Booking With US Sites & US TA's

[newfarmers]

Pete

 

not a rude question at all and I don't mind sharing. I subscribe to an on-line e company that sells cruises - which is based in Sydney and it seems to me that it specialises in selling all inclusive packages, ie, air, pre / post accom, sometimes transfers with the cabin. This is what they advertised through their email which arrived on Thurs night this week -

 

My agent rang P&O and they had a flight /cabin price but not accom. We declined the air package and ended up buying an outside cabin Cat D, Deck 7 for about $1,900 (Cat F outside cabin on Deck 5 was under $1,800). With air P&O's prices were roughly $2650 and $2,500 respectively). We used our FF points and just paid for taxes for the fare over there. BTW Air NZ had an excellent price of $156 ?? +taxes SYD-AUK.

 

 

thanks Dougo, boboz sent me the flyer by email and mum and dad are going to call them today. unfortunately their agent wasn't open yesterday (!!) so if they get lucky today she may lose their business, at least she got their booking for air and hotel.

thanks again, Pete

[MMDown Under]

thanks Dougo, boboz sent me the flyer by email and mum and dad are going to call them today. unfortunately their agent wasn't open yesterday (!!) so if they get lucky today she may lose their business, at least she got their booking for air and hotel.

thanks again, Pete

 

Maybe their travel agent will match the new lower cruise fare and therefore keep good clients for the future, seeing she has bookings for air and hotel, as well as the cruise.

[rugbypopsie]

It is common practice in the states based bookings that they will match price drops I suggest they ask it cant hurt.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

It is common practice in the states based bookings that they will match price drops I suggest they ask it cant hurt.

 

I think part of the problem down here ,

is that we are too nice.

 

We had a similar situation,

and asked our local TA if she could match a price.

At first she said ,no way,

but then thought about it,

contacted the cruise line,

and came back and

met the price.

 

Is part of the problem down here of our own making?

 

Meaning from that,

we just accept what we are told

and are not prepared to challenge,

or at least ask why?

[dougo in oz]

Actually the travel agents do very little. You do your own embarkation details on line, and then with the cruise we were on the Volendam we had to print our own tickets and luggage tags. They say it saves the environment, what a load of rubbish, it still has to be printed.

 

Sounds like Australian agents are too greedy with their commissions, wouldn't it make sense if they charged less and booked more passengers.

 

So true Australian Family - not only are the Aussie agents a bit greedy with their commissions, but the cruise lines attitude to customer service stinks !! I think the cruise lines must have done away with a few jobs when they stopped sending out "paper" cruise documents - so while they use "gouge and screw tactics - GST!!" on us poor old cruisers, they reduce their overheads and make more profits !!

 

"We were informed that there is no restriction booking with a UK agency, at the moment, so obviously we went with the UK agent although we would like to support the Aussie TAs but at that price difference it can not be justified"

 

Too true Fairstar - if my maths is correct, you are the third one to say that booking through a UK agent is allowable and so much cheaper.

 

I would appreciate it if someone can share with the rest of us as to the agency / agencies in the UK who are happy to relieve Aussies of our hard earned dollars - just first two or three letters of the agency name shouldn't be breaking any rules surely, considering that I've seen a number of other threads where agencies are named in full as well as countless private tour guides names and contacts on CC.

 

And I also agree with Lilly. That has happened to me in the past where an agency promised a written quote but didn't deliver. Must have lost a lot of business with people taking their quotes to other agencies to match or better the price.

 

Only once have I been successful in getting a reasonable reduction - there is one global TA here that I won't deal with at all even if they say that their price won't be beaten - but other larger TAs may reduce the "book" price by up to 5%. Our local TA has not reduced the price once since the GFC, no dice even tho' business has slowed, she says she just can't afford to reduce the price at all.

 

As for US TAs reducing prices as the cruise lines drops the prices, I've read where some US citizens have paid an extra amount of money (around $US39) to the TA when they initially booked, so that they an benefit from future price drops. I've also seen some posts where the TA cancelled the passengers fare, and re-booked.

 

But I've never experienced a TA here contacting a cruise line with a request to match a price. As I said in an earlier post the person I spoke to at the cruise line about a cheaper fare available elsewhere, elicted the response that that agent must be reducing their commission in order to sell cabins at a lower price.

 

Having said that Kiwi Kruzer, I think that there is something in what you say - I think we may be "conditioned" to paying the listed price - we don't live in a society where we bargain for things. But maybe that's what we need to do more of - plus assert the fact that we are being discriminated against by regional pricing structures that seem to ban us from accessing the same product at the same price as others.

 

And Pete, let us know if Mum and Dad got a cabin to Tahiti - who are they flying with and which hotel did they book?

[rugbypopsie]

Part of the issue for us Aussies and Kiwis is the flexible booking conditions in the USA not generally available through our T/A's here. If the price drops stateside they either match it or the passenger can cancel and rebook..no penalty...we cant even substitute another name!

 

I think we are too nice/laid back/complacent call it what you will...we get lots of flak over the tipping issue (lets not go there now) but from what I have seen US passengers expect a great deal more service compared to the average Aussie and complain about it their expectations are not met..

 

I am not being critical just an observation of cultural differences.

 

 

[Sandielle]

Part of the issue for us Aussies and Kiwis is the flexible booking conditions in the USA not generally available through our T/A's here. If the price drops stateside they either match it or the passenger can cancel and rebook..no penalty...we cant even substitute another name!

 

I think we are too nice/laid back/complacent call it what you will...we get lots of flak over the tipping issue (lets not go there now) but from what I have seen US passengers expect a great deal more service compared to the average Aussie and complain about it their expectations are not met..

 

I am not being critical just an observation of cultural differences.

 

I understand what you mean Rugbypopsie. It seems anything is good enough for us down here. Maybe we should be more demanding! :cool:

[rugbypopsie]

I think that we just need to keep demonstrating that we are not ignorant of the facts that our cruise conditions are not as favourable or fair and that we are just as sophisticated a market as anywhere else...we love to cruise but not at any price.

[molliemoo]

I just noticed something very interesting when I went to my preferred US travel agent's site. One of the Google choices when I entered the name of the company was "(insert name of US travel agency here!!) Scam", something that I had never seen before when googling this agency.

 

Curious, I had a look, and it led to a US consumer affairs site, with various complaints about this company. The thing that startled me most were 2 very large adverts for an AUSTRALIAN cruise booking agency at the top of the page.

 

I have to say that I have had nothing but great service from this US agency, and am quite happy that there will be no problems with our US booked cruise later this year.

 

I would have to wonder why an Australian TA would feel the need to advertise on this site - more scaremongering perhaps!! It's certainly not tempting me to book with them!

 

Lorraine

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

I just noticed something very interesting when I went to my preferred US travel agent's site. One of the Google choices when I entered the name of the company was "(insert name of US travel agency here!!) Scam", something that I had never seen before when googling this agency.

 

Curious, I had a look, and it led to a US consumer affairs site, with various complaints about this company. The thing that startled me most were 2 very large adverts for an AUSTRALIAN cruise booking agency at the top of the page.

 

I have to say that I have had nothing but great service from this US agency, and am quite happy that there will be no problems with our US booked cruise later this year.

 

I would have to wonder why an Australian TA would feel the need to advertise on this site - more scaremongering perhaps!! It's certainly not tempting me to book with them!

 

Lorraine

 

 

Interesting Lorraine, some T/A's here must be desperate. They've only got themselves to blame that their customers go elsewhere. We have never had any problems with our preferred USA T/A and we've booked with them many times. Why? because they offered great deals, good service and knowledge of the product and excellent communication online.

 

Jillybean:)

[dougo in oz]

Thanks Chris, that's a help.

 

But I don't understand why plugs for private shore excursions and websites are not deleted. Go to the South American Forums and just about every thread is full of recommendations, links, names TAs and private shore excursion operators which are business - some with great websites and photos of several tour guides - a travel agency in my book - and yet none of those threads or posts with this type of info has been deleted. I've also seen names of highly recognisable global internet booking sites, starting with Ex or Or, or T-Z and yet none of those posts have been deleted either.

 

And as for customer service . I won't tolerate bad customer service and haven't for years and I do go elsewhere if I'm not happy. Quite often I've told the new business I've spoken to or walked in to see that I'm there as I didn't like the customer service that I received from XTZ company.

[newfarmers]

dougo

ma and pa missed out with both possibilities but with the 'res' I made for them they're on a waitlist. final payment is Feb 14 so they I have two weeks to get that bargain for them:)

 

as they said, they were happy to pay the price they did (of course no alternative in our P&O take it ot leave it market) but will take any reduction very gratefully

pete

[The_Big_M]

I would have to wonder why an Australian TA would feel the need to advertise on this site - more scaremongering perhaps!! It's certainly not tempting me to book with them!

 

It's quite likely they didn't know about it.

 

Much internet advertising is done through ad brokers, google being the most well-known. Basically, a company signs with a broker to get ads displayed wherever pages with certain wording appears, and other characteristics (e.g. visitor is from a certain country - if a user from another country visited the same page you did, they would most likely NOT see the ad you saw). The ad broker then gets sites to sign up and passes on commission to them to people who click on the ad (or other revenue arrangement).

 

Ultimately, the company advertising often has no idea what sites their ad appears on.

[newfarmers]

mum and dad are staying at the Copthorne Hotel Harbour City and they're flying Qantas. the rate the agent got for both was from my searches very good

pete

[dougo in oz]

dougo

ma and pa missed out with both possibilities but with the 'res' I made for them they're on a waitlist. final payment is Feb 14 so they I have two weeks to get that bargain for them:)

 

as they said, they were happy to pay the price they did (of course no alternative in our P&O take it ot leave it market) but will take any reduction very gratefully

pete

 

 

Oh that's no good Pete. Did you go through P&O directly? Our TA rang up P&O directly and we had a choice of cabin. Sometimes cruise agencies have an allotment of cabins assigned to them and they have a certain amount of time to sell them although the cruise line can change their minds and pull them back from the agency at any time. So it could well be that not all cabins have been sold so I would ring up P&O / your agency every day and see if something has been released.

 

Final payment on the 14th?? I've been told the 22nd so I'll look into that tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the update

 

.

[Aussie Gal]

We were on a cruise way back in 2003 when the cruise industry was very quiet due to the war in Kuwait. We discovered on board our HAL ship, that three quarters of the passengers had paid under $1000USp.p. for a 14 day cruise whereas we had paid just on $4000AUDp.p.

 

From then on we decided never again to book with an Aussie TA. Since then we have had approximately 10 cruises and none of them have been out of Australia. We have cruised on Princess, HAL, Oceania and Azamara and have only used U.S. online T.A.'s.

 

There was a rumour going around at the end of 2005, that Aussie passengers would be denied boarding on Princess ships but that died a natural death. We have two cruises booked in the next year and I would be very surprised if we cannot board the ships when the time comes.

 

We always get decreases in our fares if the prices goes down. We have low deposits and of course they are refundable and we can use our FCC's for bookings. They just need to be made out in U.S. dollars.

 

Why should we as a nation, pay out many more thousands of dollars for a cruise where the rest of the world have paid a lot less.

 

Jennie

[NSWP]

We were on a cruise way back in 2003 when the cruise industry was very quiet due to the war in Kuwait. We discovered on board our HAL ship, that three quarters of the passengers had paid under $1000USp.p. for a 14 day cruise whereas we had paid just on $4000AUDp.p.

 

From then on we decided never again to book with an Aussie TA. Since then we have had approximately 10 cruises and none of them have been out of Australia. We have cruised on Princess, HAL, Oceania and Azamara and have only used U.S. online T.A.'s.

 

There was a rumour going around at the end of 2005, that Aussie passengers would be denied boarding on Princess ships but that died a natural death. We have two cruises booked in the next year and I would be very surprised if we cannot board the ships when the time comes.

 

We always get decreases in our fares if the prices goes down. We have low deposits and of course they are refundable and we can use our FCC's for bookings. They just need to be made out in U.S. dollars.

 

Why should we as a nation, pay out many more thousands of dollars for a cruise where the rest of the world have paid a lot less.

 

Jennie

Take your point, but then why are the warnings on the BIG US T/A sites 'Princess will not permit non American customers to book with US T/A's (or words to that effect.

I was knocked back by two big US on line T/A's, pity we cannot name them, because of the above. All a bit sus to me. I tried to book my Star Princess - South American cruise next year with two large US on line T/a' and was refused. Yes I am confused.

 

In recent weeks have tried to get quotes on a HAL cruise through HAL site, my search was frozen and got flicked back to HAL's wholesaler in Sydney. Yes, further confused.

I hear all these stories about Aussies booking with US T/A's but I have no such experience or maybe luck.

 

I think these US T/A's are verballing the Aussies and giving them a US address.

 

In conclusion, why don't we hold our Aussie T/A's to ransom, quote the price we got from the US and say 'MATCH EM or BEAT EM. !! I am going to try that strategy shortly. I have had enough of being ripped off by our T/A industry here.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

In recent weeks have tried to get quotes on a HAL cruise through HAL site, my search was frozen and got flicked back to HAL's wholesaler in Sydney. Yes, further confused.

I hear all these stories about Aussies booking with US T/A's but I have no such experience or maybe luck.

 

I have had the same problems Les.

Been following the HAL site for cruises we are interested in...

but this week it has frozen on us.

 

We are Elite with Princess

and have a HAL Copper Medallion,

but are not let onto the site????

 

What gives?

[dougo in oz]

NSWP

 

Did you book your Sth American cruise through an Aussie Agent?

[dougo in oz]

Old news I know, but did anyone see this? http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/cheap-cruises-anger-travel-agents/story-e6frfq80-1225804992177

[NSWP]

NSWP

 

Did you book your Sth American cruise through an Aussie Agent?

That is another story, got onto a British T/A, who accepted the booking at a price some $500 pp below my best Oz price, then got rejected before I paid deposit because Princess would not allow. Now booked with the big Aussie on line T/A from West Australia, which was the best price I could get from an Aussie t/a. At least we are not subject to the current fall of the Aussie dollar against the USD and got US$150 each OBC and $200 deposit via Future Cruise Sales letters, which you cannot use with an overseas agent - if you can find one that will take your booking that is! LOL.

 

Drives you nuts. NO LOL

[Dimarie40]

I am currently in discussions with a large US based cruise wholesaler who assures me he can sell me a HAL cruise despite the website fine print stating otherwise. He called it 'legalise' and said he sells to many Australians and no one has ever had a problem. I have spoken to him by phone and via email. He has even sent me phone numbers of Australian clients who have booked and cruised through him before. As he said to me "HAL are not going to pass up a reservation."

 

The savings on this cruise, by booked through the US rather than locally is $1200 on a balcony cabin. Not an insignificant amount.

 

I have until next week to make a decision before the cabin he is holding is let go so am busily researching and phoning. I am leaning toward going ahead and making our reservation through him.

 

Hope it all works out.

[NSWP]

I am currently in discussions with a large US based cruise wholesaler who assures me he can sell me a HAL cruise despite the website fine print stating otherwise. He called it 'legalise' and said he sells to many Australians and no one has ever had a problem. I have spoken to him by phone and via email. He has even sent me phone numbers of Australian clients who have booked and cruised through him before. As he said to me "HAL are not going to pass up a reservation."

 

The savings on this cruise, by booked through the US rather than locally is $1200 on a balcony cabin. Not an insignificant amount.

 

I have until next week to make a decision before the cabin he is holding is let go so am busily researching and phoning. I am leaning toward going ahead and making our reservation through him.

 

Hope it all works out.

Good luck with it, I stll think the Cruiselines must take most of the blame by not giving the Australian t/a's the prices they give the US t/a's. I mean these US t/a's are quoting prices 30% below what the Australian travel agents can offer. WHY ?

[The_Big_M]

Good luck with it, I stll think the Cruiselines must take most of the blame by not giving the Australian t/a's the prices they give the US t/a's. I mean these US t/a's are quoting prices 30% below what the Australian travel agents can offer. WHY ?

 

Simple demand and supply. The US market has a lot more choices (supply), and their economy/job situation is much worse than ours (demand). If they priced at our levels they wouldn't get so many sales.

 

On the other side, when prices were lower here, sales shot up and sailings sold out early, ergo they could have made more money. As a result prices here have gone up.

[Aussie Gal]

I read somewhere way back on this thread that one could get into the Princess site in the U.S. and find the prices in U.S. dollars. Whenever I go to Princess U.S. site the prices are always in Australian dollars.

 

Does anyone know how to work the computer so that Princess computer thinks we are from the U.S. and not Australia as it is very hard to compare what saving the U.S. are getting over us when it is all in Aussie dollars.

 

Jennie