Originally Posted by
China Clipper
Interesting info. I have always reserved my cabins directly, on the cruiseline websites. Mainly because this is the one and only way I have been able to ensure that I get the exact suite I want. Agents I've tried to work with have been too ditsy/scatterbrained/disorganized/distracted to manage this in the past. And I've always had the feeling I was indeed leaving 'something on the table' and that the cruise line could perhaps reward me a little bit for saving them the commissions.
Many cruise lines will give you a shipboard credit if you book directly through them.
As for a TA, I've got a pretty good one that I found on FT. PM if interested. She just did the cruise we're going on now and proactively called me when she noticed the price went down
after we entered the non-refundable period. Normally, that's a waste, but she noticed that the cruise had gone down so much that it was better to surrender the deposit and rebook it entirely (same cabin). She took a big hit on the commission, but guaranteed a lot of future business.
Speaking of commissions, for the average travel agent, they run in the 10%, +/- range, but there are overrides based on sales and other factors.
Mike