Celebrity Cruises has confirmed that the company plans to introduce a flight-options programme for UK customers who make a reservation on one of its full pre-arranged cruise packages.

The programme will be called Choice Air and it will offer a range of ticket types and carriers. Agents will also be able to add both post- and pre-cruise stays.

Celebrity’s decision comes after a similar programme called Flight Select was launched last week by Princess Cruises. Choice Air is already available in the United States.

International agents who attended last week’s christening ceremony of Celebrity’s new pride, the Silhouette, were told that Choice Air was going to be a ‘strategic focus’ for Royal Caribbean – which of course owns Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity’s UK office confirmed that Choice Air would soon be available to UK agents. Trials will start in October and the company hopes to have it fully operational by January.

In other Celebrity news, the company has announced plans to address Australian travellers’ notorious unwillingness to tip. Apparently Aussies don’t do it at home either, but when they fail to do it overseas, they regularly raise eyebrows.

Dan Hanrahan, the CEO of Celebrity Cruises, confirmed that his company was about to start educating Australian passengers on ‘how to tip’.

While at least one cruise operator has already given up on convincing Australians to tip, Hanrahan is confident Celebrity Cruises can do something to change this bad habit. He said "We will teach Aussies to tip. The tipping structure will be explained in our daily planner. Some guests will struggle with it, but I'm certain it will go well.”