New Crystal Society Programme Announced for 2024

[ClefsDor]

After a long hiatus from Crystal we are looking at a cruise next year. Decided to apply my 10th milestone for a one category upgrade. The cruise is for 15 days and the milestone upgrade is for 12 days. Asked my TA if we could just pay the extra for the additional 3 nights. According to the supervisor she spoke to the milestones don't apply at all if you haven't done a sailing on New Crystal! Not sure if that is noted anywhere in the fine print!

[ryndam]

8 minutes ago, ClefsDor said:

After a long hiatus from Crystal we are looking at a cruise next year. Decided to apply my 10th milestone for a one category upgrade. The cruise is for 15 days and the milestone upgrade is for 12 days. Asked my TA if we could just pay the extra for the additional 3 nights. According to the supervisor she spoke to the milestones don't apply at all if you haven't done a sailing on New Crystal! Not sure if that is noted anywhere in the fine print!

Not necessarily so. But here’s the proof required. If this will be your 11th cruise on Crystal, and you haven’t sailed on any Crystal voyages since the A&K acquisition, then this milestone upgrade should be applicable. Crystal knows you have cruised 10 times in the past and want to use your milestone on this, your 11th Crystal cruise.
 

If this will be your 12th or 13th or 14th cruise with Crystal, they have no records if you actually used that 10th cruise milestone already. Hence the request was declined.

 

Make sense?

 

Rob

[ClefsDor]

Yes it does, and this will be my 11th Crystal cruise - which they acknowledge. I can understand that if it was my 12th (or more) then they would have no record. The issue wasn't that but that I just hadn't sailed on new Crystal yet. 

[ryndam]

9 minutes ago, ClefsDor said:

Yes it does, and this will be my 11th Crystal cruise - which they acknowledge. I can understand that if it was my 12th (or more) then they would have no record. The issue wasn't that but that I just hadn't sailed on new Crystal yet. 

Thank you for the update. As with our current Society Benefit conundrum (OBC vs. fare reduction), this may need to be escalated to a different set of decision-makers at Crystal. It is a frustrating, and seemingly inconsistent/illogical application of the written Society Benefits documents.

 

Please continue to let us know how this works out. As will we on this thread. Thanks again for the clarification.

 

Rob

[ClefsDor]

Thank you, Rob and will do.

 

[Stickman1990]

41 minutes ago, ryndam said:

Not necessarily so. But here’s the proof required. If this will be your 11th cruise on Crystal, and you haven’t sailed on any Crystal voyages since the A&K acquisition, then this milestone upgrade should be applicable.

Are you sure? I don’t think k you are correct

 

I may be wrong but I believe milestones are earnt once you sail - not once you book the cruise

 

If they haven’t sailed on new Crystal then they cannot have any milestone award sitting to be used. The only awards available are those that to lover by earning a credit on new Crystal. Yes the historic number on old Crystal will contribute to the level of milestone that will be earnt but sadly any milestones earnt on old Crystal are lost and cannot be claimed 

[Whipsnade]

Stick is correct. Only newly achieved milestones will earn rewards. 

[TER777]

35 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

Are you sure? I don’t think k you are correct

 

I may be wrong but I believe milestones are earnt once you sail - not once you book the cruise

 

If they haven’t sailed on new Crystal then they cannot have any milestone award sitting to be used. The only awards available are those that to lover by earning a credit on new Crystal. Yes the historic number on old Crystal will contribute to the level of milestone that will be earnt but sadly any milestones earnt on old Crystal are lost and cannot be claimed 

I think Stickman is right. I recall getting my SBC while onboard on the Milestone cruise, not having to wait for a subsequent cruise to cash it in. Thus, NC has no way of knowing whether OC had honored ClefsDor’s 10th Milestone. 
 

The part about having not sailed NC yet I think relates to one having to earn new Milestones- if one hasn’t sailed yet, one can’t have earned any. 

[Texas Tillie]

I can say that the left hand doesn't know what the right had is doing with respect to the Crystal Society Program. I'm trying to get a $300 on board credit and my travel agent will be going into week 3 of getting an answer on it. All agree that I had 45 cruises with the old Crystal, the 45th being the LAST Symphony cruise with old Crystal. After 45 you are entitled to a $300 on board credit. I now have done 3 cruises with new Crystal, actually just 2 cruises, but one was 16 days, so it counts as 2. After my B2B in July, I will have done 50. Wonder what it will take to get the $5,000 off the next cruise I book after then??

 

Patty

[Stickman1990]

16 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

I'm trying to get a $300 on board credit and my travel agent will be going into week 3 of getting an answer on it. All agree that I had 45 cruises with the old Crystal, the 45th being the LAST Symphony cruise with old Crystal. After 45 you are entitled to a $300 on board credit.

I thi k you’re going to be disappointed. Given you qualified for the 45th under old Crystal I can see why you won’t get it under new Crystal

 

That’s consistent with everything they’ve said about the loyalty recognition as they don’t know if you claimed that 45th award onboard the 45th cruise on old Crystal)

[ClefsDor]

Terry, what you say makes sense and now I'm wondering if I am at number 10 when I sail again or if I am number 11 with old crystal. I didn't ask the question but know it is either 10 or 11. I will get my TA to check and if it's number 11 it'll be bye bye milestone awards until we reach 15 but hopefully the next sailing might be number 10

[Stickman1990]

1 hour ago, ClefsDor said:

Terry, what you say makes sense and now I'm wondering if I am at number 10 when I sail again or if I am number 11 with old crystal

Have a look at your last booking confirmation (from old Crystal) it will tell you how many cruises you had achieved at the time of booking - it’s up near the top of the booking

[Texas Tillie]

2 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

I thi k you’re going to be disappointed. Given you qualified for the 45th under old Crystal I can see why you won’t get it under new Crystal

 

That’s consistent with everything they’ve said about the loyalty recognition as they don’t know if you claimed that 45th award onboard the 45th cruise on old Crystal)

 

I am not 100% sure, but have a memory at in the old, old Crystal you could claim an award on the cruise where you earned it, but sometime before the old Crystal went kaput, you couldn't claim it until after you earned it. I think it happened when they changed the program from giving free cruises to giving discounts (like the $5000 for the 50th). I'm not going to be all that disappointed for losing out on $300. 

[Texas Tillie]

Just checked my old Crystal catalogs. The 2016-2017 Worldwide Atlas (name on cover) was the last one I have that includes the Crystal Society awards. It lists the 50th award as a free cruise up to 12 days. So, the change to $5,000 applied to a cruise as that reward happened sometime after the 2016-2017 Atlas was published. I still think another change they made was that rewards could not be used until after earned, not simultaneously to being earned. 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

I am not 100% sure, but have a memory at in the old, old Crystal you could claim an award on the cruise where you earned it, but sometime before the old Crystal went kaput, you couldn't claim it until after you earned it. I think it happened when they changed the program from giving free cruises to giving discounts (like the $5000 for the 50th). I'm not going to be all that disappointed for losing out on $300. 

That’s my recollection as well, but I don’t have it in writing anywhere handy.  I did redeem previous milestones on the qualifying voyages prior to that change though, and Crystal did make that change clear when the program was revised.

 

Funny, I was JUST looking at that same brochure yesterday morning!  GMTA!

 

I understand the argument to be made on milestones earned on OC that couldn’t have possibly been redeemed because someone didn’t sail the next qualifying sailing to redeem them, and I think that’s a cause at least worth seeking an exception on…. But I agree with Terry that it’s still an exception to the stated policy and I would still set my expectations low on the outcome just in case.

 

Vince

[Keith1010]

3 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

I am not 100% sure, but have a memory at in the old, old Crystal you could claim an award on the cruise where you earned it, but sometime before the old Crystal went kaput, you couldn't claim it until after you earned it. I think it happened when they changed the program from giving free cruises to giving discounts (like the $5000 for the 50th). I'm not going to be all that disappointed for losing out on $300. 

Patty,

 

You are correct.

 

Under Old Crystal they changed this.

 

Let's say with a 50th milestone you got a 12 day free cruise.

 

Before the program was changed if you had completed 49 cruises and you booked a 50th you could request that milestone be applied to the 50th.  

They changed it so that you could not request the 50th milestone until you completed the 50th.

 

Now let's say it was the 45 milestone and that involved only an on board credit. While if you had 44 completed cruises you could not request this in advance, once on board the Crystal Society hostess/host could get it applied for you.

 

And the other thing that changed before Old Crystal went under was providing a cash reduction on a cruise versus say 12 days.  For example, I know that for the 100th cruise used to be one could get x number of days in a CP (think it was 12) but when that program changed instead of being a number of days it became a future cruise credit which I believe was $5,000.00  majority of cruise was in a standard room or $10,000 per person if majority was in a suite.  The value of that CP was a lot more than the future cruise credit but for some the latter was preferable if they had no interest in a CP.

 

Before OC changed the program they also would allow you to put in some of those requests early by taking into account the cruises you had booked. For example, if we were at 94 cruises but we had the World Cruise booked which say was equivalent to 8 milestones we could apply that 100th milestone to that upcoming World Cruise even though at the time we had 94 cruises completed.  

 

Keith

[Texas Tillie]

Thanks, Keith, for the explanation about the OBC for "lesser" milestones vs a cash incentive for "significant" milestones. I was almost positive my memory was correct about the significant milestones. I'm 99.44% sure I didn't use the $300 on #45, but agree that new Crystal has no way of knowing that. I'll let my travel agent know tomorrow to just "let it be"!!

 

Patty

[skybluewaters]

11 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

"let it be"!!

 

hahaha, nice one, Patty!

I'm sure Keith got a good laugh out of that

 

[Keith1010]

If you currently have 10 milestones than under the old program it was impossible for you to have used the one category upgrade.  You are only eligible at the end of the voyage meaning it could be used on voyage 11 only so if that is the case I would have your TA mention this.  If you have already completed 11 cruises then you cannot claim the 10th milestone sine NC has no way of knowing whether you had used it. Now if you have completed 10 I can't guarantee this is how Crystal will interpret this but if it was me I would've the TA push on this since it would have been impossible to use the 10th for the upgrade until the 10th was completed and you booked your 11th.  I would certainly have them make this case.

 

Keith

[TER777]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

If you currently have 10 milestones than under the old program it was impossible for you to have used the one category upgrade.  You are only eligible at the end of the voyage meaning it could be used on voyage 11 only so if that is the case I would have your TA mention this.  If you have already completed 11 cruises then you cannot claim the 10th milestone sine NC has no way of knowing whether you had used it. Now if you have completed 10 I can't guarantee this is how Crystal will interpret this but if it was me I would've the TA push on this since it would have been impossible to use the 10th for the upgrade until the 10th was completed and you booked your 11th.  I would certainly have them make this case.

 

Keith

But how does NC know that X didn't select Shipboard Credit on their 10th cruise with OC?

[Keith1010]

2 minutes ago, TER777 said:

But how does NC know that X didn't select Shipboard Credit on their 10th cruise with OC?

I hear you.

 

Like I said they might not accept this but I would have my TA make the case.

 

This milestone involves a $200.00 credit and a 12 day upgrade.

 

Hard to believe someone would have used it for $200.00 rather than wait for the 11th and gotten both $200.00 and 12 days upgrade.

 

It's worth taking a run at it knowing that they might not approve it.  Nothing lost by giving it another try.

 

Keith

[ClefsDor]

Thanks, Kieth. I have ascertained that if we book a cruise on Crystal this would be my 11th cruise and it would be my husband's 10th cruise. I will reach out to my TA and get her to push back on this with Crystal. Their response that we aren't entitled to milestones as we haven't sailed with new Crystal just doesn't make sense

[ryndam]

Additional Update:

 

I received this correspondence from the Manager, Crystal Guest Relations. It appears as though we can redeem our accrued milestone credits for OBC, but not as a fare reduction. The conversation with our TA last week now makes more sense.  Rob

 

"Thank you for your email inquiry. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify this for you. You have redeemed your Exceptional Initiative certificate for this booking which does not allow for any other redemptions. I have included the below from our brochure and have attached the Terms and Conditions for your reference.

Please let me know if you have any further questions,

COMBINABILITY
Crystal Society rewards may not apply to certain promotional offers. Crystal reserves the
right to exclude or limit combinability with the benefits or rewards of other marketing
partnerships or promotional offers not specified herein. More than one fare reduction
Milestone may not be redeemed on a single voyage segment. Exceptional Initiative sub
credits are considered a fare reduction credit. An exceptional Initiative sub credit is
combinable with a milestone reward redemption, excluding a fare reduction milestone."

Edited April 29 by ryndam
text update

[Keith1010]

Rob glad this has all been explained and that the explanation makes sense.

 

Keith

[Stickman1990]

On 4/26/2024 at 5:17 AM, BWIVince said:

What a bizarre backpedal...  It repeatedly says "As you wish credit OR Cruise fare savings" over and over again all over the doc -- that intent couldn't be clearer.  

So it turns out no backpedal by Crystal or other unscrupulous behaviour - more a case of not all the facts being put on the table

 

The EI reduction trumps the Crystal Society benefit and there’s no double dipping on discounting. Hardly an unusual clause from a merchant 

 

So in this case Crystal is just doing what most vendors do (although the EI programme is a very special concession that few companies would provide)

 

A lesson learnt that all the background info needs to be tabled to avoid people leaping to conclusions