Cruise Payment is less than what Travel agent is seeing

[sillitra]

Hi all,

I booked a cruise with a travel agent and I was quoted about $4300 total. I paid a non refundable deposit of $960 to book the cruise, and I have an outstanding balance of around $3240 left to pay next month to complete the booking, which sounds pretty standard.

I was playing around on the RCCL website, and clicked the ‘make a payment’ tab, and noticed that my outstanding balance was around $2600. I thought that my TA had repriced it or gotten a group rate, but when I called them, they said that they were seeing $3240 left to pay as the final payment. I asked whether this would be directly paid to RCCL or the agency, and they said it may be separated (some  to the agency, some to RCCL), as the agency may have already paid part of the deposit for my booking (not sure what that means). However, in the same page, it says that only $960 has been paid, on the credit card that I gave to the TA. 

The TA also noted that the booking was put down with the agency’s email and that they don’t know how it got linked to my RCCL account. I’m also unsure how I have access to that ‘Make a payment’ page as it says that I can only make payments if I booked directly through RCCL instead of a TA.

Has anyone had any experience with this situation? Should I make the outstanding payment by myself? I’m starting to think my TA is not being transparent with their pricing.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Your TA is likely doing shady math. An honest TA never charges you directly from the agency. All charges, deposits and payments should go directly to Royal and show up as such on your statements.
 

I don’t know if you can get out of it at this point. Also, I am pretty sure Royal won’t let you make final payment on your own since you are with a TA. But you need to lose this TA asap.  

[smokeybandit]

If you transfer a reservation to a TA, you can still see the make a payment link.
 

I'm checking one that I did that for now and it shows an incorrect amount to pay also.

[TessFromFlorida]

I owe just shy of $50 for an upcoming cruise in March. The CP says I owe nothing, the app it says I owe $303. I have been working with someone in resolutions to get to the bottom of it- they have no idea where the additional $260 charge came from. Your agent may be shady or you may be in a similar situation that I am in right now with some kind of system error. 

[sillitra]

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Your TA is likely doing shady math. An honest TA never charges you directly from the agency. All charges, deposits and payments should go directly to Royal and show up as such on your statements.
 

I don’t know if you can get out of it at this point. Also, I am pretty sure Royal won’t let you make final payment on your own since you are with a TA. But you need to lose this TA asap.  

I booked the cruise less than 30 days ago - maybe I’ll be able to contact RCCL to try to take the booking back from them, but not sure if the shady math is good enough of a reason for them to take it away. Also unsure of how this process works… If i go through this route, can the TA cancel my booking? If not, will RC keep the same price?

I will probably call RCCL tomorrow directly and see if they can give me what they are seeing as the current paid deposit and remaining balance, and send that to the TA if it’s lower.

[ckruetze]

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Your TA is likely doing shady math. An honest TA never charges you directly from the agency. All charges, deposits and payments should go directly to Royal and show up as such on your statements.

Not sure about Canada but here in Germany I always pay my TA and never Royal. Actually for my last cruise this summer the payment through Royal wouldn't work before the cruise it showed an open balance but when I tried to pay it I got a friendly message indicating that I should pay through my TA.

The main advantage for people in Germany paying through the TA are:

* pay in local currency not USD. This is especially useful with currency fluctuations. I won't have a situation where I paid 50% a year ago and then 3 month before the cruise I find out that due to fluctuations the last 50% would cost me a lot more then then expected.

* If something goes wrong, I never paid an American company, I never signed a direct contract with them. So I will meet my TA in court and not Royal - not that I ever expect that to happen.

* If Royal goes bankrupt, nothing I would expect, but still I don't care, I paid my TA and I will get a refund from them.

 

So I would say at least in Europe a honest TA never makes you pay directly to Royal but the TA handles that for you.

[smokeybandit]

5 hours ago, sillitra said:

I booked the cruise less than 30 days ago - maybe I’ll be able to contact RCCL to try to take the booking back from them, but not sure if the shady math is good enough of a reason for them to take it away. Also unsure of how this process works… If i go through this route, can the TA cancel my booking? If not, will RC keep the same price?

I will probably call RCCL tomorrow directly and see if they can give me what they are seeing as the current paid deposit and remaining balance, and send that to the TA if it’s lower.

If your cruise fare is 4300 and you paid a 960 deposit, then why do you think your TA is wrong when the TA shows 3240? That math checks out.

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 minute ago, smokeybandit said:

If your cruise fare is 4300 and you paid a 960 deposit, then why do you think your TA is wrong when the TA shows 3240? That math checks out.

OP said that when they go to Royal’s site, the balance shows less than what the TA shows. 

[smokeybandit]

3 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

OP said that when they go to Royal’s site, the balance shows less than what the TA shows. 

And when I go to Royal's site, the balance shows more than what the TA shows.

I think once you transfer to a TA, the online tool gets messed up. Plus why would one think that they should owe less than what the math says they should owe when subtracting deposit from the cruise fare?

[Lovetocruise2002]

5 hours ago, sillitra said:

I booked the cruise less than 30 days ago - maybe I’ll be able to contact RCCL to try to take the booking back from them, but not sure if the shady math is good enough of a reason for them to take it away. Also unsure of how this process works… If i go through this route, can the TA cancel my booking? If not, will RC keep the same price?

I will probably call RCCL tomorrow directly and see if they can give me what they are seeing as the current paid deposit and remaining balance, and send that to the TA if it’s lower.

My understanding is that the TA would have to release the reservation. But yes, call Royal and see what they will do. When I was stuck with a shady TA, it was very difficult to get Royal to discuss the numbers with me directly. 
 

I am not sure if your situation is the same, but this thread reminds me of another one from a while ago. There is good info here:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/39073-travel-agent-charging-me-oddly/page/2/

2 hours ago, ckruetze said:

Not sure about Canada but here in Germany I always pay my TA and never Royal. Actually for my last cruise this summer the payment through Royal wouldn't work before the cruise it showed an open balance but when I tried to pay it I got a friendly message indicating that I should pay through my TA.

The main advantage for people in Germany paying through the TA are:

* pay in local currency not USD. This is especially useful with currency fluctuations. I won't have a situation where I paid 50% a year ago and then 3 month before the cruise I find out that due to fluctuations the last 50% would cost me a lot more then then expected.

* If something goes wrong, I never paid an American company, I never signed a direct contract with them. So I will meet my TA in court and not Royal - not that I ever expect that to happen.

* If Royal goes bankrupt, nothing I would expect, but still I don't care, I paid my TA and I will get a refund from them.

 

So I would say at least in Europe a honest TA never makes you pay directly to Royal but the TA handles that for you.

Yes, I have heard that in Europe it works differently than here in North America. Not sure where OP is from…

[Lovetocruise2002]

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

think once you transfer to a TA, the online tool gets messed up.

Interesting. I never knew that. I cannot ever access the online tool with my TA bookings. 

[smokeybandit]

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Interesting. I never knew that. I cannot ever access the online tool with my TA bookings. 

If you book direct with a TA, it doesn't show. But for some reason if you transfer it, it still shows. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

If you book direct with a TA, it doesn't show. But for some reason if you transfer it, it still shows. 

Very interesting....

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Very interesting....

It wouldn't surprise me at all that if you actually try to pay  yourself that it'll throw some goofball error.

[WAAAYTOOO]

8 hours ago, sillitra said:

 maybe I’ll be able to contact RCCL to try to take the booking back from them

It is always worth a try but from experience I can tell you that releasing a TA booking back to Royal is very difficult and rarely successful.  I'm kinda with @smokeybandit on this one.  If the fare you were quoted and the balance due add up, then there's no reason to suspect "shady math".  If there is any shady math, I suspect it happened in the very beginning, with a suspect fare quote....but there's really no reason to suspect that either, TBH.  As long as you aren't being asked for more than you were quoted, I think you have to accept the final figure.  That's what you agreed to.

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

If you book direct with a TA, it doesn't show. But for some reason if you transfer it, it still shows. 

I didn't know that. That explains why I can see the payment link. Now, I just experimented opening it up and when I do there's another link that takes me to "payment history". When I open that one, it shows me my deposit AND my cruise planner payments, which I also did not know I could do. The things you learn when you spend too much time on a cruise forum!

However, there is no way under this sun that I am going to risk trying to make an online payment using the link. Too much scope for something potentially to go wrong!

I will let my lovely agent deal with the payment when the time comes.

[Woody14]

This totally sounds like a currency exchange item.      It happens all the time for us Canadians.   The Royal site shows in USD and our TA quotes in CAD.  

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

If there is any shady math, I suspect it happened in the very beginning, with a suspect fare quote....but there's really no reason to suspect that either, TBH.

The only reason I suspect "shady math" is because OP said that part of the fees went to the agency and part to Royal. So unless they live outside of North America, then something might be up with that.

[WAAAYTOOO]

9 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The only reason I suspect "shady math" is because OP said that part of the fees went to the agency and part to Royal. So unless they live outside of North America, then something might be up with that.

Good point.

[Cactus527]

8 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Interesting. I never knew that. I cannot ever access the online tool with my TA bookings. 

All of my bookings are through my TA; however, I CAN access the online payment tool via the app. Every single cruise shows a balance due of $0, which I know is wrong. So, reading through all of these "shady math" suggestions, I wonder if the app is just plain wrong? It seems too many errors in too many people's totals to be correct.