AAA, travel agent or direct????????

[funhouse8]

How should I make my reservations? Who do you think I can get the best deal from? We are going during the holidays, no bargins are to be found. What are my advantages with each? I have to book 6 rooms for my sisters family & mine so any savings or extras would be helpful Thanks.

[checkard]

Ditto on AAA travel agents. We always book with the same agent and love the personal service we get. My mother became ill on our cruise in March and our TA handled all the insurance issues to get my mother reimbursed for the medical expenses quickly.

[jkrislc]

AAA is fine as long as you get an agent that knows something about cruising. The first time we booked with AAA we had no problems. Unfortuntaley, the second time was a nightmare. The booking was handled efficiently; they just did a very bad job of matching as and our desires to the cruise line.

[cruz1234]

When deciding just be sure to find out all canx policies.. I booked one time thru Sam's Club and they had a $75 per person canx fee..and this was anytime after I booked, not even in any penalty phase.( I had booked 9 months in advance and from that day forward they had that canx fee!) That can add up quickly! Other agencies may have simliar charges..RCI doesn't charge any fees until you are w/in penalty phase. Maybe this is not important to you but I like to book way out and if something better comes along I want to be able to switch w/out any kind of penalties. Out last TA had a $35 per person fee and I have decided that from now on I am going straight thru RCI. I do enough research on the Ship to know what rooms I want and what ports I want to cruise out of etc.. Maybe TA's are better if you run into problems. I also liked RCI's insurance better than the others.(like the part that if you canx for reasons not covered you get a 75% cruise credit..you just NEVER know what might come up) I have not gone thru insuremytrip so that may be better.

[FitzLA]

Book directly with the cruise line. That is what we always do and it has always worked out great. You will most likely get the same price, and you can call RCCL 7 days a week to make changes or for whatever reason you want. The one and only time we booked with a TA we wanted to wsitch to a new stateroom that had just become available and since it was a weekend, our TA was not there, and we were not able to switch as the stateroom went over the weekend. Not being able to call RCCL when booked through a TA is annoying.

[Steamboatin]

We are well pleased with our AAA Travel's TA. We have booked 13 cruises through her and have had nothing short of professional personalized service from her. She can be easily reached by phone or by us just dropping in unexpectingly into her office for service.

 

The local AAA office is now closed due to Hurricane Katrina damage. Her and us are also Hurricane Katrina vicitims. She is commuting over 200 miles per day to the next closest AAA office to maintain contact with her clients, conducting normal business, and is continuing to maintain a high level of service to her clients.

 

When cruise lines adjust their prices downward we are given the new lower rates.

 

Our AAA has what they call a "Cruise Bank". In reality when you book a cruise you only have to put down a $25.00 deposit per person ($50 for wife and I) and you do not have to pay any additional money until the last date for payment as established by the cruise line when you than pay your remainding balance in full. Thus, the normal deposit money is in my pocket and not the agency's pocket. Should I cancel the cruise the maximum I am out is the $25.00 per person original deposit. You cannot get a better deposit deal than that.

 

So because we get cruise line low pricing, professional service from a highly dedicated TA and the $25.00 per person deposit policy of AAA are the reasons we always utilize our local AAA TA.

[cruz1234]

Should I cancel the cruise the maximum I am out is the $25.00 per person original deposit.

 

So is that if you cancel before final payment is due? If you booked directly thru RCI you would not lose your deposit as long as you canx before the 60-70 days prior to sailing.

 

I can understand only having to put a $25 per person deposit, that is great.

[EggDropErin]

I will have to agree with the majority here. I always use AAA.

[mrskmirolla]

My understanding is the RCL and the TA's all have the same price. I heard that RCL decided to do it that way and so does Celebrity I think. So no matter who you go with it is the same price. I personally do the on line .coms for the best rate but with RCL I did a TA. They are great, it is just that most the time I can get a better price with online. My experience with AAA is that they aren't very knowlegable. If you want to email me I can give you the one we use when we use a TA. My email is mrskmirolla@aol.com, just put in heading Cruise Info.

 

Kathy

[jcanino]

How should I make my reservations? AAA, travel agent or direct???????? .

 

For what it is worth, AAA has regular travel agencies just like any other travel agency. The are no different from ABC Travel or 123 Travel. On another thread, someone mentioned that they were the largest in the country, but in actuality, they are all seperate businesses. In CT, there are two different AAA's and one of them is partnered with the AAA in Cincinnatti.

[jcanino]

How should I make my reservations? AAA, travel agent or direct???????? .

 

For what it is worth, AAA has regular travel agencies just like any other travel agency. The are no different from ABC Travel or 123 Travel. On another thread, someone mentioned that they were the largest in the country, but in actuality, they are all seperate businesses. In CT, there are two different AAA's and one of them is partnered with the AAA in Cincinnatti.

[Dem920]

I would agree, you have to get a travel ageny that know what they are doing. I do a lot of research on my own and then I check with a travel agent. I know my travel agent would consider 6 cabins a group and would probably get me group pricing which is usually a bit cheaper than the norm, but I'm not sure if that applies to holiday travel. Make sure teh person you are working with has been on a cruise and can recommend the right cruiseline for your group. Every cruise company is a bit different.

 

Good Luck.

:)

[nfused2cruze]

I booked with AAA. Later found out that I could get additional freq flyer miles if I booked with my airline's cruise reps. Told AAA and they swtiched it over to the freq flyer cruise rep to get the add'l miles. It cost $19.00 extra but I didn't mind.

 

Both have been very helpful.

[cruzincurt]

We booked our first two cruises with AAA then discovered they were no bargain. Afterwards, I always shopped around to compare prices and found AAA was always $100 or $200 higher than an online TA. I don't even bother asking them for a quote anymore.

 

If you know what you want, and don't need someone to hold your hand, you can usually do better than AAA unless they have a special block of rooms on your cruise. Nothing against AAA as we have been members for nearly 20 years, we just don't book cruises with them anymore. Since Princess is not one of their "favorites" I had to always ask them to get a Princess book out of the back closet. They never placed Princess books up front and out in the open. That kind of irritates me everytime I go in to gather up books from all of the cruise lines.

 

I don't use AAA discounts for cars anymore either because I can always do better direct with the rental company.

[mmacdcc]

I do a lot of research before I do anything. Check prices online, with all the sites I can find, including the cruise line. We went on our first cruise last December on HAL, this time we're going on the Radiance 1/15/06.

 

I use AAA when I book though. We don't go with a group, and I haven't found anything online that's cheaper. If I'm going to spend that much money on a vacation, I want somebody who I can ask questions if I need to, and who will help me if I get in a jam.

 

I don't use them for airfare, rental cars or hotel (though I do request the AAA discount when I book hotels), I can find good deals for those myself. For those things, I check the normal travel sites, and then wind up booking directly with the airline, hotel, or car rental agency. I've always gotten at least as good of rates as any of the travel sites, and sometimes they're better.

 

They're always pleasant at AAA, willing to answer any questions I have, call the cruiseline and get info or put something on a courtesy hold for me (I do that so I can check about vacation before I book).

 

I haven't found their website to be much help, but the agents have all been great.

[FitzLA]

Should I cancel the cruise the maximum I am out is the $25.00 per person original deposit. You cannot get a better deposit deal than that.

 

If I book directly with RCCL and I cancel prior to the FINAL payment due date, I loose nothing...not even the $25 per person you speak of. One more advantage to booking direct with RCCL.

[funhouse8]

If I book though RCL and I see a good deal with a travel agent can I tranfer the ressie to them and get the benefits? Thanks.

[negc]

If I book directly with RCCL and I cancel prior to the FINAL payment due date, I loose nothing...not even the $25 per person you speak of. One more advantage to booking direct with RCCL.

 

It is an advantage only if the TA charges a separate cancellation fee. Many TAs don't, so that is not always a reason to book directly with RCI. If your agent has a group rate, however, you can't be part of that group without losing the onboard credit that you get for booking while onboard, but there are occasions when the ta's group rate is still so much better that even with the loss of the onboard credit, the total cost is less. A friend of mine booked a category M onboard his last cruise but found that his TA had category M rooms for $500 less than he was paying by booking onboard. Even though he lost his $200 onboard credit, he saved $300 by booking as part of his TA's group. As with most things, it really pays to check out all your options before deciding what is best for you.