Regent Seven Seas Cruises is already considered the most inclusive luxury line, but that is not stopping it from expanding — and better explaining — its fare options for travel agents and their clients.
To outline the brand’s new structure, Shawn Tubman, senior vice president of sales for Regent, sat down with us for a chat.
What are the main points of the new fare structure?
[There are] two main bullet points: one is our All-Inclusive Cruise Fares. They're great for people who want all the benefits of the most inclusive luxury experience, but want to do their own airfare. They want to use points, or they have other opportunities. And we've always heard this from people.
And the second is the Ultimate All-Inclusive Fares, which include everything from the All-Inclusive Cruise Fares, plus travelers’ choice of booking economy, premium economy, business or first-class [flights]. So, they have more control of what they'd like to do. And it still includes the coach transfer from the airport to the ship.
How else do these benefits differ from those previously available?
Both fares still include all the great items that we've always had in our all-inclusive offering, and we just started offering another value-add. People are always asking us, “What else can you add to the product? You include just about everything.”
Well, we think this is a great inclusion because we've heard this from our guests before: “It really would be nice if I could have everything included from the time I leave home, to the time I get back.”
So, we're excited about the Blacklane private chauffeur transfer credit, and we made it lucrative enough that people can get it up to 50 miles from home to the airport and back. Plus, it allows them to upgrade from just a regular sedan to an SUV if they have more luggage.
We've always listened to our guests. They'll tell you what they'd like. They cruise with us so often; they're not shy about it.
What led to the introduction of these new offerings, and why now?
We've always listened to our guests. They'll tell you what they'd like. They cruise with us so often; they're not shy about it. They've been asking for something like this in the past.
The landscape has changed both in air and on land since the pandemic, so the timing was right for us. We've been considering this for quite a while, but it seems like now is a good time to really give our guests the choice that they want for luxury.
Luxury is all about having flexibility and customizing your experience. So, we think this is a great new addition to our offerings for our guests, where they can still have it the way they did before, but they get additional value.
What would you say is currently the overall value proposition for clients to be aware of? Is it simply more choice?
Yes, I think choice is certainly a main value of these fares. And again, that's a major part of luxury travel — being able to customize the experience and have control over your experience.
I think the Blacklane credit is not only a great extra value, but it does give clients that control, where they can use that credit any which way they want. So, if they want to use it from home to the airport and back, that's fantastic. If they want to upgrade their coach transfer, that's included in the fare, they can [upgrade] to a private transfer. Or if they're in port, they can use it if they want to get a private transfer to a place of interest in a destination, for example, during the cruise.
And they can use it from 10 days prior to the cruise to 10 days after the cruise. So, if they're doing a pre- or post-cruise package, it gives them that opportunity to use it as they see fit.
Our commissions come with a comma. They used to be a couple thousand dollars, and they're double that these days. So, it's very lucrative for our partners
How can travel agents best leverage these new inclusion tiers? Is everything still commissionable?
Yes, everything's still commissionable. We probably have the highest commissions on average in the industry. Our commissions come with a comma. They used to be a couple thousand dollars, and they're double that these days. So, it's very lucrative for our partners.
I think there's a huge opportunity for our trade partners to leverage these new fares. For example, they should be advertising our All-Inclusive Cruise Fare now. They used to advertise a regular fare that included the business class, and it was double the price of a premium line. It was much more than our competitors, also.
The All-Inclusive Cruise Fare really gets our pricing much closer to premium, and really competes on that initial consumer view of a price.
I think we lost some opportunity in the past where clients saw these fares that were double those of premium lines, and they said, “You know what? I'll look at them another time. I'll go with premium.” It didn't even give the advisors a chance to explain the value proposition and why it's worth it, and how close we really are at the end of the day when you include all those items.
So, I think now our advisors will have a lot more opportunity to sell Regent Seven Seas by virtue of the fact that people look at that fare and go, “You know what? That's pretty close. I'd rather do luxury.”
