Cruise Discount Ads Banned

In today's Travel section of the paper I read a disturbing article. It said
that most of the cruise lines will prohibit travel agents and cruise brokers
from advertising discounts on fares in newspapers, magazines, and TV. Does
this ban include internet advertising? The last several cruises I have
purchased were through discounters who sent bulk E-mail messages advertising
discounted fares.

The article also noted that HAL and Princess will not honor the ban.

(DeeLeeCee) wrote in
:

In today's Travel section of the paper I read a disturbing article.
It said that most of the cruise lines will prohibit travel agents and
cruise brokers from advertising discounts on fares in newspapers,
magazines, and TV. Does this ban include internet advertising? The
last several cruises I have purchased were through discounters who
sent bulk E-mail messages advertising discounted fares.

The article also noted that HAL and Princess will not honor the ban.


they are both part of
Carnival so don't hold your breath for the long run

This isn't news. RCI and Carnival announced new price control policies last
summer, and NCL recently did the same - although NCL is not going to be as
anal as RCI.


"DeeLeeCee" wrote in message
...
In today's Travel section of the paper I read a disturbing article. It
said
that most of the cruise lines will prohibit travel agents and cruise
brokers
from advertising discounts on fares in newspapers, magazines, and TV.
Does
this ban include internet advertising? The last several cruises I have
purchased were through discounters who sent bulk E-mail messages
advertising
discounted fares.

The article also noted that HAL and Princess will not honor the ban.

Not yet.

The advertising procedure has always been there. The cruiselines never
infored it. RCI policy is different than all the other cruiselines. They are
price fixing. If an agency gets cought discounting their prices, that agency
will be banned from selling RCI/Celebrity. The other cruiselines permit
agencies to discount if they want. They just can't advertise rates lower
than what the cruiseline quotes.

Randi
"Dave Beers" wrote in message
...
This isn't news. RCI and Carnival announced new price control policies
last
summer, and NCL recently did the same - although NCL is not going to be as
anal as RCI.


"DeeLeeCee" wrote in message
...
In today's Travel section of the paper I read a disturbing article. It
said
that most of the cruise lines will prohibit travel agents and cruise
brokers
from advertising discounts on fares in newspapers, magazines, and TV.
Does
this ban include internet advertising? The last several cruises I have
purchased were through discounters who sent bulk E-mail messages
advertising
discounted fares.

The article also noted that HAL and Princess will not honor the ban.

The policies in effect and going into effect are an effort
by cruise lines to incent travel agencies to compete on the
quality of their customer service instead of engaging in
cut-throat price-slashing.


--
bicker®

"*bicker*" wrote in message
. ..
The policies in effect and going into effect are an effort
by cruise lines to incent travel agencies to compete on the
quality of their customer service instead of engaging in
cut-throat price-slashing.--
bicker®


Give me cut-throat price-slashing everytime. Those that need enhanced
customer service should seek out a full service agency to provide the added
support. Yes they will pay a little more but they will get the service they
need. After 25 cruises all I use the TA for is to transfer payment to the
cruiseline. I pick the ship, the date, the cabin, and find the best fare.

If there is no price advantage why would you book with a TA. Many will just
by direct, control their own booking, and enhance the margin of the
transaction for the cruiseline. I always book direct when there is no price
advantage. This policy may not in fact help level the TA field but in fact
put even more out of business.

"shoreguy" wrote in
:


This policy may not in fact help level the TA
field but in fact put even more out of business.
Well yes, the long run has never been for an intermediate supplier. We are
good only when it is burdensome for the originator of the service to
actually sell it.

"shoreguy" wrote in
:


This policy may not in fact help level the TA
field but in fact put even more out of business.
Well yes, the long run has never been for an intermediate supplier. We are
good only when it is burdensome for the originator of the service to
actually sell it.

A Mon, 27 Dec 2004 16:35:59 GMT, "shoreguy"
escribió:
The policies in effect and going into effect are an effort
by cruise lines to incent travel agencies to compete on the
quality of their customer service instead of engaging in
cut-throat price-slashing.--
Give me cut-throat price-slashing everytime.

Most customers would select cut-throat price-slashing as
well, and then complain about the poor service they get in
return. The US domestic airline industry is a great
example. The cruise lines are working hard to avoid the
cesspool of TA service that would dominate the market if
allowed to dominate.

Those that need enhanced
customer service should seek out a full service agency to provide the added
support.

There is no reason to believe that they would. Rather,
they'd as likely as not seek to saddle the cruise line with
the onus of bridging the gap between the service the agency
is willing to provide and that which the customer wants. So
the cruise line ends up paying a full travel agency
commission (which the travel agency then splits with the
customer) to compensate the travel agency for providing the
necessary service, but instead also must then also incur the
cost of providing the necessary service themselves. Barring
that, the cruise line incurs the cost associated with lost
good will due to customer dissatisfaction.

The alternative would be to operate McCruiseLine. Many
cruise lines do tend in that direction. The question is how
far down that path should the cruise lines go. Most of the
posters in this newsgroup (myself excluded) would say that
the cruise lines have already gone too far down that path.

If there is no price advantage why would you book with a TA.

I've done it both ways. I got better service from my travel
agency than I did from the cruise line directly, even though
I could have paid the same fare to either. However, your
point is well-taken. It truly isn't a big difference, and
I'm not sure it needs to be. If a passenger is so pleased
with a cruise line that it already knows what cruise they
want to take, then why shouldn't the booking go to the
cruise line? For other passengers, the booking should go to
the entity that incurred the cost of customer acquisition,
i.e., the travel agency when the customer calls on a travel
agency.

This policy may not in fact help level the TA field but in fact
put even more out of business.

However, which ones? What do the agencies that go out of
business currently contribute to the fostering of the
industry?


--
bicker®