Why we'll never see the end of fuel charges

[J-Hawk]

Just got off the phone with my TA - another price reduction on my cruise. This is the third and largest one. Good for me, bad for her. I made a couple of comments about this and she told me that she is not paid on the port charges (a couple hundred dollars of my $599 fare) nor is she paid on the fuel charges. This means that she will only make about $30 pp on my reservation. A number of posts on this board stated that they would just prefer that the price of the cruise go up rather than being charged extra for the fuel. I now think that this will never happen as the cruise industry squeezes out the TAs. This way, they are paying less commission.

[TEXASMUNK]

that means to make up the difference between a non-commissionable fee and the increase in the Per person cost, the per person cost would not rise by $10.oo but probably another one to two dollars per day....We will end up paying the extra so the TA can have their !0% to %15% commission on the fuel surcharge.

 

Sorry, as long as the Fuel surcharge is there, leave it alone!

 

AND...(this is smart-A comment) if you want your TA to make more money, book higher catagory cabins!!!!

[J-Hawk]

Unfortunately for the TAs, we as consumers are able to handle our own reservations, since we all have internet access. I think that this may be a dieing industry.

[silentbob007]

Unfortunately for the TAs, we as consumers are able to handle our own reservations, since we all have internet access. I think that this may be a dieing industry.

 

It may be a declining one, but there are still plenty of people who are not able to (don't have access, etc) or who do not wish to book their own travel. TAs prove themselves valuable by providing service on top of bookings.

[vtoria98]

It may be a declining one, but there are still plenty of people who are not able to (don't have access, etc) or who do not wish to book their own travel. TAs prove themselves valuable by providing service on top of bookings.

 

I agree, as even RCI recommends using a TA on their own website. many people like having a good TA that will look out for them and do all of the legwork, that is what a good TA is for, not just for obc's.

 

I think while it may be a declining indusrty maybe thats a good thing and the level of service one recieves will increase because it may weed out all the bad ones.

[Cruising89143]

Unfortunately for the TAs, we as consumers are able to handle our own reservations, since we all have internet access. I think that this may be a dieing industry.

 

I don't see TA's as a dying industry. First of all no cruise line could handle all bookings coming through their system. They simply do not have enough manpower on hand to handle this and one cruise line that is no longer around learned the hard way that you need TA's in this industry. They took all of their bookings in house and alienated the travel agent industry. That along with an over ambitious building program were two of the major reasons that this cruise line failed.

 

Carnival announced several months ago they were cutting the number of Personal Vacation Planners and reverting back to more TA's booking cruises for their product. In the end they save money. It cuts down on the number of employees in house which cuts down on payroll, benefits, etc. It's cheaper to pay commission than it is for someone to sit and book the cruise in house.

 

The fuel surcharge will be here until the cruise lines feel that the price is low and stable enough for them to do away with.

[J-Hawk]

I hope that you all are right. We'll just have to see.

[sas80]

I agree, as even RCI recommends using a TA on their own website. many people like having a good TA that will look out for them and do all of the legwork, that is what a good TA is for, not just for obc's.

 

I think while it may be a declining indusrty maybe thats a good thing and the level of service one recieves will increase because it may weed out all the bad ones.

 

I dont see TA's repping cruise reservations as a declining industry - I just think that eventually we may start to hear some agency's start to tell us that they no longer handle reservations for Royal Caribbean International, specifically.

 

Then again, if this really is a question of making zero dollars or making $50 due to an RCCL reservation, I could see where they say "money versus no money, I'll take the money" But I wonder about the quality of service people will recieve.

[TEXASMUNK]

When RCI announced no discounting, that should have meant higher commission levels for teh TA. Instead, many (not all) stumbled all over themselves to give up 50-75% of their commission as an OBC.

 

It matters not what industry you are in, when you sell based solely on price, your long term prospects for survival decline.

 

The age old mentality of "I will give them a discount this time in order to get their business next time" fails every time. Look at the auto industry when Chrysler "invented" the rebate, all they did was teach the comsumer to always wait for a deal!

 

We use a TA, on many of our cruise bookings, that does not give back the commissions. We use them because they know what they are doing, know us very well, and we can count on them!

 

So I lose money? No, I am assured of getting the service and follow-up I need.