Travel Agents and Cruising

[gerryuk]

Hypothetically speaking, the cruise lines decide to end their relationships with travel agents. These are tough times for the industry and all the cruise lines decide that their relationship with travel agents, is eating in to their bottom line, financially.

There are many posters on here that swear by their travel agents, they can do no wrong from giving obc, to getting upgrades and the like. If you could no longer book your cruise through a travel agent and had to deal directly with the cruise lines, would you still cruise or would call it a day on the high seas, just interested.

[LHT28]

I truly cannot see cruise lines  not using travel agencies to sell their cruises

They would need to hire more  staff to handle the bookings

JMO

[ldubs]

I would certainly still cruise.  But "nothing is going to stop me" is not applicable and should not be part of the poll.   Hence, I didn't vote. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by ldubs

[wcook]

I always book direct with the cruise line. The question for me is would I cruise less if I had to use an agent. 

[wcook]

3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I would certainly still cruise.  But "nothing is going to stop me" is not applicable and should not be part of the poll.   Hence, I didn't vote. 

An ode to a travel agent:
 

And we can plan this cruise together
Standing strong forever
Nothing's gonna stop us now
And if this world runs out of cruisers
We'll still have each other
Nothing's gonna stop us
Nothing's gonna stop us

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, gerryuk said:

Hypothetically speaking, the cruise lines decide to end their relationships with travel agents. These are tough times for the industry and all the cruise lines decide that their relationship with travel agents, is eating in to their bottom line, financially.

There are many posters on here that swear by their travel agents, they can do no wrong from giving obc, to getting upgrades and the like. If you could no longer book your cruise through a travel agent and had to deal directly with the cruise lines, would you still cruise or would call it a day on the high seas, just interested.

Looks like you are not aware that what basically amounts to “outsourcing” (i.e., cruise lines relying heavily on the use of TAs) saves cruise lines $ millions each year as opposed to the cost they would have without them (e.g., significant increase in staff, salaries, benefits, physical facilities, marketing……).

 

The net effect of cruise lines dropping TAs would be that your fares would increase. Bottom line is that the TA commissions are money well spent (for all concerned).

[Aquahound]

I already book all my cruises direct, so nothing would change.  

[jsn55]

I use a cruise-expert travel agent but she was a friend first.  I've always booked our travel direct, so nothing would change for us.  I agree that the cruiselines are dependent on TAs.  It's one thing to screw up a flight, that's a situation that lasts for a few hours, or overnight.  Screwing up a cruise would result in unhappy pax (doesn't matter who is at fault, since the pax will never see how he caused the problem) for a week or two.  That could result in 'poisoning the cruise' as those pax tell anyone who will listen how badly the cruiseline behaved.  I don't see cruiselines ever cutting out TAs.  

[gerryuk]

15 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Looks like you are not aware that what basically amounts to “outsourcing” (i.e., cruise lines relying heavily on the use of TAs) saves cruise lines $ millions each year as opposed to the cost they would have without them (e.g., significant increase in staff, salaries, benefits, physical facilities, marketing……).

 

The net effect of cruise lines dropping TAs would be that your fares would increase. Bottom line is that the TA commissions are money well spent (for all concerned).

You pay 2000 dollars each for you and your partner to go on a cruise, lets say the cruise line pays the agent 11% (could be less, could be more), that's 440dollars going to the agent for 1 transaction, alone. That 440 will more than pay the wages for 1 person working in a call centre in most places in the west, like the US and UK. But cruise lines being cruise lines, would probably employ call centre staff in places like India, and you could easily employ 3 people per week for the amount the agent has got for your own transaction.

It would be interesting to know how much a cruise lines like Carnival pays travel agents overall each year. 

 

 

 

 

[VMax1700]

5 hours ago, gerryuk said:

It would be interesting to know how much a cruise lines like Carnival pays travel agents overall each year. 

 

i am sure those numbers are crunched at least quarterly.  More likely the cruise lines will, as a first step, go like airlines (at least in Europe) and remove/substantially reduce the commission paid to travel agents.  Then the TA's will charge for their services and naturally drive the herd to direct bookings.

[ldubs]

22 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Looks like you are not aware that what basically amounts to “outsourcing” (i.e., cruise lines relying heavily on the use of TAs) saves cruise lines $ millions each year as opposed to the cost they would have without them (e.g., significant increase in staff, salaries, benefits, physical facilities, marketing……).

 

The net effect of cruise lines dropping TAs would be that your fares would increase. Bottom line is that the TA commissions are money well spent (for all concerned).

 

Might be some trade-off on cost but I am sure the service level would decline.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

8 hours ago, gerryuk said:

You pay 2000 dollars each for you and your partner to go on a cruise, lets say the cruise line pays the agent 11% (could be less, could be more), that's 440dollars going to the agent for 1 transaction, alone. That 440 will more than pay the wages for 1 person working in a call centre in most places in the west, like the US and UK. But cruise lines being cruise lines, would probably employ call centre staff in places like India, and you could easily employ 3 people per week for the amount the agent has got for your own transaction.

It would be interesting to know how much a cruise lines like Carnival pays travel agents overall each year. 

 

 

 

 

LOL.

 

Wages are only the “tip of the iceberg.” As aforementioned, “outsourcing” to TAs saves $$$ on marketing, reservations, customer services, facilities, etc. 

 

CLIA studies over the years have demonstrated the considerable value related to cruise lines’ preference for using and commissioning TAs.

Perhaps discount lines like Carnival use “call centers” in foreign lands. I wouldn’t know because you couldn’t pay me to step foot on any of their ships. But, with their relatively low fares, the paltry amount of their TA commissions would still make their preferring TAs to their own reservationists a better deal for all concerned.

 

That said, I doubt American based cruise lines (despite their flag state) catering to premium/luxury passengers would use foreign call centers where limited English fluency could be problematic in trying to do a 5 figure purchase. So, even with some of their own phone reps working from home due to the Covid era, the cruise lines still need to deal with wages, benefits, many hours of their own limited direct phone sales staff doing passenger “handholding” (which often doesn’t translate to any sales). 
Again, bottom line: cruise lines will never jettison TAs.

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

i am sure those numbers are crunched at least quarterly.  More likely the cruise lines will, as a first step, go like airlines (at least in Europe) and remove/substantially reduce the commission paid to travel agents.  Then the TA's will charge for their services and naturally drive the herd to direct bookings.

Will not happen - cruise travel factors are much more complicated and time consuming than are air tix sales. 

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Will not happen - cruise travel factors are much more complicated and time consuming than are air tix sales. 

And in addition, cruises are a much more discretionary purchase than airplane tickets usually are.

[KBs mum]

In the UK many cruise lines, particularly the non mass market ones are limited product travel agents via their UK offices, so the questions are not applicable 

[jsn55]

On 2/17/2023 at 9:02 AM, KBs mum said:

In the UK many cruise lines, particularly the non mass market ones are limited product travel agents via their UK offices, so the questions are not applicable 

What does this mean?

 

[KBs mum]

6 hours ago, jsn55 said:

What does this mean?

 

It means that the cruise line is a travel agent that only sells one product (cruises and associated flights on that cruise line). In the UK flights are usually included in the brochure price. 

So booking direct means you are booking via a travel agent

[fruitmachine]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

It means that the cruise line is a travel agent that only sells one product (cruises and associated flights on that cruise line). In the UK flights are usually included in the brochure price. 

So booking direct means you are booking via a travel agent

Does that then also mean that you get all the regulatory benefits (bonds, etc) there are if using a travel agent in the UK?

[KBs mum]

7 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

Does that then also mean that you get all the regulatory benefits (bonds, etc) there are if using a travel agent in the UK?

Yes, and the package holiday regulations apply, ABTA and ATOL also if the company is registered with them, which it should be

[gerryuk]

On 2/17/2023 at 5:02 PM, KBs mum said:

In the UK many cruise lines, particularly the non mass market ones are limited product travel agents via their UK offices, so the questions are not applicable 

Which cruise lines in the UK, mass market or not, can you not book directly with them, via the internet?

[KBs mum]

1 hour ago, gerryuk said:

Which cruise lines in the UK, mass market or not, can you not book directly with them, via the internet?

Can book direct with them all, by whatever means, but as most are registered as travel agents be booking direct you are booking with what is legally a travel agent. 

Also most package holiday companies are registered as travel agents. 

Of course there are travel agent companies who are independent/ bespoke

 

[Harry and Lucille]

We used a travel agent for our first cruise. 37 cruses ago. We book directly with the cruise line because if we hit any bumps, we can resolve them ourselves and not have to go thru a 3rd party.

[gerryuk]

6 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Can book direct with them all, by whatever means, but as most are registered as travel agents be booking direct you are booking with what is legally a travel agent. 

Also most package holiday companies are registered as travel agents. 

Of course there are travel agent companies who are independent/ bespoke

 

Cruise lines are selling their own product, travel agents are not, there is a big difference. 

[sacsarahsk]

Newbie here....
Can anyone point me to a thread where the pros and cons of TA vs. booking direct are discussed? We booked our own with Oceania, including flight. We chose the ship after watching tons of YouTubes - not very scientific! Wondering if there are benefits to using a TA in the future.

TIA.

[KBs mum]

57 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

Cruise lines are selling their own product, travel agents are not, there is a big difference. 

Legally no difference in UK law,  only difference is variety of/which products sold, and which trade arbitration associations the seller is registered with. 

A travel agent can be single product, eg a cruise line, or whole of market eg an independent bespoke company. Makes no difference