I can only speak for myself, a regular Carnival cruise passenger. If there is no incentive for me to book through a TA, I will just book directly on the Carnival website. Less hassle.
I think that the TAs that wanted this change just shot themselves in the foot and will lose a lot more business than they will gain from the "level playing field".
For me, it's no more hassle to use the TA as it is to use the Carnival PVP. While there is no incentive to use the TA, there isn't an incentive to not use one either. If Carnival would be willing to make it worth my while to use their guy instead of mine, I'll listen LOL.
Booking direct, you are in control of your own booking, where using a TA, you have to go through the agent to make changes to your reservation. I've never found this to be an issue for us. The only time I had to call the cruiseline direct was for our cruise leaving New York City on Sept 15, 2001. Obviously it wasn't going to still be sailing from there, and I needed to find out what was going on. I got the "You need to call your TA" line from the first person I spoke to, but I insisted I was the guy paying the bills and would be the one finding this info out right now. She put me to another agent who helped me out and that was that.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Centurion
Just remember a cruise line pays 17% + other goodies to a travel agent.
Being a TA I'll challenge that asumption as not being accurate all the time. TA commissions can run that high but it's by no means a blanket amount for all lines to all TA's always.
If Carnival is paying 17% or 14% off the top, they can probably afford to lose a few bookings to bring some of that cash back in-house. (My understanding is that is the percentage of the base fare, which itself can be 1/2 of the actual price on a cheap cruise, right?)
I will book though CCL going forward because I have had problems with several TAs who didn't understand what an FCC is, how to log an ES price drop, etc. Basic stuff.
I'd much prefer to play dial-an-answer with Carnival because they'll at least be willing to talk to me.
You are correct I agree 17% + goodies are not always paid to TA's
Quote:
Originally Posted by tcook052
Being a TA I'll challenge that asumption as not being accurate all the time. TA commissions can run that high but it's by no means a blanket amount for all lines to all TA's always.
If Carnival is paying 17% or 14% off the top, they can probably afford to lose a few bookings to bring some of that cash back in-house. (My understanding is that is the percentage of the base fare, which itself can be 1/2 of the actual price on a cheap cruise, right?)
I will book though CCL going forward because I have had problems with several TAs who didn't understand what an FCC is, how to log an ES price drop, etc. Basic stuff.
I'd much prefer to play dial-an-answer with Carnival because they'll at least be willing to talk to me.
I always booked with TA's until recently, for the bennies. I actually have found a really helpful Carnival PVP, though. I take the time to book through him on the phone rather than online, even, and I usually HATE talking to people when I can do something online instead.
For the first time ever I have a question related to a current cruise booking, and it was nice to call and get a helpful answer and get my problem taken care of right away.
My big project now is to squeeze in two mroe sailings in 2013 so that I can get Platinum under the current rules.
I wonder how this will impact cashback portal bookings? I've liked booking cruises via ShopDiscover/Cruise & Vacation Desk. It earned 5% cashback, (but apparently only on the cruise portion, not port fees/taxes), so it was really more like 2.5% cashback.
From the sounds of this policy, something like Chase Ultimate Rewards extra 4 UR/$ on cruise bookings would no longer be allowed in the future. They may have to exclude Carnival if they do such a promo again
I was pricing out a Carnival cruise for January and entered the details on cruise compete to see what results I got. 4 quotes came back with identical pricing and each had a couple things under special offers, such as an unspecified onboard credit (call to find out), or a logo item. One agency must be taking the $25 dollar limit thing and saying there isn't a limit to how many $25 items they can offer. I saw this in their quote:
Quote:
Choose from the following amenities based on the chart below:
$25 Shipboard credit
Wine
Photo Voucher
4-Drink Bar Coupon
12-Drink Soda Card
Multiple of an item is allowed.
*# of Choices is based on the total price of the 1st and 2nd pax only.
Additional passengers are not counted towards total number of choices. Gratuities and air are not included in determining number of choices.
What a great name to compete against RCL's new floating cities. The new Carnival Hubris a 15,000 passenger ship!
