Carnival Cruise Line To Pay Commission On Future Cruise Credits

Carnival Cruise Line announced yesterday that it will pay travel agents their commission on bookings made with future cruise credits (FCC) effective immediately.

That means that agents will get commission on the price of a cruise before their client’s FCC are applied. In the past, Carnival waited until after the cruise credits were applied to calculate commission.

“We value the hard work travel agents put into booking their clients, which is why we’ve increased the commission for these types of bookings,” vice president of sales and trade marketing Adolfo Perez said.

Perez, who took over at Carnival two years ago, said that this is a part of his own commitment to listen to travel agents and advocate on their behalf.

“I take this charge very seriously and I hope that this additional enhancement to our commission policy demonstrates just how committed we are to their success. We want to ensure that we continue to provide profitable opportunities for our hard working travel agent partners,” he told TMR.

The new payment program, Carnival said, is a reflection of its sales team “listening and looking for ways to offer the best sales and service support we can to travel agents.”

“I can tell you that travel agents work just as hard to sell their clients whether or not they have an FCC,” Perez said.

The news is the latest step in a growing number of initiatives Carnival has debuted this year in an effort  to reach out to the travel-agent community.

In March, to celebrate its 45^th anniversary, Carnival launched a travel-agent trivia contest, giving $100 gift cards to 45 agents who answered a question correctly on its trade-dedicated Facebook page.

Also this year, the Agentpalooza celebration, a week-long tour of six cities, gave travel agents a chance to meet Perez, vice president of U.S. field sales Mike Julius, regional vice presidents from around the country and local business development managers.

And in May, Carnival changed its payment policy to allow agents—and guests—to pay for their sailing in three monthly installments through a new EasyPay program.