A Latitudes Change That Hadn't Caught My Eye

[swedish weave]

We are Platinum latitudes members, and we're leaving Satuday for the 4-4-09 voyage on the Star. We will report back with all of the latitude changes.

 

Funny thing is, DH and I have been married 34 years, have been on 36 cruises (not all NCL), and NCL has him listed as Platinum, and me as Gold. We don't know why. He's never been on any cruises without me (hold the jokes...).

 

Platinum is really not a big deal to us. However, if it is true about being able to order from the "pay" section of the room service menu, I will be officially excited.

 

We are also booked on back to back cruises on the Star in November. Am I understanding correctly that we are to expect NO latitude perks on the 3 and 4 day cruises?

 

We had the same problem, and Romeo (Latitudes) fixed it for us. It was a typo that assigned a different number for one of our trips.

 

There should be some reports about the benefits on the short trips soon because that is a recent change.

 

Are you sure he didn't go without you ??? (Couldn't resist !!)

[njhorseman]

We are Platinum latitudes members, and we're leaving Satuday for the 4-4-09 voyage on the Star. We will report back with all of the latitude changes.

 

Funny thing is, DH and I have been married 34 years, have been on 36 cruises (not all NCL), and NCL has him listed as Platinum, and me as Gold. We don't know why. He's never been on any cruises without me (hold the jokes...).

 

 

No jokes here. We had the same thing happen to us. My wife was given NCL Gold status a cruise or two before I was.

[njhorseman]

Okay folks, we have the following:

Magazine says 14

Web says 19

Cust Svc says 14

Cust Svc rep says web is a typo and should be 14

 

I really would give this a few days and see what web continues to say

 

================

 

As to the silly discussion that cruises under 5 do not count. Let me ask this. If they do not count cruise #1, or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, how could ANYONE ever get to 6 or more cruise credits?

 

Going by "Believe nothing of what you heare and only half of what you read" I think we still have a flat-footed tie based on one each from the two written sources. ;)

 

It crossed my mind that even if the number still is 14, someone from NCL might read this thread and decide that the confusion presents a golden opportunity to change it to 19. :D

[mpk218]

Just off the Star ,,, Got our ship pins ,,, woo hoo :D

and a nice fruit basket...

[dtracker]

I have to say I think we as Pax deserve some of the credit for the way "being loyal" is valued. Very few people are brand loyal any more. Example..my Mother would only by Libby canned products if Libby sold whatever she was buying. Did not matter how much more they were than store brands or whoever, she bought Libby. Very very few people are like that any more. The vast majoriy of us go with who gives the best price. Perks are nice, but the pocket book is where most people make their decisions. And while the Lattitude perks have a "value", most people are going to book a cruise based on how much they have to pay out of their pocket right up front. The result of this is businesses do not put as much into their repeat customer programs. While I think Sid makes a great point as to it being cheaper to get us back on NCL than it does to get someone to try NCL, someone some where has an economic model that says different and NCL along with probably all other cruiselines, are banking that the model is right. It probably doesn't seem like what I am saying is on track because most of us who post here on the NCL boards are fairly loyal to NCL, but if you check with a lot of us, and Doug and I are in that group, we would cruise another line in a heart beat if the price and ship and itinenary and perks were right. What keeps us with NCL is not the Lattitudes program, we have honestly never given that program a second thought. For us, it is Freestyle itself, followed by CAS's perks.

 

I agree with you,Terry. The bottom line is what's most important to people nowadays. You can tell by the profits of WalMart! Many bemoan the fact that outsourcing has hurt the US economy, but they still keep buying from WalMart. :confused:

BTW, my mom only bought Libby food also! :D

 

DT

[dtracker]

We were told that cruises under 5 werent going to count but that the perks were going to be kept on the sailings.

 

That news has been around for a while, hazeleyes. The real news would be if they raised the requirements for Platinum. In the short while, I think it will hurt them, but as in everything else, over time it won't amount to a hill of beans. :D

 

DT

[leestar]

Does this mean they fired the guy who took away our lattitudes benefits ??

 

You made me laugh out loud at work. :) We can hope that is what it means.

 

We just got off the Gem on 3/28 and were disappointed with the Cruise Consultant/Latitudes Rep. First of all he really didn't mention of advertise that he was the Latitudes Rep (on prior cruises the jobs have also been combined in one person but the person with those jobs seemed proud of their dual titles). Second he made it clear that all he (and presumably NCL) cared about was Platinum Latitudes. Considering the attitude I certainly hope they didn't also make it harder to get to Platinum.

[smeyer418]

I am not sure they are saying they don't count. They are saying there won't be any perks on the shorter sailings....its not all that clear. Elevate could mean either credit or having the service available....

[dtracker]

I hate to say it, because I love to sail on NCL, but I'm reluctant to believe anything their customer service reps tell you. If you call another time, you might get another answer. Call again, and you might get someone who has no idea what Latitudes is.

 

In fairness to NCL, the quality of telephone customer service is almost uniformly horrible everywhere. Poorly trained inexperienced service reps seem to be the norm in business today.

 

My bet would be, they outsource CS. Almost all major corporations do that now. You're probably talking with someone in India or Taiwan. It doesn't surprise me they are clueless about cruising. They only work off a conversation and question cheat sheet. Your question has to be on their cheat sheet for them to be able to answer. :D

 

DT

[smrtypnts]

Confused over what you are asking.

 

If you are asking if you get credit for the cruise, of course you will. Otherwise nobody would ever get to the next level???

The person you quoted was responding to someone else who quoted not receiving credit for cruises under 5 days. So I think the answer is YES...you will NOT receive credit (for cruises under 5 days).:cool:

[leestar]

Just off the Star ,,, Got our ship pins ,,, woo hoo :D

and a nice fruit basket...

 

Good to know you got treated well on the Star as we are looking at her for Alaska sometime in the next few months.

 

Were the pins waiting for you in your room or did you have to ask for them?

[mbisson]

I'm still not sure from what I've seen, if they mean you don't receive credit for those sailings, or (possibly 'and' as well) if they mean you don't receive the benefits on those cruises.

[SnootieTootie]

O.K. nosty person tht I am, I called NCL latitudes and spoke to sone one Gina. I asked about the Platinum status. She informed me that it was 14. I told her that the website now stated 19.

 

I was honest with her, and I told her I wanted clarifiction for the Cruise Critic board, and could I ask her name. Then.......she ddecided that she should verify her information. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes, and when she came back to the phone, said that the website stating 19 was a missprint, and that the web designer had already been notified of the type-o, and that a correction will be made.

 

There ya have it!

[njhorseman]

O.K. nosty person tht I am, I called NCL latitudes and spoke to sone one Gina. I asked about the Platinum status. She informed me that it was 14. I told her that the website now stated 19.

 

I was honest with her, and I told her I wanted clarifiction for the Cruise Critic board, and could I ask her name. Then.......she ddecided that she should verify her information. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes, and when she came back to the phone, said that the website stating 19 was a missprint, and that the web designer had already been notified of the type-o, and that a correction will be made.

 

There ya have it!

 

 

Thank you. Thank you very much. :cool:

[dtracker]

Mission complete!! :D

 

DT

[garycarla]

The person you quoted was responding to someone else who quoted not receiving credit for cruises under 5 days. So I think the answer is YES...you will NOT receive credit (for cruises under 5 days).:cool:

 

Ah!

 

Cruises under 5 days is a whole new world. Supposedly that has been a rule for some time. But, as most here have noticed, they often get credit anyways.

[Tideone]

The customer service reps for NCL that I have talken to have been located in Arizona - but I guess that's like being overseas...

[time2cruise1]

The "magazine" doesn't have a date, but looking at some of the content, I have to believe it was "published" before the Web page was updated, which was quite recently. For example, the magazine talks about the Travel Channel program on the Pearl, That program was first shown in December 2008.

 

I hope the magazine is right and the Web page is wrong, but I'm skeptical.

 

For the record the latest magazine was released in March just after the summary changes showed up on the website. I have documents dated March 9 with the updates for the onboard Latitudes Representative that still say 14.

The only source of this rumor is the website which has often contained incorrect information. I remember when for a week the website had the Jade doing Med cruises from NYC. It is odd the 19th is after 9th for gold. A guy in India, cut paste add a 1 and forget to change the 9. Wrong info on the the website.

[swedish weave]

what? They don't want me?

 

no !!

[swedish weave]

And a bonus :D ;):rolleyes: :eek:

 

 

Hey, Obama -- Hear that ? He is probably on his way to D.C. for a bailout, next !!!

[mbisson]

no !!

 

Ha Ha Ha. I just wrote to my pcc and he says they still want me! :D

So neener, neener, neener

[swedish weave]

Ha Ha Ha. I just wrote to my pcc and he says they still want me! :D

So neener, neener, neener

 

All these posts about bad info from those people, and you still believe them ???

[mbisson]

All these posts about bad info from those people, and you still believe them ???

 

In my case, I'll believe him and ignore the posts :D

It's worked in the past

[98Charlie]

O.K. nosty person tht I am, I called NCL latitudes and spoke to sone one Gina. I asked about the Platinum status. She informed me that it was 14. I told her that the website now stated 19.

 

I was honest with her, and I told her I wanted clarifiction for the Cruise Critic board, and could I ask her name. Then.......she ddecided that she should verify her information. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes, and when she came back to the phone, said that the website stating 19 was a missprint, and that the web designer had already been notified of the type-o, and that a correction will be made.

 

There ya have it!

 

Missprint, typo, whatever you want to call it, was exactly what my husband was told by an NCL supervisor early this morning (in Post 26 on this thread). He was on the phone with NCL Lattitudes for about 20 minutes this morning.

 

Dianne

[SnootieTootie]

Dianne, I had read your post, but I just wanted to check for myself. I think since two different NCL agents told your husband and I both the same information, we can be assured that it indeed was a type-o.