC AND a discount on the fare, sometimes a bottle of wine or other goodies. Some have reported a specialty dinner being thrown in or gratuities being paid by the TA.

We almost always book directly with Princess to make sure we get the cabin we want and then contact a variety of TAs to see what they will give us in the way of discount, OBC, etc.

Finally, yes...you can fire the TA. Call Princess and they'll tell you what to do.

You should not pay a TA for their services so you should have used a different TA. High volume TA's will typically reduce your fare by about 10% of the cruise fare not including the Non Commissionable Fare portion. TA's will typically give you some OBC and possibly a gift onboard. One of our TA's was able to get a better selection of Princess flights than what was shown on the website. I know as much or more about the Princess ships, cabin and itineraries as a TA but the other benefits can be worth hundreds of dollars.

You were not conned. Some TA charge a fee for planning services. These fees arose after the airline originally cut the commission on flights many years ago. (1994?) Most TA have done away with the fees. So, do some looking before booking your next cruise.

You should have run when they said they have a Fee just to book .

Yeah, I guess I know that now. I called Princess and they say we can remove the travel agent from the booking with just an email to their RevenueSupportDepartment.

A good TA will give you something for your business. The one we use most often gives us OBC AND a discount on the fare, sometimes a bottle of wine or other goodies. Some have reported a specialty dinner being thrown in or gratuities being paid by the TA.

After I did my research online, I spoke with a TA in a local mall. I knew what cruise I wanted (date, destination, cabin numbers, etc), there was very little work for her to do. Turns out their price was the same as Princess. "I guess we don't have group cabins for this cruise." Okay.. OBC offered was somewhere around $25-30, whatever Princess gives. No bonus there. What about price drops? If it's significant, she can see if she can get our price reduced, too. "It's up to the cruise line and they don't always allow it."

I suppose her strengths might be in selling flights or hotel packages, not cruises, but she did nothing to earn my business and we left without booking. It really left me with the same feelings as the OP - what does a TA do?

In answer to the OP's question in my viewpoint they provide nothing. We started out with one local TA and booked our first two cruises through them but basically received nothing in return. So we were encouraged to book with another TA who actually lives in our city but operates as part of a bigger agency. While he did give good service in bookings that I explicitly gave him and made cost adjustments that I found out on CC as requested, that is all I got from him. Then one day I had to move a cruise from one date to a later date and he charged me $25/pax to do it. I found out that the cruise line (not Princess) would have done it for free so I complained. His answer was that he had to make money and all the price reductions he did for me after I found them cost him money! I notified Princess that three bookings I had with him I wanted pulled back to Princess which they were very glad to do. Now I book through Princess only but have on one occasion transferred a booking to an online TA that gave us a $50 OBC. OK but I was not impressed because every time I found a cost reduction I had to go through him.

I have tried twice to use a TA...2 different ones. I never paid a fee and a did get a "whopping" $75 extra on board credit. I had done all the research, knew what cruise I wanted, wanted to control my own flights. When I asked about travel insurance, it became apparent to me that I was more educated than the TA! I booked that myself online too. Also, they would charge a fee if I cancelled my booking. After my final payement, I then never heard another thing from them. Not even an email to say---Hey have a great trip! How much would that take?

I am sure some people have good ones, but my experience is they are few and far between. I have given up and decided it isn't worth the hassle and is just easier for me to control my own booking online. It leaves out the middleman....(or woman)....

:cool:

We have booked all our trips with a TA. He has always come back with lower fees than listed by cruiselines and our bookings are in Canadian $ which is a great benefit currently when we are paying approximately $1.32 CDN for each USD. Also, with our next 2-month trip he was invaluable in booking flights and stopovers to coincide with our cruises. Would not have saved me money to book myself and saved me a lot of time on the computer trying to locate best airline/fare/stopover, etc. He also gets me lower hotel rates than most online hotel booking sites. Perhaps things are different in Canada, but we have never paid a travel agent a fee for service....even when their commissions were either taken away or lowered. The beauty of having used the same agent for years is that I can even ask him to book things for me for which he receives no commission. He also knows where on the ship we like to have our cabin the type of hotel we prefer and where in the plane we like to sit. I know that is a small thing, but a nice service to have.

After I did my research online, I spoke with a TA in a local mall. I knew what cruise I wanted (date, destination, cabin numbers, etc), there was very little work for her to do. Turns out their price was the same as Princess. "I guess we don't have group cabins for this cruise." Okay.. OBC offered was somewhere around $25-30, whatever Princess gives. No bonus there. What about price drops? If it's significant, she can see if she can get our price reduced, too. "It's up to the cruise line and they don't always allow it."

 

I suppose her strengths might be in selling flights or hotel packages, not cruises, but she did nothing to earn my business and we left without booking. It really left me with the same feelings as the OP - what does a TA do?

I'm glad I'm not alone.

I guess other than paying the $95 fee, what really made me mad was that when THEY purchased the wrong amount of travel insurance through the insurance they use (THEIR MISTAKE), they asked use to pay for the difference, about $150. We ended up leaving it underinsured and not paying, but they certainly could have paid $95 of it out of their fee. They didn't.

First time in many many years I decided to use a travel agent since

it would be our first time to Europe. I booked online and transferred to her.

So far I haven't seen any real benefit and actually have lost money because

everything has to go through her. I saw one price drop and called and she was able to get for me but also decided to change my cabin and I had to get it back. Then a couple of weeks ago I see a $400each drop in air tickets flex fare and she's out of town and I miss the opportunity.

Lesson learned I know more about Princess cruises and am constantly looking to save myself money so obviously in the future I will be controlling my own bookings and if I need help will call the Princess vacation planner. At least then I can call them directly.

Yeah, I guess I know that now. I called Princess and they say we can remove the travel agent from the booking with just an email to their RevenueSupportDepartment.

I hope your TA doesn't charge you a fee to cancel. :confused:

We usually book through the cruise line and then switch it over to our online TA. Pick up a little OBC through the cruise line and then usually get an added OBC through the TA, almost always get pre-paid gratuities, always get specialty dining for two. On our last transatlantic we were given a $300.00 OBC instead of the pre-paid grats. We always book a balcony, maybe the cost of the cabin has something to do with the TA perks. happy TA perk cruising..

The easy answer for me personally is..... they just get in my way ;)

We use a cruise agency (there are 4 different agencies currently on our personal short list) for one reason, to save money! And sometimes, the savings can be substantial....especially with longer HAL cruises when our savings have topped $3000 (when compared to booking directly with HAL) for a single cruise. On shorter cruises the savings are less, but usually will amount to about 7-10% of the cost of the cruise. Savings can come on lower prices (this is not very common), on board credits (which can sometimes be in the thousands of dollars), amenities (free meals in alternative restaurants, pre/post cruise hotels, free excursions, etc).

We have never used any agency that charges a booking fee, or who charges any fees to make booking modifications or re-price a booking that has gone down in price. And we should mention that we book 70 - 100+ cruise days a year (have spent in excess of 3 years on cruises) so do have some experience.

Hank

We had a GREAT TA who we used for many years until he retired .We found another TA who was very good then it went downhill .However in 2013 we again found a good TA.

I have never used a TA.

I have not had any issues booking with RCL, Mariott, Jet Blue etc.

It was work to cash in my Delta and American frequent flyer miles but i did enoy two trips for four to Ireland (Delta) and an Ipad (American).

Some folks like to use a TA, with or without a fee.

Just depends on the efoort you need to put in either approach to get the results you want.

First time in many many years I decided to use a travel agent since it would be our first time to Europe. I booked online and transferred to her.

 

So far I haven't seen any real benefit and actually have lost money because everything has to go through her. I saw one price drop and called and she was able to get for me but also decided to change my cabin and I had to get it back. Then a couple of weeks ago I see a $400each drop in air tickets flex fare and she's out of town and I miss the opportunity.

 

Lesson learned I know more about Princess cruises and am constantly looking to save myself money so obviously in the future I will be controlling my own bookings and if I need help will call the Princess vacation planner. At least then I can call them directly.

First time in many many years I decided to use a travel agent since

it would be our first time to Europe. I booked online and transferred to her.

So far I haven't seen any real benefit and actually have lost money because

everything has to go through her. I saw one price drop and called and she was able to get for me but also decided to change my cabin and I had to get it back. Then a couple of weeks ago I see a $400each drop in air tickets flex fare and she's out of town and I miss the opportunity.

 

Lesson learned I know more about Princess cruises and am constantly looking to save myself money so obviously in the future I will be controlling my own bookings and if I need help will call the Princess vacation planner. At least then I can call them directly.

Oh my, where to start. My question would be, why did you transfer the booking to a cruise agent....before knowing if it was worth your while? We seldom play the transfer booking game...because we have more leverage with agencies when we are making a new booking. We can quickly check the various offers from multiple agencies, sometimes play them off against each other, and then make our booking decision. Once you transfer a booking to an agency, you have very little leverage since the agency knows it is unlikely you are going to transfer (again) to another agency (which might not even be possible with some cruise lines).

Once upon a time we did book a future Celebrity cruise while onboard....because we were able to get a pretty good deal and the exact cabin we wanted for the future cruise. I then sent an e-mail to one of my favorite cruise agencies, told them we had booked a specific cruise (gave them the details) and told them that if they would give us pre paid gratuities,(worth about $250 on the 14 night cruise) plus some OBC...we would transfer the booking. The agency quickly got back to me, agreed to cover our gratuities and kick-in an addtional $250 OBC....so we then did transfer the booking. But we would never have done that transfer before we knew what was being offered.

On Princess, we do onboard generic bookings where we do not choose the future cruise. But this means we get an OBC from the cruise line (when we do book another cruise with any agency) and a reduced deposit. Sometime in the next couple of years when we do book a cruise (always through an agency) we will get the agencies benefits...plus we also get the OBC from the cruise line because our future booking is on our record. That is the best of both worlds.

Hank

I hope your TA doesn't charge you a fee to cancel. :confused:

If they do I'm not paying.

I originally went to a travel agent, and this travel agent, because they did many Oceania cruises and I heard Oceania gives a big kickback that some travel agents share with their customers. We looked at Oceania but no discounts were mentioned. We ended up with Princess because they had the cruise that matched best what we were looking for.

Having to go through a travel agent to do simple things you can normally do on-line is frustrating.

Even though we use a TA, we book book our own Princess EZair and can make changes if we see a better price. You need to do your own checking of price drops and alert your TA. This has been the case with our last two TA's. Prior to that our TA was DW's sister.

In the past when the price drops before final payment, we have always called the cruise line and they have always been helpful and got the price reduced. This is Carnival, Norwegian, and RC. Calling a travel agent to do that just seems awkward and she can't instantly tell you the ins and outs.

First, never, ever use a TA that charges any fee, whether it's to book or change a booking.

Second, to answer the question what do TAs do? I can only use my personal experience in that I pay 10-20% less than if I'd booked directly plus get OBC. Granted, I usually book well in advance, often a year or more. That's enough incentive for me. Very responsive and seems to work 18 hours a day. It's not true that you have to use a big or online agency. Use one that books a lot of Princess cruises.