Cruise Rebating

[TWELVEOHONE]

Royal Caribbean and Carnival are NOT stopping agents from discounting. RCI along with Carnival are discouraging the uncontrolled rebating that is happening in the industry.

 

Carnival announced this as being phase two of their rebating policy. Phase 1 was to insure that ALL agencies large and small get the same price.

 

Carnival and Royal Caribbean simply said that if an agency can afford to rebate then they obviously do not require the commission being paid. If a cruise line is paying 10% commission and the agency rebates half (5%) then it stands that the agency only needs 5% to survive. Cruise lines said if that is the case then they will only pay 5%.

 

This will be monitored by the cruise lines looking at media advertising by the agencies including the Internet. The first time the agency will be given a warning, after that there will be a cut in commission.

 

Some of the luxury cruise lines have said that agencies advertising prices below what the cruise line advertises will result in that bookings will no longer be accepted from that agency. I am sure many more cruise lines will follow.

[stlrboo]

Makes sense to me! I always wondered why the cruise lines would have the same prices as a TA, or if discounted, the TA could actually be lower. This, in turn, would eliminate the need for Carnival to employ PVP's, except for the ones who service TA's. It certainly is confusing..

I actually was given the same price by my TA as Carnival was offering, so I just went with the TA and will let them do the footwork.. and pump a little extra $$ into the local economy! ;)

[donnajo]

Wow, glad I booked the 4/3/05 Valor a month ago. Carnival's price on their site was at 929 for a balcony guarantee and I paid 855 thru an online agent!

That's a 148 dollar difference for the two of us.

Don't know if I would have booked at 929. We'll see what happens down the road if prices aren't discounted..

I was under the impression that the agencies just couldn't ADVERTISE cheaper prices. (?)

 

Oh, by the way, this will be my first Carnival cruise! After 13 cruises, I decided to try out a funship!

 

Donna