December 20 on Riviera may have been cancelled.

[Fort_Worth]

6 minutes ago, GeorgesGal said:

I asked my TA directly:  Did you get paid your commission on our fully paid Sirena cruise this past April which O cancelled about 7 days prior to sailing?  His answer was absolutely NO!  So feeling sorry, when we booked our December cruise, we turned it over to him in order to 'make him whole' for all his work (however inept he is).  

Fort_Worth's post above makes me wonder is our TA was outright lying to me.  Anyone know which version of commission pay/not pay is correct?  Inquiring mind wants to know.

 

https://www.cruisetradenews.com/coronavirus-cruise-travel-agent-commissions-protect/

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/travel-leaders-group-thanks-cruise-industry-for-protecting-travel-advisor-commissions-during-coronavirus-outbreak-301023115.html

 

https://www.travelmarketreport.com/articles/Cruise-Lines-Protect-Commissions-on-Canceled-Sailings-and-Future-Cruise-Credits

 

https://www.*****.com/2020/03/10/royal-caribbean-promises-protect-travel-agent-commissions-deferred-cruises-coronavirus

 

Google "are cruise lines honoring commissions" if you wish to dig deeper.

 

 

[clo]

10 minutes ago, GeorgesGal said:

I asked my TA directly:  Did you get paid your commission on our fully paid Sirena cruise this past April which O cancelled about 7 days prior to sailing?  His answer was absolutely NO!  So feeling sorry, when we booked our December cruise, we turned it over to him in order to 'make him whole' for all his work (however inept he is).  

Fort_Worth's post above makes me wonder is our TA was outright lying to me.  Anyone know which version of commission pay/not pay is correct?  Inquiring mind wants to know.

I'd call the cruise line.

[ORV]

39 minutes ago, GeorgesGal said:

I asked my TA directly:  Did you get paid your commission on our fully paid Sirena cruise this past April which O cancelled about 7 days prior to sailing?  His answer was absolutely NO!  So feeling sorry, when we booked our December cruise, we turned it over to him in order to 'make him whole' for all his work (however inept he is).  

Fort_Worth's post above makes me wonder is our TA was outright lying to me.  Anyone know which version of commission pay/not pay is correct?  Inquiring mind wants to know.

When this started it was noted that TA commissions would be "protected". I don't know what that means, when, or under what conditions they're paid. Anything short of a TA chiming in would probably be conjecture.

[LHT28]

21 minutes ago, ORV said:

When this started it was noted that TA commissions would be "protected". I don't know what that means, when, or under what conditions they're paid. Anything short of a TA chiming in would probably be conjecture.

I agree with ORV  back in March/April  there was a letter posted here someplace  that stated agents commissions were protected

I would try a search  then confront your TA with the info

Sounds fishy to me

[jonthomas]

My agent has told me that if you cancel before final payment , she loses her commission. If you move it , she will still collect it after final  payment is made even if we then cancel. But of course we would not make final payment in these times.

 

I am looking to perhaps  move this one to something much further away since we have a small deposit on it, made on the ship. Wish the itineraries were available for something  further into 2022 or 2023. Have to make that decision in the next few weeks. Our deadline with no penalty of 121 days is Aug 15. 

[LHT28]

 

8 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

 

I am looking to perhaps  move this one to something much further away since we have a small deposit on it, made on the ship. Wish the itineraries were available for something  further into 2022 or 2023. Have to make that decision in the next few weeks. Our deadline with no penalty of 121 days is Aug 15. 

Several cruises in  early 2022  just depends where  you want to go  😎

 

Or just get  a refund & decide  later  when more cruises become available

[Fort_Worth]

Do a google on "are cruise lines honoring commissions". As soon as I saw GeorgesGal's question, I responded (Post #51) with several links but it appears to be hidden for some reason. Don't understand. 

 

Regardless, I stand by my original statement.

[Fam_Cruise]

3 hours ago, GeorgesGal said:

I asked my TA directly:  Did you get paid your commission on our fully paid Sirena cruise this past April which O cancelled about 7 days prior to sailing?  His answer was absolutely NO!  So feeling sorry, when we booked our December cruise, we turned it over to him in order to 'make him whole' for all his work (however inept he is).  

Fort_Worth's post above makes me wonder is our TA was outright lying to me.  Anyone know which version of commission pay/not pay is correct?  Inquiring mind wants to know.

When did you ask your TA?  The reason I ask is it took my TA the same amount of time to be paid their commission on my cruise that O cancelled as it took for me to receive my refund, about 50 days from the date I requested the refund. 

[jonthomas]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

 

Several cruises in  early 2022  just depends where  you want to go  😎

 

Or just get  a refund & decide  later  when more cruises become available

 

need to move it further in 2022....the reduced deposit is a good thing to have..dont want to risk full deposits no matter how far I move it, the longer this goes the more chance of bankruptcy then poof.... your money vanishes....

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Fort_Worth said:

Do a google on "are cruise lines honoring commissions". As soon as I saw GeorgesGal's question, I responded (Post #51) with several links but it appears to be hidden for some reason. Don't understand. 

 

Regardless, I stand by my original statement.

Were the links to travel agents sites?

 

You may want to check the guidelines  to see if you broke any CC rules

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/guidelines/

[LHT28]

23 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

 

need to move it further in 2022....the reduced deposit is a good thing to have..dont want to risk full deposits no matter how far I move it, the longer this goes the more chance of bankruptcy then poof.... your money vanishes....

good luck  😁

 

Be sure to read the T & C's associated with your onboard booking  with the reduced deposit

As I recall you can only move the deposit ONCE

others will correct me if wrong

 

You are probably better off taking your $ & running  then when the cruise of your dreams comes up book a few  weeks before sailing when you know they are financially stable

JMO

 

 

[Mura]

On 6/20/2020 at 2:08 AM, Paulchili said:

Also,  I can’t imagine who would have the interest and money to buy an “old”, albeit well kept, ship in this current climate.

Of all my cruises on O, Regatta was the one I have cruised on the fewest times - I would miss Nautica more.

Good luck to O as I am sure they can use the funds (if the story is true).

Whereas we first sailed on Regatta when she was Renaissance's R2, and most of our "R" ship cruises on Oceania have been on Regatta.  So I will be sad to see her go ...  When we were on Regatta and had a tour of the bridge we were thrilled to see the schematic of the R2 up on the wall ...

 

But I too wonder about who would purchase an "old but very well maintained ship" at this point in time.

 

 

[Mura]

29 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Were the links to travel agents sites?

 

You may want to check the guidelines  to see if you broke any CC rules

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/guidelines/

In my experience, if they think you have -- they let you know!

 

I was once told I'd broken the rules about revealing a TA's identity when I had only referred to "my TA" ... I never mentioned a name.

 

 

 

Mura

[Fort_Worth]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Were the links to travel agents sites?

 

You may want to check the guidelines  to see if you broke any CC rules

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/guidelines/

 

No. They were articles posted by various cruise industry news sites. Doesn't matter. Just do the google search and you'll find 'em. 

[Paulchili]

49 minutes ago, Mura said:

Whereas we first sailed on Regatta when she was Renaissance's R2, and most of our "R" ship cruises on Oceania have been on Regatta.  So I will be sad to see her go ...  When we were on Regatta and had a tour of the bridge we were thrilled to see the schematic of the R2 up on the wall ...

 

But I too wonder about who would purchase an "old but very well maintained ship" at this point in time.

Not to worry Mura. If you look back on page 1 (post #20) you'll see that while it is an R ship it is a Princess and not an Oceania ship that is for sale.🙂

[pinotlover]

I was told cruises for the second half of 2022 would be out mid October. Patience my friends!

 

I highly doubt that an Oceania customer rep would know the contract terms between Oceania and any Travel Agency. Likewise, they wouldn’t have a clue of the employment compensation terms between any of the Travel Agencies and their individual Travel Agents. 
 

I would find it highly irregular that any Oceania representative would comment to a third party regarding any contracts it may have with other Parties! 
 

I had world wide agents selling products for my company. Neither myself nor my employees would ever discuss sales and marketing agreements along with pricing to those Agents with individual end users, ie the Agents customers. Highly unprofessional. 
 

I find it a bit un tasteful that after receiving either 100% of your money back or a 125%FCC, that some are still graveling for an additional kickback from their Travel Agency. Now I fully realize why my TA never does rebates, but takes very good care of me on cruises I take!

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, Mura said:

In my experience, if they think you have -- they let you know!

 

I was once told I'd broken the rules about revealing a TA's identity when I had only referred to "my TA" ... I never mentioned a name.

 

 

 

Mura

yes  sometime  you get in trouble  even when not trying to LOL

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Fort_Worth said:

 

No. They were articles posted by various cruise industry news sites. Doesn't matter. Just do the google search and you'll find 'em. 

Maybe you did not hit  Submit button

i have done that on occasion 😉

[Jancruz]

On 6/23/2020 at 8:05 AM, Redtravel said:

Sadly, the travel industry has been hit hard. The big online agency that I use furloughed most of their agents. My long time trustworthy agent was let go and has not returned. The agents that are still working are mostly processing refunds.  There maybe some bookings. The agents don’t really have much interest working with new clients leftover from other agents.  It took me a long time to reach a person at the Agency. They were rude. Probably tired.  When I want to book again, I will be looking for a real travel agent, not an automated one.  It may be a long time before the travel industry revives. Be patient.  In the meantime, need help with a cruise booking, call the cruise line directly.  

The reservationists at the cruise line know nothing they are the last ones you should ask..

Jancruz1

[roger b]

 What are the chances of Oceania sailing in Asia in February 2021, I have cruise booked that final payment might be due  ??   

[Redtravel]

Jancruz,

 

Got email from Viking cancelling my cruise. If I wanted a cash refund I had to contact my travel agent and request that refund by April 4th or it would become fcc. when I tried contacting my travel agent by email to request a refund from Viking, I got an email that said out of office. When I called, I got a message that he was no longer there. Help was not coming. Nobody else at that big online agency would help me.  All I got was a message....due to the overwhelming number of calls, leave us your number and we’ll call back.   That never happened. After 4 days, I called a Viking directly. No wait to get through too.  The agent told me that since I made the reservation with a travel agent, I had to contact that agent to request the refund.  When I told him that it was impossible to get to my travel agent relating why, he put me on hold. He got back and said that they really don’t handle refunds directly. However, since my situation was unusual, they would help me.  They requested a refund that I got.  I have sailed with Viking previously. They are the best organized cruise line. While I am not booked on any future cruises now, I hope that Viking survives. 

[ORV]

11 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Maybe you did not hit  Submit button

i have done that on occasion 😉

I did this recently. I was sure I replied to a post, and it was nothing political or objectionable(not that I would ever do that), so I couldn't see any reason it would be deleted. I'm sure I forgot to hit submit. I didn't redo as I couldn't really remember what I was going to say. 

[RJB]

On 6/21/2020 at 4:00 PM, LHT28 said:

I would be going after my TA if they did that 😲

Get them to refund the final payment   NOW  if you did not give them permission to take the payment early

 

My TA advises me  a week before the FP date  that it is coming up 

a month ahead is not acceptable

 

Same with us.  Out T/A calls us first and asks if it O.K. to charge our card. After I give her the go head then the card is charged.  Always has been our rules and it works great. 

[Paulchili]

4 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Jancruz,

 

Got email from Viking cancelling my cruise. If I wanted a cash refund I had to contact my travel agent and request that refund by April 4th or it would become fcc. when I tried contacting my travel agent by email to request a refund from Viking, I got an email that said out of office. When I called, I got a message that he was no longer there. Help was not coming. Nobody else at that big online agency would help me.  All I got was a message....due to the overwhelming number of calls, leave us your number and we’ll call back.   That never happened. After 4 days, I called a Viking directly. No wait to get through too.  The agent told me that since I made the reservation with a travel agent, I had to contact that agent to request the refund.  When I told him that it was impossible to get to my travel agent relating why, he put me on hold. He got back and said that they really don’t handle refunds directly. However, since my situation was unusual, they would help me.  They requested a refund that I got.  I have sailed with Viking previously. They are the best organized cruise line. While I am not booked on any future cruises now, I hope that Viking survives. 

You just had the misfortune of working with the wrong agency.

I encountered the same situation recently - my agent was coming in only once or twice a week and the other was furloughed.

Each had put in an auto reply into their email about this and gave an alternate contact email at the agency.

That person responded promptly as if she was my original agent and took care of everything.

That is how it is done at the proper agency - people cover for each other.

[Redtravel]

33 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

You just had the misfortune of working with the wrong agency.

I encountered the same situation recently - my agent was coming in only once or twice a week and the other was furloughed.

Each had put in an auto reply into their email about this and gave an alternate contact email at the agency.

That person responded promptly as if she was my original agent and took care of everything.

That is how it is done at the proper agency - people cover for each other.

I know how a proper agency should operate. Just relating my experience.  Any decent agency would service all clients. That big agency really didn’t care. Needless to say, they won’t get my bookings. They obviously furloughed too many agents. When travel resumes, they may lose their old clients.  Btw my agent never returned. The agency would not say if he was furloughed, got sick, or worse. He was fabulous.  He booked our trips many times.  He just vanished.  Not booking now, but when I do, I’ll find another agency.  What the travel agencies and cruise lines should realistically think is that they need us. Without people booking, they will go out of business.