As a travel agent, my company has a commission rate of 12%-18% depending on the cruise line. The amount that we are paid is reset each year depending on the sales for the previous year. We only get paid on the base cruise fare, not port charges, governement fess, or other taxes. Usually the traveling public does not see the breakdown as their price is one number. In the past few years, the amount that we get paid has gone down as the cruise line increase the amounts that are non-refundable especially Carnival.

For example, I just did a Carnival Cruise that was $1500 for two people. The amount of that was commissionable was $400 so our office made $64.

The extra bonuses come when we book a cruise with more than 8 cabins in a group setting. The usual case is that we get a bonus equal to the average cruise rate of the most popular cabin booked for every 16 people (first two in cabin areonly counted). With most of my groups that I do, that money is used to pay the cruise fare of the group leader who does a lot of work to get people to go or if its a cruise for a charity the money goes to the charity as a contribution.

There are some accounts out there that get overide bonuses for their volume sales.

With the Platinum benefits, those can be booked through any travel agent, not just Amex Travel agents. We just apply for a tracking number with Amex Plat and then have the cruise line attach it to the reservations. With a couple of the cruise lines, like Regent Seven Seas my client gets some great benefits. They get the Amex benefits plus the group benefits from that sailing which gives them sometimes over $1000 in onboard/spa credit.