This week, the three brands of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced a new air/sea policy, called ChoiceAir, available to guests on Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises. Cruise editor Johanna Jainchill talked with Troy Martin, RCCL's director of air/sea and travel services, about the program.
Q: What was the impetus behind this revamp of your air/sea program?
A: Our guests were really the drivers behind it. They told us they really value the support and the convenience of being able to purchase air along with their cruise vacation and felt like there was peace of mind to that. But over time, they felt the offerings we had weren't fully meeting their needs. We wanted to not make a minor tweak to the program but to really give them more choices.
Q: In what ways were you not meeting their needs?
A: The guests wanted to take the mystery out of the air program. Typically they'd know the price they were going to pay, but not what flight until much closer to the sailing. They wanted to know what flights they would get, what seat assignments. They want the choice to balance their needs. I might prefer nonstop, but I might also be quite happy to select a connecting flight if it saves a significant amount of money. There are a lot of things guests are willing to make trade-offs on.
Price is key, too. The traditional air/sea program, because of its flexibility and use of contracted rates, the prices were sometimes higher.
Q: Why are you doing this only now when such air purchasing technology has been around so long?
A: It really did require a complete rethinking of our processes as well as the technology that delivers it. While there's been new technology evolving since the '90s in terms of the Internet and how air is booked, we've needed to integrate that with our cruise reservation system.
Air is certainly not our core business. We've primarily needed to provide great cruise vacations.
Q: What percentage of passengers currently book air through you?
A: It really varies and depends on the market and the product. We've got some international markets that well over half the business comes through air/sea. Some products like Canal offerings or Europe or Alaska also have a high air/sea mix, whereas our North American products tend to be lower.
Q: In the pilot program, has the service fee been an issue?
A: That was not brought up as a concern even once, because the fares seemed to be so much more competitive. I would say that we have received only positive feedback since the beginning. The agents using the site themselves have found it easy to use, intuitive, reliable and fast. The agents calling are finding it easier and faster to complete the booking of the whole cruise vacation, because they don't need to hang up and then go shop for air and make multiple calls.
Q: If the agent finds the flight for the client, it is more work that is not commissionable. Has that been cited as a problem?
A: It's been stated as something they will need to weigh, as well. Agents who do the air for guests already but though another channel will look at ChoiceAir as an option.
Q: For travel agents that charge a service fee to book air, they are now competing with your service fee.
A: It's been requested that we add in functionality that allows travel partners to add a fee. That was something we took a look at, and we are going to work on a project that's expected to come out in the middle part of next year.