Travel agent quits, cruisers marooned

By Anita Dunham-Potter

Travel columnist

updated 1:47 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2008

Anita Dunham-Potter Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

Wisconsin resident Jerry Wilkinson just wanted to find the perfect Mediterranean cruise for his group of 73 friends. He found the ideal 14-night European itinerary on Celebrity Cruises' Galaxy through a home-based agent who worked with a booking agency called Joystar. Wilkinson's group needed 35 staterooms and the agent quoted him an amazing rate of only $738.45 per person.

"We all thought it was a great deal," says Wilkinson.

The group paid their deposits in May and thought everything was smooth sailing until early August. That's when the group learned their travel agent had abruptly quit and their booking had been sent on to Joystar. Ordinarily, such a transfer wouldn't be an issue, but Wikinson's group got a nasty surprise: a much bigger bill. It seems that when Joystar reviewed the booking, its agents found a fare discrepancy. A new bill was issued, charging each passenger $1,399 — nearly double the initial price. Even worse, the new bill came less than a month before the final cruise payment was due, meaning the group had to act fast.

What happened?
Joystar told Wilkinson that Celebrity would not honor the agent's price because it was substantially lower than the published fare. Indeed, it appears the agent had engaged in "rebating," the practice of giving up some portion of an agent's commission in order to get the cost of a cruise down for a client. An agent might rebate his commission if the resulting price will land a client, especially on a high-volume deal, or if he thinks it will encourage future business. But this practice is frowned upon by most cruise companies, who publish a single base price for each stateroom category, and some cruise lines ban it outright. Cruise lines have cracked down on rebating agencies in response to complaints from traditional travel agents, who claim that discounts make it hard for them to compete.

Did Wilkinson's original agent rebate some of her commission to close the deal? We may never know. The agent has refused to comment, and no one can figure out how she came up with the $738.45 quote. Even a very sizeable rebate would not bring the $1,399 fare down that much. Travel agent commissions generally range between 10 and 18 percent, depending on the agent's booking volume.

Skeptical about the new bill from Joystar, Wilkinson asked Celebrity to send the invoice to him. Celebrity refused, citing a company policy that forbids sending invoices directly to customers who have booked through a travel agent (as 90 percent of cruise passengers do). Instead, Celebrity sent the invoice to Joystar, which conveyed the cost breakdown to Wilkinson. The breakdown did quote a rate of $1,399 per person, but Wilkinson was not appeased.

"Sending the travel agent an invoice, even if it is a PDF file, still allows it to be altered," Wilkinson asserts. "Even today, I can call 10 travel agents for a quote on this cruise and I'll get about three different quotes regarding the price. If you can't see the invoice, how do you ever know?"

Wilkinson wanted to sue the original travel agent, but he felt it was a lost cause because the agent did not have the resources for compensation. Instead, he turned to Joystar and Celebrity, asking that they reinstate the original fare. Only when Wilkinson threatened to cancel the entire group booking did the two companies try to work with him.

Joystar's agents contacted Wilkinson in late August saying they had "re-evaluated" the per person cost of the cruise. Here's the arithmetic: Celebrity's published rate for the group was $99,285.04, but the rate quoted by the original agent was $56,164.40 — a difference of $43,120.64. Joystar offered to give back its entire commission of $21,581.80, but said the group would be responsible for the remaining balance of $21,538.84, which amounted to $308 per person.

Wilkinson was still angry.

"Celebrity can say all they want about not allowing travel agents to discount the price, but in fixing this problem Celebrity is allowing Joystar, just this one time to discount! It makes no sense," he says.

But Wilkinson was stuck. Final payment was due. After a lot of checking around with other agencies, Wilkinson realized this was the best price he could get. So the group kept the booking.

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