Mariner Rewards Question

[Hawaiidan]

I read a few posters who said that they were booking to get more points and wondered why?

 

I think Holland America could take a page from the air line playbook as far as the care and feeding of passengers.

 

If I sail 30 days a year on Holland I get, well 30 days of pleasure, a free dinner here and there ... nothing that really is tangible to any extent

 

Where as with my airline, If I take about 5 rt flights a year, spending about $5000 roughly I get the following:

Free baggage for a year on any flight and whoever travels with me.

Automatic up grade to the best seats on the plane, and also for whoever flys with me.

Free invitation to airline clubs and special services

Free upgrade to First Class if there is a seat 48 hours prior to my trip...and whoever flys with me

a 25-50% milage bonus

The ability to purchase and upgrade at a discount for any fare purchased. not just full fare.

Priority waitlist

Priority seats for use frequent flyer miles... includes never beiing deinied a seat, even if its the last one on the plane for sale.

Free travel insurance and luggage insurance.

Last year alone I received about $9500 in free perks for spending $5000 with one airline.

That is , to me a deal.

 

Now,I just spent $16,000 with Holland, in the past 12 months, got a canvas bag a free dinner at Tamarand and 10% off a tshirt. $40.00 tops....

[KirkNC]

Good point, I am all for that but the competition is not setting the bar very high.

 

Kirk

[Sage]

Brian, you might bring this subject up at the meet and greet. It might incourage more single travelers. See you next week.

[catl331]

duplicate

[catl331]

Do shore excursions count toward the $300? Gratuities?

yes, and yes if you mean HSC. pre-booked excursions too

[ilovethecooks]

The following quote is from the HA Mariners Society site FAQs:

Are any onboard charges excluded from the onboard purchases bonus?

 

All casino charges, cash advances, Future Cruise deposits, and associated fees are excluded. All other onboard purchases including Hotel Service Charge, Beverage Service Charge, taxes, pre-booked shore excursions and all gift items purchased online or through Ship Services count towards bonus cruise day credits.

[Hlitner]

We can understand folks trying to get higher past passenger status on lines such as Princess, Celebrity and RCI where they have some pretty decent amenity rewards. But HAs Mariner program is so "lame" that chasing after the points seems to be a silly exercise. We are always amazed at how folks are so proud of their "Medallions" (not even sure where we have our stored if if we just threw them away) and even drag them along on cruises to wear at the luncheon (getting a free lunch on a ship is such a major perk). But seriously, we would quickly trade medallions for free internet time (offered by almost every other cruise line), free daily cocktail parties (offered on RCI and Celebrity), etc. About the only real benefit we see with the Mariners Club is the discount on a couple of wine packages...(which are overpriced so the discounts get them to a reasonable dollar amount). HA has a lot of very loyal repeaters (including moi) and it would be nice if they rewarded brand loyalty with more then a piece of metal.

 

We will be on the new Celebrity Silhouette next week, and as a basis of comparison, here are some of the benefits we get for merely being "Elite" which means having cruised only 10 cruises. In our 12 days on that ship we will get 10 two hour cocktail parties with all kinds of free drinks, hot hors d'oevres and table service, we will get several hours of free internet time (which we can use in our cabin with shipwide WiFi), a Senior Officers cocktail party (several hours of free drinks and socializing with all the senior staff), 12 Elite breakfasts which is a very nice continental breakfast in a private lounge with free drinks (Bloody Marys, Champagne, Mimosas, Fruit Smoothies, etc), and the usual normal stuff such as some free laundry, priority tendering, priority embarkation/debarkation plus more. But sadly..we will not be getting any Medallions or a free luncheon (oops...guess they already have lunch every day).

 

Hank

[Cruising-along]

Well said Hank, couldn't agree more.

 

Just wanted to say, you'll love the Silhouette, we were aboard her for 12 days last month -- great cruise and ship, we loved it all. :)

[Hawaiidan]

Some one else sees that the Mariner program is pretty usless... We never have gone to the free lunchon or captains Mariner party and "round file" the invatations and pins they give. Never been to one of those parties.

 

At 3 star they should 75

give 20% of allyour shipboard charges.. except shore ex

120 min of free internet time per week

Free Laundry

At 4 star 200 nights

Unlimited Internet free

free stocked cabin Bar

free laundry and drycleaning

33% off all shipboard charges including shore ex

[djhsolara]

We will be on the new Celebrity Silhouette next week, and as a basis of comparison, here are some of the benefits we get for merely being "Elite" which means having cruised only 10 cruises. In our 12 days on that ship we will get 10 two hour cocktail parties with all kinds of free drinks, hot hors d'oevres and table service, we will get several hours of free internet time (which we can use in our cabin with shipwide WiFi), a Senior Officers cocktail party (several hours of free drinks and socializing with all the senior staff), 12 Elite breakfasts which is a very nice continental breakfast in a private lounge with free drinks (Bloody Marys, Champagne, Mimosas, Fruit Smoothies, etc), and the usual normal stuff such as some free laundry, priority tendering, priority embarkation/debarkation plus more. But sadly..we will not be getting any Medallions or a free luncheon (oops...guess they already have lunch every day).

 

Hank

 

Last month we went on our first Celebrity sailing and were given these wonderful Elite perks just by being in a Celebrity Suite. While the Neptune Lounge for suite guests is a wonderful perk on HAL, the Celebrity Elite perks seemed much nicer.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cruz chic]

Some one else sees that the Mariner program is pretty usless... We never have gone to the free lunchon or captains Mariner party and "round file" the invatations and pins they give. Never been to one of those parties.

 

At 3 star they should 75

give 20% of allyour shipboard charges.. except shore ex

120 min of free internet time per week

Free Laundry

At 4 star 200 nights

Unlimited Internet free

free stocked cabin Bar

free laundry and drycleaning

33% off all shipboard charges including shore ex

 

That would be great if that was the case. Is there a cruise line that gives unlimited internet free? I'm just waiting for the cheerleaders to show up and say they don't sail HAL for the bennies. Why not turn them down then:D;).

[sail7seas]

I've never got that impression from anyone on this board. I think some posters like the suites and that is just a nice side bonus to them.

 

 

Yes.......

 

One also has to remember once you get to 200 days, any 'spending days and suite accomodation double days' are worthless. They count for nothing..........

 

except for the pleasure and enjoyment one has had. :)

[Hawaiidan]

Regent.... after 60 days in their program

The offer free shore ex, free wine, no tipping, no charges for speciality dining, .....It cost about 450-500 a day for Regent.

All cabins are veranda suites 300 to 450 sq ft.

 

If you figure the total costs, liquor, tips, shore ex, wine, air fare, the whole ball of wax

 

I now cruise inside cabins having experienced real luxury, and realizing I really dont need it. A suite I felt appealed more to my ego than my needs. I rationalized it is like buying a home, you dont wnat th buy the most expensive house in the area, Rather the cheapest.

So totay I take the extra $$ and use it for going on more and longer cruises.. Thats me

[cruz chic]

Regent.... after 60 days in their program

The offer free shore ex, free wine, no tipping, no charges for speciality dining, .....It cost about 450-500 a day for Regent.

All cabins are veranda suites 300 to 450 sq ft.

 

If you figure the total costs, liquor, tips, shore ex, wine, air fare, the whole ball of wax

 

I now cruise inside cabins having experienced real luxury, and realizing I really dont need it. A suite I felt appealed more to my ego than my needs. I rationalized it is like buying a home, you dont wnat th buy the most expensive house in the area, Rather the cheapest.

So totay I take the extra $$ and use it for going on more and longer cruises.. Thats me

Well, considering the price they charge internet s/b free. I was thinking more of the mainstream lines.

[Hlitner]

That would be great if that was the case. Is there a cruise line that gives unlimited internet free? I'm just waiting for the cheerleaders to show up and say they don't sail HAL for the bennies. Why not turn them down then:D;).

 

Princess used to give their Platinum and Elite unlimited free internet. But there were too many folks who nearly lived in the internet room...and so the line decided to change the benefit. Now it does allow Elites (not sure about Platinum anymore) to purchase certain packages for free. For example, we usually get a $100 package (for each of us) free which means they give us $200 min of time which works out to about 500 min. More then enough for us. We also like that Princess has shipwide WiFi so we can enjoy those internet minutes in our cabin.

 

Hank

[cruz chic]

Princess used to give their Platinum and Elite unlimited free internet. But there were too many folks who nearly lived in the internet room...and so the line decided to change the benefit. Now it does allow Elites (not sure about Platinum anymore) to purchase certain packages for free. For example, we usually get a $100 package (for each of us) free which means they give us $200 min of time which works out to about 500 min. More then enough for us. We also like that Princess has shipwide WiFi so we can enjoy those internet minutes in our cabin.

 

Hank

Yes, you do get some free internet on Princess with Platinum. I know a lot of people complain about not being able to get internet in their room but I haven't had a problem. That said, I just started using it about a year ago. Maybe it works better in the cheap seats:D;).

[English_in_Spain]

I had excellent WiFi in our cabin (SY on deck 6) on the Noordam. Even during the transatlantic crossing I never lost connection. The down side of this was the amount I spent on internet charges :o

 

It was never very fast but I am used to that as I only get slow connection where we live in Spain.

[falcon10156]

Do the gratuities/hotel service fees count towards the $ 300 per day spending ?

 

 

Yes but only until the number of cruise days. If you sail on a 10 day cruise and spend $3300 total for the first two people in stateroom. You only get 10 additional days not 11.

 

(Can you imagine the shore bonus if they allowed unlimited. For example, 17 day cruise in SA and Antarctica the Antarctica Landing is $3399 ($6798 for two passengers in stateroom) so with all shore excursions you are looking at approx $8000 you would get 26 days plus the 17 sail days. That would be 43 days on one 17 day cruise) LOL - just thought of this now.