Though Barclays U.S. consumer bank and Carnival Cruise Line have been card-issuing partners for two decades, they realized that after the pandemic, their process for enrolling new consumers wasn't exactly ship-shape.
With the cruising industry surging back to life after the pandemic mothballed fleets for nearly two years, Carnival urgently needed to speed up the on-ship credit card onboarding process to meet the expectations of
"People had to fill out an application using paper or an app, and it was error-prone," said Sid Krishna, Carnival's vice president of loyalty, who was charged with rejuvenating the program after joining the firm in 2022 following several years managing loyalty and co-branded card programs at American Airlines, Spirit Airlines and other travel firms.
Barclays, in turn, had developed a frictionless instant card-provisioning process initially designed for airlines. Last year, the bank honed the process so it could work in any environment that has WiFi, including Carnival's far-flung ocean routes around the world, according to Doug Villone, who Barclays hired last year as head of U.S. cards and partnerships.
At American Banker's recent Payments Forum in Hollywood, Florida, Villone and Krishna discussed the progress made so far and the next steps in Carnival's journey to modernize and accelerate the cruise line's instant card-issuing process.
Carnival is facing growing competition in the cruise industry, where many operators are adding new ships to accommodate a total of 30 million prospective global passengers by the end of this year, according to Cruise Market Watch. Miami-based Carnival's key goal with the upgrade was to give interested passengers a way to immediately make purchases with a new Carnival FunPoints Mastercard whether they were on or off the ship, Krishna said.
"Cruise lines are far more complicated than other travel modes like airlines, where the customer uses a card to make a single purchase of a ticket with maybe a few upgrades. On a cruise line, there are several different merchants from retailers to spa services to shore excursion operators, each with their own payment systems, and an instantly issued credit card needs to work across them all," he said.
Barclays last year switched on the capability for Carnival Cruise passengers to scan a QR code anywhere on the ship and receive approval for a digital Carnival FunPoints credit card within 12 to 15 minutes from anywhere in the world with WiFi, according to Villone. Barclays saw an immediate "bump" in applications from the streamlined approach, he noted, without disclosing figures.
In coming months, Barclays plans to further streamline the process, shaving off minutes by using technology that pre-populates applications and enables customers to apply by providing just a few pieces of information, with the option to review the credit offer before querying credit bureaus, Villone said.
"Credit card pre-screening technology has really improved, and Carnival will be at the forefront of the cruise industry when we complete the final leg of the digital application process this year," he said.
Carnival's parent company, which operates nine different cruise lines including Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, is investing in new ships and curated destinations to compete with rivals such as Royal Caribbean, which is launching the 5,700-passenger Utopia of the Seas in July that touts five pools, three waterslides, 21 dining venues, 23 bars and two casinos.
As the first cruise line with a roller coaster on three of its ships, Carnival has seven new ships in the wings and next year will unveil its first private island exclusively created for Carnival ships, creating an additional need for streamlined on-site credit card issuance, Krishna said.
Celebration Key, Carnival's branded island opening next year in the Bahamas, will host up to 15,000 passengers at once from two or more Carnival ships, including its largest Excel-class ships that each carry more than 6,000 people. Carnival expects the new venue to drive "higher incremental port spending," Joshua Weinstein, Carnival's president and CEO, told analysts last month when announcing the company's first-quarter earnings.
"This will be a private destination with a lot of payment opportunities for passengers temporarily getting off the ships, such as unique Bahamian retailers and jewelers, beach activities and high-end dining," Krishna said.
Passengers will also be able to apply for a Carnival credit card using a QR code on Celebration Key "in case they decide they want to finance additional purchases," he said.
Working with Barclays, Carnival also recently added the ability to provision new Carnival credit cards directly into passengers' trip folios through the Carnival Sail & Sign onboard account, the payments-enabled access card customers use to on the ship to obtain any of its services and products. "We wanted to position that virtual card into the Sail & Sign account immediately so we get the full benefit of the card without losing a moment in the transaction process," Krishna said.
Barclays, one of the U.S.'s only issuers focused exclusively on co-branded cards, supports about 20 different co-branded card programs reaching about 20 million customers, with a high concentration in the travel industry.
"We're constantly bringing the technology and capabilities we develop in one part of the travel industry to other travel verticals, like how we've brought some of the most sophisticated card experiences developed for airlines to cruise ships," said Villone, who served for a decade at Barclays before returning last year after a five-year stint in various executive capacities at Goldman Sachs.
Villone's other mission is helping Carnival fine-tune its existing loyalty program to include more incentives linked to the Carnival FunPoints card, which has no annual fee and enables users to earn two points for every dollar spent at Carnival and one point for all other purchases.
"The credit card will act as an accelerator for Carnival's loyalty program, and while it's not surprising that the biggest users are repeat cruise customers, increasingly we want to target people who are new to cruising," he said.
