Transfer Reservation from one TA to another TA?

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

@cruiserhal a month long response time does not give me hope.  Am I reading that right?

 

I'm trying to think of negatives for booking directly with X.

 

I can think of the long hold times....

Less OBC....

 

What else?

 

We work with a single travel agent.  When you book with Celebrity, I presume you do not work with the same person all the time?  She is very responsive.   She also knows us well enough to anticipate our requests and needs.

 

Occasionally we are able to book a cruise from her via a group rate from our TA--I don't know if Celebrity offers such a thing.

 

Our TA has been able to get Celebrity to bend the rules on occasion.  For example we've had a large pre-pandemic FCC applied against our last holiday cruise (Dec 2019) when the FCC fine print clearly said that it could not be applied there because the cancelled cruise was not a holiday sailing.  I don't know for sure, but I wonder if that would have happened if I had booked directly with Celebrity.

[cruiserhal]

On 9/23/2021 at 4:33 PM, mahdnc said:

 

You're welcome.  Again, good luck.  Let us know how it turns out.

I thought I would let you know that I didn't get to use the email address because I was working on the wording this weekend and who I would transfer them to - but, lo and behold, the first thing this morning I received an email from Customer Service resolving all my issues.   Better late than never.

 

Thanks for your help.   Hal 

[mahdnc]

34 minutes ago, cruiserhal said:

I thought I would let you know that I didn't get to use the email address because I was working on the wording this weekend and who I would transfer them to - but, lo and behold, the first thing this morning I received an email from Customer Service resolving all my issues.   Better late than never.

 

Thanks for your help.   Hal 

 

Hal,

 

Thanks for the update and I am glad to read that things eventually got resolved.  

 

Like you, I also took some time in composing my email to Celebrity.  I figured that a request to transfer a reservation away from a travel agent would require some justification and I wanted to do a good job in presenting the facts and my feelings.  So my email was long.  The funny thing is that the favorable response that I received was extremely short (see below).

 

After transferring my reservation, I later heard that Celebrity was well aware of the problem with my TA because they had received multiple complaints and requests to move the booking to another TA.

 

Another thing I ran into when I was transitioning away from my former TA was when I made a booking on board a Celebrity ship.  Because the TA on record for the cruise that I was on was different than the new TA I wanted to assign to the onboard booking, I had to sign a form confirming that I was using a different TA.

 

David

 

 

[jagoffee]

3 hours ago, zitsky said:

@cruiserhal a month long response time does not give me hope.  Am I reading that right?

 

I'm trying to think of negatives for booking directly with X.

 

I can think of the long hold times....

Less OBC....

 

What else?

Nothing from my experience.  The 8-10% refundable OBC is why I either book with one of my TA’s or transfer the booking to my TA after booking with Celebrity.  
 

I continue to have timely responses from my TA’s, otherwise I would not use them.  
 

 

 

[jelayne]

5 hours ago, cruiserhal said:

Just an update.   We checked the numbers on the 2 cruises and they actually did what we asked for in the later emails to them so we are caught up.   The only downside is they reduced the OBC from $200 to $100.   Can't have everything.  🙂 

The OBC is based on the cruise fare.  If the  fare goes down & OBC goes down, if you upgrade and pay more the OBC goes up.  It has been that way for as long as I can remember.

 

Glad they got price reductions done.

[Cookiegirl1329]

An update to my earlier post.   I emailed our agent at the large agency we are all talking about.  I asked her to check our fares because of the sale and she just called me to tell me our fare was lowered by $700.  So, i am glad that she responded so quickly and VERY happy about the savings.

[cruiserhal]

1 hour ago, Cookiegirl1329 said:

An update to my earlier post.   I emailed our agent at the large agency we are all talking about.  I asked her to check our fares because of the sale and she just called me to tell me our fare was lowered by $700.  So, i am glad that she responded so quickly and VERY happy about the savings.

Wow, that was a quick response. Congratulations.  You must have the magic touch.  

[cyntil8ing]

I have to share my latest experience with the agency most are talking about here. Perhaps having so many reservations yanked is getting them back on the ball, so for that, I am grateful for y'all sharing the information about transferring contained here.

 

The agent I worked with for 10 years left the company, but their marketing emails suggested booking online and then having 24 hours to cancel if the applied perks weren't to your liking. So last Wednesday, I went ahead and booked a Christmas cruise in a 2br suite for me, my husband and our two teens. It was, by far, the most I've ever spent on a cruise, but since we haven't cruised in two years, I decided to go for it.

 

The very next day, before I've gotten my email confirmation, I see that I could save $6k by switching to two 1br suites, so I emailed customer service requesting the change be made.

 

And then, crickets for a day and a half.

 

I emailed again Friday afternoon to cancel the booking so I could grab those two cabins before someone else did.

 

Finally, Monday, I hear back via email and they say they attempted to cancel but since my request was made Friday for a booking made on Wednesday, the cruise line said it was out of the 24 hour refund cancellation period, so my refund would be an FCC that could take four to six weeks to receive. Final payment is in three weeks. Sigh.

 

Meanwhile, the cabins are gone from the website, so I have to decide what to do.

 

Another email arrives. Their hold on the two one br suites they held for me the day I emailed is about to expire and asking do I still want them. So, they did what I asked the day I asked them to, but just hadn't gotten back to me to confirm it.

 

It took another day to get everything straightened out with the cruise line, the original booking canceled and refunded, the new bookings made, but it was all resolved yesterday, and they threw in a nice amount of OBC as a surprise. There was no OBC on the original quad booking.

 

Their customer service, once I was finally in contact an assigned person, was just as good as it ever was. And more importantly, they still had enough "oomph" with the cruise line to get them to refund my non-refundable deposit and accept a re-booking as a new one so their 'TA Friends and Family" rate code could apply. Not to mention, that rate code was $1k per cabin lower than the cruise line's price and I could not find it anywhere else.

 

So, I don't feel conned at all. Here's to hoping they're getting their act back together!

[canderson]

On 9/27/2021 at 6:30 AM, zitsky said:

@cruiserhal a month long response time does not give me hope.  Am I reading that right?

 

I'm trying to think of negatives for booking directly with X.

 

I can think of the long hold times....

Less OBC....

 

What else?

As far as I know, a Celebrity planner won't call you to let you know about your repriced cruise and 20% off promotions.  My TA is often on the phone to Celebrity before I'm even aware of a better price.