Booking Pre- and Post- Cruise Air and Hotel Vacations Earn more when you use VAX VacationAccess to book pre- and post-cruise hotel stays with round trip air. Give your cruise clients a choice of flights, reserve their seat assignments, offer them more hotel options, and sell commissionable features to help you earn more from your preferred suppliers. When you book pre- and post-hotels with round trip air in VAX VacationAccess, you can: Earn commission on the published air using Set Your Own Commission. Reserve seat assignments for your clients immediately after booking. Choose the flights your client wants and add the frequent flyer number to the reservation. Add activities and transfers to your pre- and post-cruise stays. Remember to check the cruise embarkation and debarkation times to allow for sufficient time prior to sailing and prior to the return flight departure. Version: 1 Updated: 04/22/2016 2016 VAX VacationAccess
2 A Pre- AND Post-Cruise Stay Scenario Let s walk through an example itinerary with both a pre- and post-cruise stay. Your customers just booked a 7-day Caribbean cruise, embarking in Miami. They want to fly from Chicago O Hare to Miami on September 8, 2014 and they want to stay in a hotel for two nights before their cruise. Their cruise sails from Miami on September 10. After returning to Miami on September 17, they will spend two more nights in Miami before returning to Chicago on September 19. Example: Follow steps 1-13 to book an air and hotel vacation package with pre- and postcruise stays in Miami. Step 1: Select Multiple destinations as the Vacation Type and Hawaii/USA/MEX/CARIB/CAN Flight + Hotel as the Destination Region from the Advanced Search page in VAX. Destination regions vary by supplier. Step 2: Enter Chicago O Hare (ORD) in the Departing from field, 08SEP15 as the departure date, Miami (MIA) as Destination #1, and select 9 as the # of Nights. The number of nights should include the pre-cruise hotel stay in Miami (2) and the total duration of the cruise (7) for a total of 9 nights. Step 3: Click the plus sign next to Additional Hotel Options for Destination #1 to expand the Hotel panel. A hotel will be needed for the first two nights, so designate 08SEP15 as the check-in date and 10SEP15 as the check-out date. Step 4: (Optional) Uncheck I will need a rental car if your travelers do not need this component in the destination. Step 5: Verify 17SEP15 is in the Depart to Next Destination field. VAXVacationAccess.com
Booking Pre- and Post-Cruise Air and Hotel Vacations 3 This field will default to the correct departure date based upon the number of nights selected in the drop-down menu. This number (9) equals the cruise length in nights (7) plus pre-cruise hotel stay (2). Step #1 Step #1 Step #2 Step #3 Step #4 Step #5 Step 6: Enter Miami (MIA) again as Destination #2, and select 2 as the # of Nights.
4 Step 7: If the cruise returns to the same port city it left from, A flight is required to this destination will be greyed out. If the cruise ends in a port city other than the one it left from, you will need to designate the new port city as the second destination. If this is the case, uncheck the box next to A flight is required to this destination because your clients will arrive there by ship. For this example, your clients are staying in MIA, their original port city, so the reservation tool will display A flight is not available to this destination. Step 8: (Optional) Uncheck I will need a rental car if your travelers do not need this component in the destination. Step 9: Click the plus sign to expand the Additional Hotel Options panel for Destination #2. Step 10: Verify 17SEP15 as the check-in date and 19SEP15 as the check-out date. You should not have to adjust the check-in and checkout dates. These should populate automatically based upon the total number of nights you entered in step 6. Step #6 Step #9 Step #7 Step #10 Step #8 Step 11: Verify 19SEP15 as the arrival date and Chicago (ORD) as the Return Flight destination. Step 12: Click Search. VAXVacationAccess.com
Booking Pre- and Post-Cruise Air and Hotel Vacations 5 Step #11 Step #12 Step 13: Select preferred flights, hotel, rental car, and feature components in the availability screens that follow. Review the resulting itinerary for accuracy and then click Checkout when your clients are ready to book.
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