On another thread, several people commented they were given a shipboard credit because they found a lower rate on the net for the same cruise. They insisted carnival honored this, YET when I called because I found a lower rate on my cruise, carnival was firm that they only honor THEIR changes in pricing and NOT that found elsewhere on the net, such as expedia.com, vacationstogo.com etc. Im irritated because Id like to know WHY these other folks were accomodated, and I was not.

Anyone have any info on this???

Carnival has no obligation to price-match other sites and is pretty firm on this. I think you'll find that in the cases you mentioned, the Carnival price HAD dropped and just wasn't posted yet (the sites you mentioned are pretty reflective of the Czarnival pricing, particularly Expedia). ken

All of my price reductions and onboard credits have been based on price reductions from the carnival site. That is the only site I check regularly.

Some of the lower prices that are advertised on the web are for group cruises and CCL will not match these.

I believe CCL will match other rates if found within 24 hours of booking:

Best Price Guarantee: With our Best Price Guarantee, you can be completely confident with the rate you receive. Very simply, you won't find a lower advertised price for Carnival cruises. If you do find a lower advertised price within 24 hours of making your booking with us, we will refund the difference.

This is a pretty safe guarantee, as Carnival's marketing agreement with TA's supposedly does not allow TA's to advertise a lower price than Carnival's, else Carnival terminates with them. Ken

Ken is correct - twice over.

Carnival will match prices for individual bookings. You cannot get them to match a price for an individual booking by comparing it to a website price that is offering a discount because they are rebating commissions, or advertising their group rates.

JR

With these online agencies improperly giving discounts, you may find that booking something through them may not be possible for long. Rebating Commissions and advertising group rates on their websites as a violation of Carnival's Travel Agency Policy and could get them banned from selling Carnival in the future.

A similar situation happened to Costco Travel a couple years ago, but then they changed their tactics and got back into Carnival's good graces.

DS -

DS - So to get a group rate, I would have to call you based on the Carnival rate and then if you had a group, you could give me that rate, correct? 

Thestapels,

You are correct. Keeping in mind that cabins reserved but not on deposit are recalled by the cruise line about 90 days prior to departure. But another thing to know is that MOST travel agencies don't sell group space that they haven't reserved themselves, so their group space is limited to scattered sailings.

My agency has a unique position that I capitalize on - I don't have to sell ONLY into my group space - if you select a sailing that I don't have a group rate for, I have a network of other agency owners that I can contact to get my clients the best deal.

I work with other agencies who book into my group space as well. Instead of taking a piece of the commissions, I pass the commissions to the agency who booked the cabins within my group space. I have turned my consortium contacts into a "coorperative" network - which provides me more group space coverage than I can get for my agency - and the winner is YOU, the client.

DS - 

DS   So....each Agency actually reserves some number of specific cabins on each of some number of cruises and if they don't sell them they get taken-back by Carnival some 90 days out???  ken

Ken,

The answer to your question is "it's kind of like that"

It isn't automatic, an agency would have to look at which sailings they want to get group space for, then set up the group through the cruise line's Group Sales Department. The have to commit to the minimum of 8 cabins (16 passengers).

With Carnival and RCCL, you have 30 days to get reservations for those berths or they will recall the space automatically. Celebrity is 90 days, while Princess and Holland are longer. With all lines, the typical recall of all unsold group space happens about 90 prior to departure, which is why if you are planning a cruise you don't want to do it in the last 90 days unless you want to pay the "rack" rate.

My agency belongs to consortiums and other networking organizations, so if I have group space that hasn't been booked (no deposit), then other agencies can book into my group space and earn commissions just as if they booked it directly with the cruise lines directly.  This works out for me, since I don't build a reputation with the cruise line of reserving group space that I never sell - under those circumstances, the cruise line could refuse to grant me group space and rates without some payment.

One option which can be used by the agencies to hold onto group space is to pay a $25 per berth deposit so the space doesn't get recalled until the "Final Payment" date. This can get costly for small agencies, because they don't have that kind of capital to use. The online agencies don't have this problem since they have a bigger web presence and steady flow of customers.

I don't go out-of-pocket, unless it's for a theme cruise, or a special event such as the 2010 Monkeyhead Cruise on the Dream. In that case I have 50 cabins reserved, so to avoid losing my group space I committed $2500 to hold the space until it's all booked up. Of course, I won't keep the space until November 2009 if the Monkeyheads don't book it. I'll probably only give them until January to make a booking before I promote it to the general public or allow my network partners to sell into it.

DS -

I called 1-800-carnival and informed them that I had seen my upcoming cruise for $80 per person cheaper at samsclub.com , travelocity.com and expedia ,the PVP put me on hold , checked the rates and informed me that he saw it for $130 per person cheaper and weI would have a $260 credit when we boarded ...excellent !