I'm mad as hell and so is ACTA. They’re all fired up about some cruise lines’ policies, but they don’t like to name names. I’m mad as hell about that. They remind me of the government.
They don’t tell us where, they don’t tell us when, but our governments are telling us to be afraid, very afraid, of imminent terror attacks. ACTA says we’re being attacked by cruise lines’ cross-border sales policies - and that one line’s cruisin’ for a bruisin’ with their heavy handed enforcement of published policies – but it won’t tell us who they are. How can we hurt them if we don’t even call them names?
The cruise lines say it’s a protection racket for local markets…and I’m all for them protecting mine. Not so much when they’re protecting others’ though.
But, my pumpkins, it’s not that simple is it? People live and work all over the place – especially those nice rich ones that travel a lot and use travel agents to help manage their exciting lives.
ACTA calls restricting cross-border cruise sales ‘restraint of trade.’ Could we be on our way to one big global market where the lowest price is the law? If that were the case I wouldn’t be buying my bathtub gin at a Canadian government liquor store, that’s for damn sure. And we’d be kissing goodbye to those Canadian resident specials the clients like so much.
What I really don’t get is ACTA’s ‘I’m really mad and I’ll tell you how mad I am in 1,000 words, but I won’t tell you who I’m mad at.’ They’ve taken the same approach on the taxes, fees & NCFs issue too.
Maybe we should be more like the Aussies, who have not only been kicking our butts in Delhi, but when they were pissed about fuel surcharges not being included in the base fare, they sued – and won. Do we have a case? Maybe not…I think we’d have to say who we’re mad at.
