Travel agent makes mistake and cruise line wants me to pay for it?

[brodel]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, so if it's not, I'm sorry but it seemed the most relevant.

My girlfriend and I recently went on a cruse a few months ago and we booked it through a travel agent. We were given a better price than the cruise line gave us directly so we decided to go with it.

Upon receiving the quote, we noticed that it had been marked for a "senior discount". The next time we spoke with the travel agent, we brought this up and said we aren't seniors and we don't want to get any discounts we aren't eligible for. We were told that at certain times they can book it under certain discounts to give a better rate depending on the time of booking and some other restrictions and that we shouldn't worry about it and she does it all the time. (Unfortunately this was over the phone and not written in an e-mail.)

Anyway, when we got to the port to get on the ship we got pulled aside and told that we booked it under an invalid discount and that we would now have to pay the rate for the day of sail which ended up being $400 more per person. We were standing there with our bags packed and already made it to the port and after arguing back and forth with the cruse line and the travel agent via the phone, we were told that we would HAVE to pay in order to board the ship. The travel agent said that she would make some calls to the cruise lines corporate office and should have everything straight by the time we returned. Well that didn't happen and my $400 got declined because someone stole my credit card during the trip (the card was passed along to several cruise line employees and I'd be willing to bet it got written down or taken off the system.. but that's another story.)

Anyway, now the cruise line is asking me for the $400 since it was declined and I am still trying to get the original $400 back that we paid to get on the ship!

Do I have any legal options here? It would seem to me that if the cruise line has an issue with the discount being booked improperly after we told the travel agent we didn't want anything we weren't eligible for, the travel agent should pay the different, not us.

Any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks!

 

[tpajet]

The travel agent is absolulty responsible for this. Take the bill to them, and demand payment. If they give you the least amount of trouble, file a claim in small claims court.

By the way, it wouldn't matter if you had talked to them or not while you were at the port, the travel agent would still be responsible.

The other thing to do is contact CLIA. They are the agency that certifies travel agents to be able to book cruises. You can call or email them. I'm sure they would be more than interested to hear what you have to say.

http://www.cruising.org/contactus/

 

[brodel]

Thanks so much for the reply. The travel agent left me a voicemail and when I tried to return the call I didn't get an answer so I wrote her a long e-mail saying that it had been going on long enough and I did not want to go to court over it, but I was starting to feel like it was the only option. The response I got was almost immediate and it said that they were sorry and they would take care of it. My jaw dropped and I reread it again just to be sure.

I hate being the "do what I want or I'll sue you" guy, but it seemed to do the trick here.

Again, thanks so much for the response, this has been driving me insane!

 

[Mattsmalls]

Travel Agent

You have not mentioned what type of mistake they have done. So, first I suggest you to analyze the problem and then plan accordingly about whether you should get your money back from your travel agent or not.

mysafetravel dot com / index dot php?id=70&L=0

 

[jharris352]

What I don't understand is that you say you "didn't want a discount that you didn't deserve," yet when you were asked to pay the higher rate you didn't want to do so and now you want the travel agent to pay it for you. Am I missing something?

You were not entitled to the discount so to take the trip you would owe the $400. I certainly agree that the travel agent caused you a great deal of grief by putting you in this position and I might want them to split the difference with me on that account alone. But if you agree that you are not due the $400 discount, then why do you think the travel agent is in the wrong and should pay?

 

[mightymoose]

You took the trip... you are going to have to pay up.
If you want money back from the cruise company you will have to sue them for it... they won't give it back. They explained the terms and you agreed to pay. If you didn't agree to the cost you should not have gotten on the ship.

Sounds like a tough luck situation. You are going to get stuck with this one.

At the same time... if someone wants money from you, don't pay it. Let them sue you for it if it is that big of a deal. There is a good chance that they won't since the cost of suing you is more than the $400 they MIGHT get from you. Tell them to get bent.

 

[tpajet]

Sorry guys, but you are wrong on this one. First of all, they did call the travel agent and try to get this changed, but the travel agent wouldn't do it, and basically told them the cruise line allows it at certain times, etc, etc. Also keep in mind that when you deal with a travel agency they are responsible for your travel until the trip is done, including any errors they make. Just to give you an idea - I work for an airline, and if I pull up your flight reservation, if you booked it with the airline directly I will be able to see your contact info, so if a flight schedule is changed I can call you to rebook. But if you book through a travel agency, we only see their phone number (with some exceptions). In this case the travel agent is the one to call you.

mightymoose - go back and read the reply the OP left - the travel agent took care of the error. Also, nobody is asking them for money now. This was done at the pier when they went to check in for the cruise.