|
|
Court Orders Chapter 11 for Joystar, Okays Direct Agent Payments
Published on: February 12, 2009
A federal bankruptcy court has ordered that the host agency Joystar can seek relief under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, which gives companies a chance to re-organize their debts and re-emerge as a healthy company. Separately, the court said that four cruise lines may now pay commissions on bookings that had been made with Joystar as the booking agent directly to the agents who actually made the bookings if the agents had followed a procedure established by the court to transfer those bookings.
Judge Raymond B. Ray, made the rulings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the southern district of Florida. This is a major victory for Joystar agents, many of whom have been trying in vain for months to collect commissions, some mounting to thousands of dollars that they say Joystar owes them. Many have been trying to salvage pending bookings for cruises and vacations that their clients have yet to take by transferring those bookings away from Joystar, the host through which those agents had made those bookings, to another agency.
An involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing Dec. 31 automatically generated a stay that meant that cruise lines could not transfer any Joystar bookings, which meant agents could not make the final payments that are required before their clients take their vacations. The stay also kept cruise lines from paying agents their commissions directly. Four cruise lines -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line -- had filed to have that stay lifted in order to free up those bookings and commissions.
The court, which had said in an interim order that the cruise lines should put those commissions in escrow accounts, ruled earlier this week that the cruise lines may pay the agents who made the bookings the commissions that had been put in the escrow as well as any bookings and commissions that may come due in the future. The court also said that the cruise lines should pay any commissions due Joystar to Joystar. The court reiterated the procedure by which agents can have any pending commissions transferred that it laid out in the earlier interim order.
Agents or passengers who want to transfer a booking to another travel agency or travel agent should send a fax to Joystar c/o Joystar Agent Services at 949-266-9955 requesting that transfer. That request will be made after 24 hours have passed. In the case of NCL, the cruise line needs a copy of the transfer request and confirmation that it was sent as well as a verbal assurance from the agent or passenger requesting the transfer that Joystar has failed to respond. NCL also can transfer bookings when Joystar authorizes those transfers in writing.
 Reader Comments
More Headlines Like This ...
|