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Britannia breaks sales record despite bookings fiasco
Technical issues did not stop P&O Cruises achieving a record increase in bookings on Thursday, the first day of sales for its new ship Britannia.
The company saw an 81% rise in bookings compared to the on sale day of Azura in 2009, and an increase of 24% compared to Ventura in 2007, which was the company’s most successful launch to date.
It could not provide figures to show what percentage of bookings came direct or through the trade.
The cruise line blamed the technical failure, which frustrated many agents, on "unprecedented demand", which led to the "unusual" failure of all three booking engines.
But it said agents were unlikely to be compensated for commission they claimed had been lost to direct sales as the website, call centre and Complete Cruise Solution site had all crashed at the same time.
A spokeswoman said: "We’ve looked at the timings and they all crashed at the same time and came on again at the same time – if anything, the CCS site came on slightly sooner."
Sales and distribution support director Chris Truscott said: "We really appreciate the patience shown yesterday by our trade partners in the early part of yesterday when due to circumstances beyond our control they experienced difficulties making bookings with us.
"I can only apologise for the disruption caused and emphasise that we took immediate action to resolve the issues.
"However, I am delighted with the support agents have shown to our fantastic new ship which is demonstrated by the unprecedented demand."
The full 2015 programme goes on sale on April 7.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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