Princess apologizes for employee’s anti-agent email

Posted on 2 April, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Princess apologizes for employee’s anti-agent email

By Kate Rice

Princess Cruises has disavowed language questioning the value of travel agents that an employee sent to a travel agent’s customer.

In the email, the Princess vacation planner wrote to the customer, “Why book with a travel agent when you can get all of the benefits of booking directly to us, at no cost to you?”

Princess said that the language was not approved and that a new vacation planner had edited language in an email template without seeking approval, which is in violation of the cruise line’s policies. Then the employee shared that language with another new vacation planner.

“The sentiment expressed in the email is not the view of Princess Cruises, and we are disappointed that this was incorporated into a consumer communication from our company,” Princess said in a statement.

The statement added, “Princess Cruises has a longstanding relationship with the professional travel agent community and honors that business partnership with respect and integrity. Travel agents provide the vast majority of business for Princess Cruises.”

Princess said that it has taken disciplinary action with the two employees who used the unapproved language.

Brian O’Connor, Princess’ vice president of sales, apologized for the error in a letter to travel agents and said the cruise line was “extremely embarrassed” by the incident.

He added that Princess does not give its vacation planners access to the cruise line’s database of past passengers.

He also described the processes Princess uses to clear a potential passenger for a vacation planner to contact. Princess does a nightly scrub to make sure no one contacts a potential customer if that customer is currently working with a travel agent, is an agent or has an active booking with a travel agent or directly with the cruise line.

Princess Cruises increases base rate commission

Posted on 13 March, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Princess Cruises increases base rate commission

By Lee Hayhurst

Princess Cruises has insisted its move to pay a basic upfront 10% commission on all bookings is not an admission that the move to a headline rate of 5% in 2011 was a mistake.

The Complete Cruise Solution brand has split from its fellow members of the Carnival UK trade arm by deciding to increase its basic agency payment for bookings for 2014 cruises.

Agents were told of the move this week, with UK director Paul Ludlow saying it came as a result of feedback from the trade.

He told Travel Weekly that despite Princess moving to the headline rate of 5% in 2011, along with P&O Cruises and Cunard, it was never actually that low due to other earning options.

Agents were able to earn an extra 3% on the cruise element when booking air through Princess (a so-called ‘air kicker’) and could also earn more by taking out a group deal.

However, these were both paid after sailing on a quarterly basis and Ludlow said agents told Princess they wanted a simpler arrangement so they know what their earnings will be.

“We were never at 5%,” said Ludlow. “We were always more than 5%, but we chose not to pay those commissions at the time of the booking.

“From the point of view of the sales consultant, they saw 5%, and we had feedback that agents liked the extra earning opportunities, but there was a degree of complexity and they wanted it simplified.

“For 2013 Princess is doing very well and we have our new ship Royal Princess coming into Southampton in a few months’ time.

“We are not making these changes for 2013, this is for 2014 onwards. So this is not a knee-jerk reaction because 5% has not worked. This is based on agent feedback.”

Under the previous groups programme, agents could earn up to 6.25% extra commission on the cruise element once they had made 16 bookings on a particular sailing.

This came in the form of a free tour-conductor place on the cruise or the equivalent monetary value – an average of the cruise value of the other 16 bookings.

Under the new arrangement, from March 14 both the air kicker and group programme trade incentive will be removed in favour of the 10% upfront payment.

Ludlow said the change should make selling Princess Cruises more attractive for all agents, even those who were good at exploiting the additional earning in the group programme.

“We are improving commission. From a travel agents’ perspective, they could earn more money at the time of bookings. For all agents this will be attractive,” he said.

Asked whether the move to 10% would risk reviving big discounting – something the move to 5% was meant to stamp out – Ludlow replied: “The changes that we are making aren’t about reneging on our 5%, it’s about simplifying the offering in the market.”

Ludlow said there were no plans for P&O and Cunard to follow Princess Cruises’ commission restructuring.

“P&O and Cunard have never had the complexity of the airline kicker and the group commission, so as they haven’t had that feedback regarding simplification, I don’t think there’s any need to make that change,” he said.

Ludlow said he had contacted a number of travel agents about the decision, and that feedback had been “very positive”.

CCS moots upfront commission payments for cruise sales

Posted on 13 February, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

CCS moots upfront commission payments for cruise sales

By Melanie Hall

Carnival UK has revealed it is considering bringing forward commission payments to the time of booking rather than when the final balance is paid.

Giles Hawke (pictured), Carnival sales and customer services director, said the company was looking at revising its systems to implement the move.

However, he added: “I wouldn’t want to set any time scale.”

Hawke was speaking at a cruise round-table debate hosted by Travel Weekly and Carnival UK. Senior agency and tour operator figures at the event welcomed the potential move.

Chris Roe, sales and distribution director at Virgin Holidays, said receiving the commission upfront would make a “100% difference” to his business.

Miles Morgan, founder of Miles Morgan Travel, said: “It’s a step in the right direction from CCS for a change.”

The suggestion followed a discussion about agents being forced to pass customer payments straight to the cruise lines, which hits agencies’ cashflow.

Last year, Complete Cruise Solution, the trade arm for P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises, contacted all larger agents whose customers are not yet paying its cruise lines directly to insist a plan is put in place to make the transition to direct payments, to remove any financial risk from its trade business.

“We have seen the collapse of Gill’s and Cruise Control,” said Roe.

“I can see why CCS is doing it, but it is tarring every agent and tour operator with the same brush.”

Hawke said that the company had a ‘bad-debt’ fund worth millions of pounds in case retailers went bust,  but CCS had made a decision that it  was not going to carry that financial  risk any more. “No banks would give you cash for nothing,” said Hawke.

But Seamus Conlon, managing director of Cruise.co.uk, said: “The average agent has to pay staff. I’m increasing cashflow to create your deposits, which you then bank for a year. CCS is screwing up everyone’s income.”

CCS cut base commission to 5% in 2011, sparking cuts by other cruise lines.