Time limit for transferring cruise to TA

[cadcruiser]

The new travel agency transfer forms dated Oct. 6, 2010 indicate you only have 60 days from creation of the booking to transfer it to a travel agent.

[Richiebaseball]

This was a foregone conclusion and was hinted by several as coming soon. So now it's here.

[pamkev]

The new travel agency transfer forms dated Oct. 6, 2010 indicate you only have 60 days from creation of the booking to transfer it to a travel agent.

 

I wonder when that changed as I haven't transfer mine yet and it's been over 60 days

[Richiebaseball]

I wonder when that changed as I haven't transfer mine yet and it's been over 60 days

 

It changed just recently, likely October 6 which is the date on the new form on the website.

[Jade13]

The new travel agency transfer forms dated Oct. 6, 2010 indicate you only have 60 days from creation of the booking to transfer it to a travel agent.

 

You're kidding...60 days from the creation?

 

We always transfer prior to final payment. We have future Azamara cruises booked (also owned by RCCL) and would not transfer until closer to the final payment date.

 

I think with all the changes we will be waiting until closer to the sail date to make any Celebrity bookings, especially in the Caribbean where we do not feel any specific cruise is unique enough that it has to be booked so far in advance. Have learned my lesson.

[jagoffee]

You're kidding...60 days from the creation?

 

We always transfer prior to final payment. We have future Azamara cruises booked (also owned by RCCL) and would not transfer until closer to the final payment date.

 

I think with all the changes we will be waiting until closer to the sail date to make any Celebrity bookings, especially in the Caribbean where we do not feel any specific cruise is unique enough that it has to be booked so far in advance. Have learned my lesson.

 

I currently have two cruises booked. I have noticed that the price for the both cruises have gone up significantly in the last six months. I fear that this might be the trend for next year.

 

Have you been unable to find a TA that you find responsive enough to your changes/needs? I am just curious as the lesson that you have learned since you may be required in the future to transfer your booking within 60 days. What is the lesson? Surely it isn't to pay more for your cruise after the price goes up or to give up the flexibility of a good cabin choice.

 

I think the policy makes sense. Why should Celebrity pay Customer Service people to handle your booking/changes for a year and then have you transfer it to TA at final payment? I would think that it would cost less for Celebrity to support a booking that is with a TA. The TA may as well earn their commission.

 

I do understand that if you are flexible enough and not too picky you can sometimes get good deals after the final payment date has past.

 

Happy cruising.

[Fblack]

The new travel agency transfer forms dated Oct. 6, 2010 indicate you only have 60 days from creation of the booking to transfer it to a travel agent.

 

Thank you, thank you! I was planning to transfer my cruise on October 29th so I can get some OBC from my TA. But the new policy requires the transfer by October 25th.

 

I even have the old form filled out and ready to go. I never would have known about the change without your posting.

[Jade13]

I currently have two cruises booked. I have noticed that the price for the both cruises have gone up significantly in the last six months. I fear that this might be the trend for next year.

 

Have you been unable to find a TA that you find responsive enough to your changes/needs? I am just curious as the lesson that you have learned since you may be required in the future to transfer your booking within 60 days. What is the lesson? Surely it isn't to pay more for your cruise after the price goes up or to give up the flexibility of a good cabin choice.

 

I think the policy makes sense. Why should Celebrity pay Customer Service people to handle your booking/changes for a year and then have you transfer it to TA at final payment? I would think that it would cost less for Celebrity to support a booking that is with a TA. The TA may as well earn their commission.

 

I do understand that if you are flexible enough and not too picky you can sometimes get good deals after the final payment date has past.

 

Happy cruising.

 

Sorry my post really was not clear. I learned my lesson in general for a Celebrity Caribbean cruise (lots of competition there) that we will likely wait as late as possible to book. Since that would be within final payment time the issue with transferring will not be a problem because we will need to book with a TA in the first place if we want to use one.

 

The learned lesson was two-fold because of a Celebrity cruise where the price for one went down by 50% in 3 or 4 days (missing the 48 hour deadline to get a price adjustment or OBC, which btw we were told by a Celebrity Rep they were still doing). On an Azamara cruise we are 6 months out, already booked our air, and lost out big time because of a Choice Air credit of $1,000pp (taken off the cruise fare) and we would have been eligible for if we had waited to book our air. We were able to cancel and re-book one flight but the other is 100% non-refundable. So, we are paying an additional $1,000.00 more than we could have for our stateroom months before final payment.

 

With all of the Celebrity/RCCL changes it is not to our advantage any longer to book early, especially as we have only been looking to them for short Caribbean sailings.

 

Btw, on HAL all of our cruises have been sold out and stateroom category on one closed a year in advance. None have been in the Caribbean.

 

I hope my post is not too confusing.

[pmdc5696]

Is it possible to move the reservation to a TA after final payment?:confused:

[cruisin'mama]

Thanks to this CC board, I had heard the rumors about possible changes in regulations for transferring bookings. At the end of Sept., I discussed with my travelling friend the rumors and about transferring our booking now for our Alaska cruise for next July. she told me to go with my gut instinct, so I transferred it and got us $250 OBC. If it weren't for the great info available here, we would have lost out on the OBC because we would have planned to still wait to transfer until closer to final payment. SO THANKS!:D

[ETski]

Question, is this for booking made after the Oct 6, 2010? Only reason why I ask, is I booked another cruise while on board the Summit the end of May. I just transferred this booking last week to my TA. This is the first time I ever transferred a booking, hope I don't have any problems:(

[Richiebaseball]

Is it possible to move the reservation to a TA after final payment?:confused:

 

No, after final payment a reservation can't be transfered.

[Richiebaseball]

Question, is this for booking made after the Oct 6, 2010? Only reason why I ask, is I booked another cruise while on board the Summit the end of May. I just transferred this booking last week to my TA. This is the first time I ever transferred a booking, hope I don't have any problems:(

 

If the transfer took place then you're okay. I'm guessing that this takes effect for all bookings even previous ones as there is nothing in the terms and conditions that gives you a right to transfer. It's not like the fuel supplement or the change in final payment terms. As with most new policies it may take a while for everyone to be on the same page so I would guess that there will be reservations older than 60 days that might go through but as time goes by there would be less and less of them that do. Shortly it will be none. So if you have one and are considering transfering, now would be the likely time to do that.

And the policy makes perfect sense.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Now, more than ever, it will pay to have a good TA that will be quick to respond to calls about price drops and handle any other time-sensitive problems, if they're going to have control of the booking for longer. I wonder how much this will increase the workload for TAs, and if it will result in a concurrent loss of incentives? If they're working harder, they'll naturally want to keep more of the money.

[jagoffee]

I hope my post is not too confusing.

 

I got it. Thank you.

[pmdc5696]

No, after final payment a reservation can't be transfered.

 

 

Thanks for the quick response. I usually book directly with the cruise company because I am a bit concerned with TA's and price reductions, etc. Lately I have been seeing so many incentives from TAs, I think I will book with a TA for our cruises in Jan and April. I love the idea of OBC. We got more than $500. last Jan on the Mariner hand had a blast!

[CoachT]

There is no grandfathering. As of October 6, 2010, a booking may not be transferred to a TA after 60 days of the first creation of the booking or after payment in full.

 

There are checks in place to tell of a client cancels and then rebooks.

[themutis]

How do you transfer your reservation to a TA and what TA's have some of you used? This is all new to me so any advice would be most welcome.

[jspirit]

There is no grandfathering. As of October 6, 2010, a booking may not be transferred to a TA after 60 days of the first creation of the booking or after payment in full.

 

There are checks in place to tell of a client cancels and then rebooks.

 

How do you know for sure that there is no grandfathering if our reservation was made months ago and this policy is just starting?

[Richiebaseball]

How do you transfer your reservation to a TA and what TA's have some of you used? This is all new to me so any advice would be most welcome.

 

Recommendations of particular agents and agencies are against the terms and conditions of Cruise Critic. At the top of the page is a link for "Cruise Agencies". Those are agencies that advertise on Cruise Critic and would be a good place to start.

[pamkev]

How do you know for sure that there is no grandfathering if our reservation was made months ago and this policy is just starting?

 

I like to know that also as we are in the same boat.

 

Pam

[jagoffee]

How do you know for sure that there is no grandfathering if our reservation was made months ago and this policy is just starting?

 

Good question. The transfer form and FAQ certainly does not make any reference to any grandfathering or state that it applies only to bookings from a certain date. I am sure that we will get some confirmation when someone with an earlier booking attempts to transfer the booking. I would think that Celebrity would have given customers a warning before they implemented the policy, so I am a little surprised if this is really true.

 

IMO if you can find a TA that does a lot of business with Celebrity that gives you a significant amount of OBC, you should be able to use that TA for all bookings with Celebrity. On my recent booking, I got multiple quotes and found that my previous TA was close enough in OBC for me. My requirement for no change and cancellation fees restricts some of my options.

[Richiebaseball]

Good question. The transfer form and FAQ certainly does not make any reference to any grandfathering or state that it applies only to bookings from a certain date. I am sure that we will get some confirmation when someone with an earlier booking attempts to transfer the booking. I would think that Celebrity would have given customers a warning before they implemented the policy, so I am a little surprised if this is really true.

 

IMO if you can find a TA that does a lot of business with Celebrity that gives you a significant amount of OBC, you should be able to use that TA for all bookings with Celebrity. On my recent booking, I got multiple quotes and found that my previous TA was close enough in OBC for me. My requirement for no change and cancellation fees restricts some of my options.

 

 

It's very unlikely that there will be any grandfathering. This is not a case like the fuel supplement or the change in price reductions after final payment as those were agreements already agreed to in the terms and conditions or carriage contract. The ability to transfer a reservation to a travel agency is in place primarily for the benefit of the cruise line and the travel agency and was never intended to be a way for the customer to place the responsibility for servicing the reservation on the cruise line and then just before final payment transfer to an agency for a discount/perk/OBC. That is a loophole and a business certainly has a right, and in the case of a publicly traded company a responsibility to shareholders, to close a loophole and can certainly do so without any advance notice.

 

The ability to transfer a reservation is in place in order to give a customer as few obstacles as possible in order to book their cruise, especially those that utilize the services of a TA. Your TA is on vacation? Book it anyway and you can transfer. Your TA is not open on the weekend? Book it anyway and you can transfer. It's the middle of the night and you see a particular cabin you want? Book it anyway and you can transfer. The updated policy does nothing to change this ability. It only closes the above loophole and it doesn't really close it as much as it just makes it a smaller loophole.

[CoachT]

The cruiselines do not care if you are getting an obc. They car about their bottom line. It costa then money to service a reservation multiple times as changes are made. Then they have to pay commission when a res they controlled is transferred.

 

One thing that is still to come or may be in place is that an agency will only receive the lowest tier of commission on any transfer except those NextCruise bookings that go back to the original agency of record unless otherwise stated by the passenger.

 

People are going to see those big obc offers going away very soon!

[Richiebaseball]

The cruiselines do not care if you are getting an obc. They car about their bottom line. It costa then money to service a reservation multiple times as changes are made. Then they have to pay commission when a res they controlled is transferred.

 

One thing that is still to come or may be in place is that an agency will only receive the lowest tier of commission on any transfer except those NextCruise bookings that go back to the original agency of record unless otherwise stated by the passenger.

 

People are going to see those big obc offers going away very soon!

 

 

Despite what you think and it appears you hope for, those big OBC offers will not go away. For the most part customers will have to choose when first booking whether to book direct or book using an agency. For those that book their cruise using an agency that offers OBC, this policy will not change that at all. And the OBC's will remain.

 

I haven't heard anything about the lowered commission so I'll have to wait to see if that one actually transpires. Unlike the new 60 day policy that simply closes a loophole and really doesn't change the agency relationship, a lowered commission is indeed a sign that the cruise line is openly attempting to move business toward a direct model and is an anti-agency policy.