Placeholder questions

[byanks7]

I currently have a placeholder from a cruise in May. My travel agent says I only have 30 days to book and transfer a reservation to her to get her on board credit. Im not ready to book a cruise, cant I wait to book something and then ask her to take over the reservation?

 

[Calantha]

I currently have a placeholder from a cruise in May. My travel agent says I only have 30 days to book and transfer a reservation to her to get her on board credit. Im not ready to book a cruise, cant I wait to book something and then ask her to take over the reservation?

That sounds like a TA-specific rule. My placeholders go directly to my travel agent and he hold them until we’re ready to make the bookings. And we still get our onboard credit, although it might be less than if we didn’t have a placeholder. That I don’t know.

Are you sure you can’t just send her the place holder? Didn’t she get it right after you purchased it?

 

[Mommb]

My understanding of DCL rules is that the placeholder must be transferred to a travel agent within 30 days of its purchase in order for the agent to use the placeholder to book a cruise. There is not a requirement from DCL that the placeholder be applied to a cruise within 30 days — it is usable for 2 years from purchase.

That said, you cannot book a cruise yourself using the placeholder and then transfer it to the travel agent if it is more than 30 days after you purchased the placeholder. If you want to use this travel agency but aren’t ready to book a specific cruise yet, you could ask her to use the placeholder to book the least expensive cruise departing just short of 2 years of when you purchased the placeholder. You could then ask her to move that reservation once you find the cruise you actually want.

 

[RedHead0186]

I currently have a placeholder from a cruise in May. My travel agent says I only have 30 days to book and transfer a reservation to her to get her on board credit. Im not ready to book a cruise, cant I wait to book something and then ask her to take over the reservation?

For my TA, she sets up a 'dummy' reservation in the system with the placeholder. It's not tied to any specific cruise (at least not that I can tell), but it does have a reservation number (in the TA system). So I think that's what it means by transferring the reservation to her within 30 days-it's not transferring a specific booking (cruise), it's just transferring the placeholder.

Different TAs do things differently, so it's worth double-checking. That's just been my experience.