Your Replies: Do Advisors Share the Blame for the Demise of NCL’s No-NCF Program?

TMR started the year off with a big question about the responsibility of the travel agency community to shift business to suppliers that make trade-friendly business decisions. Specifically, we asked what responsibility advisors had to shift their business to NCL in response to the line’s no-NCF program.

Your replies were swift and clear.

No.

Advisors should, first and foremost, be putting the needs of their clients first, we were told over and over again. Reading some of the responses, however, raised another question. Had the supplier been someone other than Norwegian Cruise Line, might the results have been different?

Here we present some of the e-mails we received:

Regarding your article about Norwegian reversing their NCF policy. While I am disappointed Norwegian reversed course, it is not the travel advisor community’s fault. Anyone who steers a client to a product so they can make more money is a bad advisor.

I applaud Norwegian for trying and it is sad that other mainstream lines did not follow suit.

Explora is also a luxury brand and to compare to Norwegian is nonsensical.

Chris Caulfield
CruiseOne

I am a travel advisor with almost 27 years experience, here’s my take:

It’s not just about the money.  It MUST also be about service and policy improvements, too.  I have had clients sail on NCL within the past year, with “so-so” results.  Their flight promotion policies have also been troublesome to large families that cruised in more than 1 cabin (and not being able to go on the same flight schedule, even thought there was a travel-with in both reservations).  I want my clients to have a GREAT experience, not a “so-so” one.  I have much better client results on other cruise lines, so I did not steer more clients to NCL.  If they had promised us improvements in service and policy, and then also added commission on NCFs, then that would have probably produced better results – a “win-win” for all.  That did not happen, so NCL did not see more business.

A U.S. Travel Advisor

I agree that the NCL decision to eliminate NCFs was a good decision. My primary reason for saying so is because NCFs should not exist at all. In 11 year in the industry, I have had frequent opportunities to ask the question: What exactly are NCFs? To date, I have not received a credible response. My conclusion is that NCFs are simply a way to reduce the amount of commission that the vendor wants to pay. It’s already been pointed out that Virgin and Explora do not have and have never had NCFs as part of their pricing.

Just as hotels are being criticized for “resort fees” at properties that are clearly NOT resorts, I think cruise lines need to be called out on NCFs. If you can’t show me a spreadsheet that highlights exactly what comprises an NCF, then you shouldn’t be subtracting that amount from my well-earned commission.

On the second point, no, I do not think travel advisors should feel obligated to steer customers to a vendor who doesn’t utilize the NCF concept. I ask my clients a lot of questions and I use their answers to steer them to the product that best suits their travel needs and wants. If a client wants a ship that will likely have fewer children onboard, I’m not likely to steer them to NCL or a number of other cruise lines that feature waterslides, roller coasters, and the like. I work for my client. If their desires happen to match them with NCL, then NCL will get the booking.

Michael R. Murphy
Compass Luxury Travel, LLC

One thing in the article that might be missing is that NCL product is not as good as it used to be. The smoke in the casino goes out into the corridors. The food is really not as good as it used to be.  On one cruise I had passengers on, NCL decided to do lobster night the very first night of the cruise and many people missed the best dinner of the entire cruise… that soured my clients on NCL. They felt they were tricked. Also, all the nickel and diming that goes on with NCL and all the cruise lines really bothers my clients…  So there is a lot more to the issue with NCL than agents or travel advisors not being able to sell NCL with or without the NCFs included.

As an agent, I definitely would like the NCFs not deducted from the amount I would receive commission on but if NCL has given themselves a bad name in the client community, then there is nothing an agent can do to get the client to buy.

Alabama Travel Agent

No commission is important but customer service is more important.

NCL has lost its way and customer service is not even available with NCL anymore. Everything seems to be this is how it will be and we don’t consider any changes.

Since Andy Stuart left NCL, they have been sliding down, down, down in customer service to agency and customer.

I have been disappointed when we have a reasonable question about something, there is no consideration, it is just this is the way we do it.

A U.S. Travel Advisor

Regarding NCL’s removal of the “no-NCFs” program, it will take more than that to move more of my cruise traffic to NCL. As a travel advisor for many years, my decision to work with vendors is motivated by more than just earning potential, which by the way, I was not even aware that NCL had this “no-NCFs” program. So, apparently it was not widely advertises, as I had 3 NCL bookings (at the request of my clients) to Alaska in June 2023… All 3 of my invoices still listed NCFs and I was only paid commission on the cruise rate after the deduction of the NCFs.

With that aid, I will make every attempt to book away from NCL, especially after my clients’ experience in June, no matter how much commission they offer. There was a problem with the air reservation booked through NCL’s TA portal… tried to correct this with NCL prior to my clients travel and have documentation of the attempts… NCL will have to be more of a partner in travel and own up to their mistakes rather than place blame on the TA. There are so many better cruises lines that I prefer to sell…

Sally Garcia
Atlas Travel