most of the time I love my new job but....
 

Sometimes you get a real gem like this one!

Sometimes we talk to people doing bookings for themselves, most of the
time we work with travel agents. The highest volume travel agents get
the biggest commission percentages which is partially based upon them
having access to the reservation software and they mostly do their own
booking unless there is a problem.
Tonight, at 10 to 7 I get a call and it's a travel agent pricing a
couple different cruises in several different catagories of
staterooms, no big deal until I figure out that as we are speaking,
she's on our system and has our deck plans in front of her, but for
some bizarre reason she is feeling the need to talk to one of us while
she's doing a booking. She is in Canada. OK, fine, that's what I'm
here for even though it's a bit annoying that she should be doing this
stuff herself. We get to a point where she's getting a different
amount for one cruise than I am, so I ask her what promotional code
she's using so I can use the same one and get things figured out. I am
scheduled to leave at 7.
TA=Travel Agent
Me=well duh!
Me: Our totals seem to be different here, please give me the breakdown
that you have.
TA: Blahblachblahblah
Me: OK, so I'm getting blahblahblah, will you please give me the promo
code that you're using to get this rate
TA: 123 xyz
Me: One moment please, I'll look up those promos and see what is going on here
Me: Ok, so I'm showing that promo 123 is only available in the US, and
you're a Canadian agency so we are unable to apply that promo to this
booking. The best I can do on this is using promo xyz in addition to
promo 456 which amounts to blah blah blah.
TA: OMGWTFBBQ!!11eleventy!!
Me: Go to the line on the top, type in this code and tell me what it says
TA: It says 20% off for new bookings and US only, no Canadian.
Me: That is correct, and that means that you cannot use this promo
code for this booking.
TA: But I don't understand why I can't use it
Me: Because it's restricted to US only, no Canadian. Some promos are
Canadian only, some are US only, it's based upon where the guest lives
and what port the ship is leaving from, and you are a Canadian agent
and can't use this promo.
TA: But I still don't understand why I can't use it..... (lather,
rinse, repeat, over and over and over again)
Me: *headdesk* Can you please bear with me for a moment while I check
with my lead to see if there's anything we can do?
TA: ok fine
I call the lead, I verify that indeed there is no way in hell that she
can use the code, I go back to her an tell her politely that no, she
can't.... It is now 7:15.
At this point the lead has come over to my cube and is listening big
time since he is also due to go home at 7 and it is now 15 past and he
can't leave until all of the res agents have gone for the day. At 7:20
he told me to let him talk to the TA and so I told her she was being
transferred to the lead and he plugged into my phone.
Both of us were stuck there until 7:45!!!!!!!!! And the TA still
didn't belive that she couldn't use that promo code and is planning on
calling guest relations on Monday to report the two of us.
:rolleyes:

That's sounds like a TA that has already promised the discount rate to her clients and is now trying like mad to save her own rear.

^^^ i agree.

i once experienced a similar scenario. ( except it was a Guest, accusing me of "bait-n-switch" ). i took several minutes of vulgarity, but, happily stood my ground.

when threatened with being reported to Guest Relations, i helpfully suggested that would get no results... i offered the best thing to do was to report me to the Governor and Michael Eisner. The Guest promised they would do just that. being in the spirit of full service, i provided the phone numbers, snail mail and email addys for both.

it was fun when i asked, "is there anything else i may do for you tonight?"
:evil:

She's probably a YTB agent.....impossible to work with.

I'm pretty sure that you're right, but man, the whole thing sure made her sound ignorant!

heh..... I've gotten that a time or two already, once from a guest and once from a ta. They even warned us about that in training class. Told us not to worry, big fancy cruise line knows how to cover it's butt!