Milestone Cruisers that are not Diamond

[cruzn buckeye]

Originally Posted by yesaccasey

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2012/05/04...-the-barbecue/

Brenda asked:
Hi John

We have sailed with you twice now on the Carnival Freedom in the Med and this past summer on the Carnival Magic in the Med. We are currently Platinum with 22 cruises (my 10 yr old has 22 cruises too!). How will this work with the new loyalty program. We are only three cruises from Milestone with three future cruises booked (Dec. 2012 July 2013 and Dec 2013). How close do we have to be to be grandfathered into the milestone program? This will be a real bummer if we miss it and we are this close! Please let me know. Lastly, will you be on the Legend in the Baltic in 2013? Thanks.

John says:
Hello Brenda

I am getting lots of questions like this and it is quite understandable, of course. We are now just a very short time away from announcing the new loyalty program and the four different levels that this will be based on. Looking at the fact that you are this close to Milestone and with three cruises booked you should have no worries or concerns about you getting the top level. More details to come soon and yes indeed, I will see you on the beautiful Carnival Legend.

Best wishes and thanks for your brilliant loyalty.

John


AND-------------------

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2011/11/03...-your-loyalty/
"Some who are close to Platinum and indeed Milestone are hoping the goal posts are not changed and most of the questions were as I said based around those."

It wasn't until LATE May that John officially backpeddled on the milestones being grandfathered in to diamond... Before that all references were made that old platinum = new platinum and old milestone = diamond. Only during the last week of May was the milestone program suggested to be completely separate. In addition, John has posts talking about the milestone cards vs the platinum cards and there was no mention of the card being a one time thing on #25, 50, etc. And all current milestone cruisers on here have confirmed that they received the milestone on their 25th cruises as well as cruises after their 25th.

And if you notice, in his original post here he said four levels, not five. So we were grandfathered to the highest tier of the four levels which is Platinum. And they added Diamond. this is where the backpeddling comes in...

[PA Dutchman]

Now for the big question what kind or color S&S card will diamond get ? 1 time Diamond cruise (Gray) and from then on back to Platinum ??? This is like a bunch of Politicians got together to write a program so no body would understand it.

[realtyexecdeb]

Yup Carnival kicked me in the arse for my loyalty as well. I have 29 cruises with 142 days and since 2005 I have only sailed on 1 other line...My bad. I'm sure another line will be happy to take my money and I am looking forward to exploring other possibilities. I have many solo cruises that carnival will not count as *double points even though I paid the 200% supplement....their bad. From what I have been told we will now get the platinum cards and I believe the diamonds will get the white cards. Look out NCL, HAL, Princess, Celebrity, RCCL...here I come!

[yesaccasey]

Originally Posted by cruzn buckeye

And if you notice, in his original post here he said four levels, not five. So we were grandfathered to the highest tier of the four levels which is Platinum. And they added Diamond. this is where the backpeddling comes in...

Yes... but it was always being communicated that old platinum would go to old platinum and old milestone would go to the level above platinum, which is diamond. Before there was diamond, milestone was the new 'diamond'....

[leedm]

If you made milestone with 25 cruises, and your wife made milestone with 25 cruises could you both get the 25% on different furture cruises?
Thanks

[yesaccasey]

Originally Posted by leedm

If you made milestone with 25 cruises, and your wife made milestone with 25 cruises could you both get the 25% on different furture cruises?
Thanks

You get a letter after your 25th and you have 18 months from the date of the 25th cruise to claim the 25% OBC off the base price of the cruise you choose to use it on.

It is 25% off for the one passenger that just earned Milestone. If both of you earned milestone, you could use one of your letters on one cruise and the other on another cruise if you wanted to or you could use both of them on one cruise.

[PA Dutchman]

Originally Posted by leedm

If you made milestone with 25 cruises, and your wife made milestone with 25 cruises could you both get the 25% on different furture cruises?
Thanks

We did under the old system, we never got a letter. We did a back to back got 25% for both cruises. Not that it was alot of money. ea got $300 for the first one (7 day) and ea $175 for the 5 day 2nd cruise. Both were balconys. Its not a great big deal hitting milestone, and then there is nothing till cruise 50. We will never hit 50. Diamond is just about the same you get 1 cruise with some extra perks and then your back to platinum perks. We don't use the laundry and don't do the Capt deal, were not into that.

[leedm]

Originally Posted by yesaccasey

You get a letter after your 25th and you have 18 months from the date of the 25th cruise to claim the 25% OBC off the base price of the cruise you choose to use it on.

It is 25% off for the one passenger that just earned Milestone. If both of you earned milestone, you could use one of your letters on one cruise and the other on another cruise if you wanted to or you could use both of them on one cruise.

Thanks for the info,,,,We have 19 CCL cruises and 125 cruise days each, but were looking at some NCL cruises. Not sure if we should work to get milestone or look to other cruise lines. Not happy with the new CCL loyalty program

[maggieworkman]

I don't have a copy of any statement from John Heald for you. However, on another one of these threads, someone posted a link to John's blog that basically said what you are looking for. Sadly I don't know what thread that was on because there have been about a million VIFP threads. However if you maybe search "milestone" on his blog, you could find it. He was answering someone's question at the time, it wasn't in the "text" part of his blog.

Maggie

Edit: I did find this:
http://johnhealdsblog.com/2012/02/29...he-front-line/

That might help.

[yesaccasey]

Originally Posted by maggieworkman

I don't have a copy of any statement from John Heald for you. However, on another one of these threads, someone posted a link to John's blog that basically said what you are looking for. Sadly I don't know what thread that was on because there have been about a million VIFP threads. However if you maybe search "milestone" on his blog, you could find it. He was answering someone's question at the time, it wasn't in the "text" part of his blog.

Maggie

Edit: I did find this:
http://johnhealdsblog.com/2012/02/29...he-front-line/

That might help.

Exactly! Thanks! I love how John and his followers are defending him when what was promised is clear and reiterated time and time again among CCL staffers.... during the past 3.5 years up until about a week or 2 ago when John did a 180. What a joke! Makes me even angrier now that I can verify I am not going crazy and the things I wsa told... well, I was really told them!

[LHP]

Originally Posted by zqvol

You are still grandfathered in, you (and a lot of the ship board crew) did not understand the rules before.




How could you be grandfathered into something that did not exist. You have been placed into the level that you have earned. You still have your milestone, which was never a level but a single cruise.

Carnival had the opportunity to clear this up 10 months ago and they did not.

10 months ago, when the survey came out, the chatter exploded about what people should do if they were close to Milestone.

Cruisers were told to cram in short cruises to make Milestone before the new program was implemented because they would be grandfathered in. Now, IF this Milestone level did not exist....just what were they suppose to be grandfathered into???

10 months ago is when Carnival should have said "whoa folks, you are misundstanding Milestone. It is not a tier.". But Carnival did not do that.

Carnival allowed their employees to continue to give out incorrect information.

There are people who booked and sailed on cruises to reach this level based on the word of On Line Coordinators who are paid to answer questions about Carnival and help cruisers.

This is unacceptable.

[popsec]

Originally Posted by maggieworkman

I don't have a copy of any statement from John Heald for you. However, on another one of these threads, someone posted a link to John's blog that basically said what you are looking for. Sadly I don't know what thread that was on because there have been about a million VIFP threads. However if you maybe search "milestone" on his blog, you could find it. He was answering someone's question at the time, it wasn't in the "text" part of his blog.

Maggie

Edit: I did find this:
http://johnhealdsblog.com/2012/02/29...he-front-line/

That might help.

I posted the question and response from JH on his FB page and can't wait to see if he bothers to respond. I have nothing against him but I do feel he misled people and should be held accountable....

[ericrz]

Such vitriol towards John Heald. It does seem pretty clear that he was being misled by CCL higher-ups (talking about "4 levels," etc.) or there were some last-minute changes.

Maybe some of you have a right to be angry with CCL (though of course they have the right to change the terms of their loyalty program at any time; implied promises are not a contract.)

But I don't get the anger towards John. Does ANY other cruise line have a "brand ambassador" so open and honest with their customers? Could you ever have a realistic change of getting questions answered from NCL, RCI, etc. the way John answers questions on his blog and FB?

I just don't get it.

[cruzn buckeye]

Originally Posted by ericrz

Such vitriol towards John Heald. It does seem pretty clear that he was being misled by CCL higher-ups (talking about "4 levels," etc.) or there were some last-minute changes.

Maybe some of you have a right to be angry with CCL (though of course they have the right to change the terms of their loyalty program at any time; implied promises are not a contract.)

But I don't get the anger towards John. Does ANY other cruise line have a "brand ambassador" so open and honest with their customers? Could you ever have a realistic change of getting questions answered from NCL, RCI, etc. the way John answers questions on his blog and FB?

I just don't get it.

I dont have any anger towards John. No anger at all actually. Just disappointment. So he was misled to the "four levels" or there were last minute changes. I believe it is the last minute changes, Add a level so you dont have to give the Milestones that upper tier that was promised to them. then we will have fewer perks to give to the few Diamonds.
The fact is Milestone was promised the highest tier...there was never anything called Platinum-Milestone... it was just Milestone...

[SkyMaster]

We too, have been given "White Cards" every cruise, since our 25th cruise. I just checked, and both the lovely Mrs. Jones and I have 212 days, according to Carnivals records, so I can assume that we'll be "Diamond". (Actually, I had counted 'em up, and came up with a few more days than that, but I won't complain) What color is the "Diamond Card"?

"SKY"

[maggieworkman]

Originally Posted by LHP

Carnival had the opportunity to clear this up 10 months ago and they did not.

10 months ago, when the survey came out, the chatter exploded about what people should do if they were close to Milestone.

Cruisers were told to cram in short cruises to make Milestone before the new program was implemented because they would be grandfathered in. Now, IF this Milestone level did not exist....just what were they suppose to be grandfathered into???

10 months ago is when Carnival should have said "whoa folks, you are misundstanding Milestone. It is not a tier.". But Carnival did not do that.

Carnival allowed their employees to continue to give out incorrect information.

There are people who booked and sailed on cruises to reach this level based on the word of On Line Coordinators who are paid to answer questions about Carnival and help cruisers.

This is unacceptable.

While looking for something else, I found this were John talks about what the milestone program was:

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2011/10/18/now-showing/

Oct. 18, 2011

Stacey asked:
John,
I LOVE your blog! I see people post, “I am a platinum member”….what does that mean? May seem a nutty question – but it is driving me crazy! Looking forward to cruising the Glory in Feb 2012 ; )
Thanks,
Stacey
John says:
Hello Stacey,
I am sorry to say that your question doesn’t even come close to entering the “nutty” section here on the blog. Platinum members are guests who have been loyal to Carnival and have cruised between 10 and 24 times. For doing this they receive a special service such as first on and first off the ship, confirmed dining room seating and free laundry to name just some of the benefits. Then we have Milestone guests who have cruised 25 times or more and they get discounts as well when they cruise — 25% off for cruise number 25 and 50% off for cruise number 50. I hope one day you reach Platinum status Stacey and if you have any other questions nutty or otherwise, I am here to help.
Best wishes.
John

Maggie

[LHP]

Again, the point is .... despite Carnival's "intentions" for Milestone....

CARNIVAL is the one that represented Milestone as a separate tier for all these years.

Carnival On Line Coordinators encouraged cruisers that were "close" to Milestone to cruise some short cruises to make "the next level" so that they would be grandfathered in. John Heald did the same thing.

Even Carnival EMPLOYEES were cramming in cruises to "make the next level"....now if EMPLOYESS did not understand that Milestone was not a separate tier from Platinum....

how are we suppose to??????

[nawlinscruiser22]

Originally Posted by LHP

There are people who booked and sailed on cruises to reach this level based on the word of On Line Coordinators who are paid to answer questions about Carnival and help cruisers.

I happen to be one of those and I agree, it is unacceptable! I am not angry, per se, just extremely disappointed that the company that I once valued and spent many hard earned dollars with clearly has no loyalty to their most dedicated customers.

I'm not going to say "I'll never sail with Carnival again" but I do know that my time (and money) spent with Carnival will be drastically reduced from here on out.

Quite frankly, it makes me sad

[INTERLINER13]

Originally Posted by Beth

I am very disappointed in Carnival. 32 cruises and 176 days and I am now at the platinium level again. I was under the impression we would be grandfathered into Diamond. I will have 200 days in Dec, anbd I am not grandfathered into diamond like the platinium. I feel so cheated.Yes I will still sail Carnival, but very disappointed in this new system. 75 days-200 days and no grandfathering in.

Just curious as to the perks people receive as a milestone cruiser not on a milestone cruise? It looks to me like nothing other then a card?

[Kreeb]

Originally Posted by LHP

Again, the point is .... despite Carnival's "intentions" for Milestone....

CARNIVAL is the one that represented Milestone as a separate tier for all these years.

Carnival On Line Coordinators encouraged cruisers that were "close" to Milestone to cruise some short cruises to make "the next level" so that they would be grandfathered in. John Heald did the same thing.

Even Carnival EMPLOYEES were cramming in cruises to "make the next level"....now if EMPLOYESS did not understand that Milestone was not a separate tier from Platinum....

how are we suppose to??????

DW and I have cruised 29 times on Carnival, with a total of 199 days and an average of 6.9 days per cruise. We know what we were told by Carnival and Mr. Heald and it has been clearly documented on his own Blog and other sources. So we feel betrayed.

Now, all we have to do is go on any cruise to hit Diamond, but what we have here is a matter of principal. So we will not set foot on any Carnival Cruise until they honor their promises to us. It's called voting with your wallet. if they choose not to, then we will know truly how they value our loyalty.