Carnival Corp. Brands to Drop Air Commission

Carnival Corp. will stop paying agents 5 percent commission on air fares booked in conjunction with cruises on its six brands, effective for all new bookings starting Oct. 15.

Carnival Corp. made the announcement in a letter faxed to U.S. and Canadian travel agents on Wednesday afternoon. The letter was signed by Jack Anderson, executive director of The World's Leading Cruise Lines, the alliance of Carnival Corp. brands, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line. In a phone interview with Travel Pulse Daily, Anderson said the contract air fares used by the cruise lines are often more expensive than fares available on the open market, even before they are marked up for commissions.

When airlines stopped paying commissions several years ago, 35 percent of Carnival's cruise bookings included the air component. "It's decreased every year since, which is somewhat ironic," Anderson said. "In 2006, our percentage of air-sea bookings was less than 12 percent across our brands, which means that 88 percent of the time travel agents are booking non-commissionable air.

They already are not buying our air, which is very understandable because they are doing their due diligence and focusing on their responsibility to their customer, trying to get the best pricing they can. More times than not, that hasn't been us.

By eliminating the commission, the Carnival Corp. brands will offer slightly lower air fares. Our motivation was to create the best air-sea pricing as we possibly can. For more information, visit www.carnivalcorp.com.