Taxes & Port Charges

[janza]

Booked FOS Feb 2017 through RC website in May. Since then, I have transferred the booking to a TA (which I have stated before, I am not happy with her service). My invoice with the TA says my taxes and port fees are $448.40 for the booking for 2.  If I go on the RC website now and book the same cruise, same room it says taxes and port fees are $212 for 2. My TA is telling me "Our invoice breaks it down differently than the cruise line. It's all the same"

Am I missing something obvious here? To me it looks like there has been a decrease.

[Matt]

The RC website is notoriously misleading in how it displays prices, especially taxes and fees.  It sometimes breaks it down per person, and other times shows it aggregate.

 

Port fees do change sometimes. I remember on Quantum of the Seas, my port fees changes once or twice, so I saved a few dollars.

[FloatMe]

Booked FOS Feb 2017 through RC website in May. Since then, I have transferred the booking to a TA (which I have stated before, I am not happy with her service). My invoice with the TA says my taxes and port fees are $448.40 for the booking for 2.  If I go on the RC website now and book the same cruise, same room it says taxes and port fees are $212 for 2. My TA is telling me "Our invoice breaks it down differently than the cruise line. It's all the same"

Am I missing something obvious here? To me it looks like there has been a decrease.

Certainly verify this for yourself, but the the end price should be identical. As I understand it your TA lists your cruise price as the part of the fare which is commissionable (new word) all the rest as taxes and fees. I wish all the cruise lines were more upfront about what we are actually paying for, i.e. frontier, spirit, allegiant air. but in the end, not to worry, the final price should be the same. They just do the math differently.

[DocLC]

Ask for a copy of the invoice sent to the TA from Royal directly. Many agents create their own internal invoices to track payments and other things, Burt they also receive an invoice from Royal confirming the booking and the application of any payments to the reservation. That invoice will detail all of the costs, including port charges.

[L454S]

See this all the time with T/A invoice, don't worry. Just make sure the "out the door" final price is correct and what you expected in terms of deposit/balance/OBC, etc.......Then let the T/A play with the figures any way they want. 

[jticarruthers]

As Floatme said I expect this has to do with the commissionable/non-commissionable split on your fare.

 

I am sure we can get a real travel agent in here to explain it but my best shot at explaining it (as I understand it) follows:

 

Royal publishes the fare as $800 + $200 in taxes and fees, total of $1000,

 

You call your TA and say buy it, TA says yep I see the same total of $1000.

 

Royal tells TA; as far as we are concerned $600 is commissionable cruise fare, $200 is non-commissionable and $200 is taxes and fees.

 

TA says ok, if you aren't considering the extra $200 as commissionable cruise fare then I consider it a fee and presents it to you as $600 cruise fare and $400 taxes and fees.

 

Same money but bucketed differently for different purposes.

[janza]

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the clarification.