Question for Travel Agents...

[cle-guy]

I'm going thru an issue with a group booking that I had my usual travel agent book for me.

 

The group "shares" it's commission they say with 3rd party TA's who book their clients into their groups.

 

However it has taken them more than 4 months to pay my TA her commission. They say it takes Celebrity 4-5 months to pay them their commissions, thus they had to delay paying my TA as Celebrity hadn't paid them. They say this is standard for Celebrity and how they handle commission payments for groups.

 

This is in relation to my TA on Eclipse this spring in the PH, so my standard TA was keen to chase up her commission, that she finally got mid August, but she's not so looking forward to me booking again, with those types of issues with them, something I can totally understand.

 

Are there any TA's who have any experience in getting commission's paid out and does it take this long for real?

 

I worked for Marriott years back, and Marriott had a policy of TA's getting commissions within 10 days of the guest checkout, or they'd pay double commissions. I have no idea what Cruise line policies are, but 4 to 5 months past a Cruise seems wrong to me.

 

I have a laundry list of other discrepancies and issues with this particular group/TA, so suspect this is yet another inaccuracy in information provided to me, and just looking to see if anyone can tell me for sure so I can place my frustration with the correct party, be that looking to other cruise lines, or other groups to sail with. This particular group has blamed X for several other issues as well, that also make no sense to me based on my sailing history with X.

 

Appreciate any input, not looking for any particular travel agent details, of course, just trying to validate (or invalidate) this experience.

[Prada Cowboy]

Normal is 1-2 months after sailing! But with a group and changes in a group booking it can take up from 1-3 months!

[stevea36]

I'm going thru an issue with a group booking that I had my usual travel agent book for me.

 

The group "shares" it's commission they say with 3rd party TA's who book their clients into their groups.

 

However it has taken them more than 4 months to pay my TA her commission. They say it takes Celebrity 4-5 months to pay them their commissions, thus they had to delay paying my TA as Celebrity hadn't paid them. They say this is standard for Celebrity and how they handle commission payments for groups.

 

This is in relation to my TA on Eclipse this spring in the PH, so my standard TA was keen to chase up her commission, that she finally got mid August, but she's not so looking forward to me booking again, with those types of issues with them, something I can totally understand.

 

Are there any TA's who have any experience in getting commission's paid out and does it take this long for real?

 

I worked for Marriott years back, and Marriott had a policy of TA's getting commissions within 10 days of the guest checkout, or they'd pay double commissions. I have no idea what Cruise line policies are, but 4 to 5 months past a Cruise seems wrong to me.

 

I have a laundry list of other discrepancies and issues with this particular group/TA, so suspect this is yet another inaccuracy in information provided to me, and just looking to see if anyone can tell me for sure so I can place my frustration with the correct party, be that looking to other cruise lines, or other groups to sail with. This particular group has blamed X for several other issues as well, that also make no sense to me based on my sailing history with X.

 

Appreciate any input, not looking for any particular travel agent details, of course, just trying to validate (or invalidate) this experience.

 

Talking with TAs that I know, identifying no one or company, US commissions are paid at the end of the month that the sailing ends.

 

Steve

[GoldenRetriever]

It is typical for Celebrity to send the group overpayment (commission) within about 1 month of sail date.

Edited October 29, 2014 by GoldenRetriever