NEW YORK -- ASTA CEO Zane Kerby praised Norwegian Cruise Line for eliminating NCFs (the noncommissionable portion of fares), and said he hopes other cruise lines follow suit, calling NCF's "something that plagues our business."
"They're opaque, they're clandestinely calculated and foisted upon advisors," Kerby said. "We've been opposed to them since their inception, and we won't be happy until they are dragged to the bathroom and drowned."
Kerby was asked about NCL's decision during ASTA's New York City chapter meeting at The Langham New York, during a Q&A with Arnie Weissmann, explorer at large for Travel Weekly's parent company, Northstar Travel Group.
"I hope that this bold move from Norwegian Cruise Lines is more widely adopted, and we look forward to the day when the effective commission rate is the stated commission rate," he said.
Kerby added that around mid-2025, he started talking more about NCFs with cruise lines. They bristled, saying that they were not going to discuss "pricing decisions" with him.
"The more they pushed in that direction, the more I knew we were going in the right direction for our members," Kerby said. "This is one of the problems that we kind of walked past for a long time, and now I want to keep pushing to do something about it."
When asked if he thought the decision had anything to do with NCL's recent hire of Marc Kazlauskas, a former travel agency executive, as president, Kerby said he didn't know, but that it could have been "a happy coincidence." Kazlauskas officially takes the helm Jan. 19.
ASTA is holding a live Town Hall with John Chernesky, senior vice president of North American sales for Norwegian Cruise Line, on Jan. 16, to discuss NCL's elimination of NCFs.