Hays Travel’s Bikkei Yuen finished top of the 2,700-plus agents who entered Royal Caribbean’s Harmony Queue incentive to win a place at the launch of Harmony of the Seas in May.
Having accumulated almost 20 million points through bookings and postings on social media, Yuen is excited about using her new-found knowledge to boost sales
Q: How did you achieve top spot in the Harmony Queue?
A: It was a lot of work because you had to dedicate a lot of time to it to stop other agents from overtaking you. I liked the fact that it involved a lot of social media – tweeting and Facebook posts.
I accumulated almost 20 million points and most of them came from social media. I made 30 bookings, but to start with, bookings were worth only 25 points and social media was worth more. It was only near the end that bookings became worth more points.
We definitely saw it as a team effort because my colleague Amy Chandler came in second place – and we’d been retweeting each other’s posts.
As an office, we were all supporting each other. I didn’t expect to be number one on the leader board, but once I got started, my competitive side came out and I wanted to try my best.
Q. Why did you join the scheme?
A. I’ve never been on a Royal Caribbean ship, and 80% of what we sell is cruise. So I wanted to find out more about the ships and the product.
I’ve learned a lot because I’ve now done all of the Royal Caribbean training as part of this, and I’ve been sharing a lot of information about the ships.
I’ve been on P&O Cruises and Cunard, and I’ve actually booked myself a five-night cruise to France and Belgium on Ovation of the Seas, departing on April 17. I can’t wait!
Q: What are you most looking forward to about Harmony of the Seas’ launch?
A: I can’t wait to meet the other 500 agents who won places. The queue created a bit of a community because we’d all retweet each other and help each other along. It will be nice to finally put some names to faces.
I’m also looking forward to seeing the ship and trying all the different things on board. I want to taste as many of the restaurant dishes as I can.
Q: The Harmony Queue took up a lot of your time. What will you be tweeting about now?
A: I did spend a lot of time on the Harmony Queue. You could only post a certain number of times a day (as part of the rules), so I’d do some in the morning, some during my lunchbreak and then when I got home after work.
Now I’ll be posting about the ship in the countdown to the launch – and then I’ll get to experience it for myself. I’ll have a lot of spare time to fill now, so I’ll keep an eye out for the next competition.