Group Cruise Booking was Cancelled

[Colo Cruiser]

4 hours ago, Dlady47 said:

That's good to know about how the charges should show up. The travel agent I normally use does do it that way. All my charges show up as the cruise line, not the TA. It's this group cruise with this other TA that's a big hot mess. I'm just sick for the couple who appear to have lost their booking.

I would have them get on a waitlist for the cruise ASAP with Princess.

Waitlist for ALL categories/cabins.

It requires a $200 refundable deposit.

[dog]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

Actually - I had second thoughts after I read your post. I do trust Air Canada and think I understand why they do this.

 

I think the issue is that the agency is small and doesn't do much Princess bookings, so their commission from Princess is not the 15% that large agencies get. It is maybe 10-12%. So maybe they do get better commission (and group space) by booking through Air Canada. So the agent books it through Air Canada and Air Canada gets the commission and pays the smaller agency. 

 

Small agencies who book everything probably don't have the pull with each cruise line to get the max commission. This is their way around it.

 

We have a local agency (who I have not booked with) but they team up with Virtuoso to give them an advantage on bookings.

Exactly believe you are correct. And I've dealt with this TA for 20 years. Sometimes a good price, but does not usually compare to what I see my USA friends pay. Covered by TICO here in Ont.

[Colo Cruiser]

22 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

OP,

Have you ask you TA for a three way call with Princess?  The TA,  you and /or friend and Princess on the phone at the same time?  A lot may come out in a call like that.

The OP said the TA is non responsive.

[Coral]

1 minute ago, dog said:

Exactly believe you are correct. And I've dealt with this TA for 20 years. Sometimes a good price, but does not usually compare to what I see my USA friends pay. Covered by TICO here in Ont.

There are good things about supporting a local agency, loyalty to a good agent, using someone you trust, etc...

[idahospud]

4 hours ago, Dlady47 said:

Coral,

 

There are about 200 of us. I know there were initially 17 whose bookings were cancelled. I haven't heard that there are any others who were waitlisted, but people are afraid to speak out so I'm not sure. My friend is local to the cruise port, so I'm wondering if she was singled out by the TA since she wouldn't lose airfare.

I know you don't want to share the TA or the group online, but would you share the ship and sailing date? There should be no cabins cancelled close to a sailing date as a cancellation would have occurred at final payment date.

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I would have them get on a waitlist for the cruise ASAP with Princess.

Waitlist for ALL categories/cabins.

It requires a $200 refundable deposit.

The agent should be paying for this!

[Colo Cruiser]

Just now, Coral said:

The agent should be paying for this!

Of course. But the OP said the agent is not responding?

The OP said the passenger really wants on this cruise.

 

[dog]

13 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

Right, but why not try and avoid that type of situation if possible?  How long to get money back? Buyer beware is always a good thing to go by.

 

When I'm putting out $5k-$20k for these trips for 2 people, I like the assurance that TICO is there to back me up if a cruiseline, travel company or travel agency goes out of business.

I have booked a few cruises last minute directly with cruielines though. Been lucky enough to never have to make a claim.

[Steelers36]

1 minute ago, dog said:

 

When I'm putting out $5k-$20k for these trips for 2 people, I like the assurance that TICO is there to back me up if a cruiseline, travel company or travel agency goes out of business.

I have booked a few cruises last minute directly with cruielines though. Been lucky enough to never have to make a claim.

The point above was to make sure when you make a payment that your TA is applying the payment directly with the cruise line and that your credit card is not being charged the amount to the travel agency.  If the cruise line has received the payment directly, you have nothing to worry about in terms of your TA being there in two weeks or two months.

 

[richsea]

2 hours ago, Dlady47 said:

This person appears to be a one-off travel agent. I did check the pricing and was told that we'd get the lowest price later. We never did, and she is non-responsive to any questions about that issue. I already paid an extra $500 for the special activities so I'm doubting that was the reason for the cruise being high. Honestly, I was suspicious from the beginning, but I had friends going who wanted me to go, plus, because it's for my business, all or some will be a write-off. If I could tell you want type of group this was, it'd probably make more sense, but I don't want repercussions from the organizers. 

Honestly, at this point, unless it could negatively affect your business in some way, the last thing you should be concerned about is repercussions from the organizers. If they are the organizers, they must bear the bulk of the responsibility for making those affected whole again. Let THEM deal with the fallout.

 

And when this is over, your should be on every social media platform warning people to avoid this TA like the plague. their non response is unforgivable.

 

I sincerely hope this gets sorted out for everyone in a positive manner. Best of luck.

Edited September 7, 2019 by richsea

[Ken the cruiser]

48 minutes ago, idahospud said:

But I do get bookings transferred to me and I’ve had to clean up messes other TAs have made. 

I've only been dealing with TAs for a couple of years now, but I wasn't aware you could transfer a booking from one TA to another. How does one go about doing that?

[idahospud]

12 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I've only been dealing with TAs for a couple of years now, but I wasn't aware you could transfer a booking from one TA to another. How does one go about doing that?

It depends on your TA. Some TAs don't allow you to transfer bookings once you are with them and some do. Sometimes they may charge you an "administration fee" to transfer it and some are more than happy to send you on your way to someone else. Just depends.

[tailspintom]

51 minutes ago, dog said:

 

I always use an Ontario travel agent affilated with TICO. If they go out of business we get our money back.

Hello Dog, thanks for the post.  It caused me to look up the law  https://www.tico.ca/consumers/frequently-asked-questions.  In reading the material, I believe that the grieved party in this this case would not have recourse since the TA has not claimed bankruptcy or insolvency. I do see that you were specific about "...go out of business...", but the OP didn't indicate that the TA is out of business. I don't know if TICO would give them protection.

[geocruiser]

46 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

The OP said the TA is non responsive.

Thanks I missed that.  I would call Princess, E-mail Ms. Jan S. Office, maybe they can intervene with the TA.  I know from a past post that that was done with HAL the did contact the agent and got them to pay up.  .  I can't find the post from the HAL board.  It was a while ago.

I believe I know the screen name of the other poster it happen too.  But I can't find the thread.  I was looking for info about it and just can't find the thread.

Colo Cruiser, do you think that might work, getting Princess more involved?

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I've only been dealing with TAs for a couple of years now, but I wasn't aware you could transfer a booking from one TA to another. How does one go about doing that?

If the TA won't release the booking, contact Princess. They'll take care of the release.

Once Princess does the release, it goes back to Princess. Don't know how that would work out with the newish rules about getting a TA within 60? 90? days (can't remember which it is).

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, geocruiser said:

Thanks I missed that.  I would call Princess, E-mail Ms. Jan S. Office, maybe they can intervene with the TA.  I know from a past post that that was done with HAL the did contact the agent and got them to pay up.  .  I can't find the post from the HAL board.  It was a while ago.

I believe I know the screen name of the other poster it happen too.  But I can't find the thread.  I was looking for info about it and just can't find the thread.

Colo Cruiser, do you think that might work, getting Princess more involved?

I am not sure what they would do if anything.

Cant hurt to try.

The cruise leaves in a week so not much time.

[Coral]

OK - I am home sick and figured out the cruise. It is a "niche market" group cruise. Think of people who who want to attend an event to be amongst those they admire/follow. It is that type of event. I compared the price of this cruise listed to the same cruise next year and people did pay a premium. Plus, their agent did say prices would go down if the cruise went down. Exactly what the OP said.

 

The cruise is definitely sold out. Hopefully there are cancellations due to weather, illness or some who just change their mind.

 

Best wishes to the OP. Hopefully word spreads so that future events will not use this agent.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Coral

[geoherb]

3 hours ago, Coral said:

OK - I am home sick and figured out the cruise. It is a "niche market" group cruise. Think of people who who want to attend an event to be amongst those they admire/follow. It is that type of event. 

 

Can you share what niche market group and cruise this is for those of us who aren't home sick? (I hope you feel better soon.)

[wrongwaywatson]

57 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

Can you share what niche market group and cruise this is for those of us who aren't home sick? (I hope you feel better soon.)

Yes, please.  Inquiring minds want to know!

[FLCruise7]

8 hours ago, idahospud said:

I know you don't want to share the TA or the group online, but would you share the ship and sailing date? There should be no cabins cancelled close to a sailing date as a cancellation would have occurred at final payment date.

Nope - cancellations can and do happen very close to sailing (and way after final payment) - we had to cancel one 2 days prior to sailing due to a medical reason.

[idahospud]

7 minutes ago, FLCruise7 said:

Nope - cancellations can and do happen very close to sailing (and way after final payment) - we had to cancel one 2 days prior to sailing due to a medical reason.

 

I was responding to the OP who was talking about her TA randomly cancelling numerous bookings a week before the cruise. If it was because the cruise line hadn't been paid it would have happened at final payment time, not after. I do know that cancellations happen after final payment due to various reasons. But that's not what the OP is saying happened.

[dog]

10 hours ago, tailspintom said:

Hello Dog, thanks for the post.  It caused me to look up the law  https://www.tico.ca/consumers/frequently-asked-questions.  In reading the material, I believe that the grieved party in this this case would not have recourse since the TA has not claimed bankruptcy or insolvency. I do see that you were specific about "...go out of business...", but the OP didn't indicate that the TA is out of business. I don't know if TICO would give them protection.

 

I was responding to a question asked of me, so sorry it was not to answer the OP.  AND,  no the OP said her friend lives near cruise port so they are not using an Ontario, Canada travel agent, I assume.

 

TICO IS  PROTECTION FOR THOSE BOOKING WITH TRAVEL ORGANIZATIONS WHO PARTICIPATE IN ONTARIO CANADA.

 

 

[Dlady47]

Thank you for all the responses. It's been very helpful. The TA has already announced this will be the last group cruise she does, and it appears she only does these cruises, so the likelihood any of you will have dealings with her in the future is unlikely. The person having the booking issue doesn't want to go public about it, so I cannot reveal the TA and cruise because I must respect her wishes. I can appreciate all of you wanting to know, and I apologize. If I was having the issue, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops.

 

If there is a TA in here, I would really like to know if this issue could have been caused by Princess as the TA has claimed. My friend was able to log in and complete a portion of her check-in before the cruise suddenly started showing up as "cancelled" about a week ago. What would cause that?

Edited September 8, 2019 by Dlady47

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, Dlady47 said:

The TA has already announced this will be the last group cruise she does.

 

At least something positive came out of this! Good luck!

[dog]

24 minutes ago, Dlady47 said:

Thank you for all the responses. It's been very helpful. The TA has already announced this will be the last group cruise she does, and it appears she only does these cruises, so the likelihood any of you will have dealings with her in the future is unlikely. The person having the booking issue doesn't want to go public about it, so I cannot reveal the TA and cruise because I must respect her wishes. I can appreciate all of you wanting to know, and I apologize. If I was having the issue, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops.

 

If there is a TA in here, I would really like to know if this issue could have been caused by Princess as the TA has claimed. My friend was able to log in and complete a portion of her check-in before the cruise suddenly started showing up as "cancelled" about a week ago. What would cause that?

I am not a TA. Have been to a few seminars re:travel agents attend. My belief is that it could be the fault of either the TA, PRINCESS or EVEN A THIRD PARTY the TA handled the booking through.

I clearly understand your friend not going public--good call. After the dust settles it would be helpful to read about it on T /Adv. site where you can use names, I believe.

The Personalizer is an excellent tool to stay on top of your cruises. If the final payment has not been met, docs cannot be printed. It really is the passenger's responabilty to check there for notifications etc.