You're about to discover how you can get
cheaper cruise fares based on your job
or the industry you work in.
I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another
of my Cruise Tips For Travellers.
There are a whole bunch of jobs, or industries,
where by simply doing a few things, or asking,
you can actually get cheaper cruise fares.
This is not something I had really realised
until quite recently, so I'm going to take you
through eight jobs and industries,
and hopefully you are in one of those,
and you can get a discount.
So let's start, first of all, with this one.
If you're in the military,
there is a lot of options in terms
of getting discounted cruise fares.
So if you're in the military, or you're a veteran,
you will find there are loads of opportunities.
The three biggest cruise lines,
Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line,
all offer discounts for military or retired military
pretty much all year round.
The way you actually access these vary.
So some of them you can either call the cruise line up,
and ask them, or some of them actually when you go
through the booking process, you'll find at some point,
for example, in Royal Caribbean,
as you go through the booking process,
you then just simply tick a box if you are military.
But you'll find many of the other cruise lines,
on an ongoing basis, will offer deals.
So Celebrity, Disney, MSC, they all offer deals.
In fact, some of the best that are looked at,
in terms of deals, I think,
are Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises.
They have lots, and lots of opportunities
for military people to get discounted fares.
So if you have been in the military,
or are currently in the military,
you can definitely get lower cruise fares
and often extra onboard credit.
The second area where you can get great cruise discounts
is if you are, what I guess in the US
are called first responders.
So particularly the police and firemen,
and there are lots and lots
of opportunities here for discounts.
They are a little bit more difficult to find,
sometimes, than in the military,
but you'll find lots, and lots of opportunities.
So you'll find, for example, that Royal Caribbean,
Celebrity, MSC Cruises, certainly at the time
that I was recording this,
they were all offering very specific
first responder discounts on various selected cruises.
So it tends to be selected cruises at certain times.
I also found if you use some of the cruise aggregators,
so for example, VacationsToGo,
they have a very specific section
which is just for first responders, and police,
and they will tell you what deals are going
at that particular time.
The way you access those are at the time of booking,
you have to provide either a copy of your ID,
or some kind of proof that you are a first responder,
but you can be, for example, in the US,
if you are a federal, state,
or even a local police officer,
you can get access to those.
If you're a fireman,
you can be even a volunteer fireman to access those.
So there are lots of opportunities.
So if you are a policeman, or a fireman,
then definitely you have an opportunity
to get lower cruise fares.
They tend to be more selected sailings.
The third area is if you're a healthcare professional.
So you're a doctor, nurse,
or you work in the healthcare industry.
Now, these are much more difficult to get
than the previous two categories, and in fact,
it's even easier to get if you actually work in the UK.
So what I've found, in the UK,
if you work in the National Health Service,
no matter what role you have,
you can access lots of discounts.
Now, the discounts tend to be more in the form
of extra onboard credit, but you will also find
you can get discounts of set amounts on different cruises,
and there is a very specific site
that will help you do that.
So for example, the site in the UK
is called healthservicediscounts.com,
and they offer everything from Princess, Celebrity,
Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line,
Costa, MSC, P&O Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, River Cruises.
So again, lots of opportunities.
You're not necessarily gonna get big discounts
in fares always, but you will get extra onboard credit,
which of course helps enormously.
The fourth type of profession is if you're a teacher,
or if you actually work in universities.
You can also get various discounts
and extra onboard credit.
Again, a bit like with the healthcare service,
you tend to have to access
those via different organisations,
rather than with the cruise lines direct.
So you're normally booking through being a member
of some kind of site, or organisation,
but definitely there are opportunities to get
discounts and deals.
So for example, I've found there's a couple
of partnerships where you can get discounts on lines
including Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises,
Disney, Princess, Holland America, Norwegian.
The sites that you get those through are sites
like teacherstraveldiscounts.com,
myeducationdiscount.com, and again,
also on aggregator sites, like Vacations To Go.
They do have a specific section to helps teachers
and academics get discounts on cruises.
The next area is if you're a government employee,
particularly a government employee in the United States.
There is a way of also getting discounts.
There is a website which you can join
if you can prove that you're a government employee,
and that site is called GovX.
Through that site, in addition to getting discounts
on all sorts of things,
they do a very specific travel section,
and again, for cruises, where you can get
discounted cruises or extra onboard credit.
So if you work in any sort of government organisation,
then you can probably get a discount,
or some benefits on a cruise.
The next area is one of the most established
for getting travel discounts,
and that's airline employees.
There's a thing called interline rates,
and this was set up to help airline employees
travel on different airlines.
They used to be for fares which were pretty close
to flying, or they were stand-by fares.
This is now expanded into cruise lines.
So if you work in the airline industry,
you can probably access an interline fare for cruises.
They tend to be at more shorter notice,
so they'll tend to be in the 90 to 60 days before a cruise,
after people have paid their final balance.
When cruise lines tend to have capacity,
they'll then try to sell.
The advantage of the interline rates
is they don't want to make this very public,
so they have very specific agencies.
So you'll find, and you'll know
this if you're an airline employee
that you work through interline agencies
which have these rates, and you have to prove
that you're an airline employee,
but you can get some great discounted rates on cruises,
and it will vary.
Most cruise lines do get involved in interline rates
to help clear inventory, so it's definitely something to do.
So you need to go through one of the agencies
that are interline, and offer interline fares
both for hotels, flights, and now for cruises.
Also, with airline employees,
you'll find that depending on the site,
you'll sometimes find affiliated,
like air traffic controllers may be able
to get access to it, or people who just work in airports,
and the rules do differ slightly,
but if you work anything to do in the airline industry,
you're probably gonna be able to get a discount.
There are some specialist sites
like airlinecrewdiscount.net, and again,
Vacations To Go have an interline search opportunity,
and another site called absea.com.
What if you don't work in the airline industry?
Well, don't despair, because if you do
anything related to travel,
you're probably also gonna be able to get a discount.
So you could work for the railways,
you could work in air traffic control,
you could work in a hotel,
you could work in a tour industry, a tourism board,
anything that promotes and sells travel,
you're probably gonna be able to get a discount on a cruise.
Now one of the examples I'd like to give
is a company that I know relatively well in the UK,
which is called Touchdown.
So Touchdown will sell, again,
to anyone in the travel industry
who can prove they're in the travel industry.
They will sell cruises which are at great prices,
and again, it tends to be in that period
of the 90 to 60 days when the cruise lines
are looking to clear cabins they haven't sold.
So again, if you do anything related to the travel industry,
take a look at sites like Touchdown
to see if you can qualify.
In fact, even travel writers, travel bloggers,
could qualify for those sort of rates.
The next area is, in fact, if you're retired.
So if you're a senior,
particularly if you're over 55 years old, there are lots,
and lots of opportunities to get discounted fares.
So you could still be working at over 55,
but you're counted as a senior.
Some cruise lines go really far,
and a long way to try and deal
and attract more and more seniors.
So for example, Carnival have a very specific section
on their site which offers sailings
and fares just for seniors,
and you'll find discounted cruises
for people over the age of 55.
You'll also find MSC Cruises.
They do a lot of stuff to attract seniors,
and they have a whole seniors' package
where on selected sailings, you get discounts,
but you'll also get benefits like champagne,
and chocolate-covered strawberries in your cabin,
and you'll get invited to a special cocktail party,
but you'll find pretty much
all cruise lines offer something.
The way they often do that is through the booking process.
So again, for example, on Royal Caribbean,
as you go through the booking process,
and you put in your age,
you may find that you qualify for a discount.
Norwegian Cruise Line is another great example,
where they do have very specific 55 plus sailings,
where they offer extra discounts and perks.
Also very importantly, if you are over 55,
look at some of the organisations that exist
where you can be members for over 55 years old,
or sometimes over 60 years old,
'cause many of those then have relationships
with different providers.
So for example, in the US, there's AARP,
which is aimed at seniors,
and they have a whole travel site
which is a partnership with Expedia,
where you can book not only hotels, flights,
but also importantly cruises at a discount.
There's a huge range of jobs and professions
and industries where you can get discounts.
So how do you actually tap into those discounts?
Well, there's a couple of ways.
First of all, the most sensible thing to do
is ask the cruise line,
and one of the easiest ways of doing that, of course,
is look on the website, or just using a search engine,
and type in discount for fireman,
discount for seniors, whatever you're looking for,
or whatever your job is, and see if anything comes up.
Secondly, of course, if you work with an agent,
simply ask the agent are there discounts
for my particular profession?
The third thing, and I've touched on it a couple of times,
is join a site which is targeting your particular industry,
or your particular job,
and you'll find there are many of those.
So if there's any sort of trade organisation
or collective, look at those and see
if they offer discounts on cruises.
And the fourth way you can access them is use
some aggregator sites like Vacations To Go,
or similar sites in your country,
because you'll often find they will have themed areas.
So, just as many of them will have solo travelling,
they might have seniors' travelling,
they might have healthcare professional,
teachers, whatever, so take a look at those.
There are loads of ways you can get
cheaper fares by doing a little bit of research,
and finding out if you're gonna get a benefit.
Ask, ask the cruise lines, ask your agent,
and certainly use the internet and search.
I hope you find that helpful.
I have loads more videos full of tips and advice
to help you with cruising,
so why don't you watch another one of those right now.