I have to tell you that I learned something very valuable when booking our next cruise.
We are heading to the British Isles on Princess and we can't wait.
We had been eyeing the different cruises for the summer of 2018. We found an itinerary that everyone could agree upon (not an easy task with two opinionated spouses). Here comes the learning ... so we looked on both the Costco Travel Site and the Princess Site. The bonus with travelling with Costco is that in addition to what the cruise companies offer, Costco usually has extra perks like on-board credits - and if you are an executive member - 2% back. When we travelled onboard the Disney Magic for our European Cruise - Costco matched Disney prices but offered a cash card as a bonus. The Cash Card was not insignificant ($2000).
Back to our current cruise. We had been eyeing the cruise but the availability was becoming limited for a mini-suite . My husband had worked with the Costco rep and there were none available. After going back to the Princess website an a daily basis, low and behold a mini-suite came available. For fear of not wanting to loose it, he booked directly with Princess.
I called to see if we would be entitled to the same on-board credits that Costco was offering. They said they could not offer to match. However, they did say that we could TRANSFER the reservation to Costco who could then provide the on-board credits bonus. We needed to send a letter authorizing the transfer.
I was really surprised that they were telling me to transfer my reservation to a travel agent in order to get these benefits. They would not offer them to us at all.
So there is my tip - use a travel agent for added benefits.
I do love Costco Travel - their prices are really quite wonderful - especially for car rentals.