Better room available but could not reach travel agent.

[brisalta]

21 hours ago, caribill said:

 

A TA web site cannot post discounted prices for Princess. You need to ask for a quote to find out what the TA price would be.

 

There is no reason that a competent TA cannot at worst meet any price you can get from Princess directly (other than special rates such as Friends/Family or casino) and the better TAs can beat any Princess price.

 

The discounts/amenities that TAs provide come from several sources:

 

o Many TAs set up group bookings for each sailing. Then the TA gets a discount which the good TAs pass on to customers and the not-good TAs use to increase their bottom line.

 

o TAs get commissions on each sale. Some give some of that discount back to the customer to prvide a bigger discount.

 

o TAs with the group bookings get amenity points for each reservation. These amenity points can be used by the TA to add OBC to the booking or give a casino credit or provide a wine or buy a specialty dinner, etc. However, they can instead be used for the benefit of the TA, for example, adding to the TAs commission.

 

The TAs that block book tend to book in parts of the ship we do not want to be in.

 

[brisalta]

20 hours ago, Coral said:

This is probably because with Princess - you are logging into their site so you see any targeted rates for your account. If you go to a random website with out entering your info (Capt Circle or phone number to look up your offers) - you will see just a published fare.

 

Travel agents should be able to get the same exact price that Princess offers. Many travel agents will discount on top of that.

 

Princess does a lot of targeted prices that require your info to quote you. You get that when you login to their website.

 

I have also seen this without log in to the Princess.com

[caribill]

1 hour ago, brisalta said:

 

The TAs that block book tend to book in parts of the ship we do not want to be in.

 

 

It is my understanding that TAs who set up the cabins for "group" bookings do not reserve specific cabins. It is more a number of cabins than it is specific ones.

 

When I have booked a cabin with a TA who had "group" bookings available, I was able to pick any cabin in any category (even a GTY) without any restrictions because the TA had only certain cabins available.

[Coral]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

It is my understanding that TAs who set up the cabins for "group" bookings do not reserve specific cabins. It is more a number of cabins than it is specific ones.

 

When I have booked a cabin with a TA who had "group" bookings available, I was able to pick any cabin in any category (even a GTY) without any restrictions because the TA had only certain cabins available.

This is correct. They can get so many cabins in certain categories but not specific cabins. Though if you book any category - you usually get group benefits.

[SantaFeFan]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

It is my understanding that TAs who set up the cabins for "group" bookings do not reserve specific cabins. It is more a number of cabins than it is specific ones.

 

When I have booked a cabin with a TA who had "group" bookings available, I was able to pick any cabin in any category (even a GTY) without any restrictions because the TA had only certain cabins available.

 

That has been my experience as well. TAs group-book a quantity of cabins in specific categories, not cabins in a specific location. That is one of the main reasons I have been able to get great deals on specific cabins that I choose. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by SantaFeFan

[brisalta]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

It is my understanding that TAs who set up the cabins for "group" bookings do not reserve specific cabins. It is more a number of cabins than it is specific ones.

 

When I have booked a cabin with a TA who had "group" bookings available, I was able to pick any cabin in any category (even a GTY) without any restrictions because the TA had only certain cabins available.

 

That has not been my experience. The cabins that I wanted could not be booked from the TA only directly with Princess.

[caribill]

11 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

That has not been my experience. The cabins that I wanted could not be booked from the TA only directly with Princess.

 

Any cabin available from Princess should be available to be booked by any TA

[Coral]

16 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

That has not been my experience. The cabins that I wanted could not be booked from the TA only directly with Princess.

This is not correct. You have a lot of mis-information. Not sure if you have worked with a bad agent or what but the info you are posting is not accurate.

[brisalta]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Any cabin available from Princess should be available to be booked by any TA

 

That is not true of the super discounting travel agents. They actually get a block of rooms to sell and do not sell outside that block.

I booked a cruise and there were plenty of rooms either side of us but the discounting agent that my friend used could not book  one of those rooms for them as it was not in their inventory.

[brisalta]

7 hours ago, Coral said:

This is not correct. You have a lot of mis-information. Not sure if you have worked with a bad agent or what but the info you are posting is not accurate.

 

You are incorrect. See my response #84

[caribill]

6 minutes ago, brisalta said:

 

That is not true of the super discounting travel agents. They actually get a block of rooms to sell and do not sell outside that block.

I booked a cruise and there were plenty of rooms either side of us but the discounting agent that my friend used could not book  one of those rooms for them as it was not in their inventory.

 

That was their choice.

 

They may not have been able to sell that cabin to you at a deep discount, but they could have sold it to you without their discount if they had wanted to.

[brisalta]

3 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

That was their choice.

 

They may not have been able to sell that cabin to you at a deep discount, but they could have sold it to you without their discount if they had wanted to.

 

No, it was not even an option. It was not even available for them to sell. This was many months before the departure date.

Edited September 16, 2022 by brisalta

[Coral]

6 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

That is not true of the super discounting travel agents. They actually get a block of rooms to sell and do not sell outside that block.

I booked a cruise and there were plenty of rooms either side of us but the discounting agent that my friend used could not book  one of those rooms for them as it was not in their inventory.

My agent is known for her huge discounts and great customer service. She will sell me any category of cabins that are available. If she doesn't have group prices in that category, I still get her group incentives (OBC, etc...).

 

My agent is one of the very top producing Princess agents.

 

Your posts don't make any sense and I am not the only one who thinks this based on other posts.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Coral

[nbsjcruiser]

On 9/11/2022 at 11:23 AM, redroses said:

I booked a last minute cruise for relatives, inside cabins were only available.  I saw this weekend that 2 oceanview rooms were available and bookable on princess and various online sites. But since I booked through a TA and they don't work weekends, the rooms are now gone.

 

So If I booked directly through Princess or a princess vacation planner, would it have made a difference?  

Yep, and this is why we longer use a TA. We've missed out on more than one drop in price on a cruise because a TA couldn't or wouldn't return a call in time

[redroses]

So if one books with a princess vacation planner, do all changes have to made through that specific planner? Or can you call Princess call center directly and deal with anyone.   

[dreaminofcruisin]

8 hours ago, redroses said:

So if one books with a princess vacation planner, do all changes have to made through that specific planner? Or can you call Princess call center directly and deal with anyone.   

 

You can either call the planner or call Princess.