In the TMR piece, Freed said, “The more agents talk about shifting their business to all inclusive l

Over the past year, have you noticed that cruise romantic hotels in san francisco suppliers are becoming less and less of a "partner?" Are you getting a sense of déjà vu with flashbacks to the mid 90s? Over the past month, the cruise romantic hotels in san francisco lines have taken a beating from agents on several recent changes.  Are the cruise lines headed the way of the airlines? Is the criticism fair and just? Consider the following and decide.
Travel Market Report romantic hotels in san francisco published an article where two cruise line executives got a little defensive when questioned on the ever increasing non-commissionable fees (NCFs) and the move to a direct to consumer model. Royal Caribbean's Vicki Freed, a longtime advocate of the travel agent, simply said "It is what it is. It is the portion of a cruise fare on which we don't pay commission."  And on the move to direct to consumer marketing, Justin French a managing director for Carnival Cruise Lines said direct marketing was necessary for Carnival, as the line is trying to reach cruise "rookies."  Both positions seem to be pretty firm, and if you read between the lines, French is telling romantic hotels in san francisco us that Carnival believes that we are not doing a good enough job; and Freed is saying that the NCF portion of our compensation should not be a concern or ours.
Travel Market romantic hotels in san francisco Report followed up with Freed based on the flurry of comments they received and the tone did not seem to get any more agent friendly. When specifically asked to define the NCFs, Freed claimed the industry had already defined it (this agent must have missed the memo) and suggested we move on and alluded to how the agents all focused on Delta when they eliminated commissions.  Freed dodged several other bullets and when asked what it takes to increase earnings in today's romantic hotels in san francisco cruise marketplace. But, she did say that you must be a significant player and earn a back end override to offset the NCFs.  She highlighted America's Vacation Center and Vacations to Go… as examples. Most agents today, even the superstars, are not on the level of those two agencies. From there, Freed continued to highlight her dedication to the agent community and the different ways that Royal Caribbean will work with agents including one on one mentoring.  There is no doubt that Vicki Freed is a friend of agents and has been for many, many years. I simply suspect that we are operating in a "new normal", her hands may be somewhat romantic hotels in san francisco tied.
In a recent interview romantic hotels in san francisco with Lyn Cathey at Travel Research Online , Carnival's Joni Rein attempted to explain the new policies recently implemented by the line and to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding them.   While she would not comment on the percentage of direct sales, she did say that travel agent sales accounted for the majority of the line's revenue. Joni did take responsibility for the communications effort from Carnival and gave herself a "D". Perhaps it is this lack of clear communication that has ruffled the feathers of the community.
Last weekend, I discovered that my consumer booking link to Carnival was not working. When you clicked on the link, it took you to a Carnival " page not found " page and then encouraged you to go to Carnival's home page and continue your surfing. Was this a glitch? Or was this an attempt to gain some direct business from several thousand websites who have installed this link hoping to grow their Carnival business? I asked other agents in the TRO Community and many indicated (to their surprise as well) that their links were not working either. BookCCL.com now seems to be devoid of any mention of a consumer booking romantic hotels in san francisco link for agents.  Knowing that Carnival is a little touchy lately on phone calls,  I used the online form to send a message to the "Internet Marketing Department". The response—"we're having trouble, your message did not go through."  I emailed my BDM and she told me to call E-Services Solutions. E-Services Solutions does not answer the phone and you are forced to leave a message with a promise to respond within 48 hours. As of now, it has been 114 hours and no response. The only conclusion I can draw is that Carnival has discontinued the program and disabled all of the links. I cannot locate a memo or announcement. I'll give Carnival an "F" on this communication! romantic hotels in san francisco Boy, I hope no one used that link from my site to book a full charter. Guess I will never know!
In the TMR piece, Freed said, "The more agents talk about shifting their business to all inclusive land vacations, the more they signal to cruise line that the lines had better figure romantic hotels in san francisco out another way to build their business. Is that really what you want?"
There s one huge problem about Freed s comment about back end overrides (highlighting VTG and AVC). The individual AGENTS do not share in overrides. So it s all fine dandy for large producing agencies to get overrides, but the individual agents are still screwed romantic hotels in san francisco by the decreasing commissions as cruise fares decrease and NCFs increase.
I push RCL with my clients at every opportunity and I sail RCL at the going rate, not the travel agent rate, quite frequently. Does Vickie not realize that agents are turning to all inclusive because it is the only way they can survive as the NCFs continue to increase with no explanation? Why doesn t Royal be the first contemporary cruise line to decrease NCFs and see how that drives business to their cruise line? As an independent hone based agent I will never reach those high and mighty overrides and neither will thousands of other home based independents that loved selling cruises but can no longer survive without changing strategies. Cruises were sold by agents because it was a win, win, win situation for the agents, the clients and the cruise lines. That is no longer there.
Thanks for the heads up. I checked my website link to Carnival and discovered the re-direct to Carnival. The link has been removed! I am maintaining my link for RCI and Celebrity as they are still functioning as originally intended. The NCL link was previously removed as it was not functional, but at least they did not re-direct to their own website.
Have you lookied at the misleading Vacation to Go ad that says that the major cruise lines give them unsold inventory at better prices then are available in general. If I could afford to run such an ad which clearly violates the discounting policies of most of the cruise lines then we would be selling more. But the cruise lines don t care how they get the business. Yes our all inclusive sales are up about 100% over past years and cruise sales are down proportionately and we love the commissions we get on the land packages. Eventually the cruise lines will go the route of some of the other non-existing lines. Nothing lasts forever.
Another point to make is that many of the all inclusives (Sandals and Beaches) will now pay commissions on tours and spa treatments. SO the agent gets paid a commission on the TOTAL SPEND of the client they placed.
But, if they do NOT, then more TAs will continue to shift cruise business that way. Think about it. No back end bonuses, no NCFs. Instead full package price (including taxes) are commissioned. And as previously pointed out, many (not all) will pay commission on sightseeing tours, transfers, and other optionals that can be pre-booked (and if they are all inclusive, they re also paying commission in essence on alcohol sales).
At least our BDM told us the direct booking link was going away, though the reasoning romantic hotels in san francisco wasn t sound not enough use, too many errors, etc. (Funny always worked romantic hotels in san francisco just fine for us). It is just another step in taking away a source of agent bookings. I still can t believe that cruise line execs think we are that naive not to see the big picture.
The defensive attitude of Vickie Freed and other cruise line execs toward the issue of NCF s will be their undoing. For them to believe just because romantic hotels in san francisco they say Forget it that agents will forget it is a sign of arrogance. Both Carnival and RCCL just reported very good quarterly profits and it was on the backs of the TA community who didn t see the corresponding increase in their profits.
If Vickie Freeds romantic hotels in san francisco comment about how cruise lines may have to look at other ways to fill their ships if agents shift to booking more all inclusives is a veiled threat, she may want to rethink romantic hotels in san francisco her position. Alienating more of the agent community with this kind of posturing will only make her job more difficult. Anyone romantic hotels in san francisco can say they are the agents best friend but it is their actions that tell the true story. romantic hotels in san francisco With friends like the cruise lines, agents really don t need any enemies today. Viking River Cruises is probably the smartest of the bunch with their recent announcement they are paying on the total cruise fare and no more of this NCF nonsense with them. Viking will get more business because of it.
OH Vicki, Vicki, Vicki when did you get so nasty? Threatening the B M s and HBA s is know way to unruffle feathers. What haven t we done for you all these years. Of course we went after Delta, and we were right. If GM were developing robots (androids) for car manufacturing, I m sure the humans would be upset. Increase your rates, the clients will still go (as long as it s not exhorbitant), but you can t steal your servers wages.
romantic hotels in san francisco So first let me say that in some wasy I don t disagree with Vicki .. the two worst actors in terms of NCFs are NCL and Princess and as the yield is not really worth my time, I sell very little or either of those lines. CCL s cruisefares are so low that I really can t afford to sell much of them without charging a fee, and honestly, the average CCL passenger is offended at paying a fee anyway I have not sold a CCL cabin in many years (I think not since 2004).
As to overrides or higher commission levels why is it that TAs don t really understand the benefits of a consortium? Join one with a limited list of Vendors and try to do more than 85% of your business within that list it s that simple. Your commissions will be at a higher percentage and your back end overrides will grow faster.