Les is in a mood – a good one! Thumbs up for a couple of cruise lines for their considerate treatment of clients in distress and for offering great ship inspections. Other agents saying “Thumbs Down”, though, for offering client discounts pulled from agent commissions! If you want to report something well done by a supplier, a res agent, or rep, we are happy to give them some coverage in TRO’s Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down. If you have a problem with airlines, tour companies, etc. or getting commissions, maybe we can assist. Contact Les-Lee at packagedeals@comcast.net.
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A THUMBS UP to Princess. The travel agent booked her clients on an Alaska Cruise, a longtime dream come true. A few days into the cruise, they were notified of a death in the family. They had to disembark at the nearest port and arrange to fly to Michigan for the funeral.Princess assisted them with the air and a hotel. Princess also informed them that they were going to be penalized $600 over the cost of the cabin. This extra fine was assessed because they left the US in Seattle and never arrived at a foreign port before they disembarked. No problem, they told the clients – just submit it to the insurance company – which by the way was not booked through Princess.Months and months later, they received a $600 refund from Princess. Somewhere along the line, they reversed the penalty. However…nowhere along the line did Princess ever communicate with the travel agent about the situation. The travel agent did not know about the emergency, and she had arranged their independent shore excursions, as well as their pre and post package. The travel agent was not informed about the $600 fee. So somewhere along the line, shouldn’t the cruise line be in touch with the travel agent? Imagine the chagrin when she sent them a welcome home gift and followed it up with a phone call message. Finally the client called and told the agent about her brother’s sudden death. The client was also very surprised that Princess never contacted the agent. I see the THUMB a little bent over now. Please suppliers! Understand the travel agent’s postion in these matters and keep us in the loop.
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In that vein, THUMBS UP for cruise line MSC. When clients left the ship while in port, due to illness, the cruise line called the agent and kept in communication. MSC also arranged for items left on board to go through customs to the Canadian clients.
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Laura from Bliss Honeymoons in Ohio, writes “
THUMBS DOWN to Sandals resorts for their military discount. I recently booked a couple under the military discount with TI. I was told that since they were getting a military discount, my commission would be cut back to 10%. I contacted my rep for Sandals who informed me that “they have to cap the commissions in order to cover the cost of the discount. I don’t know that it’s illegal, but it’s certainly… to claim to give military and fire personnel a 10%, but not disclose they’re making it up on the back end by taking part of my paycheck. The commission cap is not in writing anywhere on the consumer site, or in the Sandals agent portal. My rep was unable to provide us with any written documentation of how this works…. I understand the sacrifices that military personnel make, but I don’t believe that Sandals should be able to force us to contribute to the costs of supporting their discount program, while taking all the credit for being so generous to military and fire personnel.”
Laura, it is not just Sandals. There are other tour operators who say they price match, but the lower price partially comes from lowering the commission. They feel if they give a little, we do too! All suppliers who state that price match, should clearly disclose if this is going to affect the agent’s commission.Going back quite a few years, I remember Princess Cruises having a policy that the agent commission was protected from the booking date, regardless of lowering the rate. Oh, to have those days back again!
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From agent Ron Dourma at Ina’s Travel in Rippon California, another THUMBS DOWN for Delta.“We had never heard of such a thing as what just happened to our customer in Memphis. TSA had an agent that ‘randomly’ selected our customer in the boarding ramp to the plane after the Delta agent had scanned his boarding pass. They ended up hauling him back to the security checkpoint for testing. Of course he missed his flight because he was removed from the boarding ramp as his plane was boarding. Delta had him locked out of their system because he was shown as boarding and then exiting the airplane. No offer of reimbursement. No apologies. Just ‘too bad, so sad.’ Plus his luggage was tampered with and damaged. TSA and Delta both said, ‘It’s not my problem’. Five hours until the next flight… had to purchase another ticket… missed connections… missed pickups and it’s nobody’s fault..How did we let airlines and airport security get to this point? Do we not have ANY rights in an airport these days?”
Ron, new rules have just come out to help the passengers, but I didn’t see this scenario addressed. TSA is in control to check the passengers, but certainly the passenger should not be penalized – both by time and finances- in order to comply with a random check. Delta Corporate did not return my call about this. |
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THUMBS UP given by agent, Louise Gott from Where We Turn Dreams Into Cruises. She praises the opportunity for ship inspections given by Oceania. She also mentioned the clarity of using their online Travel Center.On the other hand, she is not equally happy with Carnival and Princess and their agent rates being hard to get and sometimes higher than client rates. Not so sure I fully agree, here though, Louise.
Princess offers great deals, but usually at last minute for agents. And if you have completed the Commander program of education, you are offered exquisite deals. For agents who have completed their education for Cunard and were told could qualify for a free cruise, I hope Cunard will still reward them based on when they completed the tests. The new qualifications are sales based as well as education scores. For Carnival, speak out agents – do you find the same situation? |
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THUMBS DOWN! Doesn’t it seem that certain cruise lines who promote their price protection get lots of press touting how they want to work with the agents? But only a few months later, the policy went by the wayside.Agent books the cabin, pays in full, cruise line lowers the rate after the final payment was processed. To make matters worse, the client had received an automated supplier e-mail offering a sale rate on the very same sail date. Agent called the res department and was told there is nothing that can be done. Being persistent, the agent called again a few minutes later, got another res agent. This one said that even though the previous price protection policy has been rescinded, she knows that agents who complain to higher departments have been successful. Luckily, in this case, the agent did go higher and did get somewhat lucky. No money was refunded, but the clients got an upgrade to a suite AND a $300 shipboard credit. But the agent would have to return part of the commission, since the suite is now lower priced than the original veranda booking!Let’s analyze this. Cruise line gets to keep the extra commission?What is an agent to do? Our obligation is to take care of the clients that WE brought to the supplier. We want their future business and their referrals. Does the supplier even care if we do whatever is necessary to keep the clients happy. I don’t think so! They are not on the front line with our clients.Bottom line, the client is now reluctant to book in advance with that supplier – will wait for the best deal offered. And no mention of loyalty for the cruise line is in the conversation. |
One thought on “It’s Thumbs Up for Princess!”
These articles are so informative, imagine not being aware of the issues some agents are experiencing. Hopefully we can get better service from the various vendors that are creating the problem.