Aggressor/Galapagos - Cancelled?

[worlddiver]

I was booking a dive vacation for the end of June 2006 on the Aggressor with a wholesale travel agent. The Aggressor took the booking and the wholesaler then booked my airfare, this was all before Christmas. Then a couple of weeks later the wholesaler was expecting their written confirmation from the Aggressor.

What the Aggressor office did was cancel my resveration for a none wholesaler booking. It turns out that the wholesaler gets a 20% discount on a Aggressor booking. When Aggressor received a none wholesaler booking for my spots they just decided to cancel my vacation with no warning.

I will never use or recommend the Aggressor Fleet AGAIN. The Travel Agent, Aqua Dreams feels the same. They also commented that this has happen a couple of times with the Aggressor Fleet and they just keep on saying that it will not happen again. Well, it just screwed up my dive vacation.

Down with the Aggressor Fleet and pissed off...............

 

[vladimir]

Why not book directly with Aggressor?

 

[Doc]

The Aggressor took the booking

So, you had... in hand (?)... a chit for your voyage from The Aggressor?

Something smells funny.

You're from Florida, I found an Aqua Dreams out of Cape Coral... but they're still promoting the Aggressor Galopagos... but it couldn't be them, right?

What does the Aggressor Office have to say to your directly? I'm not sure you have the entire, real story in hand.

Cut out the middleman, get the whole story from the source. It is only fair before you post.

 

[divepix]

Are you sure the wholesaler had a firm reservation at Aggressor with a deposit paid? I do know Aggressor has a firm deposit policy, and that is their perogative. maybe the wholesaler was negligent in forwarding your deposit to Aggressor. If they paid Aggressor and the deposit was accepted, they could take legal action against Aggressor in your behalf.

 

[divepix]

Why not book directly with Aggressor?

Wholesalers can be very helpful in booking airfares and other aspects of the trip that the dive operator may or may not be able to handle as well.
They are not always necessary, but they charge the same price and can provide some excellent travel services.

I do think the story here may be negligence on the part of the wholesaler, not Aggressor. But I don't know.

 

[vertaqua]

I think thats a perfect example of why you buy travel insurance. As far as who was at fault I'd say they both would be on my ****list. Any boat(agressor boats are all individully franchised) that would take one passenger over another based on ammount paid I wouldn't want to book with. Niether would I want to book with a wholesaler, who would book them on what could be a stand-by liveaboard cruise.

 

[Fionab]

Can I ask what you guys mean by the term "wholesaler", is this the same as a tour operator.

 

[gratefuljames]

There's definitely more to this story. The liveaboards (and all dive ops) live and die by the "wholesalers" (which is just another word for commissionable agents) and they certainly are not, and cannot be, in the business of confirming, then "un" confirming reservations. Did you make a deposit? By credit card? Was it charged? I would have a huge issue with the travel agent (who is now telling you that you will have to pay a big fee to change the airline tickets they already bought - and "but let me see if I can put you into some other Galapagos trip?" If that is going on, you need to find out what occurred with this travel agent, because they may be pushing out trips where they make higher commissions than Aggressor). Anyway, that sucks that this kind of thing happens, and I hope you get your trip together and get down there!!!!

 

[SharkRider]

The Aggressor fleet is a World Class - Top Notch Operation. I have dove with them and can vouch for that. With liveaboards it always makes sense to book directly with them. You're not going to get any kind of discount (unless it's from them) and it makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. Your lesson here is stop being cheap and trying to use discounted services.

 

[Code Monkey]

I'm a bit surprised. We had a confirmed reservation on the Palau Aggressor that we had purchased through a dive travel agent. When the Aggressor was hit by a container ship (thus, rendering it un-sea-worthy), they not only refunded our money but, unprompted, offered to refund *any* expenses we had that were related to the trip -- airline tickets, hotel, anything.

It sure seems to me, based on this, that these guys are a class act.