Asked for a quote from RSSC - received two replies from different people, now confused

[European_CruiseGirl]

Dear RSSC cruisecritic members. We are quite seasoned cruisers but looking now for the first time at RSSC. I clicked through RSSC web pages and asked through the site for a quote. And very quickly I received an answer...in the form of two emails...from two separate people...from two separate company email addresses.

 

Now feeling slightly at loss as to which one of these two kind cruise consultants I should contact back I turn to the source of the best information: cruise critic community of course. 
 

I expect names are not allowed here but the emails came from: 

 

1. @oceaniaregent.com ”cruise consultant”

2. @rssc.com ”elite cruise consultant”

 

Both cruise consultants seem kind, very service minded and knowledgeable but I wonder does it make any difference which one I continue my discussion with particularly taking into consideration the two different email addresses which confuse me even more. 
 

Any thoughts and/or suggestions are very welcome. I do know advertising for a particular agent is not allowed at cc but receiving two responses from two different company email addresses confuses me quite much and I’d appreciate any information from seasoned RSSC cruisers on how to proceed. We typically reserve our cruises online, however as RSSC is a new cruise line to us I thought that going through a cruise consultant might be beneficial this time. 

 

[Portolan]

rssc.com is the official Regent address.  Regent and Oceania are both Norwegian Cruise Line brands, so #1 may not be bogus, but I'd go with #2.  Or, better yet, use a TA.  You won't get a better price direct from Regent while many TAs offer perks.

[flossie009]

Both of the email addresses look to be bona fide Regent email addresses.

Do either of the emails have an office address/telephone number at the bottom indicating from where they were sent?

 

The duplication may have been caused by the present situation where many Regent staff are working from home rather than from their corporate offices.

 

My suggestion would be to reply to one but copy in the other. Make sure to tell them your country of residence so that your prospective booking can be dealt with, and priced, appropriately.

Edited to add:

Reference @Portolan’s suggestion of using a TA. You can book direct with Regent and then have the booking transferred to your trusted TA to take advantage of any discounts, rebates or other perks being offered by the TA.

Edited March 24, 2021 by flossie009

[PhD-iva]

This week I spoke w a helpful cruise specialist at Oceania, but we decided Regent’s product would better meet my current needs. He encouraged me to speak to a Regent cruise specialist before booking, as the Regent agent would have a better grasp of the details. 
I am working w a good TA, but sometimes I like to ask the million questions to the cruiseline specialist, instead of adding to my TA’s burden. I booked the cruise directly w Regent and immediately transferred the booking to my TA.

[ronrick1943]

I do agree that Regent does work with you, but the whole idea of a TA is to let them do what they get paid to do---and that includes answering questions, after all that is why you pay them via commissions from Regent.  My TA takes care of everything and yes we get perks.

[Portolan]

And, to add to RonRick's comments: in these uncertain times, we've found it much easier to have our TA handle rescheduling/cancellation of cruises.  Plus some perks.  I will call Regent directly for some issues after booking (like, recently, no shore excursions showing available for booking for 1 port on the web site...and IT glitch) so as not to have our TA handle mundane issues or those which might involve another decision at the moment.  No downside to using a TA that I know of (at least in the US where we don't get dunned for early payments likes seems to be the case in the UK!).

[SWFLAOK]

We started out using a TA for cruise travel since we had always used a trusted TA for air/hotel travel in the past. We have stayed with our cruise TA for many cruises at this point, and we'll stick with her for the cruises that she's had to reschedule from last year to this year to next year. And we even booked for next year.

[rallydave]

Appears clear to me that the oceniaregent.com is a travel agency and not really Regent.  All from Regent come from rssc.com.

 

You can also look at the emails themselves and should be clear that oceaniaregent is an agency and NOt Retent.

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Appears clear to me that the oceniaregent.com is a travel agency and not really Regent.  All from Regent come from rssc.com.

Sorry, Dave, but you are incorrect.

As I said in post #3 above, both email extensions are bona fide.

 

I have personally had emails with the extension @oceaniaregent.com from Regent/Oceania staff based in Miami, as well as emails with the extension @rssc.com

 

 

As the OP is based in Europe it may be that one response to her query came from a Regent agent in Miami and the other came from one of Regent's European agents (normally based in Southampton but presently working from home)

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by flossie009

[Pcardad]

2 hours ago, rallydave said:

Appears clear to me that the oceniaregent.com is a travel agency and not really Regent.  All from Regent come from rssc.com.

 

You can also look at the emails themselves and should be clear that oceaniaregent is an agency and NOt Retent.

 

Oceaniaregent.com is owned by NCLH.

 

• Name: OCEANIAREGENT.COM
• Registry Domain ID: 1901468784_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
• Domain Status:

  clientTransferProhibited

• Nameservers:

  DNS31.CLOUDNS.NET

  DNS32.CLOUDNS.NET

  NS10.DNSMADEEASY.COM

  NS11.DNSMADEEASY.COM

Dates

• Registry Expiration: 2026-02-08 13:03:44 UTC
• Created: 2015-02-08 13:03:44 UTC

Contact Information

Registrant:

• Name: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Organization: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Email: global-network-engineering-ops@ncl.com
• Tel: +1.3055864875
• Mailing Address: 7665 NW 19TH ST, MIAMI, FL, 33126-1201, US

Technical:

• Name: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Organization: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Email: global-network-engineering-ops@ncl.com
• Tel: +1.3055864875
• Mailing Address: 7665 NW 19TH ST, MIAMI, FL, 33126-1201, US

Administrative:

• Name: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Organization: Norwegian Cruise Line
• Email: global-network-engineering-ops@ncl.com
• Tel: +1.3055864875
• Mailing Address: 7665 NW 19TH ST, MIAMI, FL, 33126-1201, US

[rallydave]

47 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Sorry, Dave, but you are incorrect.

As I said in post #3 above, both email extensions are bona fide.

Thanks Susan, did not see your comment before responding.  Just another indication of the lack of good IT from all cruise lines.  The multiple responses are confusing as well as the different email address and should not occur.  Unfortunately appears most cruise lines treat IT as a secondary priority which causes confusion like this especially since there have been reports of people going direct to Regent yet getting responses from TA's and not Regent direct.

[flossie009]

10 minutes ago, rallydave said:

The multiple responses are confusing as well as the different email address and should not occur. 

Better than receiving no response 😉

......... and I think we can all cut them some slack during these difficult times 😷

 

14 minutes ago, rallydave said:

there have been reports of people going direct to Regent yet getting responses from TA's and not Regent direct

Really??  Very surprised to hear that.

[Pcardad]

Regent does not refer to outside agents. They are not allowed to.

 

Most likely scenario is client went to agent website thinking it was Regent's website. 

[rallydave]

9 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

They are not allowed to.

By whom?

[Pcardad]

The call center agents are not allowed to arbitrarily, and without the client's permission, assign a booking to an outside agent. I have no idea whom (which individual) made the actual decision but it is policy as determined by Regent management.

[rallydave]

1 minute ago, Pcardad said:

The call center agents are not allowed to arbitrarily, and without the client's permission, assign a booking to an outside agent. I have no idea whom (which individual) made the actual decision but it is policy as determined by Regent management.

That is NOT the situation I was talking about.  Have read on CC of people requesting information directly from Regent and getting responses to those requests from Independent Travel Agents.

 

For the explanation above absolutely agree that a booking cannot be transferred to an outside agency without the approval of the customer.

[Pcardad]

Read my comment in post #13.

 

"Most likely scenario is client went to agent website thinking it was Regent's website."

[flossie009]

2 hours ago, rallydave said:

Have read on CC of people requesting information directly from Regent and getting responses to those requests from Independent Travel Agents.

Can you reference? I do not recall those posts.

 

Do you have a personal experience of this scenario? Perhaps anyone who does could post information as to what occurred.

Edited March 26, 2021 by flossie009

[rallydave]

38 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Can you reference? I do not recall those posts.

 

Do you have a personal experience of this scenario? Perhaps anyone who does could post information as to what occurred.

No personal experience.  Always go thru my favored TA.  And no ability to reference just sure I have seen the complaints and with the COVID more than a year ago.

[CabinBoy2020]

Last July I requested a quote for a Regent cruise directly from the Regent website (the official RSSC website).  They sent my request to an outside travel agency.  Here is part of the email from the agent:

 

"Thank you for requesting more information about a Regent Cruises vacation, we will be contacting you very shortly to help you plan your vacation. As their preferred seller and because you requested to be contacted by an expert, Regent Cruises has asked us, XXXXXX Travel® to contact you. "

 

BTW, if I recall correctly, I could not determine the  actual price of the cruise (including single supplement) from the website.  I was put off by this lack of transparency and the referral to the agent so I didn't pursue it.

[ChucktownSteve]

I would actually contact both agents that emailed you.  Ask the same questions and determine which one you prefer to work with according to how they answered your queries and your gut feeling.  See if you click with one more than the other.

[rallydave]

Better to find a great TA that provides great service more perks than booking direct and rebates cadd as h direct to you while working for you and not the cruise line. 
 

ALways better to book with a good TA than direct with the cruise line. 

[CabinBoy2020]

37 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Better to find a great TA that provides great service more perks than booking direct and rebates cadd as h direct to you while working for you and not the cruise line. 
 

ALways better to book with a good TA than direct with the cruise line. 

 

I agree with you.  I just wanted to know the price of the cruise (with the single supplement). I could not tell what the actual price was from the Regent website. If Regent had provided me with the price (instead of transferring me to one of their partner travel agencies), I would have contacted my travel agent to see what perks she could provide.  

[Pcardad]

You emailed Regent from their website and asked for a quote? The email you received sounds like you specifically requested a TA to work with?

 

I am now curious and will ask Regent for the exact policy.

 

 

[CabinBoy2020]

44 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

You emailed Regent from their website and asked for a quote? The email you received sounds like you specifically requested a TA to work with?

 

 

Hi Pcardad - I enjoy reading your informative posts.  To answer your question, I didn't request a TA.  I have a TA.  I hit the "Request Pricing" button and filled out the form.  I prefer to do the research myself (including cruise line prices) and then contact my agent.  Crystal and Seabourn make it easy to determine pricing for solo travelers.  I wish Regent did the same.