Booking With US Sites & US TA's

[aussiedisneyfan]

Celebrity? But they are sister co to RCCL so I can't imagine why you could on them but not RCCL.

[fishtaco]

have not read all the posts but spoke to a guy in the shop on Pac sun last night who has been working for princess in US and is now on P&O Australia,He said there is no problem booking a cruise in the US from a US T/A if you are on holiday in the US but was aware of the problems of booking with US T/As from Australia.

 

He started the conversation by asking us why we didnt go to the US for a better cruise at a fraction of the price!

 

So P&O and Princess staff seem to know something about the booking issues!

 

 

Den

[dougo in oz]

It sounds to me as if all you need to do is to obtain an address in the USA....and Bobs your Uncle.....

 

 

It may not be so simple as that depending on whether you have a regional fare or not. If it's a regional fare, I think some cruise lines are requesting proof, such as a driver's licence.

[MMDown Under]

Heck, I don't need the added bonus of a regional fare, just a basic US fare would do.

 

A special fare for Seniors, plus waving of single fare supplement (when bookings are low) would be icing on the cake!

 

The current restriction of trade is causing a lot of ill feeling, against the cruise industry, amongst informed cruisers.

 

At the end of the day, we are not talking huge numbers, as the majority of Australian cruisers, who don't travel often, will book locally.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

have not read all the posts but spoke to a guy in the shop on Pac sun last night who has been working for princess in US and is now on P&O Australia,He said there is no problem booking a cruise in the US from a US T/A if you are on holiday in the US but was aware of the problems of booking with US T/As from Australia.

 

He started the conversation by asking us why we didnt go to the US for a better cruise at a fraction of the price!

 

So P&O and Princess staff seem to know something about the booking issues!

 

 

Den

 

That is a question I ask people when they say they have been on P & O X amount of times. Why don't more Aussies go overseas to take a cruise. The airfare plus cruise plus hotel stay are the same price if not cheaper that cruising on P & O Australia out to the boring old Noumea and NC for 7 days. :eek:

[Australian family]

The New York Times has an article this week on cruise bargains being harder to find this year:

 

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/02/14...tml?ref=travel

[Guest012]

At the end of the day, we are not talking huge numbers, as the majority of Australian cruisers, who don't travel often, will book locally.

 

Marion that has been exactly my point from the start we are a handful compared to the home market..come on you whingeing aussie ta's tells us exactly how much money you are losing..bet it ain't that much....

They should be more worried about the fact i buy my international flights oversea's and not from them... it won't be long before they try and have that stopped too.....:mad::mad: won't stop me though....cheers Shiona

[fishtaco]

That is a question I ask people when they say they have been on P & O X amount of times. Why don't more Aussies go overseas to take a cruise. The airfare plus cruise plus hotel stay are the same price if not cheaper that cruising on P & O Australia out to the boring old Noumea and NC for 7 days. :eek:

 

Yes you are right and onboard prices on P&O are getting silly!

 

There seems to be a real money grab on everything,soon they will charge to use the resturaunts if they can get away with it!

 

I think they are aiming at first time cruisers who know no better?

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

Does anyone think someone would really be denied boarding a ship just because they made a reservation and paid for their cruise through an online Agent in the USA even though they reside in Australia, New Zealand or the UK?

I can't see on what grounds they could deny boarding? But I'm open to suggestions..:rolleyes:

 

Jillybean:confused:

[Kiwi Kruzer]

To help put this thread into perspective

I asked one of members

Bob, rkmw,

who is doing a B2B an Diamond at the moment

for a breakdown of passengers,

and their origin....

he replied

hi David, i saw the captains Circle girl and she gave me some figures for our cruise......we have a total of 2625 cruisers

 

1499 US

215 Brits

195 Aussies

194 Canada

97 Kiwis

and the rest are from elsewhere

 

 

Work it out for yourselves where the market is.

[dougo in oz]

Marion that has been exactly my point from the start we are a handful compared to the home market..come on you whingeing aussie ta's tells us exactly how much money you are losing..bet it ain't that much....

 

 

Bet they are making a motza - http://www.cruising.org.au/filelibrary/files/Press%20Release%202008%20AU%20Stats.pdf

[Aussie Gal]

To help put this thread into perspective

I asked one of members

Bob, rkmw,

who is doing a B2B an Diamond at the moment

for a breakdown of passengers,

and their origin....

he replied

 

 

 

 

Work it out for yourselves where the market is.

 

We always board our cruises out of Australia and on all our recent cruises Australians are always in the minority. On our last cruise in November on HAL's Prinsendam from Athens to Ft. Lauderdale, I think there was only one or two other Australians on board. The ship had 700 passengers.

 

On our cruise in March last year on Amazara's Quest, from Hong Kong to Beijing (Tanjin) I think we were the only Australians on board and on our forthcoming cruise on the Ocean Princess from Capetown to Dover, we are the only Aussies on our Roll Call.

 

I usually organize the Meet and Greet on our cruises and Australians are few and far between, so you can see how the U.S. agents get such good discounts etc as U.S. citizens are usually in the majority. Once, we had more Canadians and U.S. passengers and that was because the ship left from Vancouver.

 

We are a drop in the ocean compared to North America but we are also a small country and I think the percentage of Aussie's now cruising in comparison to our population is quite high and that is the reason we have so many more ships down here permanently.

 

The cruises offered are the same ones that were offered in the 70's and after a couple of times, one does not want to keep returning to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji etc. That is why we go further afield. The world is so big and there is such a lot to see.

 

Jennie

[MMDown Under]

We always board our cruises out of Australia and on all our recent cruises Australians are always in the minority. On our last cruise in November on HAL's Prinsendam from Athens to Ft. Lauderdale, I think there was only one or two other Australians on board. The ship had 700 passengers.

 

On our cruise in March last year on Amazara's Quest, from Hong Kong to Beijing (Tanjin) I think we were the only Australians on board and on our forthcoming cruise on the Ocean Princess from Capetown to Dover, we are the only Aussies on our Roll Call.

 

I usually organize the Meet and Greet on our cruises and Australians are few and far between, so you can see how the U.S. agents get such good discounts etc as U.S. citizens are usually in the majority. Once, we had more Canadians and U.S. passengers and that was because the ship left from Vancouver.

 

We are a drop in the ocean compared to North America but we are also a small country and I think the percentage of Aussie's now cruising in comparison to our population is quite high and that is the reason we have so many more ships down here permanently.

 

The cruises offered are the same ones that were offered in the 70's and after a couple of times, one does not want to keep returning to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji etc. That is why we go further afield. The world is so big and there is such a lot to see.

 

Jennie

 

I'm wondering whether the small number of Australians, who cruise overseas, is partly because of the inflated prices charged for cruises in Australia.

 

In my experience travelling overseas almost annually, Australians travel much more than Americans and for much longer periods, which is why we are such canny travellers, when our Australian dollar is weak.

 

As you say, Jennie, the world is so big and there is such a lot to see, I'm not interested in cruising locally to places I've already visited on a number of occasions.

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

On our recent Rhapsody cruise out of Sydney which was fully booked, the majority by far were Australians.

Overall though it was quite an international cruise. I wish I could remember all the Nationalities the Captain read out.

 

Jillybean:)

[katkell]

I have read this with great interest as I am going to book a cruise tomorrow with Azamara. Not impressed with online Aus prices, and conditions... ie non-refundable booking fee of 900 dollars each. Went online to Azamara, put in the country, Aus, everything comes up in Aus Dollars, ends up being 80 dollars cheaper than the cheapest Aus on line agent. Deposit is only around 500 and fully refundable up to around 70 days before sailing. Then went on line to the US internet agents, they had more staterooms available, but one of them had a 900 dollar deposit as well, couldn't find where it said it was refundable. But as to price the US fare, converted to Aus dollars was only 100 dollars cheaper, I was disappointed, but never mind I will contact Azamara direct tomorrow.

 

Aussie Gal, I noticed you have been on Azamara Quest, do you have a review somewhere. Appreciate the feed back, cheers

[mrsandy]

Hi - on our last cruise the Aussie T/A had to go to a wholesaler in the US to match a pricing deal. On our paperwork, naturally the U.S. travel agent's name and where they were located in US was on our booking sheets etc. We weren't asked about anything and we sailed out of Australia? Wouldn't this be the same as booking with a U.S. Travel agent for an overseas cruise? How would they know? We can save in the $1,000's not $100's by booking with a US T/Agent for our next overseas cruise in 2011. The saving would cover the whole airfares. Does anyone see any problems?

 

Thanks

[waterwheel]

Hi, Being regular cruisers from Australia we have been following the thread with interest. We have just abour exhausted the cruises offered from Australia/NZ and looking further afield.

As an example of what we are up against (and not just whinging), just had a directed email offering a HAL Alaska cruise 7 night from $549US from a US site. When I click on the link for details, it directs to HAL home site in Australian dollars and offers the same cruise from $955.86, that is a conversion rate of .57, for the last several months it has been hovering around .90. That means in real money we are paying approx 346 AUD for the same cruise. Hardly fair, what happened to the level playing field of global economics?

 

Regards G&H

[NSWP]

I just booked a HAL Eurodam Transatlantic next year, with one of our best and biggest West Aussie on line T/A's. Their price was $200 pp cheaper than booking direct with HAL, and not much more than the big US t/a's were quoting and they will not permit us to book with them on HAL, Princess etc.

 

Pricing is confusing is it not.?

[dougo in oz]

I just booked a HAL Eurodam Transatlantic next year, with one of our best and biggest West Aussie on line T/A's. Their price was $200 pp cheaper than booking direct with HAL, and not much more than the big US t/a's were quoting and they will not permit us to book with them on HAL, Princess etc.

 

Pricing is confusing is it not.?

 

You got a good deal from that WA TA who sometimes is and sometimes isn't cheaper that other O/S TAs / sites. I do know that in the past, they have reduced some of their commission in order to offer cheaper prices for Aussie based cruises.

[NSWP]

Thanks DOUGO IN OZ, yes the WA T/A was just a couple of hundred bucks more expensive than

the real big US T/A's..so I was happy with that. No risks with US T/A's going bust or currency fluctuations etc.

On Eurodam in an ocean view cabin cat DD for 16 days. Works out at A$125 per day, for HAL that is OK. I reckon if you get a cruise on a good cruise line for less then $150 a day you are going OK.

 

I have now booked 8 cruises with the big Western Australia T/A and they have been OK to me, I have even cancelled a couple of cruises with them and they have returned my full deposit with no cancellation fees, maybe they think we are good customers!

[aussiedisneyfan]

Wow you have had good dealings with them!

[NSWP]

Wow you have had good dealings with them!

Yes AussieDisneyFan, I think by now I own their office in Perth and probably have paid for a few office chairs at Carnival Corp HQ. ! LOL. Such is life, you cannot use that Visa Card in heaven.

 

At least I am contributing to the Australian economy as well as the US economy by giving my business to an Aussie TA.

 

Remember my saying - Adventure before Dementia !

[Whitemarsh]

No one seems to have found an incident of a non U.S/Canadian resident being denied boarding (even though they had paid the fare and held valid tickets) simply because they booked via a U.S agent.

 

Cunard Australia warned me that if I booked via a U.S agent I could be denied boarding however when I questioned how they could deny boarding to someone who had paid the fare and held a valid ticket I didn't get a straight answer.

 

I've read the Cunard passage contract and cannot find anything that suggests preventing of boarding under these circumstances.

 

http://www.cunard.com/AboutCunard/de...Active=General

[rugbypopsie]

It is worth saying again...there is absolutely no legality whatsoever in the attempts to prevent us exercising our right to purchase cruises wherever we get the best deal. You will NOT be denied boarding...that said there are some excellent online agents in Australia and some that have connections both in the US and Australia...do your homework.

 

I have no problems with the service (pretty much) that I have received from Aussie T/as but really for me it is about the price and the booking conditions...how much I pay decides how much I cruise.

[dougo in oz]

No one seems to have found an incident of a non U.S/Canadian resident being denied boarding (even though they had paid the fare and held valid tickets) simply because they booked via a U.S agent.

 

Cunard Australia warned me that if I booked via a U.S agent I could be denied boarding however when I questioned how they could deny boarding to someone who had paid the fare and held a valid ticket I didn't get a straight answer.

 

I've read the Cunard passage contract and cannot find anything that suggests preventing of boarding under these circumstances.

 

 

Same with my passenger contract with a ship owned by Carnival - I can't see anything that would allow them to deny me boarding unless I was waaay to pregnant, or maybe intoxicated but nothing based on nationality or where I bought my fare from.