Travel Agency Execs Respond to Norwegian Cruise Line’s Reinstatement of NCFs

Travel agency executives who were in the room when Norwegian Cruise Line announced it would be reinstating NCFs at the start of Q2 2024 are expressing a mixture of understanding and disappointment, along with a modicum of mea culpa.

“Although I was certainly disappointed to learn that NCL was discontinuing the payment of commissions on NCFs, I understood that the program did not deliver the ROI that they had hoped it would,” Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion, told Travel Market Report.

Echoing Friedman’s comment about the program not delivering the hoped-for ROI, Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel Network, told TMR, “… in the fray and craziness of this past year, we didn’t do more to disproportionally reward them for their generosity, making it a permanent benefit, and enticing others to match.”

“At the same time we were all disappointed that other lines didn’t follow,” Sharpe said.

It was a point Friedman made as well. “It also did not drive other cruise lines to follow suit.”

Both Friedman and Sharpe, along with Beth Butzlaff, senior vice president of partner relations for Ensemble, who was also present at the meeting, told TMR they understand the decision from a strategic business perspective.

“While the announcement was unexpected, we recognize it as a strategic business choice by NCL, stemming from the program’s limited impact in shifting market share within the agency community,” Butzlaff said.

“The audience, being predominantly larger business organizations or organizations understood the action,” added Sharpe, as well as NCL’s decision to focus on what’s next “and how they can redeploy some of those costs towards other enhancements.”  

Q1 extension appreciation
Executives also expressed appreciation to NCL for giving advisors all of next year’s Wave season to take advantage of the chance to earn the extra commission.

“I am thankful for the extension of the booking deadline to April 1, which means our members will be able to get most of their 2024 covered and even some 2025,” Sharpe said.

“I do appreciate the fact that they are extending the program through the end of Wave season to give advisors the opportunity to front load 2024 and 2025 bookings,” added Friedman. “My advice to advisors is to take advantage of the advance noticed, and try and get as much NCL business on the books before the end of March.”

While NCL’s experiment with paying commission on NCFs was ultimately unsuccessful, Sharpe reiterated his belief that NCFs should be eliminated.

“Fundamentally, I still believe that advisors should earn commission on the full fare.”