AirWaves FAQ s Q: What is AirWaves? AirWaves is a revolutionary platform developed by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. to enable travel elements to be custom packaged with a cruise. Agents booking a Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Club Cruises cruise will be able to create a bespoke holiday for their clients by selecting a preferred flight, transfer and hotel before or after their cruise. Q: What are the primary benefits of AirWaves for Agents? There are two core benefits: 1. Agents will be able to make a cruise holiday booking in one tool and with one provider. This will reduce the effort and time required to sell a cruise holiday. 2. Reduced risk on the travel agent; as you can sell the holiday knowing that RCL will be acting as principal and take on the ownership of getting your client to the ship should there be any travel disruption. Q: What are the primary benefits of AirWavesfor your guests? There are two core benefits: 1. Guests will be able to create their own bespoke holiday around our cruises, packaging flights and hotels that match their requirements; rather than using standard flights / hotels pre purchased by RCL. 2. Peace of mind that their entire holiday is protected by RCL acting as principal should there be any travel problems to and from their ship. Q: What flights are available to book in AirWaves? AirWaves connects to Amadeus and other distribution partners to aggregate the maximum range of flight options from published, private and low costs fares. Q: Which UK&I airports can guests fly from? We have departure flights available from up to 30 UK&I gateways depending on the route and day of week required. Q: Do you have to book a cruise, then add flights, transfers and hotels? No. All flight, hotel and transfer information is available at the start of the cruise booking journey and can be added or amended as the cruise booking is made? Q: What flight information is available before I commit to making the booking? If the flight is within range, all flight information (direct/indirect, carrier, times etc) and provided at the beginning of the booking process.
Q: How many hotels do you offer in each destination / port? The number of hotels vary by port, but globally we have access to over 2,500 hotel with a 4 star rating or higher. Q: What types of transport do you offer? We operate a range of transport options depending on the destination. Choose from shared coach transfers, private car, chauffeur or in Venice a private water taxi! Q: Do dynamic packages have a higher deposit? It all depends on what items you have included in the guests package. Cruise deposits are the same, but if non refundable flight or hotel products have been purchased, then these costs will be added to the deposit schedule for immediate payment. Q: How will I know if I am booking a non- refundable flight or hotel?? The component will be flagged as 'Non- refundable' in red to identify that this is a non- transferable or amendable item. The additional deposit amount will be automatically added to the total deposit value during the booking process once a non- refundable item is selected- so you can leave the maths to us. Q: Are there any additional charges or fees that are not displayed? Some hotels do charge a resort fee or a city tax which is payable on arrival. While this is commonplace for many locations and hotel providers, we rely on our travel partners to inform your customers of these charges in advance so there is no confusion or misunderstandings later. Any additional charges such as these can be viewed in the Holiday Price breakdown, visible from the Guest Details page right through to confirmation, so always remember to recap the booking before confirming. Q: Why do I need to 'Hold this stateroom' after I select it, and what is it for? Our system is based on live inventory, so to ensure that your stateroom is secure while you complete your customers booking, you will need to select 'Hold this stateroom' before proceeding. This ensures that the stateroom will be held for you while you are still finalising a few last details. Hotels and transfer are automatically held- but flight inventory is not due to restrictions from Amadeus and other flight providers, so please aim to complete the booking in good time to save timing out! Q: My customer has brought me quote for a holiday from your website, but I can't see the same details in AirWaves. Why is this? Our system is live and therefore availability and prices change frequently, so sometimes there may be differences between searches as with any live booking system. However, you may still be able to create the same package by checking for the travel components in the 'alternatives' sections in the 'Refine' step- if they are available, they will be displayed here. If not- why not suggest something a little different? Check out the 'alternatives' for some inspiration on what we have to offer.
Q: My customers want a particular stateroom, but I don't see it on your system. How can I check? As with other booking tools, we can only return up to 40 cabins at a time for a particular category, so you may not see the stateroom your guests would like initially. However, in the cruise section you can use the 'Search for a Specific Stateroom' to search a room number within the category you are looking at- if it is available, you can select it. Q: Why do you need my customers telephone number and email address? It is very important that we take the guests mobile number and email address at the time of booking. This is so that we can contact the guest quickly and effectively if we need to give them urgent information while they are travelling. We also pass these details to our suppliers (for example, private transfer driver) so that the guest can always be contacted for updates regarding their travel plans. Please remember to provide details that the guest can be reached on while travelling. We do not use this information for marketing purposes. Q: How do I know how much deposit to take? The deposit amount is displayed at the bottom of the Refine step, and shown right up until confirmation. We also advise how much deposit is needed on the Payment page. The total deposit includes both the cruise deposit, plus any additional deposits required for non- refundable items. Q: What is the 'Pay Later' option? If you do not have a credit agreement with us, and have always provided the payment at the time of booking, this does not change and you will be expected to use the guests card details as normal in the 'Pay Now' section. If you pay us by cheque, you can select the 'pay later' option, but be advised that from the moment of booking, you and your customers are liable for any payment terms already withstanding, so a minimum of the deposit must be taken from the guest to cover any charges and cancellation terms, which can be found in our terms and conditions in our brochure and on our website. There are no changes to payment structure for agencies that hold a credit agreement with us, so 'Pay Later' will allow you to bypass the payment page as we will charge you as normal via your regular statement. For all agencies, please be advised that you are liable to take the minimum payment required (as advised by AirWaves) from the customer at the time of booking. Q: I'm seeing 'Provisional' travel arrangements displayed - what are these? As is common with certain components, items like flights may not be available until we are within 10 months of the travel date. Therefore, 'Provisional' components may be offered if the booking is made well in advance of the travel date and there is currently no availability for some of your customers holiday items. This means that once the booking comes into availability range, we will populate the component details for you, so there is no need to call us back nearer the travel date to complete the customer package.
The price displayed for Provisional items will not change from the time of booking, so there will be no charges or extra fees later on. However, once we provide the details of the item, should you customer wish to change a component, there may be extra charges to do so due to third party charges and differences in prices for their new components. Please be advised that we cannot guarantee particular or direct flights, a particular hotel location or transfer item or any additional customer requests for Provisional items. All provisional hotels will be a minimum of 4star* hotel or above. Q: On the results page, why do some prices show as 'LIVE' and others show a time of 'X mins ago'? The results page pricing is based on a cache which is updated whenever someone searches for that particular package. While no price displayed will be older than 24 hours, pricing on the Results page is indicative only and is to be treated as such until you proceed to the Refine page, where pricing will be live. Your search will then update the cache on the Results step. Q: How can I view the bookings I have already created? A summary is available of all the bookings created using AirWaves. Once you have entered AirWaves, click the 'Retrieve' tab on the initial search page, and enter the lead guests name or booking ID into the field to retrieve the summary of your booking. Please be advised that if you made a cruise only booking, you may see a message directing you to Espresso to view the booking. This is because cruise only bookings can be viewed, amended or serviced using Espresso for your convenience. Q: How do I request a new invoice? A new invoice (both agent and customer copies) can be requested by contacting our call centres. However, please be advised that if you have made amendments through the call centre, a new confirmation will automatically be sent to you the same day. Please allow 24 hours to receive the confirmation. New confirmation invoices will automatically be sent within 24 hours of bookings being created, so please be patient and watch out for the confirmation email. Q: My customer doesn't want the full package- how do I remove items? Items can easily be removed- just click the 'Edit' pencil item on the right hand side of the component in the Refine page, and select 'Remove this item'. Please be advised though, that at this time, we recommend not to have any 'gaps' in the package- this is for the ease of the customers travel arrangements, plus all components booked through us are covered through our ATOL protection. Q: How do I change my search criteria halfway through the booking process? At any time, you can click on the 'Airwaves' logo in the top left corner to return to the initial search page, or press the browser back button to go back a step. Don't forget, you can also use the left hand pane on the results page to start a new search without going back to the beginning.
Q: I started searching for a cruise only, but now I want to add more travel components- do I have to start again? Not at all! Just continue with your cruise only until the Refine step. From there, you can add components to the package and tailormake it for your customers. Q: Why do I have to specify dates of birth for teens? By entering correct dates of birth from the beginning (for all guests) we can ensure we are retrieving the best and most accurate prices for your customers. Q: What can't I do in AirWaves? AirWaves at this time cannot support the following: Back to Back cruises ii. Family rooms (more than 4 in a room) iii. More than one booking at a time iv. Cruisetours v. Cruise & Stay Packages/ Pre- Bundled Packages Q: What if I have technical problems with my Airwaves account? For technical issues, please contact the Trade Automation support number as normal who can provide assistance. Q: Why are some transfers showing without a price? Some of our hotel contracts include transfers as part of the hotel price. In these circumstances, you may see transfers with no price attached to them. These will be standard coach transfers. There may be private transfers available in the alternatives at a price if the customer would prefer not sharing in a coach, but availability is not the same for each date and location. For private transfers, please select an alternative hotel that may be packaged with private transfers, or customers are free to make their own arrangements. Please remember to remove the transfers from the package if they are not required! Q: Why can't we hold options in AirWaves? Not all of our providers can hold inventory so we are unable to place a hold on a package for any length of time. Our inventory is dynamic, based on live pricing and often in high demand- so it's best to encourage your customers to book straight away to avoid any disappointment! Q: Why can I service some bookings in Espresso, and not others? Cruise Only bookings can be serviced via Espresso in the same way that you have always been able to, though now there are new travel elements provided by our suppliers that are managed outside Espresso. Therefore please call to amend anything for a Packaged holiday- even if it's just a cruise amendment- to ensure smooth sailing for your customers throughout their entire journey. Q: Where can I view commission? Commission can be viewed before booking after the Refine step. You can view the Price Breakdown summary on the Guest Details, Payment and Confirmation pages, which will also
show you which components are commissionable and how much commission will be paid on the booking. Q: Which components are commissionable? Flights, cruise and private transfers are all commissionable. Coach transfers however are not. Q: What protection is offered for a fly cruise package? As long as there is a flight and a cruise, the booking is fully protected under our ATOL protection, even if guests are making their own arrangements Q: What can we secure for guests with special requirements? By using the accessible button at the beginning of the search, you can narrow the search to only return available inventory that will be suitable for guests with particular needs. Generally, our live system can support up to 3 nights in a hotel either side and our shared transfers for guests that require accessible holiday components, but for a longer duration or private transfers, please contact the call centre who can work with the supplier on an individual basis. Q: I have searched for a booking with the flight package, but the customers have changed their mind. How can I change it back to cruise only? If you are in the Results step, you can use the blue left hand pane to re- adjust your search. In this pane you can select 'Departure Gateway' and switch the toggle off to remove the gateway and proceed with cruise only. If you are in the Refine step, you can simple remove all the additional components by clicking the 'edit' button for each component, and select 'Remove this item' for all holiday arrangements. Don't worry- you can always add these back on using the 'Add' panel in the Refine step. Q: I am in the 'Search' step, and have selected my search criteria, however this only gives me limited months to select my date range. Why is this? The 'Search' step is dynamic and any search criteria you enter will automatically adjust all the relevant fields for you. In this instance, the cruise itinerary you are searching for may only be available for certain dates. Q: Can I print a summary of the holiday to give to the guests? Yes- before the booking is created, you can print a summary of what you discussed. As all pricing is live and no inventory can be held, prices and availability are all subject to change at any time. After the booking is created, a confirmation invoice will automatically be emailed to you within 24 hours, but you can also click the print icon to print a summary for them if your guests would like to take their details away with them after booking.