I use a TA if I get financial benefit.
I can plan using these boards and cruisecritic.com better than any one TA could plan for me. If someone tells me something wrong, or if I say something wrong, on a message board there will be tons of people coming by fast to correct the error. I prefer that to putting all my trust in one fallible person.
I book cruises through costcotravel.com. Good benefits and I don’t need handholding. I am careful to not go looking for other staterooms when they are closed.
A TA will help you with that and you can still control your own booking.
A TA *can* help you with that (not all do), and you do not have 100% direct control. You cannot make changes that will change the cost of the booking, unless you go through them. THAT is the exact loss of control that people talk about.
The only caveat is booking your next cruise while onboard. I haven't done it yet (plan to on next cruise), but it's probably worth the savings to do that yourself. But even then, I believe you can transfer it to the TA's we are discussing for half the OBC.
If you’re booked with a TA already, an onboard booking will automatically be assigned to them. You don’t lose any of the OBC. If you’ve booked on your own and don’t mention a TA while doing the onboard booking then you’re limited by the rules in place for that TA and their perks when you transfer the reservation to them.
I just let her know what I want and she does all of the legwork (and phonework)
To me that’s the only valid reason for a TA in what you’ve described.
reminds us of the PIF (actually schedules it to be done automatically 2-3 days prior just for safety and just lets us know that it's been done)
Other TAs do the same. Costco actually scheduled it something like a week or more before.
lets us know about new bookings when they come available even though I usually already know
If you already know, how is this a benefit, especially when you’re not getting perks?
I can get my
travel insurance through her
Might be worth a look at travel insurance sites to see if the TA is getting you the best deal.
she's helped me with holding flight bookings for 24 hours (not for
DCL trip but it's good to know that she can do that for me).
All (domestic, at least) flights can be cancelled inside of 24 hours with a full refund. Some airlines allow you to hold a flight with a fee for 24 hours. This isn’t a perk from the TA. She’s using the airline’s own system just like you could.
People say you loose control, you never do, in fact you have more control.
You have to go through the TA for any change in stateroom or adding or removing guests. That is the loss of direct control. How is that considered having *more* control?
And the fact that you can’t just call any old time to make such changes is another loss of control. To have to work within the TA’s hours can be problematic if you work funky hours or have problems sleeping.
Those things have only affected me once (found an upgrade to concierge in the middle of the night) and it all worked out, but I have had to change my habits because of this limitation of using a TA.
