Switching deposit to a different cruise?

[rubyandstella]

Sorry in advance for the long post....

 

Have any UK cruisers who booked through a big UK TA been able to transfer their deposits onto another cruise?

 

The reason I ask is that we have a cruise booked for later on in the year and unfortunately we can't go. I called my TA (a few weeks ago) and they initially said no so I left it at that. However, I've read on here that it is possible. So, I called them again this afternoon and was told no again, they wanted me to cancel and re-book and loose my deposit (£300)

 

So... I asked if they would call RCI and check for me. I got a phone call back a few minutes later saying, yes this was OK and I asked for a quote for the cruise I wanted to transfer to. Half and hour later I got another phone call with a price which was exactly £300 more than their online published price ... :eek: I asked how they had come to this figure and why was it more than their advertised price and they said it was RCI's price.

 

So I checked RCI's price and it was nowhere near that price. Just for information... I'm switching to the same itinerary but a year later and it is practically the same cost, the newer one being slightly more expensive.

 

So ... in other words, they say I can transfer my booking without loosing my £300 deposit but the new cruise with cost me £300 more than anyone else.

 

I seems to me that they are making transfering my booking look very unnatractive ... but I don't know why? I'm sure it's not RCI being awkward, they have always been very helpful when I've booked direct. And I don't believe the price my TA has quoted has come from RCI either.

 

My OH thinks it is a ploy to keep our deposit. Do UK TA's hold on to our deposits until nearer final payment? If they can get us to cancel, and re-book it's a win win situation for them maybe?

 

They really are being most unhelpful :mad: It doesn't help that each phone call I get a different person.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated... thanks!

[ToddinVA]

We transferred our deposit on a cruise booked directly with RCI to another one that we had courtesy hold on without a problem. They were very nice about it and the price was what it was on the website.

[amybeth4]

Unfortunately it sounds like you have a greedy TA. I COMPLETELY understand that some TAs will keep peoples' deposits IF THEY CANCEL. I work for a tour operator and our deposits are non-refundable. (And to you flamers, I said I understand it, I didn't say I agree with it.)

 

But if you're going to still book with her, keeping your deposit as opposed to transferring it is horrible. Even MY boss wouldn't do that. She'd just charge a $50 revision fee.

 

I think you're gonna be outta luck with this broad, lol. Sorry. :(

[buffalogrill]

We've booked a cruise with one of the very large high street travel agents. A few months after making the original booking, we changed the sailing date and cabin as we added a third person to the booking who couldn't make the original sailing.

 

We were charged (iirc) £35 each for the two people's bookings that were being amended. The cruise is the same cruise on the same ship though, just a couple of weeks earlier than we originally planned, so I don't know if this makes a difference?

[skf]

I am of course unacquainted with TAs in the UK, but this deal they are offering you smells of rotting fish. I think it is clear that they intend to keep your LB.300 deposit one way or another.

Even if you can recover your deposit you should find another TA.

Steve

[Elizanessie]

Normally you can change from one cruise to another and if the cost of the new cruise is lower,then there will be a £35pp Admin charge.

 

If your current booking has the Fuel surcharge on it then that would transfer over to the new cruise also.

 

If the new cruise has an Early Booking Discount you will not get this as you are not doing a new booking.

 

If you signed a Terms & Conditions with your TA then I would say there is nothing really that RCCL can do for you.

[Merlin139]

We did it with a Big UK TA. The Choice is First if that makes sense. They had no problems doing it for us and on one booking we moved it twice as we had to change dates for family reasons. As Elizanessie said RCI will charge an admin Fee of £35 each if the total cost of the cruise goes down. The times we did it we also managed to keep our early booking discount as the cruises were over a year away and they qualified for it.

 

We did a lot of business with this chain but they lost it when they would not honour a price reduction that RCI would give us. (we had 3 weeks on the same ship and 2 were booked with the TA and the other direct with RCI as we decided to add it late one Sunday night and booked it on the net) As we had spent close to 20K with them in the previous 3 years I was a little miffed that they would not give us back around £200 for a two week cruise.

 

We now book direct with RCI as we find that it so much easier if there is a price reduction and as we use the same person at RCI each cruise, we have managed to avoid the admin fee on the 2 occassions that we should have paid.

 

Try printing out the costs using RCI from the net and take this into the TA with you. We always did this as the TA in question said they would always match or beat the price. Do it as if you are making a booking and print it out at the summary before you make the booking.

[rubyandstella]

LOL we chose the UK's 'Cruise Specialists' :rolleyes: but unfortunately Mr C's customer service dept doesn't work on Sundays so I haven't been able to call them again. They are so specialist that the rep didn't know what gratuities were :eek: I would like an explanation as to why they want to charge me exactly £300 more than anyone else booking the same cruise. It's too much of a coincidence that my deposit is also £300.

 

They did initially include an admin charge which they said RCI would charge them but when I pointed out I was spending more they dropped that.

 

The new price they have quoted me does include a discount and my £300 transferred over deposit... the rep made a point of telling me :rolleyes: He made it sound like they were doing me a favour.

 

I regret booking with now them but at the time they offered 7% discount which was quite a substantial amount. Then, after I had booked RCI started offering their 5% online discount so the price difference isn't all that much now but it came too late for me. I doubt there is anything I can do but I'm going to try have a good try tomorrow. I have booked direct with RCI for other cruises and changed all kinds of things on my booking with no problems at all. I will always book direct in future... it was the 7% that swayed me.

 

I didn't sign the Terms and Conditions as I booked online. I don't recall doing so but I think there is a box that you check agreeing to the terms when you book online.

 

I'd still like to know who's had my deposit all this time?

[lady_cruiser]

To the OP- we did. For my February 2010 cruise I orginally booked the wrong week and it was several weeks before realize this. I called RCL told them what I did and they helped me transferred my booking to the correct week. And all this without any penalty. Of course I did my booking on-line which might have helped and I knew ahead of time which cabin I had wanted. In fact I was lucky enough to get the exact same cabin. Call RCL and ask them if you can change your booking from your TA to a RCL Vacation Specialist.

[Belfast Castle]

Hi there

 

last year we had a caribbean cruise booked and at a later date decided

to go to Australia and then join RCI Rhapsody of the Seas cruise leaving

from Sydney.

 

Out travel agent, a large high street company, transfer us to the

new cruise with only an admin charge of £25. They told us that if we

had transferred to a cruise of lesser value than than the new one then

the charge would have been more - not sure how much.

 

Anyway we transferred with no problems at all.

 

Barbara

 

Sorry in advance for the long post....

 

Have any UK cruisers who booked through a big UK TA been able to transfer their deposits onto another cruise?

 

The reason I ask is that we have a cruise booked for later on in the year and unfortunately we can't go. I called my TA (a few weeks ago) and they initially said no so I left it at that. However, I've read on here that it is possible. So, I called them again this afternoon and was told no again, they wanted me to cancel and re-book and loose my deposit (£300)

 

So... I asked if they would call RCI and check for me. I got a phone call back a few minutes later saying, yes this was OK and I asked for a quote for the cruise I wanted to transfer to. Half and hour later I got another phone call with a price which was exactly £300 more than their online published price ... :eek: I asked how they had come to this figure and why was it more than their advertised price and they said it was RCI's price.

 

So I checked RCI's price and it was nowhere near that price. Just for information... I'm switching to the same itinerary but a year later and it is practically the same cost, the newer one being slightly more expensive.

 

So ... in other words, they say I can transfer my booking without loosing my £300 deposit but the new cruise with cost me £300 more than anyone else.

 

I seems to me that they are making transfering my booking look very unnatractive ... but I don't know why? I'm sure it's not RCI being awkward, they have always been very helpful when I've booked direct. And I don't believe the price my TA has quoted has come from RCI either.

 

My OH thinks it is a ploy to keep our deposit. Do UK TA's hold on to our deposits until nearer final payment? If they can get us to cancel, and re-book it's a win win situation for them maybe?

 

They really are being most unhelpful :mad: It doesn't help that each phone call I get a different person.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated... thanks!

[bubbadog]

I Would tell them what i think,and then cancel,and find a better TA,then rebook

[rubyandstella]

Well, I think I have sorted it! The phone rang at 9am this morning and on the other end was a lady from the TA. I new instantly that she knew what she was talking about, she has given me a price which I have accepted. It is still more than I would pay as a brand new customer booking today but not £300 more! I accepted because I really can't be doing with the stress of arguing with them anymore and she was a bit scarey :eek: It's probably an admin fee... I don't think it will be from RCI though as I'm paying more than my orginal booking.

 

Looking on the bright side... I'm still going on my cruise, the itinerary has 1 port different but I like it more :D and even better I've got exactly the cabins I want! Now I'm going to sit tight and look out for price drops... that should be fun :rolleyes:

 

Editing to say... I shouldn't have said it's sorted, will wait till the invoice arrives first!

[rubyandstella]

I Would tell them what i think,and then cancel,and find a better TA,then rebook

 

LOL that is exactly what my husband said! I won't give them anymore bookings that's for sure!