Any benefit to booking directly with Princess?

[bgcruiser1431]

After reading several postings about the pricing and "deals" and OBCs received from TAs, is there any benefit to booking with the cruise line?

[paul929207]

Some will say that they prefer to book directly to keep control over their reservation. (If you book thry a TA, all questions, changes, etc, must go thru them). I have never understood what these people mean.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We think a TA is the best

[Toto2Kansas]

If you must be in control (as there are many passengers out there that feel this is important to them), and think it is important to call Princess for all changes made to your booking, then book direct. As Paul says, if you book through a TA, changes or modifications to your booking must go through your TA (as you have hired them to do the work for you).

Personally, we have never seen a benefit with booking direct that was worth the savings booking through a discount TA. ;)

[Princess Patches]

Agree with Paul, Sailing Away and Toto. No benefit that is worth the extra cost.

[gertz]

I disagree. There is no downside to booking with Princess and you can still transfer the booking to a TA whenever you want.

 

I have been traveling and cruising for over 45 years now and have gone through many TA's some better than others and some nice people and have yet found one that I was satisfied with.

 

Perhaps I'm just an old grouch but that's the way the world is and it's my money.:eek:

[billco]

I disagree. There is no downside to booking with Princess and you can still transfer the booking to a TA whenever you want.

 

I have been traveling and cruising for over 45 years now and have gone through many TA's some better than others and some nice people and have yet found one that I was satisfied with.

 

Perhaps I'm just an old grouch but that's the way the world is and it's my money.:eek:

I'm an old grouch and I have found at least two online TAs I was very happy with who saved me some of my money.

[Princess Patches]

I disagree. There is no downside to booking with Princess and you can still transfer the booking to a TA whenever you want.

 

I took the OP to mean booking only with Princess and not using a TA at all. On rare occasion, I will book directly with Princess if I see a sale and I want a particular cabin, but it is a weekend or Friday afternoon. Then I will call my TA on Monday and transfer the booking over to get the TA's discount.

[jnc411]

HI, we have done both , booked with TA, and booked directly with Princess, it just depends on the price , I always check both , then decide. Have been happy with both.

Cori

[cruiznagainandagain]

I've done both. I've booked direct and with an online discount company. The times I booked directly I paid more but got upgraded to a penthouse. Not sure, but I wonder if when the fairy is able to appear, she may offer first to folks that have booked directly. Just a thought.:confused:

[Pam in CA]

The only time I've booked directly with Princess was when I've been on a cruise in April or May and bookings open up for a special cruise. Once I get home, my TA gives me her discounted price so I don't have to pay the equivalent of the retail price. I've never seen the benefit to booking directly with Princess. If I did, I'd pay more, wouldn't get the perks, and wouldn't have an advocate if anything crops up that needs a resolution.

[Coral]

Not sure, but I wonder if when the fairy is able to appear, she may offer first to folks that have booked directly. Just a thought.:confused:

 

I do not believe this is true. I have received suite upgrades booking with a TA. It is purely the luck of the draw.

[Times Prince]

After reading several postings about the pricing and "deals" and OBCs received from TAs, is there any benefit to booking with the cruise line?

There used to be more benefits than now, due to advances in electronic communications. However on occasions where we received special offers via email if we went through our TA we missed the availability - even after just 2 hours! Calling directly and immediately we can get the offer.

 

The biggest benefit lately has been the ability to choose from a broader cabin selection working with the Princess sales rep. We also liked the control, where changes in fees were communicated directly and when we paid it was credited immediately.

 

Many of the drawbacks are now in the past - The booking package with luggage tags, tour booklets and reservation forms, as well as passenger forms all used to come through whoever made the booking with Princess - resulting in a delay to get to the passenger's hand if sent to TA first.

 

We've also had our share of TA's who didn't pass on deals, who messed up the reservation, and who pushed cruises that didn't match our preferences. And one who delayed submitting final payment until past the due date. These TA's are also in the painful past.

 

Our current TA will book with Princess, holding cabins and pricing as soon as we ask for prices - that's service that you should look for.

[Toto2Kansas]

I've done both. I've booked direct and with an online discount company. The times I booked directly I paid more but got upgraded to a penthouse. Not sure, but I wonder if when the fairy is able to appear, she may offer first to folks that have booked directly. Just a thought.:confused:

The same happened to us, only we booked through a discount TA (upgraded to a PH suite), so I don't think who you booked with has a thing to do with it. ;)

[paul929207]

I disagree. There is no downside to booking with Princess and you can still transfer the booking to a TA whenever you want.

 

I have been traveling and cruising for over 45 years now and have gone through many TA's some better than others and some nice people and have yet found one that I was satisfied with.

 

Perhaps I'm just an old grouch but that's the way the world is and it's my money.:eek:

There is a downside. The price could go up in the interim. Thus you would lose the discount you could have had.

[MUD]

We have booked through Princess and other cruise lines and we have also booked through TAs. We have found a good discount TA and have received substantial discounts. If the price were equal I'd probably book through the cruise line because you can contact them at any time and have questions answered immeduately and changes made immeduately. It's not so much control as it is easy access if you have off the wall questions. That being said the discounts we are able to get make working with a TA the right way to go.:)

[gargoyle999]

If the price is the same I'd say book direct. But is it ever the same on Princess vs a good TA? I'm only about to take my 2nd Princess cruise so I'm not sure. Other lines seemed to have eliminated the discounts available with booking with a TA from what I know/have read. So far Princess has not.

 

I do know I'm paying ~45% of the price that has been listed by Princess for my 18 night Ruby cruise in Oct booked with my TA. No advantage of booking Princess direct is worth $4200+ to me! :cool:

[pshaze]

Well I'd really like to know where you find these great TA's. So far we have not had the best of luck with the ones we used.

[Go-Bucks!]

Well I'd really like to know where you find these great TA's. So far we have not had the best of luck with the ones we used.

 

 

When you attend the Meet & Greet for your roll call on your next cruise, be sure to ask the other CC members if they have a good TA they can recommend.

[shepp]

I do know I'm paying ~45% of the price that has been listed by Princess for my 18 night Ruby cruise in Oct booked with my TA. No advantage of booking Princess direct is worth $4200+ to me! :cool:

 

Is that 55% off the brochure price, or the fare that was currently on offer through the Princess site at the time you booked? If the latter, that's amazing.

[paul929207]

Whenever I am on a cruise and someone says they got a great deal, I ask for the name of their TA. I add it to my list.

 

Each time I book a cruise, I go thru the list and contact every TA, asking for a quote. The best price gets my business, unless one I know is real close.

[Bastet]

I used a TA for my last cruise and found it to be a pain in th a**. I felt like I was doing all of the work. I was the one to notice the fare decreases and had to notify the TA. Then we played Telephone Tag because I work and can't be reached sometimes. When I finally did talk to the TA, he then had to talk to Princess and get back to me. Telephone Tag again to tell me what he could do. Back to him getting back to Princess and Telephone Tag again to let me know the final results. Now in all fairness, he did call back right away, it's just that I wasn't always available. And he did get me an upgrade from an OV to a mini suite. But with the 2 cruises that I booked directly with Princess, it only took 1 call to get the fare decreases and since they have longer business hours, I could call when I was free. Just MHO.

 

TAs work for some people, especially when they are lucky enough to have good ones, and booking directly work for others. I may try a TA agian sometime.

[Arthritis]

I took the OP to mean booking only with Princess and not using a TA at all. On rare occasion, I will book directly with Princess if I see a sale and I want a particular cabin, but it is a weekend or Friday afternoon. Then I will call my TA on Monday and transfer the booking over to get the TA's discount.

Princess, you caught my eyebecause I had a dog who we named Princes Patches.

 

We have used TAs and dealt directly with the cruise line. On our first cruise, through a TA, I could never get a complete statement from them. Needless to say, the bill was a

big surprise. However a few caribbean cruises with TAs were fine; they were fortcoming and no surprises. Of late, however we have been dealing with the cruise lines directly because I feel this direct link is faster and more accurate

[gargoyle999]

Is that 55% off the brochure price, or the fare that was currently on offer through the Princess site at the time you booked? If the latter, that's amazing.

 

It is 55% off the price that was (and is!) listed on the Princess web site. I have not seen a Princess brochure before. Those prices are even higher? :eek:

[BridgeMates]

If the price is the same I'd say book direct. But is it ever the same on Princess vs a good TA? I'm only about to take my 2nd Princess cruise so I'm not sure. Other lines seemed to have eliminated the discounts available with booking with a TA from what I know/have read. So far Princess has not.

 

I do know I'm paying ~45% of the price that has been listed by Princess for my 18 night Ruby cruise in Oct booked with my TA. No advantage of booking Princess direct is worth $4200+ to me! :cool:

 

We got the same deal when the lower price showed up for only a few days on one of the big online companies. Princess price never came down and just about everything has been waitlisted for months at double the price. For some reason tho, our travel agent couldn't book the cabin we wanted but was able to get us a higher rated cabin in the same category. Strange but true. When one of the cabins we wanted in the first place became available, we tried to "downgrade" but we would have had to pay double for it.

Did your travel agent find this deal for you or did you find it on your own?

We were just checking a few things and it popped up online. Even our travel agent was surprised at the almost 50% lower price. I don't think this happens too often.

 

See you in October!!