Q regarding onboard deposit and travel agent

[NoNoNoro]

I sailed on Virgin in early June and took advantage of their onboard offer for a future cruise. I paid the deposit but haven’t booked a cruise yet. My June sailing was booked with a travel agent who I’d rather not use again. Don’t want to get into the details, but there were too many mistakes and way too much attitude when the mistakes were brought to the TA’s attention. After my cruise, the TA reached out to me ask details of the future cruise credit. I’m guessing Virgin let the TA know I took advantage of the offer.

 

When I’ve booked cruises onboard with other cruise lines, the future reservation always defaulted back to the TA who booked my original cruise. Is this the case with Virgin? If so, would I be able to remove the TA from my future booking and transfer it back to Virgin even though I’m outside of the 30 day window? I probably should’ve done this back in June, but I forgot until I saw posts on here about the upcoming 2024/2025 schedule.
 

 

[Cruising since 3]

You are not tied to the original TA. You can contact a new TA, or Virgin directly, and give them the MNVV number and they will be able to make the booking for you. I have done this for people months after the MNVV was purchased.

[cantgetin]

As long as you have the MNVV nimber, amy TA can book the cruise for you or you can do it directly thru VV.  Sending the info to the TA is just a way to have someone else keeping track of the number.  The TA will never be notified if you use the certificate by booking with someone else (or at least mine wasn't).  My suggestion--use a TA who is "gold" rated by VV and ranks in the top 10 in their region or nationally.  These are people who book enough VV to KNOW what they are doing.  A bad TA is just a pain.

[CruisingWalter]

6 hours ago, NoNoNoro said:

When I’ve booked cruises onboard with other cruise lines, the future reservation always defaulted back to the TA who booked my original cruise. Is this the case with Virgin? If so, would I be able to remove the TA from my future booking and transfer it back to Virgin even though I’m outside of the 30 day window? I probably should’ve done this back in June, but I forgot until I saw posts on here about the upcoming 2024/2025 schedule.

 

The first part of the answer is yes the MNVV is tied to the original TA and it is automatically assigned to their bookings.

 

The second part of the answer is yes, you can call Virgin Voyages on the phone and ask that they remove the MNVV from the travel agent. You can either just keep it independent or you can have it transferred to another TA. As Cantegin mentions above, look for TAs with a Virgin Voyages Gold Certificate. That means they've completed all the VV First Mate Training.  Those are the good ones. 🙂

[NoNoNoro]

Thank you. Is there an easy way to find agents with the gold certificate or will I need to run a Google search?

[cantgetin]

44 minutes ago, NoNoNoro said:

Thank you. Is there an easy way to find agents with the gold certificate or will I need to run a Google search?

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to name TAs here as cruise critic is a travel agency,  I don't know if a google search will do it, but that's a place to start.  And ask any travel agent you talk to what certificated they have from VV (if they don't answer "gold" or  explain that they rated top 10 in their region, keep looking.  Walter may know a way to locate top agents!

 

Tootles,