Investor Relations

Holland America Line Enhances ‘Flight Ease’ Air Booking Program with More Options and Easier Navigation

More intuitive platform allows travel professionals to seamlessly make air reservations

Seattle, Wash., Aug. 20, 2015 — Holland America Line added a new look and enhanced features to its air booking program, Flight Ease, making it more user-friendly for travel professionals to navigate, search and book flights.

In addition to the new design, the functionality of the site is now more intuitive, allowing travel professionals to select departure and return flights separately, add a stopover flight segment, easily compare real-time flexible and restricted fares, and review more detailed schedule displays.

“We’re constantly communicating with our travel partners, and these Flight Ease enhancements are a result of conversations on how to improve the air reservation platform,” said Eva Jenner, vice president of North America sales for Holland America Line. “Planning a cruise vacation from start to finish should be a seamless process, and Flight Ease ensures that our travel partners have the most advanced tools to coordinate their clients’ air and cruise itineraries.”

In addition to the new look, the new and improved functionality includes:

-        The ability to select departing and return flights independently.

-        Improved search filters to easily identify the best flight for clients based on preferred airlines, fare type, number of stops, departure time, price and duration

-        Easy comparison of flexible and restricted airfare options for the same flights

-        A logic-driven calendar to guide flight planning based on ship departure and arrival dates.

-        Newly designed schedule displays detailing important information about type of aircraft, connections and layover times.

-        Improved navigation allowing the travel professionals to move easily across the booking flow from each step of the process including search, select departure, select return, summary and pay.

Available through Holland America Line’s robust Polar Online booking process, Flight Ease features up-to-the-minute flight schedules that only include those flights that arrive and depart in time for the specific cruise booked; as well as competitive pricing and flight inventory from multiple carriers. All flights booked through Flight Ease feature 24-hour assistance for questions and “Next Port Protection,” which means that in case of airline delay or cancellation en route to a cruise, Holland America Line will take care of any flight changes necessary to join the cruise at the next available port of call.

With Flight Ease, travel professionals can easily and affordably select from two competitive pricing options depending on their clients’ travel needs: Flexible Fares provide the greatest leeway for changes with no fees to adjust a flight schedule and airfare payment is due with the final cruise payment. Similar to other low-fare tickets, Restricted Fares are generally a lower price, have cancellation fees and require full payment for the air reservation at the time of booking.

For more information on Flight Ease, visit the Travel Agent Headquarters portal accessed via hollandamerica.com  or call 1-877-SAIL-HAL (1-877-724-5425).

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About Holland America Line [a division of Carnival Corporation and plc (NYSE:  CCL and CUK)]

Holland America Line’s fleet of 15 ships offers more than 500 cruises to 415 ports in 98 countries, territories or dependencies.  One- to 110-day itineraries visit all seven continents and highlights include Antarctica, South America, Australia/New Zealand and Asia voyages; four annual Grand Voyages; and popular sailings to ports in the Caribbean, Alaska, Mexico, Canada/New England, Europe and the Panama Canal. The line currently has a new 2,650-guest ship, ms Koningsdam, on order for delivery in April 2016 from Fincantieri shipyard, as well as a second Pinnacle class ship due for delivery in November 2018.

Fleetwide, the company features Signature of Excellence enhancements, a commitment totaling more than $500 million, that showcase the Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine — a state-of-the-art onboard show kitchen where more than 60 celebrated guest chefs and culinary experts provide cooking demonstrations and classes — Explorations Café powered by The New York Times, Digital Workshop powered by Windows, teens-only activity areas and all-new stateroom amenities highlighted by flat-panel TVs and plush Euro-top Mariner’s Dream Beds.