New Royal Caribbean Pricing Policy

[wizfourfam]

Just received an email from an online TA advising that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity will start a new cruise pricing policy (effective mid August) that prohibits agencies from discounting cruises. Is this good info...or just a plan to stir up sales?!!??

[FlorenceItaly]

Yep, just received this in an email:

 

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have announced they will not allow any of their cruises

to be discounted by any agency starting 8/16/04

[Bookit]

My TA told me (in April) that RCI had "reduced" the commissions that it is willing to pay agents, also. Don't know if that is accurate (she is with a major NAME travel agency.)

 

Bookit

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Hmmmmm....if RCI expects us to pay full prices, I can't help but think a lot of people would not be cruising and a lot of "discounted" agencies will have lay off's or closed doors! The internet is fast becoming the best/fastest and usually cheapest method of travel arrangement.

Lets hope it would be short lived when sales drop.

 

 

***

[smeyer418]

Its my understanding the prohibition is against advertising the lower price not rebating some of the commissions---big difference woops just looked at one of the sites and they are saying NO MORE DISCOUNTING... you know there are many TA's that don't discount but pay the tips or buy you ship board credits...more ways than one on this.....(and a bottle of Champaign)

[sealegs9]

All of you TA's out there, please chime in. Please verify that there are no more discounts allowed on RCCL & Celebrity.

We were planning on booking another cruise on the VOS in 2+ weeks and were searching for a new TA that discounts (but not totally internet- also phone contact). We were narrowing it down and then the rules changed on these boards. That's ok- I switched gears and e-mailed my cruzin' friends for their info.

I guess I don't have to stress over this anymore- I'll just book onboard with no TA and then switch to a full service TA who will send me an expensive bottle of champagne (and find me a triple or quad for next summer and jump on it when it is available).

It seems that we were never fortunate to save $ off RCCL's prices- although except for the Voyager we're going on, the prices were reasonable. We're paying thru the nose on this one (RCCL prices and we only booked in May of this year - JS).You do the math - 3 people. Anyway, our TA would have sent us something nice to our cabin, but the company was bought out by a major conglomerate last year and are no longer allowed to do that.

Luckilly, my T/A did get us a nice JS as one became available and smoothed out some paperwork problems his company was having.

Awaiting verification.

[HB Cruiser]

Isn't this called "Price Fixing" and is outlawed by the government?

 

Just a thought.

 

Tim & Crystal

[kimanjo]

I don't "get" this proposed concept of RCL (and I understand Carnival will be following, if not already doing so).

 

From what my sis-in-law's sister (a small-time) T/A explained, RCL is going to only allow ONE price per each level of each cruise ship, meaning Liberty Travel and Garber Travel and Carlson Wagonlit and xyzcruises.com (a budget internet service) can only quote the same price. She said the major travel agents "lobbied" for this, but I think it's going to backfire, because the number of cruise bookings is going to go down. Competition drives the market, and if there's no competition, there's little, if any, market!

 

Can anyone with more knowledge of this explain??

 

Or maybe, as an afterthought, this is like the New Coke and Coke Classic experience--maybe it's a "false alarm" to pull in a bunch of bookings before the corporate annual reports are due?????????????

[smeyer418]

I wrote about this before on another thread but will do it one more time at least. A travel agent works for the principal-cruise line. It the cruise line that set the price in most cases. As an agent for a principal the agent has to do what the principal says-no antitrust rules are broken as you need an agreement(conspiracy) to set prices with someone else and here there is really only one party the cruise line(with an agent working for the cruise line). The exception is when a travel agency buys a block or rooms and resells them at any price they want. Then both the travel agency and the cruise lines act as principals and it is illegal for the cruise line to set the price the sperate entity resells what it bought. They can refuse to allow people to resell but if they do allowing reselling they can't price fix. If you buy a GE appliance and they are only sold at a GE owned store, GE can tells it employees no dicsounts(like Saturn cars) but if you sell to a distributor and he can sell to anyone else you can't tell the distributor what price(like all the rest of the car companies). So how you sell and where you sell does make a difference.

[brn2crz]

All I know is the Online Agent I have used the past 2 years,have been 135 and 129 pp less than RCIs lowest price..I am not sure how this will play out for anyone..What will be the incentive for useing an online agent? I know RCI does not care about that,but the two kinda go hand in hand.Maybe we have cut ourselves in the throat by broadcasting priceing and such on these boards.Maybe CC's rule change was a precurser to these changes.It can't be good for RCI or any other line ,for 110,ooo + members to see how much of a discount some are getting with other agents.More people are becoming cruise savvy and thats not good for them.

[mojo4trav]

This was posted at one of my favorite TA sites regarding the pricing restrictions:

 

 

"Recently several major cruise lines have added restrictions regarding how agencies can list prices on their web sites. We no longer can post a "discount" price. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity price restrictions take effect August 16, 2004. The Carnival Cruises new policy takes effect January 1, 2005. At the current time some Carnival prices still include discount prices."

 

 

I find this to be really disappointing and we may consider spending our vacation dollars elsewhere. To us, cruising was attractive due to the value, it seems we may no longer get better value over a land-based vacation. If that is the case, our cruising days may be numbered. :rolleyes:

[kyriecat]

It sounds like I got my husband back into cruising at the right time. We've got 3 cruises booked already for the next year (all with online discount TAs!). I guess I'd better really enjoy them. Depending on how much the new RCI policy adjusts pricing, I may be landlocked for a while! :(

 

I'm still not really sure how the policy will affect costs. Will the TAs have to charge the same price listed on the RCI website? If so, OUCH!!! I booked my Oct 2005 Med cruise in April (the day after the schedule was released!) and got an "early bird" special - booked a oceanview cabin for less than advertised on the RCI site and got a "free" upgrade to a balcony. Is an upgrade still allowed with the new policy? It wouldn't be bad to book an inside cabin and get an upgrade to an outside or a balcony for "free" instead of the lower rate. Of couse, sometimes you just want to get the cheapest rate possible so you would rather have the cheap cabin price over the upgrade.

[ripleysmom]

All I can say is whew!! Glad we booked a month a couple of weeks ago.

 

Just wanted to add that I thought that the agencies could still offer discounts, they just weren't allowed to advertise the discounted prices.

[kyriecat]

I just checked one of the online TAs I have used for a past booking to see what they have listed as their new policy. I saw a cruise listed as $XXX with $ZZZ "Value added dollars". The $XXX price listed looks like what is posted on the cruise line's site. I don't know how the value added dollars work but I guess that is one way of working around the restrictions.

[bUU]

Isn't this called "Price Fixing" and is outlawed by the government?

No. Setting a minimum price that is allowed to be advertised is a legal, normal practice in industry. Perfectly acceptable.

[bUU]

I don't "get" this proposed concept of RCL (and I understand Carnival will be following, if not already doing so).

Carnival announced the change first, to take effect next year. RCI announced the change in response, to take effect immediately.

 

meaning XXX and YYY and ZZZ can only quote the same price

Incorrect. The policies only affect advertising, not quoting.

 

She said the major travel agents "lobbied" for this, but I think it's going to backfire, because the number of cruise bookings is going to go down.

Obstensibly the reason for this is to help full-service travel agents compete in a market becoming quickly dominated by no-service booking engines.

[bUU]

This is a tempest in a teapot. There are absolutely no restrictions being put in place with respect to how much or how little an agent can offer the cruise to you.

[berd0625]

I posted this on another thread

 

 

I am getting 2 very mixed messages on this announcement.:confused:

 

 

The online agency I used to book my last cruise (that I linked to from here) is only offering "value added gifts" back to customers. Their site says

 

Effective Monday August 16th, NO AGENCY will be able to sell at a price point other than those priced directly by Royal Caribbean & Celebrity cruises. Agencies will no longer be able to offer special deals through their booking engines, telephone cruise specialists, or opt-in private email lists.

 

The online agency that has my next cruise states

 

Recently several major cruise lines have added restrictions regarding how agencies can list prices on their web sites. We no longer can post a "discount" price. Value added Dollars offers xxx.com clients an opportunity to enjoy the same benefits offered prior to this cruise line policy change. xxx.com Value added Dollars are based on United States dollars. $1.00 US = $1.00 xxx.com. Examples below based on a cruise that offers $300..00 per cabin Value added Dollars.

Your choice at time of booking the cruise with xxx.com

1. $300.00 Value added Dollars = $300.00 off your invoiced price

   
   

I've read on other posts that the issue is not the price being offfered but simply what can be advertised as the base price.

Can anyone here clarify?

 

__________________

 

Bicker, I think you've answered it.

[twin123185]

Its always been my understanding from a TA friend that the cruise price is the same for anyone - some TA's give back their commission - thats why some are cheaper - a lot of on line TA's don't have any overhead so they can afford to do this.

Larry

[brn2crz]

This is a tempest in a teapot. There are absolutely no restrictions being put in place with respect to how much or how little an agent can offer the cruise to you.

Bicker,you may be right,and we certainly hope so.I also spoke to the "gal " I use at a very large,on-line agencey...They are being told the same thing.Priceing can not fall below whatever RCI is offering,period.No customer anywhere,shy of C&A on on-board booking discounts,or discounts offered by RCI will be allowed to book at a lower price...

 

What really does not make sense about that is..Even RCI changes its price throughout the year on any given sailing.I have monitored on both sites,our upcoming sailing..It has fluctuated for months,Peaking now for our Sept sailing.

SO you still have people paying different prices.

[mojo4trav]

I'm still amazed that RCCL would make this move; doesn't the rule of "survival of the fittest" apply with regard to some agencies undercutting the 'Brick & Mortar' agents by rebating commission, speak directly to that adage?

[dougp26364]

Isn't this called "Price Fixing" and is outlawed by the government?

 

Just a thought.

 

Tim & Crystal

 

In a word, no. If you recall the airlines eliminated comissions to TA's several months ago. Price fixing would indicate that all cruise lines were working together to keep prices at a specific level. All RCI is doing is not allowing the advertising of comission rebated rates or the actual rebating of comissions. They are not controlling the cruise market, just their own rates.

 

Exactly how this will work is up for debate at this time. If RCI is eleminating the TA's ability to competitively price RCI cruises, then a couple of things might happen. One, business for the discount TA's could drop off. Two, cruise business could drop off. Three, nothing, people will continue to cruise as before.

[Erie Dave]

Everything I am reading indicates that this is an attempt to eliminate the online deep discount agencies that don't exist other than online. The restrictions apply to online listings, emails and other non-tangibles. The replies that a lot of you are talking about are from online TA's. My brick and mortar TA says she will still offer me the discounts that I am accustomed to and that the new policy will in no way affect the way we do business.

[mojo4trav]

Recently several major cruise lines have added restrictions regarding how agencies can list prices on their web sites. We no longer can post a "discount" price. Value added Dollars offers xxx.com clients an opportunity to enjoy the same benefits offered prior to this cruise line policy change. xxx.com Value added Dollars are based on United States dollars. $1.00 US = $1.00 xxx.com. Examples below based on a cruise that offers $300..00 per cabin Value added Dollars.

 

Your choice at time of booking the cruise with xxx.com

 

1. $300.00 Value added Dollars = $300.00 off your invoiced price

   
   

   BTW, this happens to also be my favorite agency and they seem to have removed the above information from their site. I was attempting to show it to my wife this evening and it is either gone or buried under a bunch of links. Hmmm...

   
   
   

[rcicruiser]

Some agencies are really blowning this policy change out of proportions. You can not advertise a rate on a website email or any other way unless it is a prices contracted by the cruiseline. The TA can still discount the cruise if they like. Carnival is doing the same thing, the one difference with them they already have the same pricing for everyone, but RCI has different rates for there top producers. They are not tell us what the rates have to be sold at they are just telling us we can not advertise discount rates any more.