How Do You Book Your Cruises?

[mom says]

You can book any cruise while onboard and then later transfer the booking to a different cruise once you decide. The extra perks you get for booking on board (typically reduced deposit and extra OBC, but sometimes more) will transfer to your new cruise - but the "regular" perks you get for the booking will be based on whatever the regular offer is for your new sailing at the time you transfer. This is in the US - as you are in Canada - not sure if the rules are different.

 

Mike

 

But isn't there a time limit on taking that cruise?

[GoGiantsfan11]

I deciding on this right now. Right now a online TA has the same benefits as Celebrity but $425 cheaper. I was told to wait til their 4th of July sale and will be getting even more perks. I figure I can book with celebrity and hold my cabins and then when the sale happens move it over to the TA and get the lower prices and more perks or just cancel with Celebrity. Unless I am missing something?

[mandream]

You can book any cruise while onboard and then later transfer the booking to a different cruise once you decide. The extra perks you get for booking on board (typically reduced deposit and extra OBC, but sometimes more) will transfer to your new cruise - but the "regular" perks you get for the booking will be based on whatever the regular offer is for your new sailing at the time you transfer. This is in the US - as you are in Canada - not sure if the rules are different.

 

Mike

 

But isn't there a time limit on taking that cruise?

 

I don't believe there is.

 

Mike

[mom says]

I don't believe there is.

 

Mike

 

Well that's certainly good to know.I thought it had to be booked for a cruise starting within a year.

[Georgia_Peaches]

We try to book while on board and then transfer to an online cruise travel company. I like doing that so I can stack my perks.

Several folks have responded with a similar answer. How does one transfer from the cruise line to a TA? And what is the incentive for the TA to accept the transferred booking?

 

Thank you!

Christina

[Duanerice1]

I deciding on this right now. Right now a online TA has the same benefits as Celebrity but $425 cheaper.

 

I thought and am pretty sure, a TA cannot sell cabins for less than Celebrity. The exception I think is if it is a group booking. But then you lose some benefits of upgrading or swapping cabins. Again, this is just what I've read and have experienced.

 

To answer the OP's second question, I book directly with Celebrity and then transfer to an agent. I just find it easier to book online since it's the same price (for what I want).

 

I never used to move it to a TA but I was throwing away at least $300 extra a cruise. For what? All my changes are free so I really haven't lost anything except maybe a possible upgrade on a Sunday night.

[TFree]

Several folks have responded with a similar answer. How does one transfer from the cruise line to a TA? And what is the incentive for the TA to accept the transferred booking?

 

Thank you!

Christina

 

I just did this, so I can walk you through the process. The incentive for the TA is that they must receive more in commission than they rebate back to the customer in terms of additional OBC. That part I can understand. What I don't really get is why Celebrity makes it so easy to do these transfers, by not having their own offers be competitive. In the case of the two reservations we transferred, the new TA is giving us over 8% of the booking charge back in the form of a cash card (most TAs give it back in the form of additional OBC). I don't know what the economics are, but let's say the TA commission is 12%, and in this case our new TA gives us 8% and keeps 4%. A win-win for both. But if Celebrity just matched the 8% extra OBC, I would leave the reservation with them, and they would keep the extra 4%. Plus with all that OBC I would likely book more Celebrity excursions, specialty dining, buy more stuff onboard, etc., just to use some of the OBC. Anyway, that is a question for another thread and another time.

 

We were onboard the Equinox in April and early May, and booked two new cruises for 2019. We will probably take one and move the other to a different date. We got extra OBC for booking onboard, an extra $250 for one cruise and $300 for the other. I had Celebrity leave our prior TA off the bookings because I wanted to shop around. Note that you only have 60 days from booking to do the transfer.

 

I called or emailed 5 TAs in total. Two were smaller individual type agencies recommended to me by another Cruise Critic member. Two were big online travel agents, one specializing in cruises and the other was the travel arm of a big box retailer. The final one was the travel arm for my wife's high end credit card (the one that now costs $550 per year). All were at least somewhat competitive except for the credit card travel department, whose offer was pathetic.

 

I decided to transfer the bookings to the big box retailer, as their cash card offer was significantly better than the offers of the other TAs, so I called them back. They gave me the TA number and address to fill in, and then directed me to the reservation transfer page on the Celebrity website. Here it is. http://rccl.force.com/directtransfers/DTTCelebrity. It was easy to do, and then I called back the big box retailer a few days later so they could find the reservations in their system and link them to our big box membership account.

 

Tom & Judy

[Georgia_Peaches]

I just did this, so I can walk you through the process. The incentive for the TA is that they must receive more in commission than they rebate back to the customer in terms of additional OBC. That part I can understand. What I don't really get is why Celebrity makes it so easy to do these transfers, by not having their own offers be competitive. In the case of the two reservations we transferred, the new TA is giving us over 8% of the booking charge back in the form of a cash card (most TAs give it back in the form of additional OBC). I don't know what the economics are, but let's say the TA commission is 12%, and in this case our new TA gives us 8% and keeps 4%. A win-win for both. But if Celebrity just matched the 8% extra OBC, I would leave the reservation with them, and they would keep the extra 4%. Plus with all that OBC I would likely book more Celebrity excursions, specialty dining, buy more stuff onboard, etc., just to use some of the OBC. Anyway, that is a question for another thread and another time.

 

We were onboard the Equinox in April and early May, and booked two new cruises for 2019. We will probably take one and move the other to a different date. We got extra OBC for booking onboard, an extra $250 for one cruise and $300 for the other. I had Celebrity leave our prior TA off the bookings because I wanted to shop around. Note that you only have 60 days from booking to do the transfer.

 

I called or emailed 5 TAs in total. Two were smaller individual type agencies recommended to me by another Cruise Critic member. Two were big online travel agents, one specializing in cruises and the other was the travel arm of a big box retailer. The final one was the travel arm for my wife's high end credit card (the one that now costs $550 per year). All were at least somewhat competitive except for the credit card travel department, whose offer was pathetic.

 

I decided to transfer the bookings to the big box retailer, as their cash card offer was significantly better than the offers of the other TAs, so I called them back. They gave me the TA number and address to fill in, and then directed me to the reservation transfer page on the Celebrity website. Here it is. http://rccl.force.com/directtransfers/DTTCelebrity. It was easy to do, and then I called back the big box retailer a few days later so they could find the reservations in their system and link them to our big box membership account.

 

Tom & Judy

WOW!! That's great! I really appreciate the information.

[Lastdance]

I think being a savvy cruiser and looking at all the options mentioned have the best payoff, depending of course on your ability to book onboard, having a great TA and just doing your homework on how everything works. Just know that sometimes things work out so that everything falls into place. Other times, there are little snags in the way, but you do your best and then go with it. Someone is always going to pay less, get a better cabin or more OBC: however, if you are happy about your cruise, that is all that matters!

[Mr. Click]

Going back to the OP's second question, we have, at times booked a place holder cruise while onboard. That is one we MIGHT like and is way in the future. Then I have some time to decide if that is what I really want or do I want to change. after double checking schedules and kicking ideas around. Once I settle on a cruise I really want then I can just transfer it all over. Celebrity and Royal both give you 60 days from booking to transfer to a TA. There are some basic forms you have to fill out but it is pretty easy. Once all of the forms are done and submitted I call my TA to double check to make sure the transfer has gone through along with my extra perks from them.

[RocketMan275]

I thought and am pretty sure, a TA cannot sell cabins for less than Celebrity. The exception I think is if it is a group booking. But then you lose some benefits of upgrading or swapping cabins. Again, this is just what I've read and have experienced.

 

Most cruise line prohibit TA from advertising prices lower than the cruise line. There is really nothing the cruise line can do to prevent the TA from offering unadvertised perks such as OBC/discounts/rebates. Pretty sure that would be illegal price fixing if they were to try.

 

The prohibition on advertising makes it difficult to locate TA who will discount/rebate cruises. Most people limit their shopping to searching the web. They will not find those unadvertised prices that way. This policy is also a convenient excuse for other TA to avoid discounts. "Oh, I would love to give you a lower price but the cruise lines won't let me."

[fleckle]

Most cruise line prohibit TA from advertising prices lower than the cruise line. There is really nothing the cruise line can do to prevent the TA from offering unadvertised perks such as OBC/discounts/rebates. Pretty sure that would be illegal price fixing if they were to try.

 

The prohibition on advertising makes it difficult to locate TA who will discount/rebate cruises. Most people limit their shopping to searching the web. They will not find those unadvertised prices that way.

But there is apparently nothing to stop the TAs from sending out mailers advertising "Prices too low to post. Call us."

 

If you are on the various TA mailing lists, you get bombarded with them just about every week.

[Z'Loth]

I end up using the travel agent services at the local AAA. (Wait, am I allowed to mention them?) Somehow, I don't trust booking through the cruise line directly. Also, when I book the cruise, I also purchase the travel insurance at the same time. I ended up purchasing the air fare and hotel myself, and she then adjusted the insurance plan accordingly. Although I didn't let her make photocopies of the confirmations.... they were saved PDFs, so I let her retain the printouts.

[jagsfan]

No, it is against CC rules to use the name of any travel agency.

 

 

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[fleckle]

How does one transfer from the cruise line to a TA?

Celebrity provides an online form for this purpose.

Travel Agency Transfer Form

 

But talk to your travel agent first before you start to fill it out, because there are some TAs who will take care of the whole process for you, so you don't even need to bother with the form.

 

 

 

And what is the incentive for the TA to accept the transferred booking?

That is how they make their living. They receive a commission from the cruise line.

As cruise passengers, our incentive for bothering to transfer our bookings to a TA is that they then in turn rebate part of their commission to us, and sometimes toss in some extra perks as well.

 

Or at least that is what many of them do. We know that there are some TAs who give their clients nothing but pep talks, hand holding, and perhaps a bottle of wine.

Although that may be exactly what some of their clients need, and that undoubtedly takes them more time than just processing a booking transfer for the rest of us.

As others have suggested, it would be nice for us if the cruise line would just give us our share of the commission directly and let us skip the middle-man/woman.

But it doesn't work that way. because the majority of cruise bookings still comes from travel agents. :eek:

So the cruise lines consider them "partners" and do not want to do anything to antagonize the travel agents.

 

That is why when passengers book a new future cruise onboard, if you used a travel agent for your current cruise, Celebrity will automatically assign "ownership" of the new cruise to the same TA, unless you specifically inform them otherwise.

Then if another TA offers you a better deal, surprise, you suddenly find out that you can't accept it because the previous TA already "owns" your new booking.

 

This is a learning experience that has come as a shock to many new Celebrity passengers.

Whenever we book a new cruise on board, we need to remember to request to sign a special form (something we always do now) to keep the ownership of the new booking ourselves, instead of letting it automatically revert to the previous travel agent.

Then that gives us another 60 days to shop around and decide if we want to give the new booking to a new TA, or give it to the previous TA, or just keep it ourselves.

This option is something the future cruise agents on board are supposed to explain to passengers who book a new cruise while on board, but it seems to be something that some of them conveniently manage to forget about

Edited June 9, 2018 by fleckle

[RocketMan275]

But there is apparently nothing to stop the TAs from sending out mailers advertising "Prices too low to post. Call us."

 

If you are on the various TA mailing lists, you get bombarded with them just about every week.

 

The TAs I use do not bombard me with mailers. In fact, the mailers I get are from the cruise lines.

 

I've seen a lot of 'advertisements' on websites touting cruise savings of xx%. Usually from some website with 'cheap' in the name. Totally BS. They base their percentage reduction on brochure pricing which is pretty much like paying sticker price on a car. I've compared the actual pricing from these TAs with the current cruise line prices and there is no savings.

[FunForUs]

There are many times I transfer my on board booking to a different ship and sail date.

Does anyone know if, after you transfer the booking to your TA within the 60-day window, can you have the TA transfer that booking to another ship and sail date like you can if you leave the booking with Celebrity?

[AidenL]

I just booked one on board for Alaska next year, seems to make sense, even if I don’t transfer it onwards.

[TFree]

There are many times I transfer my on board booking to a different ship and sail date.

Does anyone know if, after you transfer the booking to your TA within the 60-day window, can you have the TA transfer that booking to another ship and sail date like you can if you leave the booking with Celebrity?

 

Yes. Once the transfer is made the TA has "control" of the reservation just as if the TA had initially handled the reservation. Our TA moved our 2016 booking to 2017 for us, and then moved it again to spring of 2018. No problem.

 

Tom & Judy

[wrk2cruise]

Yes. Once the transfer is made the TA has "control" of the reservation just as if the TA had initially handled the reservation. Our TA moved our 2016 booking to 2017 for us, and then moved it again to spring of 2018. No problem.

 

Tom & Judy

 

Just make sure that before using any TA you understand their terms and conditions. Some have cancellation fees and others have fees for making changes like you have done here. Just do your homework.

[fleckle]

 

 

Does anyone know if, after you transfer the booking to your TA within the 60-day window, can you have the TA transfer that booking to another ship and sail date like you can if you leave the booking with Celebrity?

Yes you can, but it is not like doing it while you still leave your booking with Celebrity because your options for making changes immediately decrease and become much more limited as soon as you give your booking to a TA.

 

At that point you are stuck with whatever terms the particular TA is willing to give you for transferring the booking.

They already have you hooked.

 

They know very well that even if another TA is offering a better deal for that cruise, it is just too bad for you because you will not be eligible for it.

Also, before giving a booking to any TA, check in advance to make sure that your TA does not charge an additional fee for processing transfers, changes or cancellations because there are some of them who do.

 

Edited June 10, 2018 by fleckle

[grandgeezer]

Yes you can, but it is not like doing it while you still leave your booking with Celebrity because your options immediately decrease and become much more limited as soon as you give your booking to a TA.

 

At that point you are stuck with whatever that particular TA is willing to give you. They already have you hooked.

They know very well that even if another TA offers a better deal for that cruise, it is just too bad for you because you will not be eligible for it.

Also, before giving a booking to a TA, check in advance to make sure that your TA does not charge an additional fee for processing transfers, changes or cancellations because there are some of them who do.

 

If you transferred the booking to a travel agency, they must have offered you something above and beyond what the cruise line did. If you want to transfer, most people would check around for the best deal before you would do the transfer What's the sense of keep looking for anything but price reductions?

My online agency doesn't charge for changes but do for cancellations unless you are moving the booking to another cruise. They have had the best deal around and I've never paid a cancellation fee in 46 cruises.

[villauk]

What is 1 category upgrade - eg OV to Veranda, or V2 to V1?

 

 

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You only need to be in the classic level (only one previous cruise to qualify).

 

We've gotten the 1 category boost on every cruise since our first. And have gotten all of the perks advertised at the time.

 

We find the cruise we want on the Celebrity site, then book through our TA. He has handled all of our vacations for over 10 years (a brick and monter agency in our town), and has consistently gotten better prices than we could on our own. And there is always a couple of bottles of wine, a fruit basket, and flowers from him in our stateroom.

 

Remember there are cabin exceptions to the automatic upgrade - C1s, SV, FV, 12 and times of the year, such as holiday sailings ;).

From the X site:

 

‘ONE-CATEGORY UPGRADE

 

One-category upgrade requests must be made at the time of booking and apply only for upgrades within the supercategory, depending on availability. Example of a supercategory upgrade in AquaClass: A2 to A1. Captain's Club one category upgrade excludes category 12, FV, SV, C1 and guarantee categories, Z, Y, X, XC, XA, W. This offer cannot be used with certain restricted fares including but not limited to travel agent and employee rates. Upgrades apply for one stateroom per cruise. Stateroom assignments only. Not valid on holiday sailings. Upgrades available from categories 11- A1 (subject to exclusions above) on all Celebrity ships except Celebrity Xpedition®, Celebrity Xperience℠ and Celebrity Xploration℠. Offer valid for members who are Classic Level or higher at the time of booking.’

[fleckle]

deleted

Edited June 10, 2018 by fleckle

[aml3679]

It depends. If we have the money to pay all at once, we book directly with Celebrity which we did for upcoming cruise in January. Our park offered a trip for 2020 and we ended up using a travel company.