By Les-Lee Roland

Dear Princess Cruise Line,
Having a past passenger program can be a good selling point.
Your res agents always ask if the client is a past passenger. Many times a new client asks for a rate and says he or she is a past passenger but doesn’t know their number. After all, they remember tons of phone numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, birthdays, house alarm numbers, credit card numbers, the new security code, all their frequent flier numbers, yadda yadda, so their Princess past passenger number is not a priority to them.
They know YOU have the number because you follow them from address to address. If someone were in the Federal Witness Protection Program, Princess Cruises would still find them to offer the latest Love Boat Savers deal.
So, can you explain to me why, in certain instances, when you do have the past passenger number, you ration out the discounts according to when certain people received mailings? With that logic, I could book couple A for one price and couple B would pay a higher rate — all because Couple B did not receive a magical number hardly any sighted person can read on the bottom of a mailer.
Isn’t the past passenger program set to reward people and to create loyalty? This practice of giving to one couple and not to another — unless a supervisor is called in to intervene — has flaws.
I hope this can be amended.
Sincerely,
Cruise Agent

Dear NCL,
I want to thank you sincerely for helping me out and doing what my host agency said was impossible. I was booking two couples — first time cruisers. Their documents went sent by Fed-Ex, signature required, to my host agency. Also included in that delivery were cruise documents for 28 NCL sailings sold by various outside agents.
For some unexplained reason, someone refused delivery of this package. The documents never made it to my agency, and instead were sent back across the country to Florida.
When I, and certainly other agents, found out and complained, the host said there was “nothing that could be done” and the customers would have to pick up their documents at the pier. Try explaining that to someone on their first cruise.
Agents become jaded about reading brochures and wordy documents. New cruisers, however, want to read everything before they leave. Their trip experience starts with their deposit, builds for the weeks before and continues until they return home.
Since “nothing can be done” is not a phrase in my vocabulary, I called NCL and within two minutes, had a resolution. I was assured that NCL agrees that passengers deserve better treatment, especially first-timers.
It was now Friday and the clients were leaving on Monday. I was assured the documents were being sent overnight delivery directly to my home office with arrival scheduled for early Saturday morning. There was no charge.
NCL called me with the tracking number and again on Saturday to make sure they had arrived. Imagine my clients’ surprise to find that their agent had made the impossible happen.
By the way, NCL, the clients had a tremendous time and will book again.
Thank you,
Cruise Agent

Dear Radisson Seven Seas Cruises,
I want to thank you and my DSM for arranging an inspection of your ship. I had applied a little too late for an agent luncheon and was told that there was no more room. It’s hard to believe that lunch for 32 agents instead of 30 would make any difference. But the DSM — who now is my Dear Sales Mentor — got the necessary okay and my husband and I awoke at 5 a.m. to drive the four hours to get to the pier.
After the ship inspection, lunch with wine, good conversation and getting lots of our questions answered, we drove another four hours home, making for a very long day!
My surprise was that only a few of the attendees were agents and the bulk of them were guests of one agent. I am certain you qualified them in advance, especially since you arranged a bus for their two-hour drive, something not offered to me.
If it sounds like sour grapes, forgive me. The visit was informative enough that I have now started booking that ship. Since knowledge breeds confidence, I have set a mental goal to increase my revenue.
It amazes me that so many agents have seen very few ships — they usually only do so when they book a personal trip. I love doing ship inspections. I also love doing hotel inspections. It’s hard, time-consuming work, but it’s the best homework an agent can do — and my clients rely on my knowledge.
Sincerely,
Cruise Agent

Dear New Owner of a Formerly Defunct Company,
I want to thank you for the quick response to my query about a commission I had never received.
The horror of horrors occurred last November. I called in a payment for a Costa Rican post-cruise package to a supplier I’ve used for many years. The package included private car transfers from ship to hotel and from hotel to airport.
You can imagine my surprise when the owner of the tour company called while my clients were in Costa Rica, and told me that they needed another payment. He said something about a mixup of funds that had occurred after the company was sold that week.
This was a case of the written confirmation not having any worth. I refused to send an agency check. If my clients’ credit card wasn’t processed weeks before, that is the problem of the tour operator and not me. I had a written confirmation.
With trepidation, I waited for the clients to return home, and I called them immediately. Yes, the driver did pick them up. Yes the hotel was as beautiful as I described. And yes, the hotel manager did come to their room and say the tour operator had never paid for the package. And no, the clients wisely said they would not pay again, they had the paid confirmation.
And then, as could only happen in the movies, the floor trembled, pictures fell off the wall, plants were shaking, it was an earthquake. The room, whether paid or unpaid for, was now in shambles, and their last night was spent, along with the other lodgers, in the parking lot using beds rescued from the rooms.
This inconvenience will be a lasting memory and probably party conversation for years to come.
I wasn’t too surprised when I didn’t get the commission check. But on a slow morning, I called your company and — surprise! — you, the new owner, took the call. You told me that you had made good for almost $100,000 in back commissions and money owed to hoteliers. You told me that you had had enough of this part of the business. All the employees had left, you were going to restart this business as an online company.
But you did tell me that you were going to send me my money. And you did. You are a man of your word, and I thank you. I wish you well — but maybe not too well, since you will sell on the Internet.
You gave me a happy ending, but I cannot ignore how many others have been unlucky with companies that shut their doors.
Sincerely,
Travel Agent