Confused about TA

[gshoemate]

So I call All Seasons Travel tonight to see if they had anything open for Nov.20 and I'm told to hold on while they call DCL. I'm thinking that I could of called DCL. So when he comes back he gives me the exact same price that I got off of the DCL website. I thought TA's gave their own pricing. If I could make reservations from my laptop and not have to talk to anyone, then why would I call someone that's going to do the same thing and not save me any money. I have never used a TA before so I guess I'm not sure how this all works.

 

[Dreamer04]

That is odd. I checked both the DCL site and allseastravel.com.
All seasons was $200 cheaper that dcl for 2 people in a cat 4 on 11/20. I didn't check other categories. I would check it out again.

I have never gotten a quote from All Seasons that was the same as DCL-only cheaper.

As far as why using a TA is recommended, first of all, a TA that is knowledgable can save a ton of money and aggravation. I used allseastravel.com to book our 2/14/04 Magic and I am thrilled with the level of service I have recieved. Personal, informed and on top of things I had no idea how to handle, like travel insurance for my elderly mother. There are ins and outs that I wasn't aware of, and now I am so glad that I booked with them.

Check out the web sites, then call them again.

Good luck!

 

[patches-4]

Do you mean 11/20/04? Maybe the person was confused and thought you meant this year. Does All seasons travel offer a rebate like DU does? I think I would recheck with them too and also check with Dreams Unlimited. We have been very pleased with them so far.

 

[Nette]

Originally posted by patches-4
Do you mean 11/20/04? Maybe the person was confused and thought you meant this year. Does All seasons travel offer a rebate like DU does? I think I would recheck with them too and also check with Dreams Unlimited. We have been very pleased with them so far.

Just in case you haven't noticed, DU's "rebate" is really an upcharge and then a "refund". That's the reason we didn't book with them. Sure, the actual cost came out the same as the DCL website, but advertising the "rebate" as a selling point for DU just isn't right.

JMHO.

 

[patches-4]

I'm sorry I didn't know that was the way it was done. All I know is that when we booked they were still cheaper than any of the others that we checked including DCL. I will say that shortly before we decided to go ahead and book AAA was cheaper than DU but didn't get that price because the time elapsed on the quote. It does pay to shop around because on any given day one could be cheaper that one of the others. That's what I like about this board, there is always alot of info from others about good deals. I just rechecked our reservations and it does say "DU instant rebate" on there.( not that it really matters how it is worded)

 

[Kaa]

Actually Nette, the rebate offered by Dreams Unlimited comes from the commission they receive on the reservation. Dreams receives pricing directly from DCL and then rebates a portion of the commission earned on that reservation back to the client. In some cases, if you booked directly with DCL you would receive the same price. In the end, you would pay less with the Dreams booking because the rebate is deducted from your final payment.

 

[Nette]

The quote from DU for us was $50 *MORE* before they applied the "rebate". Once they applied the rebate it was the SAME as the DCL website quote.

I'm not saying that sometimes their prices aren't lower. I'm simply saying that their rebate is a sham.

 

[WebmasterPete]

No Nette, it is not a sham. Dreams takes the price it is given from Disney, and applies the rebate AFTER that. Dreams does not charge credit cards directly, and therefore, would have no way of benefiting from charging more for a cruise than the price provided by Disney. Dreams is not a cruise wholesaler, and does not set the price charged. The rebate is taken off of the commission at the time of final payment. I know this for a fact, because I'm the one who set the system up. While I will always allow people to share their views of DU honestly on these boards (positive or negative), I will not sit by and allow misinformation to be spread. Your comments are inaccurate.

Pete

 

[lsmac]

Ok, maybe it's just me, but I cannot figure out how Nette is saying the Dreams rebate is a sham! When I checked with the DCL site they quoted me the same price as Dreams...BUT, I rec'd $200 off that price for my trip because of the rebate. Meaning that when my final payment went into Disney it was only for that last amount. To my way of thinking, that means I saved $200. Am I just fuzzy brained here due to no sleep for the last week and a half or what?

Please don't take this as an attack on Nette or anything, I just hope I am not missing something important and sitting here thinking I got a $200 savings.

Lisa

 

[pippy]

I thought the same thing when I booked with AAA. In fact I called a few TA's and they were all the same as DCL. I was told that the only time you can get a deal through a TA is when DCL gives that TA the deal. Booking through the TA has it's advantages, like their experiance on the cruises and when I went to pick up our docs, AAA gave us 3 cameras and a coupon for 3 free Disney Mugs once we get on board!!

 

[patches-4]

No Ismac you are not fuzzy brained and if you are missing something there are a whole bunch of us with you. Maybe there was something different about the quotes, maybe insurance, transfer, etc. that made the quote appear to be a higher to Nette. Like the comparing apples and oranges thing.

 

[Nette]

Originally posted by patches-4
No Ismac you are not fuzzy brained and if you are missing something there are a whole bunch of us with you. Maybe there was something different about the quotes, maybe insurance, transfer, etc. that made the quote appear to be a higher to Nette. Like the comparing apples and oranges thing.

Nope, I verified that with the DU agent directly. No ins, no transfers, ONLY the cruise price. It was $50 more before the rebate.

I am FULLY aware that DU does not bill credit cards directly, and that they have nothing to gain by charging more. However, if you read what I am saying, they are not CHARGING more to the CC because the price is the same after their "rebate"!

I even have verbage (via email) from one of their reps STATING that the price is the same (not $50 less) as the DCL website.

Call me a liar if you will. I know what I saw.

 

[patches-4]

Have you tried calling DU or e-mailing them and just ask them to recheck their figures and just give them the figures you have from DCL and the price you got from them. I can't help but think there is some kind of error in their figures, mistakes do happen and then again they may just be higher(without the rebate). It's worth a shot unless you just don't want to go through the hassel. I know there is an 800 number you can contact them if you would like. I don't think anyone was calling you a liar, I think everybody was just going on their experiece with DU.

 

[feenie]

Originally posted by Nette
Just in case you haven't noticed, DU's "rebate" is really an upcharge and then a "refund". That's the reason we didn't book with them. Sure, the actual cost came out the same as the DCL website, but advertising the "rebate" as a selling point for DU just isn't right.

JMHO.

I'm not sure how it works, but DU ended up being $150 cheaper than the DCL price after our rebate. Plus after we booked on board and got 10% off the regular fare that DCL offers, we still got the DU rebate on top of that price which imakes it almost $300.00 cheaper than the DCL website is at the moment.

I honestly don't have a clue about the upcharge and all that, but from our experiences it was money off what DCL would have offered us if we had booked with them directly.
Also, the quote we got from Dreams included taxes and fees, where some of the other quotes we recieved did not include those charges.

 

[lsmac]

I'm still confused on this: We were quoted $7753 both from Dreams and from DCL. (This includes cruise, air, transfers, night before hotel, ins, etc). I only paid $7553 to DCL because of the Dreams rebate. Isn't this a savings above and beyond what DCL would have done? I would have had to pay them the $7753.?

I am not calling anyone a liar, I just want to figure out if maybe I am wrong in assuming I got a "deal".

BTW, the figures above aren't exact...don't have the paperwork in front of me...but you get the gist.

Lisa

 

[bigsky]

Don't know if you have kids. But with Allseas, you have to add 200.00 per child if they're 13 or older. Not sure if this has anything to do with it.

Laura

 

[patches-4]

That's exactly the way I understand it. DU does give you that savings, you are paying $200 less than what you would have paid DCL and that's $200 I can use for spa, excursions, or just whatever I want to that I won't have to pay DCL(at least not the the actual booking, they'll get it before the cruise is over with anyway!!)

 

[DrCavin]

Nette:

I love the statement at the bottom of your posts, that is very funny!!!

Just in case anyone did not notice it says:

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.