Heard changes to Loyalty Program to be announced @ 2018 prez cuise - rumours???

[gaylemh]

All this talk about Loyalty Program changes is making me nervous; if all goes as planned... I’m scheduled to hit 700+ points in February 2018......please no Pinnacle level changes[emoji33]

 

 

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Me too, but it will be a little longer. I have all my cruises booked to be Pinnacle by March 2020.

[gaylemh]

Pretty sure points in C&A system will go forward using $ spent with Royal instead of cruise nights.

 

Current P’s now will be grandfathered in for 3 years then pts will revert back to previous $ spent on new current system.

 

 

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You really think this could possibly happen with the IT department that Royal has. They can't even figure out how to get the website to work or to figure out my 150% solo rate.

[gaylemh]

I agree. We always do Balconies, have spent 100s's of thousands of $$ on Royal over the years. I always laugh at the SUITE people b/c their first cruise they spend $10k. Have any idea how much I have spent to get to D+. Guessing NOT! And I NEVER book suites. Just plain balconies and back in the day it was inside or oceanview b/c that was all we could afford.

 

Yes you have spent $100's of thousands on Royal to get Pinnacle, but you also got to enjoy about 700 nights on a cruise ship, visiting ports, getting fed and entertained. Someone in a suite has spend $10,000 - $30,000 for 7-12 nights on a ship.

[Merion_Mom]

Are we there yet?

 

That's a premature exclamation. :D

 

So many more stupid ideas to be aired!

[Domino D]

So, here's something I find interesting about cruise loyalty programs that stand in stark contrast to airlines, hotels, or just about anything else: Your status can never go down. I have been top tier with different airlines and hotels at different times based on my travel habits. But then things change, and I don't utilize them as much and I drop back down.

 

But with cruises, once you're there, you're there! We will always have more and more people at the tiers, because literally the only way to have someone drop off is when they die! So I could go five years without going on a Royal cruise and I'd still be the same tier- be it Diamond, Diamond plus or whatever.

 

I am trying to think through the difference between and airline, hotel and cruise line that makes this distinction exist. Any thoughts?

 

And just to be clear, I'm NOT advocating for this to change!

 

There are a few things that cause this.

 

Hotel/Airline separate status and points. Each has its own purpose, and while status is earned annually, points have a longer shelf life.

 

It takes a long time to achieve top cruise line status, so it is easy to assign a lifetime achievement. Delta use to have "Million Miler" and "Flying Colonel" lifetime statuses years ago. Then a lot of us started hitting Million Miler and poof it was gone. Those statuses were like C&A, a reward for long time loyalty, and not a program designed to influence individual booking decisions.

 

Cruise Line programs are Reward based, they are thank you's for proven (past) loyalty. Airline/Hotel "status" is based around influencing future booking of selected travelers. "You seem like you travel a lot, here are some reasons to use us exclusively."

 

The hotel/airline programs are different in that the points are a currency of their own. You can sell them, give them as a gift, use them to get goods and services from companies other than one giving you the points. What cruise lines call points are only for status achievement. The only benefits you get are from the cruise line itself, and only benefiting you (and I suppose a cabin mate in some instances)

 

The biggest difference is that the hotel/airline model is based around business travel. You are travelling on someone else money, and yet you reap the benefit. In their model loyalty perks are designed to trump price as the primary decision point. Cruise lines can't do that as well.

[Domino D]

Want to buy a bridge?:

 

 

 

That is a fine bridge, what are you asking?

[Dennis#1]

Have heard rumors a few years back that: (1) RCCL was no longer going to give double points for staying in a Junior Suite; and (2) RCCL was going to increase the points needed to make Pinnacle to 1,000 points. Nothing yet, and I doubt if either of these rumors will happen.

[CVU]

Most of the pinnacles I have met live near a departure point. They can cruise with no airfare to deal with. Hence, they can take 5 or 6 “cheap” cabins where I have to fly to most departure points.

Not this one. W. Canada is not that close to some of the ports. We have spent a fortune on airfare. Takes us all day to fly to Florida, no non stop flights from here.

[rkkunk]

We still have a couple of more cruises until we make Diamond. We are really looking forward to it! Hope they don’t change anything!

 

 

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[Bloodgem]

Pretty sure points in C&A system will go forward using $ spent with Royal instead of cruise nights.

 

Current P’s now will be grandfathered in for 3 years then pts will revert back to previous $ spent on new current system.

 

 

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Hope not as some people can only cruise once or twice a year. It's taken me 7 years to get to D+ (which in happening next cruise Sept 2018

[gaylemh]

The only possible changes I can see happening are no longer allowing Diamond in the lounge and just giving the 3 drinks on the card, and giving D+ with 340 or 525 points a tier name.

[margaret91326]

I agree. We always do Balconies, have spent 100s's of thousands of $$ on Royal over the years. I always laugh at the SUITE people b/c their first cruise they spend $10k. Have any idea how much I have spent to get to D+. Guessing NOT! And I NEVER book suites. Just plain balconies and back in the day it was inside or oceanview b/c that was all we could afford.

 

 

 

Slightly off topic but as a D+, I've spent thousands of dollars and yet the Suite people, who could be first time cruisers, get the prime lounge chairs at the pool deck. Where's the loyalty for that perk? Many days I've seen those chairs go unused and want to jump into one. Just saying....

 

 

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[Milwaukee Eight]

Slightly off topic but as a D+, I've spent thousands of dollars and yet the Suite people, who could be first time cruisers, get the prime lounge chairs at the pool deck. Where's the loyalty for that perk? Many days I've seen those chairs go unused and want to jump into one. Just saying....

 

 

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Those perks important to you, book a Suite. It wouldn’t be wise for Royal to cut back on Suite perks.

 

And many of those that sail in Suites are also, Diamond, D+, and P.

 

Typical D+ attitude

 

 

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[margaret91326]

Those perks important to you, book a Suite. It wouldn’t be wise for Royal to cut back on Suite perks.

 

And many of those that sail in Suites are also, Diamond, D+, and P.

 

Typical D+ attitude

 

 

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No need for the dig at me. Was just contributing to the conversation. And I have booked suites before.

 

 

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[trippintex]

some one in a suites one or two weeks a year or some one that cruises nine or ten weeks a year a year and is loyal to royal and also smaller ships do not have alot of suites

[fishbonz]

So I'm at 210 now by the time I try to get to 700 an do 1 or even 2 a year my wjfe will be bring my ashes on to do a cruise :* . Don't know what they need to but they will have to do something to split the diference between the tier's. Here in NJ all they are doing is bringing bigger more expencives ships in up here.

[alfaeric]

Slightly off topic but as a D+, I've spent thousands of dollars and yet the Suite people, who could be first time cruisers, get the prime lounge chairs at the pool deck. Where's the loyalty for that perk? Many days I've seen those chairs go unused and want to jump into one. Just saying....

 

 

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It's about profit margin.

 

The profits from your dollars spent vs. the cost of service is a lot less than the profits from a suite guest. So there's margin in the ability to add more service to their revenue.

 

For many things, you get the same perks as suite people do, but they pay for it right up front, and you have to back load that payment. And their payment is high enough up front to get them specialized seating in places that we don't.

 

The math is pretty straight forward that they pay for those extra services- they are far from free.

[leisuretraveler223]

There are a few things that cause this.

 

Hotel/Airline separate status and points. Each has its own purpose, and while status is earned annually, points have a longer shelf life.

 

It takes a long time to achieve top cruise line status, so it is easy to assign a lifetime achievement. Delta use to have "Million Miler" and "Flying Colonel" lifetime statuses years ago. Then a lot of us started hitting Million Miler and poof it was gone. Those statuses were like C&A, a reward for long time loyalty, and not a program designed to influence individual booking decisions.

 

Cruise Line programs are Reward based, they are thank you's for proven (past) loyalty. Airline/Hotel "status" is based around influencing future booking of selected travelers. "You seem like you travel a lot, here are some reasons to use us exclusively."

 

The hotel/airline programs are different in that the points are a currency of their own. You can sell them, give them as a gift, use them to get goods and services from companies other than one giving you the points. What cruise lines call points are only for status achievement. The only benefits you get are from the cruise line itself, and only benefiting you (and I suppose a cabin mate in some instances)

 

The biggest difference is that the hotel/airline model is based around business travel. You are travelling on someone else money, and yet you reap the benefit. In their model loyalty perks are designed to trump price as the primary decision point. Cruise lines can't do that as well.

 

 

Very interesting points! It does underscore the "math problem" though... No matter what they do, the number of higher tier individuals will only continue to go up. So perks involving actual space (lounges, etc...) will forever be a problem as more and more top tier travelers come to be.

[alfaeric]

Here's what I would like- points for using their flying program. So that those of us who have to fly to cruises can gain some of the benefits of those of you who have a few block drive to the ship. It's a lot tougher for us to take a last min cruise vs. people next to ports, so it would be nice to have some way to level it.

[johnjen]

The addition will be steerage. It applies to first-time cruisers. Steerage class, one level below Gold, must buy their dinner table a round of drinks.

[Bloodgem]

Here's what I would like- points for using their flying program. So that those of us who have to fly to cruises can gain some of the benefits of those of you who have a few block drive to the ship. It's a lot tougher for us to take a last min cruise vs. people next to ports, so it would be nice to have some way to level it.

Interesting point but what about people who can not fly for medical reasons? We have to drive 5 hours to board the ship due to no flying.

[gatour]

This pretty much sums up what I was thinking as I read through this thread after the person made the statement that you are responding too.

 

My uneducated guess: I think the difference is the target market. This is all anecdotal' date=' so maybe I'm way off base, but airline and hotel status is about creating incentive for their bread and butter: business travelers. Road warriors want to be upgraded to first/business class, have faster check-in, etc., and based on my experience with a lot of travel-heavy employees are much more likely to be loyal to a particular brand (of course it helps that they can then benefit when they travel for their own purposes). Others I know that don't travel a ton for work really don't seem to care about loyalty status anymore (although most of them still at least seem to sign up to accrue points to the extent possible--it's just the status that doesn't seem to matter).

 

Even ignoring business travelers, I suspect the number of people who fly or stay in a hotel multiple times per year is significantly higher than the number of people who cruise multiple times per year (especially because I would bet those people going on multiple cruises per year generally also fall into the population of people flying and staying in hotels multiple times per year as well). Thus, it creates incentive to have lower annual thresholds to meet some loyalty level that even people traveling once every couple of months could hit.

 

By allowing status to remain constant, the cruise lines can at least create [i']some[/i] sort of connection with a past cruiser that might sway them to come back for their once-a-year cruise--or once-a-decade cruise.

[island lady]

My guess is the focus will be on Diamonds, way to many of us. Our last transatlantic on Allure they used Jazz on 4, Blaze and Dazzles as the nightly cocktail area. Shutting those venues down for 3.5 hours each night upsets a lot of non diamond cruisers. Would guess Diamonds will get the vouchers to use and D+ will have access to the lounge and appetizers each night.

 

That's my guess too, and actually surprised it did not happen when they first came out with the drink vouchers. :confused: Maybe increase vouchers to four drinks, and add specialty coffee vouchers for Diamonds?

 

Rename the DL as "Upper Tier Lounge"..or something along that line with D+ and Pinnacles only. Full Suites only ...get the Suites Lounge.

[alfaeric]

Interesting point but what about people who can not fly for medical reasons? We have to drive 5 hours to board the ship due to no flying.

Well, then come up with a idea that works for you. I'm just trying to come up with an idea that levels the playing field for those of us who have to fly vs. those who have a short drive the the port.

 

If I couldn't fly for medical reasons, I would not be able to cruise at all- the shortest drive is well over 12 hours, which isn't worth it.

[island lady]

Boy, I couldnt. Currently around 3 grand a month without cruise budget

 

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Bella does like her caviar, eh! ;) :cool:

Edited September 5, 2018 by island lady