What payment methods do you accept?
How long is your price quote good for?
Why should I book early?
How do you get paid?
How do you choose your travel partners?
Who do you work for?
How can I book shore excursions for my cruise?
What payment methods do you accept?
Sail Away Adventures does not accept cash, money orders, or travelers checks. When conducting your initial transaction with Sail Away Adventures, a major credit or charge card is required and photo identification is required. As an accommodation to existing clients after the initial transaction, Sail Away Adventures will accept a cashier's check or a personal check with proper, unexpired, government issued photo identification.
We strongly recommend that clients use a major credit or charge card when reserving and paying for their vacation. Using your credit/charge card may provide you with additional rights and benefits provided by your credit/charge card company.
When paying by check, payment is due a minimum of 10 business days prior to the stated deposit due date or final payment due date to ensure adequate processing time. Checks returned for insufficient funds will be charged a $50 service fee and may result in the loss of booking if full payment is not received by the vendor's (e.g., cruise line, airline, hotel, etc.) payment due date.
How long is your price quote good for?
Unfortunately, the nature of the travel industry is that prices go up and down, moment-to-moment, day-to-day. Travel is a commodity, just like the gas that fuels it. Vendors are raising and lowering prices at a moment's notice based on the number of people (or lack of people) who are booking, fuel prices, etc.
When you read the fine print on any travel site, it will tell you that there is limited availability or that seats may be limited. While some travel agents say that in order to scare you and get you to book more quickly, we won't do that. But you do need to be aware that seats, rooms, etc. are generally limited at any given price. One example of this is that since seats/rooms/space may be limited at each price, it is possible that a several couples traveling together may not all receive the same price or may not be scheduled for the same flight. (Note: This is especially common when using package providers or airfare booked by a cruise line). If we are booking your airfare directly with the airline, we will do our best not to let this happen without your permission. One way to try and prevent this is to all place your orders at the same time. Another way to prevent this is to get enough couples together that we can actually form an official group.
So, when we quote you a price, it is the best price we are able to obtain at that moment. It may go up or down between when we quote it and when you decide it is the right adventure for you.
If a price goes down prior to booking, we will automatically give you the better price. If a price goes up prior to booking, we will contact the vendor to see if they will honor the lower fare, but there is generally nothing that can be done, if that promotional price has expired. Think of it this way, you go to a grocery store on Saturday and strawberries are on sale for $1.00 a pint but you don't buy any. On Sunday you go back to buy them and they are now $2.00 a pint. The store is not going to give them to you for a $1.00 because that price is no longer available. Travel pricing works the same way.
Once you have booked and paid your deposit, we monitor for lower fares and if a lower fare becomes available to the general public, we will work with the vendor to try and lower your fare. We refer to this as pricing integrity. In some cases, it may be necessary to cancel your current booking and rebook at the lower fare. We will not do this without your permission as it may result in a change of accommodations, air flight, etc. We pride ourselves in making sure that you do not not pay any more than you need to.
Generally, once final payment has been made, vendors will not lower your price for you; but they also can't raise the price on you either!
Why should I book early?
Booking early is fun! Booking early allows you to start planning and dreaming about your adventure sooner. When booking early you do not need to pay the whole fare. All you need is the deposit which in most cases is fully refundable. (If it isn't refundable, we will let you know.) Most deposits also lock in the top price of the trip except for the airfare and any change in taxes or fuel surcharges. Remember, we will still look for lower fares.
The sooner you place a deposit, the more likely you are to get exactly what you want. Do you like to be midship or aft? Do you want a room near the pool or the library? Do you need connecting staterooms? If staying on land, do you like oceanview or mountain view? Your chances of getting what you want are better the earlier you book. With pricing integrity there is no need to wait for lower fares. As stated above, we will work with you to obtain any lower fare publicly available.
Some people find that by booking early, it makes it easier to save for their vacation. We can even apply small payments throughout the year so that by the time you are ready to travel, your trip is paid in full and you do not need to put a big final payment on your credit/charge card. The choice is yours.
How do you get paid?
For the most part, we are paid on commission. You do not pay anything additional for our service.
Sometimes, we will book things for you that we are not paid for at all. If we book a really terrific hotel fare for you based on your age or military status or some other promotion, we may not receive anything monetary for that booking. However, we do it because we hope you will be loyal to us and refer your friends. We also do not receive commission on airfare that is booked directly with the airline. Again, we do this as a service and accommodation to you, our client, in hopes that you will be loyal and refer your friends.
Here are a few things you should know about how travel agents are paid. Most vendors pay commissions to travel agents because the travel agent is doing the servicing. Travel agents answer your questions, take care of your problems, etc. meaning that the vendor saves money which they pass along to the travel agent as commission. However, many vendors pay high producing travel agencies a greater percentage of commission due to their volume or may offer bonus commission for a certain number of bookings. This can result in conflict of interest because it can prompt some agents to push one product over another just to get the higher commisison. Sail Away Adventures doesn't believe in this. We want happy clients and we feel the best way to get this is to tailor your vacation to the one that is right for you without regard to any bonus commission promotion or what commission level we are at with a particular vendor. We do not need to answer to anyone but our clients which allows us to be as independent and free with our advice as possible. We do not belong to a consortium or host agency which dictates who we sell and what we sell. If we don't like a cruise line or we don't think a vendor is right for you, we will tell you. Did you know that there are many cruise lines who hire secret shoppers to call agencies and if the agent suggests a particular cruise, the agent will win a free cruise. Do you want to be the client who calls during one of these contests? If the agent thinks you are a secret shopper you could end up on a vacation that is not right for you. Some vendors will allow a travel agency to tack on service fees and then build it into the price. Sail Away Adventures will always tell you if we decide to charge a service fee for something. We will never hide a service fee.
We are known for our service and knowledge. Based on this, people often seek our advice. So, we have been burned numerous times by people who seek our advice and then go elsewhere to actually book an itinerary that we developed. Understandably, sometimes people decide not to travel or decide not to work with us for some reason. That's okay. We understand. But when going to another agency or online to book something we planned keep in mind that service is ongoing. If you are looking for great service from your first question through your return home, please let us work for you.
How do you choose your travel partners?
We select our partners very carefully, because who we deal with impacts our reputation. Whenever possible, we prefer to only work with vendors who we have personally vacationed with or at least visited. We prefer to pay our own way when we travel to try to replicate the experience our clients will have. This allows us to be as honest as possible with you about a particular cruise line, hotel or excursion. Obviously, we have not tried every vendor or stayed at every hotel out there. So, if you request to work with a vendor that we do not have personal experience with, we will gladly research that vendor and let you know what we learn. Then we can work with you to decide if you want to proceed.