Loyalty Changes Speculation Video

[TrueCruiseaholic]

 

 

 

 

[tfred]

This guy is absolutely on target. Every hotel chain has something like this AND you have to requalify every year or you are gone.  Every year might sound harsh but you have to cut off non profitable customers and concentrate on higher revenue guests. 
 

before I got lifetime status from Marriott I had to have a certain number of nights total, make a status every year for a number of years and meet revenue parameters.   With X it is an accumulation of cruises 

[hcat]

tired of this guy!

too many posts of his videos on CC

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, tfred said:

This guy is absolutely on target. Every hotel chain has something like this AND you have to requalify every year or you are gone.  Every year might sound harsh but you have to cut off non profitable customers and concentrate on higher revenue guests. 
 

before I got lifetime status from Marriott I had to have a certain number of nights total, make a status every year for a number of years and meet revenue parameters.   With X it is an accumulation of cruises 

I didn't watch the video but MSC cruises loyalty program status requires a cruise every 3 years or your loyalty tier lapses. This is the only way to manage ever increasing membership in higher level status tiers. 

[Waianaegal522]

So glad to see what the future might bring... I'm elite on CC, 30+ cruises since 1998, 14 with CC... yet I haven't sailed with them since 2011, due to many personal factors I'm back in the cruising mode... AND I want to keep my status. With videos like this fore warned is fore

armed... I can start planning my own needs as to keep what I've already invested in.

1 week and I'll be back to sea, with much to look forward to in the future... and deciding where my loyalty lands.

[maggie.1008]

I have earned all of my points with Celebrity and have no desire to merge with RCL

[mahasamatman]

8 minutes ago, maggie.1008 said:

I have earned all of my points with Celebrity and have no desire to merge with RCL

 

Ditto.

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

 

 

 

 

 

This video would have like 25X the views if it was 3mins or less which wouldn't be hard to do

 

I've said this during the pandemic and others have said this before the pandemic that lifetime status will most likely end

 

The bigger questions are if they eliminated lifetime status, will existing customers with status will be grandfathered lifetime status and will this encompass SilverSeas?

[doghog]

21 minutes ago, maggie.1008 said:

I have earned all of my points with Celebrity and have no desire to merge with RCL

We became Elite and Diamond before RC and Celebrity merged. We like the difference between the CC and CAS programs.

[tfred]

28 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

This video would have like 25X the views if it was 3mins or less which wouldn't be hard to do

 

I've said this during the pandemic and others have said this before the pandemic that lifetime status will most likely end

 

The bigger questions are if they eliminated lifetime status, will existing customers with status will be grandfathered lifetime status and will this encompass SilverSeas?

My guess is that video is correct. X and R will eliminate the lower levels   Very top will be grandfathered in. Marriott status really doesn’t get you much at Ritz Carlton and no one is that miffed so SSea connection is out. “I’m an Elite on X!” Would not be a plus on SSea. 
 

on flyertalk.com, long term low profit customers are referred to as cheap elites and coupon cutters    No programs are being designed for those folks as all they are doing is churning dollars.
 

I used to fly about 100k miles year and 80 nights in Marriotts. I don’t think that I would be at the top anymore   

[RichYak]

I didn’t watch the video either but from the comments it sounds like he might be comparing cruise line status to hotel status. For comparison, Marriott has over 8000 properties worldwide where you can stay one night to earn/extend status points. Remind me how many ships Celebrity has and how many permit one night stays. 

[tfred]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

I didn’t watch the video either but from the comments it sounds like he might be comparing cruise line status to hotel status. For comparison, Marriott has over 8000 properties worldwide where you can stay one night to earn/extend status points. Remind me how many ships Celebrity has and how many permit one night stays. 

Doesn’t matter. It’s going to be revenue based. Cabin type, excursions , specialty restaurants, air by X. Add all those together for Elite status in the future. “ I sailed on the Century and it was better” won’t cut it anymore 

[mahasamatman]

10 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Marriott has over 8000 properties worldwide where you can stay one night to earn/extend status points.

 

I don't think you understand hotel status. One night will extend your redeemable point expiration, but will not requalify you for status. Unless you have lifetime status, you have to requalify from scratch each year.

[buncosquad]

Or, just travel when you want, buy the highest level suite on the ship for a given sailing (not the highest available suite, but plan to go when you can get the top level suite), and who cares about loyalty or status.

 

You'll get the best perks etc, anyhow, just as when booking top suites/packages at just about any hotel brand.

Edited October 8, 2023 by buncosquad

[RichYak]

11 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

 

I don't think you understand hotel status. One night will extend your redeemable point expiration, but will not requalify you for status. Unless you have lifetime status, you have to requalify from scratch each year.

I understand hotel status. My point is that comparing hotel status, which caters largely to business travelers, to cruise line status makes little sense. Again, I didn’t contribute to the click bait so I don’t know what parallels were being drawn by the vlogger. 

[mahasamatman]

31 minutes ago, buncosquad said:

Or, just travel when you want, buy the highest level suite on the ship for a given sailing (not the highest available suite, but plan to go when you can get the top level suite), and who cares about loyalty or status.

 

While you're at it, why not just charter a yacht and skip the whole mass-market cruise line world?

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

I understand hotel status. My point is that comparing hotel status, which caters largely to business travelers, to cruise line status makes little sense. Again, I didn’t contribute to the click bait so I don’t know what parallels were being drawn by the vlogger. 

MSC has paved the way for the cruise ship expiring status model at 36 month and surely will be utilized as the baseline IF a cruise lines decides to make the change

 

Also, every YT is technically clickbait

[miched]

Why make a post to contribute to his click bait? 

I am happy that I read the posts before clicking onto it 

 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[NutsAboutGolf]

15 minutes ago, miched said:

Why make a post to contribute to his click bait? 

I am happy that I read the posts before clicking onto it 

 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

There isn't any deception, they hope some find their content valuable enough to subscribe.  Kids these days no longer want to be firemen but rather full time influencer aka make enough money to live off of for making videos, can we really blame them?  Personally, j made 45 seconds into the video and didn't like how it was presented

[Tierun]

MSC might be what X is downgrading to rather than RCCL. MSC has been offering included drinks and Wi-Fi as an option for a while now. That is what X has just cut down to, so to see a status expiration date would be another alignment.

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 hours ago, tfred said:

My guess is that video is correct. X and R will eliminate the lower levels   Very top will be grandfathered in. Marriott status really doesn’t get you much at Ritz Carlton and no one is that miffed so SSea connection is out. “I’m an Elite on X!” Would not be a plus on SSea. 
 

on flyertalk.com, long term low profit customers are referred to as cheap elites and coupon cutters    No programs are being designed for those folks as all they are doing is churning dollars.
 

I used to fly about 100k miles year and 80 nights in Marriotts. I don’t think that I would be at the top anymore   

 

For whatever reason, most cruise lines including X, want to reward folks after their very first sailing so I do not see the lower status disappearing but perhaps there is a shuffle of statuses and there are now only two lower tiers vs three.  Airlines make the most profit from business travel so it's understandable and a somewhat moot point what they think about regular customers.  With that being said, airlines shoot themselves in the foot by offering low-profit products in the first place.  I try to churn airline points/miles wherever possible but it is quite difficult with cruises since you have very little flexibility with the date range.  Yet it is still possible to find some good deals/redemptions with a stopover

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, Tierun said:

MSC might be what X is downgrading to rather than RCCL. MSC has been offering included drinks and Wi-Fi as an option for a while now. That is what X has just cut down to, so to see a status expiration date would be another alignment.

 

Pre-Always/All Included X offered various packages with a certain number of perks.  However, if you booked an inside room, X would only allow you to buy one or two perks so AI touted that one could book any room with AI.  X most likely removed tips from AI because if you buy the internet or drink package, X is selling that at "whole sale" but that isn't the case with tipping as it costs them the same amount a customer pays.  Also, if one books a sailing a year or years in advance, they lock in current tipping amounts which are immune to increases.  Yes, when cruise lines increase tipping amounts they give you a warning but I'd imagine not that many both to pay the lesser amount right now to save a few bucks

[the penguins]

10 hours ago, tfred said:

This guy is absolutely on target. Every hotel chain has something like this AND you have to requalify every year or you are gone.  Every year might sound harsh but you have to cut off non profitable customers and concentrate on higher revenue guests. 
 

before I got lifetime status from Marriott I had to have a certain number of nights total, make a status every year for a number of years and meet revenue parameters.   With X it is an accumulation of cruises 

Regretably X's system is not based on an accumulation of cruises it's a mashup between nights and cabin class. 

[buncosquad]

8 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

While you're at it, why not just charter a yacht and skip the whole mass-market cruise line world?

Good point. Some do.

Edited October 8, 2023 by buncosquad

[The_Big_M]

At least he admits upfront it is purely speculative. 

 

He doesn't get it, and some of his predictions are definitely NOT going to happen.