PCC relationship-building thoughts?

[Host Kat]

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[Hlitner]

What are you overlooking?  Money!  Bottom line is that decent cruise agencies/agents can "enhance" your booking with lots of OBC.  On our upcoming HAL cruise we are talking well over $1000.  On another upcoming cruise with a luxury line we are getting over $2000 in OBC (not available if booked direct with the cruise line).  

 

Besides the money aspect, I like having a decent cruise agent who will act as my advocate rather than a cruise line employee.  When things go wrong (it happens) having a high volume agency on your team is quite helpful.  They have a lot more clout with HAL (or any other cruise line) that one cruiser.

 

Hank

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

What are you overlooking?  Money!  Bottom line is that decent cruise agencies/agents can "enhance" your booking with lots of OBC.  On our upcoming HAL cruise we are talking well over $1000.  On another upcoming cruise with a luxury line we are getting over $2000 in OBC (not available if booked direct with the cruise line).  

 

Besides the money aspect, I like having a decent cruise agent who will act as my advocate rather than a cruise line employee.  When things go wrong (it happens) having a high volume agency on your team is quite helpful.  They have a lot more clout with HAL (or any other cruise line) that one cruiser.

 

Hank

 

 

I don’t think the op is asking about a ta.  You are talking about a long voyage there, not a 7 day cruise.  I’ve tried two ta’s lately.  One gave me very little obc, the other tried to charge me more than the cruise line and was an absolute nightmare.  No thanks.

[DaveOKC]

There are pros and cons to every approach for bookings.  Key is to find one that works best for you and of course YOUR situation.

 

Personally, we use a HAL PCC.  I find the service to be very good (often can resolve issues/questions with a simple email) and sometimes she can get me a better deal than the direct HAL number (upcoming cruise she saved me over $700 on a 7 day cruise).  Since we often book with a casino deal, it is hard to beat the price (for a TA).  

Big plus is that we employ upsell offers on most of our cruises, so HAL emails us directly with them (TAs often are slow forwarding them to you and some do not even bother), which gives us the best chance of getting and selecting the best locations.

 

 

 

 

[semibeater]

20 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

There are pros and cons to every approach for bookings.  Key is to find one that works best for you and of course YOUR situation.

 

Personally, we use a HAL PCC.  I find the service to be very good (often can resolve issues/questions with a simple email) and sometimes she can get me a better deal than the direct HAL number (upcoming cruise she saved me over $700 on a 7 day cruise).  Since we often book with a casino deal, it is hard to beat the price (for a TA).  

Big plus is that we employ upsell offers on most of our cruises, so HAL emails us directly with them (TAs often are slow forwarding them to you and some do not even bother), which gives us the best chance of getting and selecting the best locations.

 

 

 

 

I agree with OKC and use PCC all the time.  Especially with casino free cruises and B2B's which are difficult to do on your own.

[gregma60]

Can someone please explain what PCC means?  Is that a Travel Advisor?

 

-gregma

[Florida_gal_50]

13 minutes ago, gregma60 said:

Can someone please explain what PCC means?  Is that a Travel Advisor?

 

-gregma

Personal cruise consultant.

[DaveOKC]

15 minutes ago, gregma60 said:

Can someone please explain what PCC means?  Is that a Travel Advisor?

 

-gregma

Personal Cruise Consultant - works for Holland America.

[Crew News]

I have had the same HAL PCC for the past 15 years and would hate to lose her.  Her experience, access to immediate information, and ability to find staterooms that meet my requirements is invaluable.  If I make a mistake in a booking email request, she makes the correction without having a multi-day email exchange.  YMMV

[SusieKIslandGirl]

One thing to mention if you do book on your own-the website shows 2 options for fares. You can call a TA or HAL to look at the Advantage fare. It is lower than the Have It All, just a bit more than the basic fare but has a refundable deposit.

[tregatti]

On 10/18/2022 at 7:17 PM, dixiejen said:

Well, crystalspin — I found out why there was no PCC in any of my correspondence, and I feel I should share it here for anyone who might benefit from it!  I took your advice and called thePCC office.  A very friendly guy got my Mariner # and said, “Oh, yes!  I’m sorry you weren’t introduced to your PCC! Her name is xxxxxxxx and her extension is xxxx. She’s in today — I’ll transfer you to her!”  A lady came on and informed me that the man really shouldn’t have transferred me, because I was NOT assigned a PCC because I booked my cruise online and that she’s not supposed to have anything to do with “on-line bookers”, only those who CALLED and booked directly with HAL.  I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I had no idea. I mean, I did book it on the HAL website - not a third-party site.” She said it did not matter — you ONLY get a PCC when you CALL them. Sooooo, okay…now I know!  
 

She proceeded to tell me that she REALLY wasn’t supposed to do this and I REALLY was supposed to call customer service BUT (heavy sigh…) since I had her there, what questions do I have?  So yeah.  Felt rather like a scolded school child, but she did at least answer all my questions. She also told me that from here on out, she WOULD be my assigned PCC, so in the future, I should call her when I wanted to book our next cruise. 
 

So lesson learned — I will call next time to qualify for the honor of having a PCC. Based on your experience, crystalspin, I definitely think it’s worth a phone call! Thanks again for the advice!

Huh. I have a PCC who emails me regularly, and I have never done any bookings over the phone - always online. Nor did I ever request a PCC, she just started emailing me. (She seems perfectly nice BTW, but our bookings are pretty uncomplicated and I've never really had a need to contact her about anything.)