| Princess, P&O unveil trade initiatives

Princess Cruises has high hopes
for its new eZAir flight booking
tool, while P&O has formed an
advisory board of travel agents.
ANNOUNCED at this week’s Partnership
Summit (TD, 13 Dec), Princess Cruises’ new
eZAir program is expected to have greater
take-up in Australia than in the US.
The online tool, which will enable agents to
control and coordinate clients’ flights with
cruise itineraries, is currently used in less than
20% of American bookings.
But Alan Buckelew, CEO and president of
Princess Cruises, told CW that he anticipated a
larger proportion of Australian agents would
use eZAir for dynamic packaging of cruise and
flights around the world.
“Domestic flights are only a portion of cruise
business here, but it will be really important
for international travel,” he said.
Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry added that
the program would be useful for booking the
growing volume of Australians cruising
overseas, especially in Europe and Alaska,
thanks to the the strong Australian dollar.
Launching in early 2012, eZAir will provide
real-time pricing and flight availability as well
as instant flight reservations through a single
online booking source.
It will be integrated into POLAR Online, Cruise
Personaliser and Princess’ call centre and website.
The program also has inbuilt “next port
protection” which assists a passenger with
re-routing flights to the next port of call if they
miss their cruise due to airline delays.
MEANWHILE, P&O announced the
establishment of an advisory board to help
strengthen relations with the trade.
The board comprises nine Australian travel
agents who will meet twice a year to discuss
issues within the local cruising industry,
including market conditions, technology,
communication and best practice.
Serving a two-year term, the initial board
members are: Leah Temple, Jetset Travelworld
Campbelltown; Brett Dann, Hunter Group; Gil
McLachlan, HWT Manly (NSW); Dan Russell,
Globenet Travel/Clean Cruising; Tony Strong,
Travelworld Helensvale (Qld); Robin Sinfield,
Excell Travel & Cruise; Roland Kautzky,
Cruiseabout Port Melbourne (Vic); Phil
Hoffman, Phil Hoffman Travel (SA); and Gina
Maitland, Alpha Travel (WA).
The first meeting is planned for April 2012.