Any advantage of transferring a cruise booked on board to a travel agent.

[buckeyecruisers]

We have just booked a future cruise while on board, we've never done this before and wonder if their is any advantage to transfer the booking to a travel agent. Any advice would be appreciated. 

[clo]

We booked direct with Oceania and then transferred to a TA. She gave us the gratuities which will be about $450.

[auntjoy036]

I have booked several times with the same (large) travel agency.  For each cruise they give me some extra onboard credit in addition to whatever perk the cruise line offered.  I would transfer for that reason, but it depends on whether your TA does/offers anything the cruise line doesn’t. 

 

Best wishes,

Vicki

[davekathy]

56 minutes ago, buckeyecruisers said:

We have just booked a future cruise while on board, we've never done this before and wonder if their is any advantage to transfer the booking to a travel agent. Any advice would be appreciated. 

Not sure what cruise line your booked with but with RC and Celebrity you have up to 60 days after booking with the cruise line to transfer your booking(s). In our experiences, yes. Shop around a little and let the better TA win. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by davekathy

[thinfool]

Some cruise lines automatically send your booking to your TA if you have used one to book the cruise that you are on for your future booking.

The ones that I have seen require that you decline the transfer if you do not want to use your TA.

Personally I would never leave my booking in the questionable care of the cruise line.  My TA is far more able to cope and help with any problems (especially non-cruise) I may have when in a foreign country than any cruise line I know of.

[clo]

38 minutes ago, thinfool said:

My TA is far more able to cope and help with any problems (especially non-cruise) I may have when in a foreign country than any cruise line I know of.

Could you give an example please?

[SRF]

I do this often.

 

I get the perks of booking on board (mostly OBC).

 

Then I get more OBC from my TA.  Plus, she monitors for price drops, and gets the booking repriced.

 

One cruise, I booked on board, but had to book a higher class that I wanted.  I transferred it, and then told her I wanted a lower class cabin.  She took care of doing a Wait List and getting the cabin class I wanted.

 

 

[JMorris271]

Does this same option to transfer a booking that I made with RC online to my TA?

[davekathy]

33 minutes ago, JMorris271 said:

Does this same option to transfer a booking that I made with RC online to my TA?

Yes even when booking online. 

[buckeyecruisers]

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions! I did transfer the booking to my TA and got a bonus perk right off the bat. 

 

[RocketMan275]

On 2/25/2020 at 12:57 PM, buckeyecruisers said:

We have just booked a future cruise while on board, we've never done this before and wonder if their is any advantage to transfer the booking to a travel agent. Any advice would be appreciated. 

We've yet to find any advantage to booking a cruise while on board.

Yes, we buy cruise credits but we always book after we get back through our usual TA who always honors any cruise line promotions and discounts the fare by 8-10%.

[AF-1]

Good for you;  glad you got a bonus.  Have fun on your cruise

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 2/26/2020 at 6:25 PM, RocketMan275 said:

We've yet to find any advantage to booking a cruise while on board. Yes, we buy cruise credits but we always book after we get back through our usual TA who always honors any cruise line promotions and discounts the fare by 8-10%.

Assuming that the amount of your TA's fare discount is not affected by the on-board booking, then the advantage to an on-board booking is just the additional on-board-booking bonus offered by the cruise line. My last cruise was booked on board and I received an on-board-booking-bonus OBC of $200. This was in addition to all cruise line promotional perks available with off-ship bookings - and my 8% TA savings remained the same as if I had booked off-ship.

[Blackduck59]

we booked our upcoming cruise at the future cruises desk and got a ridiculously low deposit $100.00 CAD each and chose 2 perks. Then when we got home it was transfered to our cruise center rep, she got us a reduced price of about $200.00 each and also some on board credit. So for us on Celebrity it was definately a good thing to transfer to our TA after the cruise