Stopping Loyalty Bonus

[windsor26]

 

I understand that this has been stopped but have got the impression that some people think that if the cruise was booked by a certain date it would be given?  Is this the case and if so what was the cease date?   This could make quite a difference to us as we are on the $100 per person tier for every cruise   Thanks

[caribill]

Does not matter when you booked.

 

The benefit no longer exists.

[cr8tiv1]

What a novel thought that would have been.  I generally book 2 years out (or as soon as the itinerary is announced).  No such grandfather clause.  Princess has no consistency.  It is unable to keep track of the mundane stuff...Princess would not be able to handle who does or doesn't.  

[windsor26]

Thank you  I did think they were over optimistic

[amajaa]

What is or was the loyalty bonus? We are Elite and have never had a loyalty bonus, but we are in the UK so normally miss out on any offers. Is it $100 off or $100 OBC? 

Edited May 31, 2022 by amajaa
Put Euro instead of Dollar

[Jersey42]

48 minutes ago, amajaa said:

What is or was the loyalty bonus? We are Elite and have never had a loyalty bonus, but we are in the UK so normally miss out on any offers. Is it $100 off or $100 OBC? 

 

Here is what it was up until about a year ago.

 

[AE_Collector]

Are you certain you are referring to the Captains Circle loyalty credit that began on your 21st Princess cruise? I ask because you mention $100 per person per cruise. It was always a maximum of $100 per cabin not per per cruise for us. But yes it’s gone. We had just completed our final $50 credit cruise in the fall of 2019 so our first cruise since restart at the beginning of this month would have been our first at $75.
 

I still think Princess needs another loyalty level even if there isn’t anything all that valuable included in it. I had always hoped that they would do this possibly by rolling this benefit into the cost of providing a higher level. Instead, this perk is now gone. I know that not everyone agrees but finding myself with absolutely nothing left to work towards on the loyalty front removes one incentive to just grab that quick cruise here or there because if for no other reason, doing so would move us one rung higher up the ladder. Loyalty/rewards programs are huge and I personally think that Princess is dropping the ball here.

Edited May 31, 2022 by AE_Collector
Typo

[GonzoWCS]

Watching this thread.

 

Cheers

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, GonzoWCS said:

Watching this thread.

 

Cheers

Nothing to see here.  The subject matter is history.

[cruzsnooze]

52 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

Are you certain you are referring to the Captains Circle loyalty credit that began on your 21st Princess cruise? I ask because you mention $100 per person per cruise. It was always a maximum of $100 per cabin not per per cruise for us.

It was per person if both people were not married or had different addresses. Married couples were penalized. 

[GonzoWCS]

54 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Nothing to see here.  The subject matter is history.

Copy That

[AE_Collector]

23 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

It was per person if both people were not married or had different addresses. Married couples were penalized. 

I have heard that before and assumed they would have fixed it by now… which in a round about way … they have. I don’t think that the shareholder benefit worked that way though. We had owned 600 shares but dumped 400 of them just as the Covid share price plunge began… still at about 2.5 times todays share price.

[memoak]

53 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

It was per person if both people were not married or had different addresses. Married couples were penalized. 

Only if they have the same CC numbers. We are married but started cruise at different times so our numbers are totally different and we both used to get the loyalty bonus

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

I still think Princess needs another loyalty level even if there isn’t anything all that valuable included in it.

You an I are alone with that thinking.

Almost everyone on this board seem to think that any benefit linked to a Princess level would cost Princess to much money and isn't at all necessary to keep past customers. 

 

That might be true since I haven't seen to many of the old timers abandon Princess for other lines yet. 

[AE_Collector]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

Only if they have the same CC numbers. We are married but started cruise at different times so our numbers are totally different and we both used to get the loyalty bonus

My wife and I have totally different CC numbers, not just the A or B at the end of all the digits and we never received double CC loyalty $$ on the 20 or 21 cruises we did after initially getting to our 21st cruise. And unlike cruise credits and mini bar set ups we never received additional CC reward $$ on the second leg of a back to back cruise that was booked as one longer cruise though we did move towards the next level by two cruises in that scenario, just didn’t get a second batch of $$.

[AE_Collector]

Yes I have mentioned this 2 or 3 times recently here and have been waiting for the “not required” replies. Recall that in discussions several years ago. But everyone is different. Princess has a good loyalty rewards program but it has been slipping lately. And I know they are hurting right now as well. Had they said it was “suspended until further notice” there would be hope that it or a replacement might be back one day.
 

As I mentioned, there really doesn’t need to be much costly loot associated with an Elite Plus level maybe at 50 cruises / 500 days (preferably just the days part) or what about a nice round 1 year, 365 days. So the number of cruisers actually receiving it wouldn’t be very large but it is something for everyone to continue working towards. They could have turned the $25-$100 Loyalty Credit into this new level so it would be gone now and it’s replace the back once you hit 365 or 500 days. A very significant reduction in the cost of providing the old CC loyalty credit at the same time as creating a new level. I would have said they could include one specialty meal per cruise but yes, that might slightly devalue the new premium package that includes two specialty meals.
 

How many very frequent cruisers slow down on the ship based shore excursions they do? Probably most of us so maybe an extra 10% discount in addition to the new 10% discount for Elite (is it just Elite?). It might just be enough to sell an extra ship based excursion to us once in awhile which maybe they wind up ahead on the deal. Another idea, what about “Stand-by Excursions” at 25% discount to Elite Plus only? If there are available seats at the last minute the Stand-by people help fill the excursion but if it’s full .. it’s full… you can try again next time you’re here since frequent cruisers will likely be back soon. Likely almost free money to Princess as much of the excursion costs to them is likely are based on “per bus load of people”.

 

I guess my point is that there are likely many ways they could provide something for a higher loyalty level that would cost them almost nothing. Clearly they just don’t see any need and maybe they are correct. But I seem to be seeing a bit higher pushback lately against Princess changes and “devaluations”. A flashy launch of a new higher reward level could leverage a lot of Good Will in my opinion.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

 

I still think Princess needs another loyalty level even if there isn’t anything all that valuable included in it.

 

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

You an I are alone with that thinking.

 

 

Here is why I fear having a new and higher loyalty level.

 

In my crystal ball, Princess would create a higher level and eliminate any remaining good benefits at the Elite level by moving them to start at the higher level.

[AE_Collector]

I always felt that Princess would never do anything to “rock the boat”. They had a history of not downgrading much of anything (IMHO). But that was awhile ago and yes now there have been some downgrades to existing. Not that long after we made it to Elite we began seeing the Elite laundry very often taking three days to come back and Princess clearly stated “due to the number of Elite members on this cruise expect laundry to take three days rather than one day”. We are fairly minimal users of this perk but on the other hand we do long cruises and we quite often spend days or a week on land around where we will board the cruise. In these cases the laundry is a terrific perk. We just cruised 12 days round trip from our home port and took enough with us so we didn’t have to use the laundry at all.

 

I always thought that if they created a higher level they could give the higher level the unlimited laundry and change the Elite laundry perk to a reasonable laundry allowance based on the number of days on the cruise. The price list already exists to base this on. A reasonable allowance might stop people from sending in everything after wearing it just once just because they can and it might limit or end people sending all their non Elite friends and relatives laundry in as well. Then maybe Eleite level can get their laundry back the next day like they are supposed to. I know, controversial but it’s frustrating to earn a perk that becomes too much of a pain to use in so many cases.