NEW YORK -- Carnival and Site59 soon will launch a pilot program on
the distressed inventory site, where certain last-minute Carnival
sailings will be packaged with hotel and, in some cases, air
components, according to Site59.
As with other Site59 packages, which are sold from 14 days to
hours before departure, agents can book them on www.site59.com for a 5%
commission, with no cap.
A Carnival spokeswoman said it is "very likely" that the two
companies will reach an agreement on a "one-time experiment" in the
next few weeks, although a pact is "not officially nailed
down."
"We'd be looking at a scenario involving very close-in inventory
of one to two weeks [before sailing]," said the Carnival
spokeswoman. "We will not give Site59 preferential rates that are
not available to travel agents."
According to Site59, the Carnival inventory will be available on
Site59 "before November" and will include select sailings of the
Fascination, Fantasy and Ecstasy from Miami, Orlando and Los
Angeles.
For now, the discounted Carnival packages will just be available
on Site59, although they may be picked up by some of the packager's
distribution partners, the spokeswoman said.
Partners include American Express Travel, Travelocity, Yahoo!
Travel, Orbitz, American Airlines, LastMinute.com, Lowestfare.com,
Away.com and Worldspan.
Site59 combines hotel, air, car rental and now cruise products
for "last-minute" travelers, with the brand and price known up
front.
When the Carnival cruise packages include air, they will be
available at launch from 30 originating cities in the U.S., the
spokeswoman said. By mid-November, they will be available from 60
cities.
The pact comes at a time when Carnival is promoting agency sales
with a 20% commission offer on 2001 cruises for the rest of the
year.
Brian Major contributed to this report.