Travel Agent Commission

[iancal]

All we care about is net price after OBC's etc. We do not care what percentage the agency grosses and I don't care what the TA's end is. As long as we get the level of service appropriate to the type of agency we have engaged then we are happy campers. We don't want wine, chocolates in the cabin, coupon books, flowers,canapes, dinners in the Pinnacle...just the best net price once we have selected the ship/cruise. We will select and pay for the extras as we wish according to our desires.

[whogo]

All we care about is net price after OBC's etc. We do not care what percentage the agency grosses and I don't care what the TA's end is. As long as we get the level of service appropriate to the type of agency we have engaged then we are happy campers. We don't want wine, chocolates in the cabin, coupon books, flowers,canapes, dinners in the Pinnacle...just the best net price once we have selected the ship/cruise. We will select and pay for the extras as we wish according to our desires.

You and I think the same way. I would never think of sending a travel agent a gift. In the olden days when I used a local agent I would thank her afterward and tell her how the cruise went.

[Miata6]

And I thought that TA's did it just for the fun of it! I was using the same TA for over 10 years with a nary an incentive or bottle of wine. We referred our friends to her and ususally had everything worked before we handed it over to her. I now book all of my own travel on line and direct through the cruise lines. It's a shame that she lost our business, but after reading some of the perks other travelers received, we took our business elsewhere.

 

We use a T/A because A) we can't book ourselves for less than she can (i.e., she doesn't cost us any money to use her) and B) she usually saves us money (and aggravation) through her experience.

I am aware (and have run across) some T/As who don't really travel, they just read the same books I do and don't add anything to our experience. There are also T/As (such as in the quoted post above) who need to work harder to gain/retain our business by sharing some of the commission with us, maybe as OBCs, etc.

[serendipity1499]

One wonders what you would think if someone asked your boss what your salary was. Why is this important? I do not use a TA (nor am I one), but if I did all I would be concerned with is the level of service I was being provided by the individual. Their income is their own business.

 

My thoughts exactly..I'm amazed & don't understand why in the world would it be important to someone to know what their TA's commission is..:confused:.If they were actually paying their Agents commission over & above their cruise fare, that would be a different story..Do you go into a store or buy a car & ask the Salesman what his commission is?

 

You and I think the same way. I would never think of sending a travel agent a gift. In the olden days when I used a local agent I would thank her afterward and tell her how the cruise went.

 

Also agree, would not send a gift to our TA either.. He/She gets paid by HAL to handle our booking..

Cheers..:)Betty

[boards]

I totally agree, we thank our TA for the good job she has done for us, but have not ever "tipped" her by bringing a gift. We thank her by returning to book our next trip with her.

[gf42]

Hi Everyone, I'll answer all your travel agent questions. I'm a TA in NYC and I don't make a salary but just work on commissions. You are right about the more you purchase from a cruise the more we get in commissions. How Commissions work is that the Cruise Lines will pay us. They will pay us between 15% to 20% depending on the sales of the agency. From my agency I'll make at least 11% of the sale and the travel agency will make the rest. The travel agency will get the commision when the final payment is made by the client. The Cruise Line will probably take a few weeks to cut the check to the agency though. When I work with a client, they can e-mail or call me as much and they want and I never charge them anything for my time. I will also give my clients extra perks like onboard credit, wine, a free dinner at a specialty restaurant and so on. I hope this helps and have a nice day.

 

I am also a travel agent in the New York/New Jersey area. It is impossible to give an answer of a rule of the rate of commission that agents earn. Different agencies depending upon the size of the agency, the relationship of the agency with that particular cruise line as well as many other factors come into play. There are often promotions that make the cruise fare and the commission different from one cruise to another, one catagory to another and can change as to when the booking was made. Group bookings also offer different crusie fare rates and different commissions. A good agent may be able to moniter your cruise fare and lower your cruise fare when promotions arise. They get notifications weekly which the average person does not.

[Jade13]

Are HAL PCCs (in Seattle) and shipboard FCCs salary + commission, or just salary? If a shipboard FCC books a cruise for you that immediately transfers to the TA you used for that cruise, does the FCC get anything above a base salary for their time? Or do the FCC and the TA split some commission?

 

I was told by both an FCC (a couple of years ago) and someone in the World Cruises/transfer department that they still get something if you transfer. Also, that it is a small part of their salary.

[Typhoon1]

And I thought that TA's did it just for the fun of it! I was using the same TA for over 10 years with a nary an incentive or bottle of wine. We referred our friends to her and ususally had everything worked before we handed it over to her. I now book all of my own travel on line and direct through the cruise lines. It's a shame that she lost our business, but after reading some of the perks other travelers received, we took our business elsewhere.

 

I am glad you saw the light. Our TA of many years has always rewarded us with bon voyage goodies such as wine, hor's d oeuvres, on board credits or other goodies.

 

That's the least a TA could do for a loyal client. Just a small way of saying "Thanks for your business".

[Guest cadd4u]

I could care less how much the travel agent makes as long as I get the service I need and want - you can keep the junky bottle of wine. I would never ask someone what they made and how. My price is the same whether I go to HAL or through my travel agent so why would I care what he gets - it's none on my business. He does not ask me how much I make and I don't think I have the right to ask him. It's a business. He's not in it because he just loves me so much that he doesn't want to pay his bills. Sorry for venting.

[m steve]

We've had a lot of luck w/ our current one and have directed business to her. A few of our friends have had problems w/ her and won't use her again. We did have one trip where she talked about another customer who was traveling w/us. We have gotten some fair to excellent discounts due to her master company blocking out a lot of cabins. Also OBCs, drink cards, etc. We use a company she recommends for our insurance and currently we are trying to collect on a policy due to snow cancellation.

[stats1]

Hi Everyone, I'll answer all your travel agent questions. I'm a TA in NYC and I don't make a salary but just work on commissions. You are right about the more you purchase from a cruise the more we get in commissions. How Commissions work is that the Cruise Lines will pay us. They will pay us between 15% to 20% depending on the sales of the agency. From my agency I'll make at least 11% of the sale and the travel agency will make the rest. The travel agency will get the commision when the final payment is made by the client. The Cruise Line will probably take a few weeks to cut the check to the agency though. When I work with a client, they can e-mail or call me as much and they want and I never charge them anything for my time. I will also give my clients extra perks like onboard credit, wine, a free dinner at a specialty restaurant and so on. I hope this helps and have a nice day.

 

Thats how it should work! Just today I had an agent email me and inform me that she had given me quotes before and I did not book with her so she wants a $50 non refundable deposit before she will give me a quote. Her last quote was $900 more than the quote I accepted. I will not be using that agent...ever!

[BumperII]

All we care about is net price after OBC's etc. We do not care what percentage the agency grosses and I don't care what the TA's end is. As long as we get the level of service appropriate to the type of agency we have engaged then we are happy campers. We don't want wine, chocolates in the cabin, coupon books, flowers,canapes, dinners in the Pinnacle...just the best net price once we have selected the ship/cruise. We will select and pay for the extras as we wish according to our desires.

 

This is the only way to cruise! :D Just get us the cabin we want and a good price. We will pick out our own bells and whistles.

[PathfinderEss]

Very interesting thread, I always wondered how much a TA made.

[sapper1]

I have always been curious as to when the Travel Agent receives his/her commission on your cruise. Is it after final payment? Or is it after you return from your cruise? I am too chicken to ask our travel agency. Always wanted to know.

 

I think it must be after final payment. We had to cancel once and when we applied for our insurance payment I asked our TA about what happened to her commission. She said her commission amount was protected.

[c-legs]

Very interesting thread, I always wondered how much a TA made.

 

And ...may I ask how much you make ?:confused:

[lovetocruise2020]

The agency we used most recently gave us 15% off of HAL's asking price on a seven day cruise, because we have two other cruises booked with them (10% off HAL's asking price).

 

I was wondering how they were able to do that. Maybe its for repeat biz?

 

Now, the rate we got from them on our next NCL cruise was higher than our warehouse store's travel department.

 

I guess it all depends?

[sapper1]

Just noticed this is a two year old resurrection.

[bcd2010]

I think it must be after final payment. We had to cancel once and when we applied for our insurance payment I asked our TA about what happened to her commission. She said her commission amount was protected.

 

Does this mean she keeps the commission made when the cruise was booked - or, if there is is a price drop, does the commission get reduced?

[Randyk47]

Just noticed this is a two year old resurrection.

 

I didn't initially catch that this thread was that old but will say the discussion is still relevant so maybe it's not bad to bring it forward versus started a whole new thread.

 

The agency we used most recently gave us 15% off of HAL's asking price on a seven day cruise, because we have two other cruises booked with them (10% off HAL's asking price).

 

I was wondering how they were able to do that. Maybe its for repeat biz?

 

Now, the rate we got from them on our next NCL cruise was higher than our warehouse store's travel department.

 

I guess it all depends?

 

My guess, and it's really only a guess, is that there are probably a number of factors. I'm guessing some of the on-line agencies get price breaks from some of the cruise lines based on volume or booking/reserving large blocks of cabins. The other thing I think factors in is pure volume on their part. The large on-line agencies probably book hundreds, maybe even thousands, of cabins a week so even if they cut their revenue by rebating the commission to the passenger they're making it up on the number of bookings. If you sell 600 cabins a week, and this is just an example the actually number of sales may be significantly higher or lower, and make $100 per sale that is $60,000. Compare that to a small brick and mortar agency that probably is hard pressed to sell 50 cabins a week and the math isn't hard to figure out.

 

I too use two or three different Internet based TA's and my savings have been pretty much along the same as yours. I will say it's getting harder and harder to find deals as the cruise lines have been pressed by brick and mortar agencies to stop rebating of commissions but good deals are still out there.

[sapper1]

Does this mean she keeps the commission made when the cruise was booked - or, if there is is a price drop, does the commission get reduced?

I am just guessing but I would think that if the price drop is applied prior to final payment, the commissionable amount would drop as well. Having said that, our TA is very good about checking for drops just before we make final payment. Once there was a major drop and she had it applied.

[hensghan]

I feel a bit better now knowing that my T/A has made rather decent commissions on the various cruises we have booked through him. He has many times gone much farther than just the extra mile to insure that we received the best deal possible and, to be honest, we often worried that we might be demanding too much of him. If we did, he never mentioned anything. -- just continued to provide great service -- which is why we always book through him and have recommended him to many others.

 

Good travel agents are worth every penny they might make!

[kazu]

I feel a bit better now knowing that my T/A has made rather decent commissions on the various cruises we have booked through him. He has many times gone much farther than just the extra mile to insure that we received the best deal possible and, to be honest, we often worried that we might be demanding too much of him. If we did, he never mentioned anything. -- just continued to provide great service -- which is why we always book through him and have recommended him to many others.

 

Good travel agents are worth every penny they might make!

 

Here !!! Here!!! Ours is worth her weight in gold IMO:) What she makes is none of my business - but I hope she is paid nearly as much as I think she is worth:)

[Boytjie]

Here !!! Here!!!

 

Where? Where?! :D

[tcook052]

I am just guessing but I would think that if the price drop is applied prior to final payment, the commissionable amount would drop as well.

 

It would indeed.

[WeBeGone]

This is an old thread but the discussion is relevent as many agencies and independent TAs are going out of business as cruise bookings decline due to overall economic times.

 

At my agency (a very large internet only company) the agency receives 16% on the base cruise price (port fees and taxes are not in this figure). Then the individual person who booked the cruise gets 30% of that amount. The agent gets paid 30 days following the return date of the cruise. Needless to say, without an additional salary, living on commission alone takes a while since the time lag between booking and payment can be up to 2 years.

 

When you book directly with the cruise line, they pay no commission to anyone thus earning more money for the company.