Celebrity Cruises to eliminate NCFs on some June bookings

By Tom Stieghorst

Celebrity Cruises will pay commission on what is typically invoiced as noncommissionable cruise fare (NCF) on some cruises sold in June by travel agents in North America.

The extra commission applies to 2015 sailings, if agents book veranda cabins and above. NCFs can account to 10-15% of the total cruise price.

Celebrity’s offer to agents coincides with a renewal of its 123Go! promotion to consumers. The offer to agents is being styled as "123 Thank You."

Payments on the NCF portion of the sale are on bookings of all duration and every geographic area, said Dondra Ritzenthaler, Celebrity’s senior vice president of sales.
“We have never done anything like this before,” Ritzenthaler said.

Ritzenthaler said that 2015 bookings were not notably behind or in need of a boost.

“It’s a 30 day way to say thank you to all of our travel partners who have really supported us through all of our promotions,” she said.