Problems with AAA reservations?

[KYMicky]

What kind of experience has anyone had making DCL reservations thru AAA??

The reason I ask is that we booked our last cruise thru AAA and had a terrible time! While it sounds like you got a good deal we didn't. It was our first crusie in 21 years (last was honeymoon which is another story!) but we got up the courage to go again and since we Love Disney and go annually or more often went for it. Since AAA advertises all time about Disney and we're AAA members we went for it. Our TA knew nothing (other than how to take money), we asked about taking a day or 2 before or after at WDW and were told we couldn't do it. We were schedule on teriible flights (in to late on departure day and out to late on retrun day). We weren;t told when the final payment was due until she called and said that "It is due today" so we had to scramble and rearrange our time to make the payment. The story goes on, but the bottom line is I wouldnt trust AAA with anything in relation to a trip again!!!

 

[hayesktrm]

I guess it depends on the agent. Our AAA agent is great. We had no clue about cruises when we went on our first last March. She booked us a perfect cabin. She did the same this time. When it was a bout a week before our final payment was due, she sent out a reminder. She was really pressed for time because she was covering 2 others agents and she was leaving town the next day, but she spent a 1/2 hour with me getting a rental car, travel insurance, a hotel at the airport here the night before we leave, etc. We got a great rate and so far great service. No complaints here.

 

[makaylee]

hayesktrm, What is the name of your agent? I have thought about becoming a AAA member solely for booking with DCL. (I already have towing and labor with my insurance co.) Well now i'm scared. KYMICKEY- sorry to hear about your expierence, can you give the name of your agent also so I can make sure I never use them. Thanks

 

[veruka]

I just booked my first Disney cruise through AAA for mid may. My agent was really sweet, gave me some great advice about choosing a cabin and location on the ship and gave me a cruise video. Let's see how the whole thing works out in the end, but so far I've been pretty pleased with AAA. Sorry to hear your experience wasn't as good.

 

[rcdisneyfam]

My AAA agent is GREAT. She is very helpful and makes everything easy on us. I been on 4 cruises and know pretty much what I want(she does to). She lets me know if anything is new or changed. Once we booked everything ourself but that doesn't happen too often cause of the different discounts. Booked another Disney World trip along with a Disney cruise this Aug. and my TA came through again. They treat me GREAT!!!!

 

[absame]

Go for the discount but you must do your homework first. We have three cabins booked for our extended family on the July 3 western and just transfered our reservations to costco and saved about $1800. Our agent was very helpful, but she didn't know as much about DCL as a DCL rep or I did. You're better off knowing exactly what you want for the cruise and your flights before your call, regardless of who you deal with. It's all out here on the DCL webpage and boards like this.

 

[TiggerzFan]

I just booked our 2nd Wonder cruise with our AAA agent for our family & friends - and she's wonderful! Right now they offer the $100 stateroom credit and always offer the soda mugs free. I also understand they will price match if you can provide another offer in writing.
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience....seems the problem was with the agent, not necessarily AAA.

Donna

 

[TCROMW1013]

Our AAA quoted some outrageous price. It was approximately $2,500 over what DCL was quoting and $3,500 over All Seas Travel who we ultimately booked thru. AAA here in Dayton does not seem that knowledgeable in travel.

 

[cruisedis05]

My AAA TA is GREAT!!! She knows everything about DIS. Her desk has DIS stuff all over it. We booked a 7day cruise with her 2 years ago. She did so much work for us, checking prices for all different cats.. This year I booked for Aug 2005. She helped me with doing 5nites at DW before the 4nite cruise. She even faxed our info to DIS before they opened the dates and got us the secret porthole rooms. 2 of them!! I saw a big price difference on DIS web page and she checked it out the second I called her. And saved me $2800 per cabin/family.

 

[kcashner]

I talked to a AAA travel agent about DCL, and decided not to book thru her when it became obvious that I knew way more about things than she did. AAA was advertising what looked like a really good deal. I called the agent at another company (which I have used multiple times) and found that she had exactly the same deal available.

Since that time, I've found out how to save a little more money with internet agencies...but wouldn't use AAA here again.

It's really too bad, because Disney offers seminars all the time for agents so that they know how to best meet the needs of their customers. There's really no excuse for an agent to be ignorant about DCL or WDW.

 

[maduusa]

Our AAA agent has been really great too. My husband is in a wheelchair, and he did the research to find out which cruise line would be the most accessible for us. Since I booked our cruise a year ago, we have added, subtracted and readded a dozen or so options and he has been the most patient person I know. Every time we changed something, he made me a copy of the new and updated fax. He even made it so that I could come and make a payment whenever I had a little extra money to put on it to knock down that final payment. KYMicky, it's too bad you had that awful experience. When they know what they are doing, it all goes so smooth and great.

 

[cruisedis05]

I so agree! My TA sends me everything DIS sends her. 1 week after I booked she had everything printed out and sent to me. Including the final payment date. And I to can go in and make a payment when ever I want. Since she sends me everything Dis sends her that's how I know it was DIS mistake on the big price difference and not hers. She was so upset too.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

My dad has booked our cruise for 11 (3 cabins) through AAA, although I offered to do it online he likes to have a travel agent he can go see and talk to. As someone else posted, some travel agents have extensive Disney training and there are several like that at our local AAA. She already sent them a notice in the fall that the price had gone down and would be lower.
Now my dad is the one I have an issue with--I asked him to get a cost breakdown of what our transfers are costing (he added those and insurance) because he wants to go early and it makes more sense to go to the port with 2 or 3 AVis rentals and stay at the Radisson. He has yet to call! And since it's his booking...oh well.
Robin M.

 

[belleandthebeast]

"It's really too bad, because Disney offers seminars all the time for agents so that they know how to best meet the needs of their customers. There's really no excuse for an agent to be ignorant about DCL or WDW."

I don't know about the agents by you but we have to be approved for those seminars because they do cost money. And with the ways things have been after 9/11, the war, and SARS, our company has cut all seminars. We can attend the seminars, if we want to pay out of our own pockets but at this rate we are lucky to still have jobs.

 

[professorandmom]

I used AAA and knew WAY more than she did....but they matched Costco price and that was the lowest I found anywhere...I got the perks and expected nothing!
It was obvious that there seemed to be little opportunity for the TAs to improve themselves, they seemed to spend more time answering the phones than talking with me.
But, you know, I did my homework and had a tremendous time....while the TA might make a trip better, a trip with a TA who acts as a cashier can still be fabulous!
Barbara

 

[Dean]

I had planned to do post this info anyway and this seems like a good place to do so. I'll warn you it is somewhat long. Back about last March we attended a AAA cruise show with the promise of great deals. There was the price plus a $75 credit from the DCL rep. After we'd booked I felt a little betrayed when I found that special price was the same as all the other DCL preferred agencies and $110 more than Sam's. I ended up booking a second cruise with Sam's hoping that either AAA would match the price or that the FL resident rate would come through. Neither happened. Even though I'd heard of AAA matching the price, this didn't happen here and AAA refused to do so.

In addition I had asked the rep if we would get both the $50 credit for using the CC AND the $75 credit and he said yes. I double checked with the TA at AAA who took days and multiple phone calls before I was satisfied we had this pinned down. When I questioned things, I found out the TA was brand new and the Travel Manager took over the case vowing to win be back over. She did give me her email which helped some but it would still be days from phone call or email before I'd hear anything about an issue or question and then the answer would not be complete. Still, things settled down and seemed to finally be taken care of.

We ended up cancelling the Sam's but only about 2.5 months out since it seemed things were going OK with AAA. Then when I asked again about the credit's, no one seemed to know what I was talking about. It took days to weeks to get in touch with the DCL rep. When I'd go to AAA, my TA wouldn't be there and no one else knew what was going on. Then when I did get up with her and we called DCL together, they said you could only get one credit and if that wasn't OK, talk with the DCL rep. If I hadn't canceled Sam's I would have gone that route at that time. When I asked for my options to complain, the AAA TA said to send her a letter and she'd send it to DCL. I asked twice and she never did figure out, or ignored, that I was asking how to complain to and about AAA. Overall I felt AAA was far more to blame than DCL.

I finally got fed up and even though the TA was still working on the credit, I decided to make my concerns known. I sent an email sumarizing the issues to an assistant manager at AAA here in town since I had her email from before, somewhat more detailed than this. I also contacted AAA travel through the on line option and asked for direction. The person told me to tell them what happened and they'd then direct me. I just sent them a copy of what I'd sent above.

Next thing I knew I got the most amazing phone call from the General Manager of the AAA in town. She was falling over herself apologizing, it was obvious she was genuine. She accepted full and complete responsibillity, called DCL and said she wanted both credit's AND a letter documenting same and is sending me a $100 refund. I have confirmation from her that the letter is there and being sent out today. I was blown away. She certainly convinced me to give them another chance by her actions as well as her words. And since we're actuall doing 3 cabins for next summer, likely on RCCL, I think this will be work out well.

It's not the $150 difference, that would be nuts on what will be a $4000 cruise if they were offering something I can't learn or get on my own. And I know it's a little unfair to expect someone to know all about everything. But I do expect direct and puntual answers and returned phone calls/emails. And I definitely expect them to follow through on their commitments made. The other issue I've had with AAA is their hours which don't work well for me. That is apparently going to change as I am told they will be moving closer to us and having Saturday hours.

 

[Dreamer04]

Dean, thanks for the report. Planning a cruise can be so stressful. Anything that you have to shop around for can taint the whole process. For example, the initial price quote-we have to be sure that we're comparing apples and apples-i.e. quotes that include the same items. Then there are the host of options-it can be endless. The last thing anyone needs is an uninformed agent.

When I started in customer service almost 25 years ago, we were not permitted to say "I don't know" to a customer. It was "I'll check that for you. " And we had to know where to go to look up what the customer wanted. Accuracy was a requirement of the job. If we had to get back to a customer, then we made a date and HAD to stick to it.

Sadly, this kind of service is hard to find these days. When I experience it, I let the company know how much I appreciate it and I spend my money there.

I am grateful to have found All Seasons Travel on these boards. Chuck Maida and his staff provide the service I find so seldom.

 

[frozeninroch]

I booked our Feb 19 2004 cruise through aaa.com last summer, mainly because of the free soda mug benefit. The price was exactly the same as DCL, so I figured 5 free mugs (family of 5) would be a nice souvenir, at least. I booked the air myself through expedia.com. $705.00 for 5 roundtrip tickets from ROC-MCO in Feb!!!

Anyway, I didn't really have trouble until my cruise documents arrived at AAA. DCL sent my cruise documents to the Buffalo, NY AAA office. I guess Buffalo handles online transactions for this area. But, I live in Rochester - about 90 minutes away. So, the TA at AAA Buffalo told me she could either 1) Fedex the docs to me for an extra $15, or 2) "courier" the docs to the Penfield, NY AAA office (about 30 mins away) for free.

I asked her to "courier" them to the Penfield AAA office. It took an entire week for my docs to travel those 90 minutes!!! And, when I called several days in a row to see if the docs had arrived at the Penfield AAA office (the Buffalo TA told me to call), the AAA receptionist was extremely rude to me. She told me she had no idea where my docs were.

Once the docs finally arrived in Penfield, they called and told me I had to make an appointment to pick them up!!! Then TA who I picked the docs up from didn't know anything about DCL when I asked her a few questions. So, I had to drive home with my docs and then email the internet AAA TA agent from Buffalo.

So, it actually was easy to book the cruise with AAA, but they don't seem to handle document delivery very well, or very efficiently... I hope our cruise is smoother sailing than that experience!

 

[JimB.]

Have used them twice. They were knowledgeable, prompt & effecient & had the best price at the time.

No problems at all.

 

[jinx]

Will AAA match costco's price after final payment has been made?