Virgin Voyages said it plans to crack down on predatory sales tactics being used by some of its ‘First Mate’ travel agent partners who are soliciting customers and offering misleading ‘discounts’ to boost their sales. North American sales VP John Diorio, said in an email to travel agent partners that this has become an ‘important and serious’ issue.

Diorio’s email to the cruise line’s “First Mates” explicitly prohibits a number of sales tactics it deemed unacceptable. In it he says the topic regarding solicitation and rebating continues to be brought to our attention by Sailors, First Mates, and Crew, and he says these actions are not in the spirit of partnership that Virgin wishes to engage in.

He notes that the “vast majority of our First Mates are not engaging in any unhelpful practices and want you to know we take the concerns you’ve shared seriously and will work with you to stop them.”

The email said, “Starting immediately Virgin Voyages “will be actively working to stop” the following actions said:

• First Mates soliciting cruisers in social media groups and asking them to transfer their booking from another First Mate or Virgin Voyages to them.
• Onboard solicitation, which includes leaving business cards, branded items, and flyers around any of the ships or terminals promoting a travel agency. And/or casually meeting cruisers in line at the My Next Virgin Voyage desk and offering to “help” them but instead asking them to transfer the sailing to them.
• Messaging cruisers that are onboard via social media groups and asking them to purchase My Next Virgin Voyage placeholders for them.
• Offering commission back to clients, giving them a higher perceived value.

“As a reminder, when you sail with Virgin Voyages, you are agreeing to our Ticket Contract, which covers onboard solicitation and expressly prohibits the activity above in our terms and conditions to do business with us.”

Virgin reserves “the right to cancel your First Mate account and, in extreme cases, limit or cancel your ability to sail. We do not think the above actions are in the spirit of a good partnership or fair to your industry colleagues and we just can’t allow them to continue.”

Travel advisors who witness any examples of the above behavior are encourage to share them with Virgin’s sales team “who will sort them out as quickly as possible.”