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YTB is once again crowing that they won The Pinnacle Award from Carnival Cruise Lines. This time, they are claiming it was for the 4th year in a row. However, there was no such fanfare (or documentation) of them winning it last year.

Just before Vicki Freed left Carnival for Royal Caribbean, an agent approached her at a trade show and asked about the Pinnacle Award and YTB. She said she thought they had only won it once.

So, what is the real, legitimate story? According to the YTB site called The Facts About YTB, via a link, they appear to have won the award once.

And we all know the lengths that some of the Reps and RTAs will go to embellish the opportunity–can anyone say Dr. Seligman, over a billion sold in the first six months, etc.

So, I figured I would go to the source and ask Carnival. I sent an email to Ann Sedgwick, the BDM that handles the YTB account and asked her if YTB had won it and how many times. She sent back a surprising reply:

Good morning John,

Kirk Neal would be the appropriate contact for you. His e-mail address is: XXXX@XXXX.XXX

Regards,

Ann

Why doesn’t Ann want to confirm or deny that YTB won the award or how many times they won it. Very strange indeed.

Well, I sent the same email to Kirk and did receive a response to my inquiry:

John,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I was out of office with my team for regional meetings.

In regards to your questions, yes, YTB has been a Pinnacle Award recipient for the past 4 years. It is a corporate award based on the recommendation from each local BDM, but has to meet certain production criteria.

Regards,

So there you have it from the horse’s mouth. The Pinnacle Award is a corporate award given to an agency on the recommendation from each local BDM. It does make sense since Carnival is the largest supplier for YTB and undeniably they do move a decent amount of cruises as an entity. I am not sure there are too many agencies in that market that could compete! Sort of like giving a fishing tournament trophy to the trawler with the nets and letting the guy with the fishing rod and the worm settle for the runner up.

Congratulations to YTB.

See the original post here: 

http://notravelmlms.blogspot.com/2009/06/mystery-of-pinnacle-solved.html

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