Question on Booking a Certain Cabin Number

[moet7]

Hi,

When you book a certain cabin number, how do you get quotes from different TA's. If one TA puts a hold on the room for you, the others won't beable to, so then you won't beable to compare your quotes.

Not to confuse any of you anymore, but say I get a quote from a TA with the cabin number that I want and then I get a quote from another TA and it's a better quote. Has anyone ever gotten a TA to match the price of one of their competitors???

Also does the price of the room go up depending on what deck it is on?
Like if you want an outside cabin, and it is on deck 3 will it cost more if it is on deck 5?

Thanks!

 

[kcashner]

Ok, there aren't any cabins on deck 3....
First, yes, I've had one TA agree to match another TA's price. Discount TAs work in one of 2 ways. They either buy up a bunch of cabins and then resell them at a lower rate or they rebate you a portion of their commission. AAA is particularly good about matching other rates.

If you have a hold on a room, you can still compare prices. The price is for the category of room. You just need to know what category you have on hold and ask the new TA to price that category. If you get a better price, you can still book the room thru the new TA. The hold is in your name.

As to location determining price....to an extent. A cat 11 and 12 are the same, only location is different. Same for 8 and 9. Same for 5 and 6.

11 and 12 are standard inside staterooms--one bathroom. 10 is inside with the split bath. 8 and 9 have portholes. 9s are on deck 2, 8s are other places. 7 has a verandah with a limited view or navigator's verandah. 5 and 6 have standard verandahs, again, only the location varies. There are exceptions, like the secret porthole rooms which are actually an outside room with a partially obstructed porthole and are billed as a 10.

So....you wanted stateroom X which is a category 9. You just ask each TA to bid an 9with the details about your party. All cat. 9 will cost the same on each cruise--the only variation is the number of passengers and their ages.