Carnival has banned onboard credits - a sign of things to come?

[Disneyfalcon]

Those worrying about that probably compete on price - and not on service. This levels the playing field.

If the price is the same, the choice comes down to service. Will Carnival treat them same or better than their local travel agent?

We face this every day with WDW bookings - clients can easily pick up the phone and book with WDW directly, and many do - for the exact same price as booking with an agent... but many people don't like calling a call center with hundreds of CM's, many with varying degrees of knowledge of WDW, and you rarely get the same person twice. When you work with an agent, you get the same person each time, you form a relationship, and most will have a consistently high level of product knowledge - like Tammy does about DCL !

Not surprisingly, I agree with your posts, Joe.

I would love love love to compete on service alone.

 

[DisneyJoe]

My concern is that the individual who hunts for the best price and doesn't find any benefit in that regard to booking with an agent, will simply go directly to the source. The poster above who likes to control his own booking is not an exception, there are a lot of travelers just like that.

That is why the biggest job a travel agent has is marketing themselves and showing their value over booking direct. We do it all of the time with WDW and many other destinations - now we are being forced to do it with cruise lines.

Step up your marketing and value add message.

 

[Pooh Lover]

There is a lot of speculation that this is an attempt by Carnival to get more people to book directly through them instead of a travel agent.

This is the only reason I could think of for this decision. Personally, I have received far better service when booking a cruise through a travel agent than with the cruise line directly. Booking a cruise thru a cruise line is like ordering shoes over the phone. Not very rewarding but it does the job. Very sad. I hope other cruise lines do not follow suit.

 

[wilkeliza]

First off wanted to say I am a she not a he haha.

I only am giving opinions based on what I have experienced with travel agents. The agent I contacted for WDW because we saw they would give us a $300 Disney gift card said that they would be glad to help us book our dinners but because we booked through and agent they would have to do all the bookings for us. This was a travel agent I found who was licensed through Disney and was advertising on another forum. If I ever use a travel agent again I will turn to one of you guys that I trust here but as of late I haven't really seen the reason why I should use an agent when I stay on top of things pretty well myself. It is just me and the boyfriend and no kids or school so we have more than enough free time to do all the dirty work ourselves and for us the booking and keeping up with the planning and such is our favorite part. I love it so much I've thought about becoming a travel agent myself.

This was the same situation with our cruise. The person my boy friend's family uses chooses to not allow her clients to book anything themselves so you have to go through her for everything until you are on the boat. I was glad we went through Norwegian because their free style cruising took the stress away form someone else having control.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I hope other cruise lines do not follow suit.

At least 4 others have, but they are names you probably wouldn't recognize; Oceania, Regent, others.

I expect RCCL to announce soon.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

First off wanted to say I am a she not a he haha.

I only am giving opinions based on what I have experienced with travel agents. The agent I contacted for WDW because we saw they would give us a $300 Disney gift card said that they would be glad to help us book our dinners but because we booked through and agent they would have to do all the bookings for us. This was a travel agent I found who was licensed through Disney and was advertising on another forum. If I ever use a travel agent again I will turn to one of you guys that I trust here but as of late I haven't really seen the reason why I should use an agent when I stay on top of things pretty well myself. It is just me and the boyfriend and no kids or school so we have more than enough free time to do all the dirty work ourselves and for us the booking and keeping up with the planning and such is our favorite part. I love it so much I've thought about becoming a travel agent myself.

This was the same situation with our cruise. The person my boy friend's family uses chooses to not allow her clients to book anything themselves so you have to go through her for everything until you are on the boat. I was glad we went through Norwegian because their free style cruising took the stress away form someone else having control.

That's interesting that you've dealt with agencies that require you to do everything through them. They are creating a whole lot more work for themselves!

 

[Computer Magic]

There is a lot of speculation that this is an attempt by Carnival to get more people to book directly through them instead of a travel agent.

I totally agree. So does Costco have to follow the same rules. I struggled on who to use on our DCL. Costco offered a larger discount but I didn't think they would be as customer friendly. There was no value to go through Disney when I could help "local" travel agent and get custom service. SO I ended up using KK. There was less monatary value with the choice but a greater personnel customer service.

Bottom line, people will pay a little more for quality meaning customer service. People have a hard time paying for equal or more for less quality.

 

[Computer Magic]

Sadly this is a trend that is not exclusive to cruises. AT&T has forced us to use them for sales and stop allowing preferred resalers. This has brought down quality while keeping the same price. It takes us twice as long for a add, change or deletion to our phones, thus costing us more.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I totally agree. So does Costco have to follow the same rules. I struggled on who to use on our DCL. Costco offered a larger discount but I didn't think they would be as customer friendly. There was no value to go through Disney when I could help "local" travel agent and get custom service. SO I ended up using KK. There was less monatary value with the choice but a greater personnel customer service.

Bottom line, people will pay a little more for quality meaning customer service. People have a hard time paying for equal or more for less quality.

Thanks for that, Computer Magic!

Everyone would have to follow the same rules.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Personally, I have received far better service when booking a cruise through a travel agent than with the cruise line directly. Booking a cruise thru a cruise line is like ordering shoes over the phone. Not very rewarding but it does the job. Very sad. I hope other cruise lines do not follow suit.

So you receive better service with a travel agent, and compare booking directly with the cruise line to ordering shoes over the phone (I'm assuming you aren't talking about Zappos), yet you don't want the playing field leveled so that everyone can compete on service alone?

In the end, if the cruise lines want clients to book direct, and agents are providing the better service, the cruise lines should need to step up their service to match or risk losing clients to the agents, right?

 

[Computer Magic]

In the end, if the cruise lines want clients to book direct, and agents are providing the better service, the cruise lines should need to step up their service to match or risk losing clients to the agents, right?

That is correct in the short term. The long time struggle is small business competiting against deep pockets. Large organizations are known for taking a loses to squeeze out small business. After they are forced to close, the prices are raised since competition is removed.

 

[DisneyJoe]

That is correct in the short term. The long time struggle is small business competiting against deep pockets. Large organizations are known for taking a loses to squeeze out small business. After they are forced to close, the prices are raised since competition is removed.

You sound like some one who thinks travel agents days are numbered, just like they said when airlines stopped paying us commission - decades ago; and again when they said that the internet was killing us.

We are alive and thriving because consumers want personal service. Recent studies have shown this.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I'm enjoying the perspective in this thread and applaud our TAs on these boards for being so candid with those of us not so in-the-know.

I hadn't really thought so much about how leveling the playing field would force agencies to work on the merit of service. That itself would be a very good thing. I just saw the removal of competition/incentive as being restrictive. I'm glad to have the additional perspective.

This past May it really came down to this very subject when my brother & I were coordinating booking the Fantasy cruise for both our families next May. To me it was a no-brainer. I've never even looked at what other agencies offer because the service I get w/KK is that good. My brother, on the other hand, likes to be more hands-on than I do. Nothing wrong with that. I used to be like that but just don't feel the need anymore. My brother was ready to shop. He works in sales in a different industry so he's always cautious to be sure he's getting the best deal he can for his dollar. I understand where he's coming from. I kept telling him just to shoot an email to Tammy but he hesitated which sorta amazed me. He found other TAs who had ads out there for bigger OBCs and/or better pricing. I kept my hubby abreast as this whole thing played out and he kept saying, "I don't care what your brother does. I don't care if we pay more or get less OBC. We get amazing service with our agent, we trust her, we rely on her, she's dependable. She's done a lot for us, she's your friend, and she's good people. We're staying with Tammy." To my hubby and to me merit is worth paying extra for if it should come to that. In the end, my brother relented (I think he got so into planning the last minute details of his WDW trip that he needed to not take on wrapping his brain around cruise details) and I handled getting him booked along with us. But this is a prime example of how some clients are shoppers who go with best price while other clients find good service which is worth paying extra for if that's what has to happen.

So here's a question. If Carnival has one of their super-sales going on (I get the emails frequently) can the TAs book those same sale incentives for clients? I'm assuming the answer is yes.

I definitly like the idea of TAs competing on merit/service. That in itself would be huge for the industry as a whole.
Just wanna thank you TAs again for the crash course in how this stuff works. Y'all rock. I'm sure what you do is often a thankless job but I can honestly say that learning to let go and relax with amazing folks like yourselves to make the experience easy-peasy & laid-back has totally changed the way I approach vacationing. Seriously. Thank you!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'm enjoying the perspective in this thread and applaud our TAs on these boards for being so candid with those of us not so in-the-know.

I hadn't really thought so much about how leveling the playing field would force agencies to work on the merit of service. That itself would be a very good thing. I just saw the removal of competition/incentive as being restrictive. I'm glad to have the additional perspective.

This past May it really came down to this very subject when my brother & I were coordinating booking the Fantasy cruise for both our families next May. To me it was a no-brainer. I've never even looked at what other agencies offer because the service I get w/KK is that good. My brother, on the other hand, likes to be more hands-on than I do. Nothing wrong with that. I used to be like that but just don't feel the need anymore. My brother was ready to shop. He works in sales in a different industry so he's always cautious to be sure he's getting the best deal he can for his dollar. I understand where he's coming from. I kept telling him just to shoot an email to Tammy but he hesitated which sorta amazed me. He found other TAs who had ads out there for bigger OBCs and/or better pricing. I kept my hubby abreast as this whole thing played out and he kept saying, "I don't care what your brother does. I don't care if we pay more or get less OBC. We get amazing service with our agent, we trust her, we rely on her, she's dependable. She's done a lot for us, she's your friend, and she's good people. We're staying with Tammy." To my hubby and to me merit is worth paying extra for if it should come to that. In the end, my brother relented (I think he got so into planning the last minute details of his WDW trip that he needed to not take on wrapping his brain around cruise details) and I handled getting him booked along with us. But this is a prime example of how some clients are shoppers who go with best price while other clients find good service which is worth paying extra for if that's what has to happen.

So here's a question. If Carnival has one of their super-sales going on (I get the emails frequently) can the TAs book those same sale incentives for clients? I'm assuming the answer is yes.

I definitly like the idea of TAs competing on merit/service. That in itself would be huge for the industry as a whole.
Just wanna thank you TAs again for the crash course in how this stuff works. Y'all rock. I'm sure what you do is often a thankless job but I can honestly say that learning to let go and relax with amazing folks like yourselves to make the experience easy-peasy & laid-back has totally changed the way I approach vacationing. Seriously. Thank you!

* Sniff * I love Tracey!

Yes, we can book the same sales incentives.

 

[ChuckElias]

I know a travel agent who told me she is simply not going to sell Carnival anymore at all, unless a customer comes to her with the exact itinerary and cabin category. Can't say I blame her after reading all this.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I know a travel agent who told me she is simply not going to sell Carnival anymore at all, unless a customer comes to her with the exact itinerary and cabin category. Can't say I blame her after reading all this.

This is what I suspect will happen a good bit. When a client shows up with a Carnival cruise they want to go on how easy is it for the TA to say, "We could book that for you but look at what thiiiis cruise line is doing...." and steer them towards other lines.

 

[shipley731]

At least 4 others have, but they are names you probably wouldn't recognize; Oceania, Regent, others.

I expect RCCL to announce soon.

What sort of restrictions does Oceania impose? I just booked a cruise on Oceania last week through a TA and got $1000 off the published rate on the Oceania site, $150 on board credit, pre-paid gratuities, and Oceania's version of "free airfare". (9 night cruise San Francisco to Vancouver in May 2013.)

We always use a TA when we book a cruise. It gives us peace of mind knowing there is someone who can help us out if there's a snag.

 

[DisneyJoe]

What sort of restrictions does Oceania impose? I just booked a cruise on Oceania last week through a TA and got $1000 off the published rate on the Oceania site, $150 on board credit, pre-paid gratuities, and Oceania's version of "free airfare". (9 night cruise San Francisco to Vancouver in May 2013.)

Looks like it's currently limited to advertised rates; if that $1000 off the published rate and onboard credit and gratuities etc were advertised to you, that agent may have broken the new rule, unless they were less than 5% of the total fare. RCCL and the others also focus on advertised rates, which creates a loophole.

http://www.travelpulse.com/regent-oceania-cruises-institute-new-antirebating-policy.html

Carnival is the first to step up and close this loophole. From what I've read about Carnival, if agents are caught giving non-advertised cash-back/onboard credits and value-adds greater than $25, Carnival can terminate the commission relationship. We'll see what happens.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I know a travel agent who told me she is simply not going to sell Carnival anymore at all, unless a customer comes to her with the exact itinerary and cabin category. Can't say I blame her after reading all this.

Does she normally undercut the Carnival price?

This is what I suspect will happen a good bit. When a client shows up with a Carnival cruise they want to go on how easy is it for the TA to say, "We could book that for you but look at what thiiiis cruise line is doing...." and steer them towards other lines.

We do that now, as we have had enough clients take a Carnival cruise and have bad experiences; so we don't recommend them at all to our clients. The only time we will book Carnival for our clients is if the client insists.

 

[DisneyJoe]

From reading posts here and on other boards, it sounds like many agents are afraid that their clients are going to be running to Carnival to book direct, because they can't get the kickback anymore from their agent - yet the price will be the same.

If the agent was providing superior service over the Carnival call center, and had confidence in that service, they would have nothing to worry about. In fact, they would be confident in the fact that since a Call Center doesn't give personal service, that they should now expect new clients to come to them.

If DCL enacts the same policy as Carnival, I honestly expect my DCL business to increase since we give more personal service than the DCL call center.