Royal Caribbean Drops Joystar in "Card Mill" Purge

[Chucksta63]

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s move last week to drop travel agencies that it considers to be "card mills" has apparently hit a large host agency that claims it does not engage in "card mill" practices. Bill Alverson, chairman and CEO of JoystarTravelstar

"There's no way in the world we could be considered a card mill," Alverson said. "We believe it is a misunderstanding.

A Royal Caribbean spokesman, responding to an email request, said the company would not release a list of the agencies that had been terminated. But YTB International last week said that Royal Caribbean had terminated its relationship with the company. Several sources said agencies possibly being targeted by the cruise line include Fresno, Calif.-based Pro Travel Network and Orlando-based Global Travel International, among others.

[CanadianCruiser]

This is BIG NEWS, do you realize how many bookings could be in jeopardy ?

[Chucksta63]

Yea! I know that there is another Cruise Chat Board that has their Official Group Cruise booked with an agent from there!

Do you know how embarassing that could be???

I saw that it was posted there but it was quickly removed. Wonder why???

Sounds like censorship big time or just trying to save face with the rest of their forum people.....lol

[CanadianCruiser]

You would think they would want thier members to know that thier vacation plans could be in jeopardy....

[rogue]

If the people already have a deposit on their booking, why would RCCL cancel it? Wouldn't this only apply to any further bookings that they can make? Otherwise, why not terminate them immediately? If RCCL cancels all of those bookings, they're only going to hurt themselves, or am I thinking of this the wrong way. I haven't seen any press release that says they're canceling any booking, but I may have missed it.

[Chucksta63]

Hi Howard!

I would hope not. Only not take any more bookings. It would be crazie of them to cancel folks that have money down.

But oh what a crazie mess & I am sure it has folks wondering that know about it!

[CanadianCruiser]

Howard

Many scenarios can happen, If the agent no longer has access to these bookings some passengers may miss thier deposit dates or final payment dates.. Thus putting their bookings in jeopardy....

( This also happens when agencies go out of business and the passenger isnt aware )

RCCL wont cancel it, but I can assure you with over 500 agents with Joystar, they have quite a few bookings with RCCL... Thus the reason they gave joystar the cut off date, to get things organized for the sake of thier guests.......

[rogue]

That makes sense. I didn't think of it in that way.

[Chucksta63]

Wow I noticed that there are a few agents starting to jump ship from Joystar. I wonder how many agents will jump ship from Joystar trying to seperate themselfs from the name?