Good to hear about some alternatives - I am about fed up with PTS Cruise services. I have used the Florida and Phoenix offices, and though I have always received the Platinum package (bubbly and hors-d'oeuvres and gifts to the cabin,) $300 in cabin credit, upgrade, etc. it has been such a hassle the last three times.

The main reason is the AMEX PTS seems like a "gut" - people come in and pass through at the drop of a hat, and not many seem well trained. The result has been the booking agent departs, and one's booking is dropped into a Bermuda triangle of a hole - I wind up calling and speaking to a few agents who promise to get back to me in five or ten minutes (some do, some do not, some call the next day,) a few get "inventive" with the story they give me, nobody knows where my cruise docs are even a few days out, and a major kerfuffle ensues to get my cruise docs a couple of days before I depart the USA. (I did find a good agent who followed through, and I booked the pending cruise through her - she's gone now, of course, and that was only four months ago.)

Since she is gone, it just happened again, of course - third time in a row; the cruise line says it sent the packet to AMEX March 6, AMEX gives me a bunch of excuses, finally they tell me the cruise line will FedEx a packet to me, the line says they FedExed it to PTS and the agent I wound up talking to at PTS hasn't returned my call. It's Wednesday evening, I am departing the US Monday. I can not believe they do not have some kind of process in place (other than the "that stuff goes into a drawer we are all supposed to check from time to time" one person told me) to handle bookings left by departed agents. AMEX PTS Cruise and Travel sure isn't feeling very elite or helpful at this moment. Grrr!

[/RANT]