Price keeps dropping, TA getting aggravated w/ me!!

[YankeesFan4Life]

Not my fault I keep obsessing about saving money, right??

 

Originally booked Breakaway 8/11/19, 2 oceanview rooms, dining, beverage and air from Newark.

 

Came across some CruiseNext vouchers, so re-booked 2 family balcony rooms, plus $200 more OBC:  taking into consideration, the $500 I'm saving with the CruiseNext vouchers, and the extra $200 OBC, I'm saving $145.....

 

NOW....with their NEW Spring Savings Sale, I can book the same B3 Category Family Balcony rooms and at least $200 OBC, I can save a total of $1000!!!   

 

Does she have a right to be annoyed????? I would hope not!! She's getting paid regardless, right???

[spanishguy1970]

if she does , is time you get a new TA...I bother mine with stuff like this and she is always willing to help. The only time she may give me a hard time,  is when i try to make changes after final payment( but  she is still willing to help) but otherwise she is cool with making changes to my reservation.

Edited March 13, 2019 by spanishguy1970

[LinnieRed]

Everyone who works in a customer service profession gets to beat up one person per month. Maybe this is your month! (I hope everyone knows I’m kidding 😂). 

 

Even if she’s annoyed it’s your money and that is a huge chunk!

[coscab]

Her commission is probably based on what you are paying for the cruise so she might be losing a few dollars but she should be happy you are saving some.

[YankeesFan4Life]

45 minutes ago, spanishguy1970 said:

if she does , is time you get a new TA...

 

I wish I could!  She has a $2500 travel voucher through my work that I'm using for this trip, so I'm stuck with her!!!!

[shof515]

this is one of many many reasons why i hate travel agents

[esm54687]

2 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

 

I wish I could!  She has a $2500 travel voucher through my work that I'm using for this trip, so I'm stuck with her!!!!

Actually you're not stuck with her..  it's your choice to use the $2,500 voucher for this triip and using it has conditions. You always have a choice to not use the voucher.

 

That being said,  you're doing 80% of her job by researching promos etc so she's really only rebooking and that's pretty easy on her part. Sounds like she is more of a corporate TA so she's not used to making changes.... oh well.. keep researching and keep calling her.  

[newmexicoNita]

12 hours ago, coscab said:

Her commission is probably based on what you are paying for the cruise so she might be losing a few dollars but she should be happy you are saving some.

This could very much be the case, but there is still no reason to let the client know you are annoyed. Of course the agents commission is based on the cost of the cruise regardless of OBC or any other perks. OP, you have a right to be a bit upset.

[Laszlo]

Annoyed? Lol

 

Your need a new TA, mine will always contact me if the price has dropped or if they have a better deal

Edited March 14, 2019 by Laszlo

[calmpets]

Basically your travel agent is getting annoyed at you for forcing her to do her job. It's not anything you should feel badly about, and I'd continue to call every time the price drops. Sucks that you are stuck with her, but $2500 is a lot of money to give up, so I don't blame you one bit.

[bkrickles1]

13 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

Not my fault I keep obsessing about saving money, right??

 

Originally booked Breakaway 8/11/19, 2 oceanview rooms, dining, beverage and air from Newark.

 

Came across some CruiseNext vouchers, so re-booked 2 family balcony rooms, plus $200 more OBC:  taking into consideration, the $500 I'm saving with the CruiseNext vouchers, and the extra $200 OBC, I'm saving $145.....

 

NOW....with their NEW Spring Savings Sale, I can book the same B3 Category Family Balcony rooms and at least $200 OBC, I can save a total of $1000!!!   

 

Does she have a right to be annoyed????? I would hope not!! She's getting paid regardless, right???

Definitely find a new TA. As someone said, you're doing all the work and finding what's best for you.

I do the same.

I actually just looked at the new Spring Savings Sale and it does nothing for me.

I'm booked for next Jan. on the Encore and I took all 6 perks (which included airfare) for my family of 3 in a balcony cabin and I'm paying just shy of $3700 total. The new sale only allows me to choose 2 perks with a balcony and the price is almost $3500.

I'm pretty pleased I booked when I did.

[Bluewake]

I went through this same thing years ago with a travel agent when there were two significant price drops on a cruise for which I was booked.  She did the first adjustment but resisted when I called her about the second. She reluctantly did the second adjustment but pretty much told me not to bother her again if there was a third drop.  A year later, I was one of the victims of an  agency in NJ that billed the cards of many customers early for a final payment but instead of paying the cruiseline, they pocketed the money and then immediately went out of business.  ( https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Agent-Issues/CVC-huge-retailer-of-cruise-folding ).  I was one of the lucky ones for my CC company reversed the charges...although I had to work directly with the cruiseline to restore my booking and lost the cabin I wanted.   However, one man who paid by check for an extended anniversary cruise had no such recourse and lost a large amount of money.  The early billing and non-payment certainly appeared to have been a deliberate act by the agency.  Some of the senior people there simply opened up another cruise booking agency in Princeton.  

 

After those two situations, I swore off cruise travel agents and have been booking my 2-3 annual cruises directly with the cruiselines.  I may forego some onboard credits but I have the flexibility to  manage my own cruise bookings and have fewer worries that a large cruiseline will grab my money and shut its doors.   I do want to acknowledge that my unfortunate experience with agents probably is an anomaly and I don't mean to suggest that all agents can't be trusted. No doubt, most are entirely trustworthy and helpful.  But, dealing directly with the cruiselines has worked for me.

[deliver42]

Get a new TA. I don't know if you've used this TA before, but a lot of the on line, and big box TA's are part of World Wide Holdings, and they don't like being bothered more than once or twice to change a booking, plus they will charge for a change at one time. It's happened too me, and I will no longer use any TA.

[YankeesFan4Life]

3 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

Get a new TA. I don't know if you've used this TA before, but a lot of the on line, and big box TA's are part of World Wide Holdings, and they don't like being bothered more than once or twice to change a booking, plus they will charge for a change at one time. It's happened too me, and I will no longer use any TA.

 

As stated previously, I have a travel voucher with them, they are the TA for the company I work for, and if I want to utilize my $2500 which I'm putting towards the cruise, unfortunately have no other options....

[spanishguy1970]

1 hour ago, Bluewake said:

I went through this same thing years ago with a travel agent when there were two significant price drops on a cruise for which I was booked.  She did the first adjustment but resisted when I called her about the second. She reluctantly did the second adjustment but pretty much told me not to bother her again if there was a third drop.  A year later, I was one of the victims of an  agency in NJ that billed the cards of many customers early for a final payment but instead of paying the cruiseline, they pocketed the money and then immediately went out of business.  ( https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Agent-Issues/CVC-huge-retailer-of-cruise-folding ).  I was one of the lucky ones for my CC company reversed the charges...although I had to work directly with the cruiseline to restore my booking and lost the cabin I wanted.   However, one man who paid by check for an extended anniversary cruise had no such recourse and lost a large amount of money.  The early billing and non-payment certainly appeared to have been a deliberate act by the agency.  Some of the senior people there simply opened up another cruise booking agency in Princeton.  

 

After those two situations, I swore off cruise travel agents and have been booking my 2-3 annual cruises directly with the cruiselines.  I may forego some onboard credits but I have the flexibility to  manage my own cruise bookings and have fewer worries that a large cruiseline will grab my money and shut its doors.   I do want to acknowledge that my unfortunate experience with agents probably is an anomaly and I don't mean to suggest that all agents can't be trusted. No doubt, most are entirely trustworthy and helpful.  But, dealing directly with the cruiselines has worked for me.

tha's an interesting situation. We had a previous experience with a cruise agency that may be  sort of similar to the one you had. He booked our cruises, and we did not think anything of it because he had been our agent for 2 years. I checked the invoice and on a transatlantic cruise he was charging us 465 dollars each on taxes, i thought that was odd so i went directly to NCL and realized that the taxes there for would have 215 dollars each, that was quite a difference in price. i called our agent and they gave us this big story that we did not believe. We tried to get money back on the taxes however we did not. We went on our cruise, but we got rid of that agency and that agent. Unfortunately we could not check the taxes on our past cruises and compare. We went to the BBB and there were a lot of complaints against this agency. We were glad to get out and thankfully we did not have problems with our bookings...I did file a complaint though.

Edited March 14, 2019 by spanishguy1970

[Markanddonna]

I got burned by an unresponsive agent several years ago and started to book directly with the cruise line. I don't book expensive cabins, so my perks aren't noteworthy.  

 

I just called NCL directly yesterday to ask for a price change/drop.  The agent was happy to do so and was very pleasant and congratulatory.  Saved $260.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Markanddonna

[Aesop081]

I have a Princess cruise leaving in 51 days, 5 day Pac Coastal.  Started off at 1600 Canadian total for 2 people inside stateroom, ended up costing 1200 Canadian total for Balcony.  Called TA 4 times.  She was great and jumped on the savings for me.   That's customer service.  What you're experiencing is not.  When people in any company start feeling that they're doing you a favor by taking your money, it's time leave with your business to somewhere else.

 

 

[steph03a]

I had an experience just like this on my last cruise. I am super vigilant, like I check the prices EVERY DAY to make sure I am getting the best deal. So I called to get the price changed once or twice before final payment and that seemed okay.

 

Price did drop drastically after final payment so I called my TA to see if maybe she had any pull and could try to get us anything, even just some OBC. I'm not kidding that I had to email her like 6 times and called her like 3 times and she would not answer me. (This was over the time frame of about 6 weeks) So I finally called the parent company that she is an IC for and then once THEY started reaching out to her she finally called me back. 

 

But she was NOT happy with me, I could tell by her tone of voice. That is the moment I decided not to work with her anymore.

 

Unfortunately the cruise we were on was the Jade in Nov 2018 when it broke down. So I still had to contact her after the fact to make sure our refunds would go through. It has been 4 months since I came home and I am still missing over $100 for my refund that NCL will not help me with unless the TA calls. She continues to ignore all my emails. I will have to contact the parent company again to get anyone to help me.

 

From now on, no more TA for me or my family. I can do just as good a job as they can at making my own arrangements.

[YankeesFan4Life]

So I don't know what the story is, but since my original post, the price dropped AGAIN!

 

My TA called and called (supposedly....) and wasn't coming up with ANY discount!!!!!!!!  She told me if I called, and got a better rate, I should book it and she would cancel hers, and I'd get my NEW reservation to them...

 

I called, got 2 adjoining balcony rooms (1x B2, and 1x B3) midship.....free air, air deviation ($25x4) and they took off the transfer (got a hotel with free pickup at MIA and free transportation to Port of Miami).  With the $500 I paid for the $1000 in CruiseNext vouchers, I saved a total of $1074!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   HOLY CRAP!!!  

 

All I can say is that I'm sitting back with a NICE big bottle of Cabernet, while celebrating MY WIN!  I think I'm going to wait for 20 some odd days before I hand it back off to the TA to see if there's more price drops, since I'm 29 days from final payment...

 

Yay me!!!

[spanishguy1970]

4 minutes ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

So I don't know what the story is, but since my original post, the price dropped AGAIN!

 

My TA called and called (supposedly....) and wasn't coming up with ANY discount!!!!!!!!  She told me if I called, and got a better rate, I should book it and she would cancel hers, and I'd get my NEW reservation to them...

 

I called, got 2 adjoining balcony rooms (1x B2, and 1x B3) midship.....free air, air deviation ($25x4) and they took off the transfer (got a hotel with free pickup at MIA and free transportation to Port of Miami).  With the $500 I paid for the $1000 in CruiseNext vouchers, I saved a total of $1074!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   HOLY CRAP!!!  

 

All I can say is that I'm sitting back with a NICE big bottle of Cabernet, while celebrating MY WIN!  I think I'm going to wait for 20 some odd days before I hand it back off to the TA to see if there's more price drops, since I'm 29 days from final payment...

 

Yay me!!!

congratulations, that is awesome

[newmexicoNita]

16 hours ago, steph03a said:

I had an experience just like this on my last cruise. I am super vigilant, like I check the prices EVERY DAY to make sure I am getting the best deal. So I called to get the price changed once or twice before final payment and that seemed okay.

 

Price did drop drastically after final payment so I called my TA to see if maybe she had any pull and could try to get us anything, even just some OBC. I'm not kidding that I had to email her like 6 times and called her like 3 times and she would not answer me. (This was over the time frame of about 6 weeks) So I finally called the parent company that she is an IC for and then once THEY started reaching out to her she finally called me back. 

 

But she was NOT happy with me, I could tell by her tone of voice. That is the moment I decided not to work with her anymore.

 

Unfortunately the cruise we were on was the Jade in Nov 2018 when it broke down. So I still had to contact her after the fact to make sure our refunds would go through. It has been 4 months since I came home and I am still missing over $100 for my refund that NCL will not help me with unless the TA calls. She continues to ignore all my emails. I will have to contact the parent company again to get anyone to help me.

 

From now on, no more TA for me or my family. I can do just as good a job as they can at making my own arrangements.

 

glad you can do as well as an experienced and well trained TA. This isn't always the case and a good one is worth their weight in gold. So let's not let one experience influence us for life. For many, doing  your own thing is best and certainly there are a lot of agents out there that know less than the client, but there are also those who can save you money as well as are better at handling problems than we are as individuals. 

[DirtyDawg]

On 3/13/2019 at 6:33 PM, YankeesFan4Life said:

Not my fault I keep obsessing about saving money, right??

 

Originally booked Breakaway 8/11/19, 2 oceanview rooms, dining, beverage and air from Newark.

 

Came across some CruiseNext vouchers, so re-booked 2 family balcony rooms, plus $200 more OBC:  taking into consideration, the $500 I'm saving with the CruiseNext vouchers, and the extra $200 OBC, I'm saving $145.....

 

NOW....with their NEW Spring Savings Sale, I can book the same B3 Category Family Balcony rooms and at least $200 OBC, I can save a total of $1000!!!   

 

Does she have a right to be annoyed????? I would hope not!! She's getting paid regardless, right???

 

Well, if I was your T/A I would be annoyed at you and let you know it in no uncertain terms!!

 

That's why I'm not suited to be a good T/A. Or even a bad T/A. 

 

The bottom line - it's all about your bottom line. It's her job to improve your bottom line by working hard on your behalf. If she doesn't like to do that, she should stop being in the customer service business. I hear morgue assistant jobs are available and she could get annoyed with her clients all she wants. 

[myjillian]

My TA checks all of her bookings every week looking for price drops and or specials that she can pass on to her clients.  Her idea is to have her clients save money so that they would cruise more.  She works from home and if she has a local group that may not know each other she'll invite everyone to her home for a party before their cruise and helps them get on CC to join activities for their sailings.  Her clients are very loyal to her because she puts them first.  Once she even told my friends that she couldn't match the price of an online website ( she usually matches or her price is better) and gave them that information to book....she found the website ..not them....Once she called clients that booked their air with Princess and informed them that overall the air fare was cheaper now and she got them the reduced rate.  She just enjoys doing this...I don't think she makes much money but I do know she's looking out for me🤗  I also know that Princess would not have informed the client of the reduced air etc.  So sometimes we can find a gem in a box of rocks !

[April42749]

In defense of TAs (I am not one) they get extremely small commissions for cruiseline bookings.  And then if the price drops, they get to do more work for less pay.  It's kind of a "no win" situation.  A good friend is a TA; she does it for the travel benefits.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

My question would be why is your TA not watching and automatically getting you the less expensive rate? Mine is 100% on top of things like that and has more times than not notified me that the new discount/promotion either does NOT do me any favors or was better for me and she had already made the change. She's amazing!

 

If you are the one doing all the searching for things, why bother using a TA at all? Wouldn't it be easier to just book things yourself and make the changes?