A question for those of you who've just lost the $100 loyalty benefit.

[Tedferg]

49 minutes ago, kjg46 said:

Question: How does one get the Princess email notifications? 

This is too obvious but check your Personal Profile, matter of fact I see I have Email No - must change that.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Tedferg

[Brian1713]

How dare they treat their company as a business that hasn’t operated in over a year and half ! How rude to try and support themselves……. 

[cherylandtk]

This change, for us, is more of an annoyance than a deal breaker. 
 

But this and other ‘annoyances’ in recent years have cumulatively reached the point that we are booked for land trips and river cruises well into the future.  We have only one future Princess cruise booked and that was mostly to use up the FCC Princess erroneously issued instead of a cash refund for a cancelled 2020 cruise. (That experience was another annoyance, but we tired from the runaround after 6 months trying to resolve it and capitulated.)

 

We have a couple of FCDs that will lapse by October; we don’t intend to purchase any more.  We cannot point to any single change as The Reason, but this newest change just reinforces our choices.  YMMV.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

47 minutes ago, CruzinNoony said:

For the first time, I am looking at HAL.  Apparently, with them you don't need a smart phone to do your business and I sure do like that!

 

Yup, and you only need 500 cruise nights to get to Elite (5-Star Mariner) on HAL and then you can get $30 off your Internet 👍🤣

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, memoak said:

If a couple have different last names and different captains circle numbers than they both got the benefit.  Been getting it for years

Sneaky, but in truth, two people cruising together may not be a couple.  Could be just friends with separate lives, so how do they know?  Guess should have thought of that ages ago and had wife registered with Princess under maiden name.  We share same CC Member number with suffix "A" and "B" at the end.  But fair is fair and I wouldn't begrudge the situation if we had ever qualified.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

17 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Sneaky, but in truth, two people cruising together may not be a couple.

 

Oooo, I see a moving in the making, Same Cruise, Next Year, or perhaps a racier version, Brokeback Cruise.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Sneaky, but in truth, two people cruising together may not be a couple.  Could be just friends with separate lives, so how do they know?  Guess should have thought of that ages ago and had wife registered with Princess under maiden name.  We share same CC Member number with suffix "A" and "B" at the end.  But fair is fair and I wouldn't begrudge the situation if we had ever qualified.

We are married but use different last names and have separate CC numbers - didn't plan the CC numbers this got messed up years ago and we got issued different numbers - does not seem to matter now

[nocl]

2 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

Yup, and you only need 500 cruise nights to get to Elite (5-Star Mariner) on HAL and then you can get $30 off your Internet 👍🤣

But you do get a tile for each cruise.

 

One I get enough I will make a HAL ships tiled shower.

Edited July 2, 2021 by nocl

[CineGraphic]

21 minutes ago, nocl said:

But you do get a tile for each cruise.

 

One I get enough I will make a HAL ships tiled shower.

 

Currently, there are almost 900 listings on Ebay for Holland America tiles.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=Holland+America+Tile&_sacat=0

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

4 hours ago, cherylandtk said:

This change, for us, is more of an annoyance than a deal breaker. 
 

But this and other ‘annoyances’ in recent years have cumulatively reached the point that we are booked for land trips and river cruises well into the future.  We have only one future Princess cruise booked and that was mostly to use up the FCC Princess erroneously issued instead of a cash refund for a cancelled 2020 cruise. (That experience was another annoyance, but we tired from the runaround after 6 months trying to resolve it and capitulated.)

 

We have a couple of FCDs that will lapse by October; we don’t intend to purchase any more.  We cannot point to any single change as The Reason, but this newest change just reinforces our choices.  YMMV.

I agree. So many things that start to add up. Getting rid of the kinds of ships we love and replacing them with ships we don’t. What we went through in 2020 and continue to go through with cancelled cruises and refunds that used to be handled in a few days taking months, the phone calls I’ve been through recently trying to apply FCCs, the food quality continuing to decline…frankly, I’ve been ready to call it quits for nearly two years, but DH is less inclined to jump ship, so to speak.

 

Some might think that the loss of $100 per cruise and free internet minutes shouldn’t matter, but I would argue that after spending well over a quarter of a million dollars with Princess, $100 per cruise should matter far less to them than it does to me. 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

1 hour ago, nocl said:

But you do get a tile for each cruise. Ocne I get enough I will make a HAL ships tiled shower.

 

They really are wonderful drink coasters 😁

[Steelers36]

37 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I agree. So many things that start to add up. Getting rid of the kinds of ships we love and replacing them with ships we don’t. What we went through in 2020 and continue to go through with cancelled cruises and refunds that used to be handled in a few days taking months, the phone calls I’ve been through recently trying to apply FCCs, the food quality continuing to decline…frankly, I’ve been ready to call it quits for nearly two years, but DH is less inclined to jump ship, so to speak.

 

Some might think that the loss of $100 per cruise and free internet minutes shouldn’t matter, but I would argue that after spending well over a quarter of a million dollars with Princess, $100 per cruise should matter far less to them than it does to me. 

 

I can be loyal to a fault sometimes, so G and it share a little more than the same name (of course I have that extra "g", so one up on him - LOL).  I will be interested to see how all this IT disaster shakes out and what we have a year or less from now.  No plans to return to sea until OCT 2022, so we shall see what the cruise experience is like then.  Never know - might jump on a last minute sooner, but most curious to read reports from the return to cruising on Princess.  But won't be totally normal until 2022. 

 

The MTP's like you guys should have got something in return and not cut off at the knees.  But seems like taken for granted by Princess.  Even a more personalized letter from Jan with more details would have helped the situation if I was in your shoes.  I've read the blog as you know, but $250+K is an impressive figure that shocks upon first reading.

[CeCe_]

23 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I know many of you won't book anything unless the math makes sense, so how will the loss of your loyalty benefit affect your booking decisions?

 

Loyalty is a two-way street.

[nocl]

8 minutes ago, CeCe_ said:

 

Loyalty is a two-way street.

No loyalty is a one way street, for the company it is a business/marketing cost/benefit decision.

 

Every loyalty program in existence changes with time, have you stopped flying airlines when they have devalued points?  How about no longer staying at hotels with they have dropped elements of their programs?

 

 

[Sea Day Cruiser]

8 hours ago, kjg46 said:

Question: How does one get the Princess email notifications? We have been elite for a number of years and have not received any notices about early bookings or elite benefit changes. We even have trouble getting booking confirmations sent to our email address. I've checked with Princess a number of times to confirm the correct email address. Also viewed spam, junk mail folders and ISP cloud email . No Princess emails! However, I do get EZ-Air notices. Go figure.

I was in the same position as you regarding emails from Princess until about a year ago. I never received notices of elite day ahead bookings and I didn’t get confirmations if I booked with Princess online. After repeated calls to Princess and even talking to Captain Circle reps on ships I was told that my AOL email address was the problem. They said Princess has trouble with AOL emails. If they know why they didn’t say. I gave them a Gmail address to use and I have since then been receiving most emails that are referred to here. I got the one about the changes in the elite benefits yesterday. I’m not sure if I have received all of the day ahead booking notices. So if you have an AOL email address you might consider changing email addresses with Princess to see if that works.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Sea Day Cruiser

[nocl]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I agree. So many things that start to add up. Getting rid of the kinds of ships we love and replacing them with ships we don’t. What we went through in 2020 and continue to go through with cancelled cruises and refunds that used to be handled in a few days taking months, the phone calls I’ve been through recently trying to apply FCCs, the food quality continuing to decline…frankly, I’ve been ready to call it quits for nearly two years, but DH is less inclined to jump ship, so to speak.

 

Some might think that the loss of $100 per cruise and free internet minutes shouldn’t matter, but I would argue that after spending well over a quarter of a million dollars with Princess, $100 per cruise should matter far less to them than it does to me. 

Considering the number of Elite cruisers on board these days and the numbers collecting the loyalty OBC they probably are paying out more than $10,000 per cruise on average (maybe quite a bit more)  for the credit which means they reach the equivalent of your lifetime spend every 25 cruises. As a cost that would only increase and more and more cruises are added to existing totals.

[CeCe_]

2 hours ago, nocl said:

No loyalty is a one way street, for the company it is a business/marketing cost/benefit decision.

 

Every loyalty program in existence changes with time, have you stopped flying airlines when they have devalued points?  How about no longer staying at hotels with they have dropped elements of their programs?

 

 

 

To me, it is two-way street because I have my rights to choose.  

Edited July 3, 2021 by CeCe_

[nocl]

35 minutes ago, CeCe_ said:

 

To me, it is two-way street because I have my rights to choose.  

Yep you have the right to choose based upon your perceived value, they have the right to change the program based upon theirs.

 

Theirs is not a loyalty decision.  It is the executing of a marketing program designed to generate a value to the company that exceeds its cost.

 

The numbers of elite have grown, along with the numbers of cruises they have taken to a point where the cost benefits of the loyalty OBC is bad, and will only get worse as the numbers grow.

 

The Internet, while have used and have preferred the minutes, also makes sense because their entire Internet system has changed and is no longer minutes based. I can also see the amount of effort was taken in the past with the minute based system, so their choice is to only support the minutes as a Captains Circle benefit meaning that they have two different systems to support (the sold internet which is device based, and the minutes only provided as a benefit).  From a corporate point of view it is not much of a decision.  From their point of view a 50% discount in the new system is about the same dollars as the minutes cost in the old one.

 

 

[Steelers36]

11 minutes ago, nocl said:

Yep you have the right to choose based upon your perceived value, they have the right to change the program based upon theirs.

 

Theirs is not a loyalty decision.  It is the executing of a marketing program designed to generate a value to the company that exceeds its cost.

 

The numbers of elite have grown, along with the numbers of cruises they have taken to a point where the cost benefits of the loyalty OBC is bad, and will only get worse as the numbers grow.

 

The Internet, while have used and have preferred the minutes, also makes sense because their entire Internet system has changed and is no longer minutes based. I can also see the amount of effort was taken in the past with the minute based system, so their choice is to only support the minutes as a Captains Circle benefit meaning that they have two different systems to support (the sold internet which is device based, and the minutes only provided as a benefit).  From a corporate point of view it is not much of a decision.  From their point of view a 50% discount in the new system is about the same dollars as the minutes cost in the old one.

 

 

Remember when minutes were important with cell phone plans?  Now it's all unlimited and probably in most cases cannot buy cheaper minutes plans.

[nocl]

9 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Remember when minutes were important with cell phone plans?  Now it's all unlimited and probably in most cases cannot buy cheaper minutes plans.

Yep, people were also upset when their choice of buggy whips were reduced during changes in the carriage industry.

[caribill]

10 hours ago, CaptainCari said:

The "priority tender boarding" benefit never seems to be organized, either. I do not want to wave my black card around and cut in front of the crowd on line. Rude. Embarrassing.

 

 

The benefit was to go directly to the loading area and join the end of the line that was there. Not rude, not embarrassing.

[caribill]

17 hours ago, maggie777 said:

What other cruise lines offer FCDs? It's time to look at cruising options.

 

All the major cruise lines do. But they usually have different rules.

 

Most of the other lines do not give a refund if you choose not to use the FCD.

[Skai]

10 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

Yup, and you only need 500 cruise nights to get to Elite (5-Star Mariner) on HAL and then you can get $30 off your Internet 👍🤣

 

But outside of the newest Royal Class ships(too many pax for me),  HAL's ships are predominately nicer (layout/design/cabin quality) than Princess ships.   

 

One classic example of such is that one has to be in a mini-suite(or above) to even get a loveseat/couch on Princess...And don't get me started on the clingy shower-curtain.

 

Despite the lacking cabins, Princess used to have a lot of nice things going for them that set them apart from comparable lines.  At one time, one could have considered Princess as a 'Premium-Lite' line (along with HAL and Celebrity). 

 

FWIW, An example of a 'Premium line' would currently be Oceania or Azamara (where ironically, the majority of both fleets are actually former Princess ships).

 

Over the years, the steady degradation of cutbacks and nickle & diming policy changes has firmly planted Princess as a Mainstream line; with any semblance of 'premium' long gone.

 

I think for some that are finally deciding to jump ship is that it really has been a death by a thousand cuts.  Newer cruisers will never know how it once was, and Princess is banking on this.  What incentives are there for these same newer cruisers to ever become loyal repeat cruisers?

 

They've put their eggs into the Medallion program to be their "wow factor".  -- Which has been nothing short of an absolute disaster since its overhyped pre-release, to its stumbling rollout, 'til this day; where they still haven't worked out all of the bugs.

 

Where Princess has really dropped the ball is that they've failed at understanding consumer psychology.

 

Studies have been done in restaurants where it was found what diners preferred in how to absorb the rising costs of food and supplies.  What they found is that customers would rather pay more for the same, than pay the same for less.  IE.  When a 10 oz. steak originally cost $10, they would rather pay $12.50 for that 10 oz. steak than pay the same $10 for a smaller 8 oz. steak.

 

Loyal customers don't like things taken from them in the guise of adding something.  It's insulting to one's intelligence.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Skai

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, Skai said:

 

But outside of the newest Royal Class ships(too many pax for me),  HAL's ships are predominately nicer (layout/design/cabin quality) than Princess ships.   

 

One classic example of such is that one has to be in a mini-suite(or above) to even get a loveseat/couch on Princess...And don't get me started on the clingy shower-curtain.

 

Despite the lacking cabins, Princess used to have a lot of nice things going for them that set them apart from comparable lines.  At one time, one could have considered Princess as a 'Premium-Lite' line (along with HAL and Celebrity). 

 

FWIW, An example of a 'Premium line' would currently be Oceania or Azamara (where ironically, the majority of both fleets are actually former Princess ships).

 

Over the years, the steady degradation of cutbacks and nickle & diming policy changes has firmly planted Princess as a Mainstream line; with any semblance of 'premium' long gone.

 

I think for some that are finally deciding to jump ship is that it really has been a death by a thousand cuts.  Newer cruisers will never know how it once was, and Princess is banking on this.  What incentives are there for these same newer cruisers to ever become loyal repeat cruisers?

 

They've put their eggs into the Medallion program to be their "wow factor".  -- Which has been nothing short of an absolute disaster since its overhyped pre-release, to its stumbling rollout, 'til this day; where they still haven't worked out all of the bugs.

 

Where Princess has really dropped the ball is that they've failed at understanding consumer psychology.

 

Studies have been done in restaurants where it was found what diners preferred in how to absorb the rising costs of food and supplies.  What they found is that customers would rather pay more for the same, than pay the same for less.  IE.  When a 10 oz. steak originally cost $10, they would rather pay $12.50 for that 10 oz. steak than pay the same $10 for a smaller 8 oz. steak.

 

Loyal customers don't like things taken from them in the guise of adding something.  It's insulting to one's intelligence.

We're leaning towards a HAL cruise for our next trip and from the looks of it the value just might be an advantage over Princess. 

Does HAL have anything like the medallion for their cabin door entry system? (Just curious) 

[Steelers36]

15 hours ago, CaptainCari said:

The "priority tender boarding" benefit never seems to be organized, either. I do not want to wave my black card around and cut in front of the crowd on line. Rude. Embarrassing.

 

4 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The benefit was to go directly to the loading area and join the end of the line that was there. Not rude, not embarrassing.

 

IIRC, on last cruise we were recently Elite and still went to the designated mid-ship DR and they sent a number of Elites down to board shuttles ahead of and along with other non-Elites.  I don't recall that we were to head downstairs at the beginning.  Later in the morning, anyone would just head down to Deck 4 I believe.