Princess Cruises: No More Paper Tickets on Sailings

Source: Travel Weekly

Princess Cruises said it will be the first cruise line to convert completely over to electronic ticketing, a move the line said will enable it to provide cruise documents to its passengers earlier than any other line in the industry.

According to Princess, travel agents and their passengers will receive their travel documents sooner and more conveniently with the company's new eTickets program.

Through the online Cruise Personalizer, part of the eTickets program, passengers will have 24-hour-access to print cruise details and boarding passes and final booking and travel information also will be delivered.

Meanwhile, Princess said the eTickets program is expected to save travel agents both time and money, as they will no longer need to send final ticket packages on to clients, reducing the resources associated with handling travel documents.

"There's nothing that travelers appreciate more than having their travel details confirmed well in advance and in-hand so they can rest assured their vacation will be their perfect escape," said Jan Swartz, senior vice president of customer service and sales for Princess in a release.

The eTickets program will also provide passengers with their Princess Air details as soon as 75 days in advance, earlier than any other cruise line, Princess said, giving passengers a greater opportunity to finalize their vacation plans and make changes if needed.

Replacing the company's traditional paper documents, Princess eTickets will begin fleetwide for most sailings departing on and after Nov. 17 (Golden Princess will begin with the Dec. 16 sailing). Passengers sailing on or after this date will be able to access their boarding passes and travel summaries starting this week. The program currently applies only to bookings by North American passengers.

"We've been testing eTickets on select groups of passengers for several months now," said Swartz. "Feedback has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic from both customers and agents, who have told us what a great convenience it is."

To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Johanna Jainchill at jjainchill@travelweekly.com.