| Celeb guests want it all

CELEBRITY Cruises Vice President & Managing Director, Australia & APAC Tim Jones told Cruise Weekly the cruise line’s introduction of Flights by Celebrity (CW 24 Mar) was born out of the shift to the Always Included pricing model (CW 11 Nov 2020).

With Celebrity targeting the “new luxury” market, which sits at the higher price point, expectations from guests are that a lot more is included.

“We’ve been looking at what else we can build into those packages that really added value for the customer and value and ease for the travel agent community as well,” Jones explained.

“Obviously we’ve been managing disruption over the past 12 months and managing that disruption is a lot easier when there’s a single point of contact.

“We’ve always had the capability to sell flights but we never really pushed it to the forefront.”

Jones said the other piece to the Flights by Celebrity puzzle was the advancement of technology, and its ability to manage the complexity of offering flights.

Flights by Celebrity is underpinned by a strong technological platform, he explained, which is still being developed as the service launches.

Jones added Flights by Celebrity has been up and running in the United States market, returning results far stronger than expected from customers and advisors.

Flights by Celebrity’s Australian rollout also follows on from its launch in Europe.