A number of trade organizations have suspended sales of American Queen Voyages over ongoing service issues.
While leaving the door open for resumption of the relationship, Signature Travel Network, Pleasant Holidays and AAA Travel say they are no longer offering the U.S. river cruise line due to unresolved service issues.
AAA sales of the line were done through vacation wholesaler Pleasant Holidays, which is 95% owned by AAA affiliate Auto Club of Southern California. Virtuoso has also removed American Queen Voyages from its preferred supplier list.
Earlier this month, Signature made the decision to remove American Queen Voyages as a preferred supplier for the second time in less than a year, while both Pleasant Holidays and AAA Travel stopped selling the cruise line in November.
Signature had previously removed American Queen Voyages as a preferred supplier in March 2023 but later restored its status after American Queen addressed the issues that led to its removal.
"Unfortunately, as a result of recent sales support and leadership changes, AQV has not delivered the contractual obligations that are required to be a Signature preferred partner," Howard said. (American Queen Voyages president Cindy D'Aoust departed the line in October after only serving in the role for about a year.)
Pleasant Holidays has partnered with American Queen Voyages since 2012, offering domestic river cruise and expedition packages to its clients. The company said it hopes to resume sales by the end of January, but that in the meantime, Pleasant Holidays will turn its attention to selling other U.S. river cruise products, for which demand is currently still strong.
"Unfortunately, we suspended sales of 2024 and 2025 American Queen U.S. river cruises in November 2023 and have not reopened sales in 2024," said Jack Richards, CEO and president of Pleasant Holidays, adding that sales were suspended on Nov. 9.
"Demand for U.S. river cruises is very strong in 2024. Pleasant Holidays continues to sell U.S. river cruises with our partnership with American Cruise Lines, who has 19 ships and 50-plus itineraries," Richards added.
AAA Travel said the company would be willing to consider resuming sales if the ongoing service issues were addressed.
"We stopped selling American Queen Voyages in November 2023 and have not resumed sales to date due to service issues," said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel. "If outstanding service issues can be resolved, we will consider resuming sales."
Signature also said it would be willing to revisit its latest decision if the line once again fixed its ongoing issues. The consortium said that "timeliness of commissions were a contributing factor" in both decisions to remove American Queen as a preferred supplier.
Travel advisors' experiences
Some travel advisors say that while their overall experience working with and booking American Queen Voyages has been mostly positive, there have been issues of concern over the past two years.
Casey Smith, a AAA Travel advisor based in Denver, said he sold a decent amount of U.S. river cruises, including American Queen Voyages, up until November, which is when Smith said AAA Travel told advisors not to book the line due to "customer service and refund issues."
Smith said in an email that clients of his who had booked two cruises with American Queen last year experienced significant issues with their first cruise in October, including "lapses in communication, a mishandling of their precruise package and travel documents not being issued until the very last minute (less than a week before their departure)."
"With less than a month to go before departure, and still no final documents in sight, I followed up with AQV," Smith said. "After multiple phone calls, I finally had one of their agents inform me the prestay package had been canceled (no notifications were sent to me or the clients)."
American Queen did ultimately refund the client for the precruise extension, Smith said, as well as compensation for changing the flights. The second cruise those clients took with American Queen operated without incident, Smith added.
"Outside of that booking for October, I've never really experienced issues with AQV, their staffing issues or excursions," Smith said. "Most of the feedback I get from clients who sail with AQV is completely positive."
Lisa Fitzgerald, a river cruise specialist and owner of Fitzgerald Travel in Spofford, N.H., also added that most of her dealings with American Queen Voyages have been positive and that her commissions have been paid on time and in full.
But Fitzgerald, who said she only sold three American Queen cruises in 2023, also said that there have been noticeable challenges with the line, particularly since the pandemic, during which Hornblower Group, American Queen's parent company, made significant changes within the company.
In September 2021, Hornblower Group merged American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines to form American Queen Voyages, which consisted of the former's four-ship river cruise fleet and the latter's two-ship Great Lakes and ocean fleet at the time.
"I sailed in March '22, post-Covid, and staffing was so short. It was just after the integration with Hornblower," Fitzgerald said. "That was a huge system failure and obvious service failure -- too much too soon without operational issues sorted out first. American Queen was pulling people from other ships, from other departments."
Fitzgerald said that while she and a fellow advisor she was sailing with were able to notice the line's staffing issues onboard at the time, few passengers took note and that the staff onboard worked very hard to provide a quality sailing experience.
"I do hope they do well in 2024 for the Mississippi," Fitzgerald said.
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At least two cruise lines have said they will reroute itineraries in the Middle East to avoid the Red Sea and Yemen area, where several shipping vessels have been attacked by Houthi militants in recent weeks, according to reports.
Silversea will change the itinerary of the Silver Moon, turning the 10-day sailing, which began Jan. 6 in Aqaba, Jordan, and was bound for Muscat, Oman, into a roundtrip sailing, according to a spokesman for parent company Royal Caribbean Group. Guests will now disembark in Aqaba at the end of the cruise, and the cruise company is in the process of changing return flights for guests.
Royal Caribbean Group's global security team continues to monitor the situation, the spokesman said.
Silversea did not comment about the status of subsequent sailings.
MSC Cruises has also decided to reroute one of its ships. The MSC Poesia is on a 115-day world cruise from Rome that departed on Jan. 4. The ship was scheduled to cross through the Suez Canal on Jan. 16, but a spokeswoman said the line will amend the route for the first part of the cruise and circumnavigate Africa instead of passing through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. The later parts of the itinerary will remain unchanged, she said.
Other cruise lines have taken a wait-and-see approach, since their ships are not yet in the region. Spring is a busier time for cruise ships in the Suez Canal.
The attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have led several shipping giants to avoid passing through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a key shortcut between Asia and Europe, according to the New York Times. The report quoted an analysis from logistics technology company Flexport that said at least 389 container vessels are taking the long route around Africa.
