The disturbing news - The Travelocity Onboard Cruise Program

The Travelocity Onboard Cruise Program

The disturbing news came in a short press release issued March 2. In that
release, Travelocity said it was introducing a new program, Travelocity
Onboard, where a representative of the company would sail along with its
clients on 40 "hand-picked" sailings on Celebrity, Crystal and Holland
America. "This program lends a face to our online experience by providing
individualized guidance and support to Travelocity customers throughout the
entire cruise experience," said Michael Dauberman, vice president of cruises
for Travelocity.


Under the program, Travelocity said its onboard cruise representatives would
present customers with an exclusive Travelocity gift, and would host
hospitality desks to welcome members and help them to make the most of their
cruise experience.


Travelocity maintains the primary responsibility of its onboard
representative is to serve as liaison between the cruise line and customer;
helping with issues such as transfers and recommending shore excursions. But
the representative also will be available to consult with Travelocity
Onboard customers about their future vacation plans. Travelocity also said
these services are only available to customers that booked through the
Travelocity Onboard Program.


Predictably, however, other travel agents have responded -- and they are not
happy at all, especially with the cruise lines that agreed to the deal.
"This is in response to your line providing onboard access to Travelocity,"
wrote Ernie Ratliff of Sea the World Cruises & Tours in an open email to the
lines. "This action is a rebuttal of your line's comments of support to the
agent industry and particularly to the largest segment, the home-based
trade. Are you offering equal access by providing space to anyone requesting
it on the same sailings? This would allow a .............
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"Media" wrote

Under the program, Travelocity said its onboard cruise representatives
would present customers with an exclusive Travelocity gift, and would host
hospitality desks to welcome members and help them to make the most of
their cruise experience.

I think this is a bad decision on HAL's part and I hope they change their
mind, but I understand why they did it.

When a travel agent escorts a group on a cruise, the temptation is to not
only be available for their customers, but to promote their businesses.
While there is nothing wrong about this, it is a bit tacky when group
members become walking bill-boards for a specific travel agency with that
agency's logo plastered all over t-shirts, door signs, name badges, group
registration table, etc. It stops being a XXX group cruise and instead
becomes an XYZ Travel Agency Group Cruise. Again, there is nothing illegal
about this, but it does leave a bad taste in some people's mouths as being
unethical and it certainly bends the cruise lines rules about not soliciting
business from passengers during a cruise.

In the case of Travelocity, having an onboard help desk branded with their
logo would be seen by many as a tacit or even implicit recommendation by HAL
that Travelocity had some sort of official standing with the cruise line and
that perception would not be limited to members of the group but to all
passengers on the ship.

There is a simple way around this, of course. HAL should permit Travelocity
to have a group desk but they should limit the way Travelocity displays
their logo. A little bit of common sense and restraint from both HAL and
Travelocity would go a long way towards making this a good experience for
everyone in the group.

There is a learning curve about these kind of things. It is only natural
for a travel agent to want to promote his/her agency during a group cruise,
but over the years, I have found that "less is more". The members of the
group already know who they booked the cruise with and the cruise lines have
rules against promoting a travel agency onboard a ship... so why bother
adding an agency logo to everything? Sure, there are some souvenir-type
gifts that agents will always have their names on (bags, lanyards, etc) but
these are the type of thing that is given to all customers, not just groups.

And that is just one TA's opinion and worth what you paid for it.


--
George Leppla http://www.countryside-travel.com

Cruise Specials BLOG http://www.countryside-travel.com/3834677_6105.htm
October 29, 2006 - SLEAZY 4! http://cruisemaster.com/sleazy4.htm
February 10, 2007 - Valentine's Group - http://cruisemaster.com/grandeur.htm

"Media" wrote in
:

a representative of the company would sail along with its
clients on 40 "hand-picked" sailings on Celebrity, Crystal and Holland
America. "

Perhaps I'm missing something here. What is the difference between
Travelocity being on board and Vantage being on board? I have seen a
Vantage desk on every (five) cruise I have sailed.

--Roy Cochrun