Online sites can't undercut HAL?

[Hlitner]

5 hours ago, retafcruiser said:

I don't understand how they give 8-10% when the cruise line only gives them 8-10% commission????

That issue is mentioned here on CC..from time to time.  The myth is that all cruise/travel agencies get 8-10% commission.  It is much more complex, not all agencies are equal, there are special incentives for agencies, overrides, etc.  We routinely get more then 10% savings on our HAL bookings (when counting discounts, on board credits, etc) and you can be sure that the agencies we use (which are all very reputable high volume agencies) are making their share of money.

 

There is another interesting factoid about HAL.  A few years ago a HAL onboard cruise counselor told us that about 80% of HAL bookings come through cruise/travel agents.  We are not sure if that percentage has changed since that time, but that squares with what we have been told by cruise ship staff on a couple of other lines.

 

As to the HAL Personal Cruise Counselors PCCs which is a very carefully contrived marketing name for reservations clerks, they are unable to match (or even come close to matching) the deals we get from certain cruise agencies.  I once told our PCC (who called us a few times seeking our business) that if she would match the deals we get from agencies then she could have all our business.  Her counter suggestion was that we book our cruises through her (PCC) and then later transfer the booking to an agency to get the additional OBCs and perks.  And no, we have never done that as it makes no sense to take multiple steps when we can quickly book in minutes) with our favorite cruise agencies with a few clicks of the mouse.

 

Hank

[jimmy2x]

5 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

This morning, the HAL site is showing a fare  of $7,274, about $150 LESS than the big box fare, although the big box fare includes a $650 shop card, $350 in OBC, and complementary shipboard gratuities for two. The HAL fare includes an undefined "Onboard Spending Money".

 

The fare I am looking at is Seward to Vancouver, 6/21/20, cabin 7069. I would be interested to know if you get a different fare. Yesterday, the HAL site was showing a fare of $7,992.

So I did a dummy booking on one of the Best online sites. 
Cabin 7073

$7630 inc. tax and gratuities 

$500 OBC

 

Looks better to me. Possibly I’m missing something?

 

[molemaui]

Maybe I'm missing it all! I too, have an agency that does a great job with rebates, discounts and OBC. I've also looked at Big Box and seen pricing that comes close or even slightly beats the pricing I get. The difference if there is any, certainly isn't enough to make me change as I still have the "comfort" of having someone do my work when prices go down, a cruise cancelled, or any other matter. I've waited on hold for 45 minutes at Big Box. 

 

What I am totally confused by is HAL's website. When searching cruises , it says to "log in for special pricing". I tries this with 8 different cruises with varying dates and to different places. (Europe, Alaska, Caribbean, etc) Pricing was identical. I figured this was an exercise in futility so I quit my experiment. Am I doing something wrong to not see "special pricing"?

[dockman]

Big volume agencies get 15% commission plus additional overrides.  They also do big group bookings at lower rates and then sell individuals into those group bookings.  They then rebate a big chunk of the commissions in the form of cash back, OBC, gift cards, etc.

 

This has been going on for several years in spite of many cruise lines half hearted attempts to control it.

 

It is very similar to what happened 20 years ago when big agencies were making 15%++ on airline ticket sales.  Then of course some agencies started rebating half or more of the commission direct to big corporate accounts.

 

Eventually the airlines concluded that if we are paying you so much money that you can give half or more of it away as rebates then we are paying you TOO much money.  After several attempts to control the out of control rebating agencies the airlines started to cut travel agents commissions first to 5%  and ultimately the commission rate went to zero. Of course the evolution of the internet made many  suppliers and agencies services less of a mystery and less valuable as more people could finally find fares, seats, routes, etc and book their flights direct with the airlines.  As a result thousands of travel agencies went out of business.  Now as a result of the massive cruise rebates offered by the massive agencies more and more ma and pa travel agencies simply cannot give away half or more of their cruise commissions to compete and must either continue to cut staff and service or go out of business.

 

It is a matter of time until the cruise lines will also act more forcefully to quit allowing the big agencies to undercut the cruise lines own selling prices.  All it will take is for one or two of the major lines to figure out that by cutting big commission payments and offering additional perks for those who book direct with the cruise lines that their bottom line will improve.  That and the rapidly improving web sites that remove much of the mystery of picking a ship, a room etc.

 

For those who don't think this will happen ask a few thousand travel agencies who were told for decades by airlines that they were their "partners in travel".

 

All of the boasting and bragging on sites like this about what massive rebates you got/get from big box stores will hasten the day.

 

And no I don't begrudge anyone for taking the rebates.

 

 

 

 

[MisterBill99]

On 1/13/2020 at 7:11 PM, molemaui said:

What I am totally confused by is HAL's website. When searching cruises , it says to "log in for special pricing". I tries this with 8 different cruises with varying dates and to different places. (Europe, Alaska, Caribbean, etc) Pricing was identical. I figured this was an exercise in futility so I quit my experiment. Am I doing something wrong to not see "special pricing"?

 

You're supposed to see Private Fare pricing when you login, but that does not exist for all sailings. Do you get mailings from them (email or snail mail)? I get them and would login and never see the same pricing. Then I created a login for my wife and she had them, even though both of our names were on the mailings! I contacted HAL and they "fixed it". Now I see the private prices online but my wife doesn't (which makes no sense but isn't an issue since I am the one who looks for cruises). If you get the mailings but do not see the private price when you login, I suggest creating a login for your spouse (assuming you have one).

[iancal]

Our experience across a number of cruise lines is that our on line TA OR or a BB TA (which we have only used twice)  ALWAYS have better pricing than cruise line direct. 

 

This is so on our BB bookings. On our on line TA site the price typically is typically identical to the cruise line IF you only go as far as their web site.  If you call the on line agency and speak to an agent you will then, in our experience, be offered a better price that their website (or the cruise line website).   We lost patience with several cruise line websites.  Poorly designed and poorly functioning.  We no longer bother with them.

 

Bottom line for us is that in every cruise that we have booked in the last 15 or so years (cannot remember past that), cruise line direct pricing has always been the most expensive.  The one exception is when we booked a last minute Australian cruise directly with RCI in Australia.  The NA on line pricing and the RCI North America pricing was considerably higher. We could not get a timely response from an OZ on line agent so we picked up the phone and dealt with RCI Sydney.  The price delta was 30 percent over the best NA pricing (adjuscted for currency) that we could obtain.

Edited January 21, 2020 by iancal

[HokiePoq]

On 1/13/2020 at 9:44 AM, retafcruiser said:

I don't understand how they give 8-10% when the cruise line only gives them 8-10% commission????

At least one of the big box stores has a business model that makes the profit on memberships.  Products sold...and I am inferring that would include the travel division, go at cost.    Costs would be covered but not a big profit margin if any.

[BermudaBound2014]

On 1/13/2020 at 7:38 PM, dockman said:

For those who don't think this will happen ask a few thousand travel agencies who were told for decades by airlines that they were their "partners in travel".

Having closely followed the industry for the last 30 years, I do agree with what you have stated. However; I believe that it is noteworthy to mention that the airlines were able to cut out the middle man (TA's) by controlling supply and demand. The airlines cut routes and/or combining routes.  Planes used to fly with empty seats. No longer the case. The cruise companies have not set themselves up in this area because they continue to flood the market with supply (aka bigger and bigger ships).  Therefore, they still need middle men to fill empty cabins. I believe that if the cruise lines could cut out the middle man right now, and still fill all berths, they would. 

[Tampa Girl]

On 1/13/2020 at 8:44 AM, RocketMan275 said:

They don't "give away all of the profit", only a portion, about 8-10% of the fare.

 

And, ironically, that is what I have found to be the usual discounted price from every independent agency that we have ever used - which are many.  We are brand new 5*.  Actually, it used to be closer to 12%, but the last couple of years the discounted price is usually 8 - 10%.  We never book with HAL.

[RocketMan275]

6 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

And, ironically, that is what I have found to be the usual discounted price from every independent agency that we have ever used - which are many.  We are brand new 5*.  Actually, it used to be closer to 12%, but the last couple of years the discounted price is usually 8 - 10%.  We never book with HAL.

That's good to know.  And, we've found you get better service from an independent agency.  We talk to the same person every time we call.  They call us by name we they answer the phone.  I would never book direct again.