Holland No Longer Rewarding Mariner Loyalty

[trishbk]

My husband and I are 4-star Mariner with over 200+ days at sea with Holland America. We book our cruises directly with Holland rather than using a TA. We also constantly monitor pricing on HAL's website to book the best deal. My 89 year old grandmother is a 1 star Mariner having sailed only one cruise in her lifetime and hasn't sailed with HAL for 3+ years. She receives "Private Sail" mailings from HAL offering the same sailings at $100 or more than my 4-star Mariner price. We have also recently noticed that on the majority of occasions, our 4-star Mariner price is the same as the non-Mariner price.

 

Having worked in Marketing for years at a large US corporation, I suspect that HAL is targeting my grandmother with special pricing in an effort to entice her to cruise more with them, but come on! Perhaps HAL views its loyal Mariners as a captive audience who will continue to sail with them regardless of price? Of course HAL's pricing practice is purely legal. But in my opinion, it is a despicable and a slap in the face to its loyal Mariners.

[Fouremco]

My husband and I are 4-star Mariner with over 200+ days at sea with Holland America. We book our cruises directly with Holland rather than using a TA. We also constantly monitor pricing on HAL's website to book the best deal. My 89 year old grandmother is a 1 star Mariner having sailed only one cruise in her lifetime and hasn't sailed with HAL for 3+ years. She receives "Private Sail" mailings from HAL offering the same sailings at $100 or more than my 4-star Mariner price. We have also recently noticed that on the majority of occasions, our 4-star Mariner price is the same as the non-Mariner price.

 

Having worked in Marketing for years at a large US corporation, I suspect that HAL is targeting my grandmother with special pricing in an effort to entice her to cruise more with them, but come on! Perhaps HAL views its loyal Mariners as a captive audience who will continue to sail with them regardless of price? Of course HAL's pricing practice is purely legal. But in my opinion, it is a despicable and a slap in the face to its loyal Mariners.

While we would all like to pay less and get more, the reality is that HAL views the perks provided to Mariners at varying levels as payback for your loyalty.

[serendipity1499]

My husband and I are 4-star Mariner with over 200+ days at sea with Holland America. We book our cruises directly with Holland rather than using a TA. We also constantly monitor pricing on HAL's website to book the best deal. My 89 year old grandmother is a 1 star Mariner having sailed only one cruise in her lifetime and hasn't sailed with HAL for 3+ years. She receives "Private Sail" mailings from HAL offering the same sailings at $100 or more than my 4-star Mariner price. We have also recently noticed that on the majority of occasions, our 4-star Mariner price is the same as the non-Mariner price.

 

Having worked in Marketing for years at a large US corporation, I suspect that HAL is targeting my grandmother with special pricing in an effort to entice her to cruise more with them, but come on! Perhaps HAL views its loyal Mariners as a captive audience who will continue to sail with them regardless of price? Of course HAL's pricing practice is purely legal. But in my opinion, it is a despicable and a slap in the face to its loyal Mariners.

Sorry but I don't agree with you at all.. Why would it be despicable? Have you actually figured out the per diem fare..Hals' prices at this time are the lowest we've ever seen them..We are still paying the same per diem as we paid in 1998..

 

We too are 4 star Mariners & as a 4 star we get many perks on HAL such as: 50% discount on Speciality Restaurants, wine packages beverages in Explorations café, mini bar purchases etc...Priority check-in discount on spa treatments, priority tender, discounts at shops, etc.. As a 4 star you will receive these perks too..

 

We also received the brochure which your Grandmother received..But our fare for our cruise this fall is actually less than these prices by booking through our travel agent..Cruise line published fares are really very low on a per deim basis & the perks we receive on board are more important to us..

 

BTW you may still receive the brochure.. HAL mails these out by area, names & sometimes by state..

[sail7seas]

We've read here similar reports from other CC'ers, high Star Mariners. I have mixed feelings about it. While we all want to pay the lowest possible and get the most for our money, marketing is marketing. Those of us with lots of days have proven our loyalty to HAL and they have good reason to think they have 'won' us. Sure, Mariners come and go, some go to other cruise lines, some die, some stop sailing etc but there is always going to be some attrition. The question is how many 'newish' cruisers do they gain vs how many Four and Five Star Mariners do they lose?

 

Also to consider is that 'newish' cruisers often (not always) do more on board spending what with photos, ship sponsored excursions, souvenirs and whatever from the shops onn board etc Many of us Five Star might still be buying wine/cocktails but are not likely buying lots of photos and many are booking their own excursions.

 

It balances in the end and the bean counters can cite the numbers. :)

 

[rafinmd]

I just became a 4* Mariner last month. In the last 4 years HAL has rewarded my loyalty with 10 excellent experiences lasting 7-28 days each. What greater reward could I want.

 

Roy

[SilvertoGold]

OP: HAL has been playing musical fares for a long time, as attested to by many on this board.

 

Pricing and loyalty rewards are both marketing, just different kinds.

 

The rewards at various Mariner levels are the rewards you get for your loyalty. HAL's Mariner Program does not include a cruise fare discount, as some other lines do at some levels.

 

HAL appears to market by giving discounts on a needs basis, supply and demand style.

 

As a five star I am pretty happy with the Mariner Program. Would I like fare discounts? Of course.

[thinfool]

You must have missed the CCL discussion of revenue intake.

 

It seems that new cruisers spend way more during their voyage than the old-timers do. CCL is all about revenue enhancements.

 

If you think that HAL is the only one doing this you need to try another cruise line. When you are new they plague you with ads, discounts and 'come-ons'.

 

After all, it's all about the money.

 

I am surprised that your marketing experience didn't include this.

[sapper1]

We've read here similar reports from other CC'ers, high Star Mariners. I have mixed feelings about it. While we all want to pay the lowest possible and get the most for our money, marketing is marketing. Those of us with lots of days have proven our loyalty to HAL and they have good reason to think they have 'won' us. Sure, Mariners come and go, some go to other cruise lines, some die, some stop sailing etc but there is always going to be some attrition. The question is how many 'newish' cruisers do they gain vs how many Four and Five Star Mariners do they lose?

 

Also to consider is that 'newish' cruisers often (not always) do more on board spending what with photos, ship sponsored excursions, souvenirs and whatever from the shops onn board etc Many of us Five Star might still be buying wine/cocktails but are not likely buying lots of photos and many are booking their own excursions.

 

It balances in the end and the bean counters can cite the numbers. :)

 

You got that right re the photos. During our early cruising days we loved to take the photo opportunities and over the years we displayed a regular rogue's gallery at home. One day I decided that all these pictures were doing was showing an age progression and it has been ages since we have been tempted to do the photo thing. We also don't bother with a lot of the things we used to as eager beaver newbies.

HAL has to find a new market to take up the slack not being provided by long term customers. Special pricing is one of the ways.

[OlsSalt]

Been on some HAL cruises that have very high Mariner participation and it was informally noted that made them "losing operations" since they had to offer so many discounts to their boat load of loyal passengers.

 

I wouldn't take any of these temporary marketing schemes personally. Keep signing up for cruises because they are a good overall value first and take you where you want to go. But thanks for pointing out some of the squirrelly down-stream impacts of any organization's marketing efforts.

Edited July 26, 2015 by OlsSalt

[RedmondCruiser]

I, for one, was very happy when HAL instituted their Mariner rewards program. We enjoy the four star benefits and are glad to get them. I always look for good prices on cruises that we want to take and generally book after the final payment is due. That's normally when they scramble to fill the ship, if they have excess capacity that is unbooked. We are going on a 30 day cruise out of San Diego in November and we received a Mariner price that was very attractive, so we booked before the final was due. We saved close to $1000 pp as mariners. My impression is that they will only do this on selected sailings so its not true of every cruise. So they do provide mariner discounts for the actual cruise fair. Over the years we have also enjoyed several upgrades and well priced upsells.

 

Holland America's bread and butter is their mariners . I enjoy the 1/2 prices in the Pinnacle, the priority boarding, the free laundry and all the other mariner benefits. On this upcoming cruise we will pass into the five star ranks so we have much to look forward to.

[sail7seas]

While certainly there are some exceptions but generally many of HAL's cruisers who have 500+ days are on the more senior side of their market. Those of us over 60 were there past, are their present but many are not their future. All companies need to attract new and younger no matter what they are selling if they wish to have long term customers.

 

Certainly OP has cited an exception with the 89 year old lady referenced. :) Blessings on her for many happy cruises.

 

[SilvertoGold]

Been on some HAL cruises that have very high Mariner participation and it was informally noted that made them "losing operations" since they had to offer so many discounts to their boat load of loyal passengers.

 

I wouldn't take any of these temporary marketing schemes personally. Keep signing up cruises because they are a good overall value first and take you where you want to go. But thanks for pointing out some of the squirrelly down-stream impacts of any organization's marketing efforts.

 

I like your idea of not taking marketing schemes personally.

 

If the pricing is right, for us, we book.

 

We do take into account the saving of being 5 stars.

Last 2 week cruise we saved about $350.00 with the 5 star rewards. It should be noted that this did not "cost" HAL $350.00. They do have a profit margin on everything from wine to classes to spa to meals.

[OlsSalt]

My favorite non-perk Mariner discount is on the HAL logo wear - by the time we got to five-star we had just about every logo item we would ever want. Including an inflatable pool toy model of a Hal ship!

 

Plus now they have gone to the generic "dam ships" there is little of any interest to purchase at all for each unique ship. 50% discount or not.

 

DH's early "Maasdam" logo wind-breaker remains one of his treasured HAL souvenirs when we were zero star on our first trip so not even any discount for that. Plus the quality of those early individual ship logo items was so much higher than what is offered today.

 

Free laundry remains the best perk, except when we add up how much that perk cost compared to the handy $20 bag available to everyone, but what fun we have had getting to five-star status. Loved every HAL trip and ship.

 

The loyalty program did incentivize us to sail HAL, but if they did not have the itineraries, the smaller ships and the crews they have any sort of "loyalty" program would not have made a difference. We just found the right fit for us, and stuck with her. Voyages of Discovery is our other right fit which also has a strong repeat passenger loyalty as well. On our last cruise it was probably 90% loyalty passengers -with virtually no perks at all - one special party which had to include practically the entire ship.

Edited July 26, 2015 by OlsSalt

[POA1]

If you have the brochure promo code, you should be able to apply it.

[kazu]

You got that right re the photos. During our early cruising days we loved to take the photo opportunities and over the years we displayed a regular rogue's gallery at home. One day I decided that all these pictures were doing was showing an age progression and it has been ages since we have been tempted to do the photo thing. We also don't bother with a lot of the things we used to as eager beaver newbies.

HAL has to find a new market to take up the slack not being provided by long term customers. Special pricing is one of the ways.

 

I guess I am the exception to the rule and don't think we are the only ones. The packages for the "activity" pics are not a bad deal. And we had such a great roll call that I at least wanted pics of the Captain's dinner and a couple of other things. it didn't take much math to figure out that another picture or two and we were better off with the package, so we got it and walked off the ship with lots of pics. :)

[cruz chic]

You must have missed the CCL discussion of revenue intake.

 

It seems that new cruisers spend way more during their voyage than the old-timers do. CCL is all about revenue enhancements.

 

If you think that HAL is the only one doing this you need to try another cruise line. When you are new they plague you with ads, discounts and 'come-ons'.

 

After all, it's all about the money.

 

I am surprised that your marketing experience didn't include this.

 

Actually I'm elite on princess so I'm at the top of their food chain in terms of benefits. I get some very good deals on pricing too so it is possible to get both. I do prefer Hal just the same.

[cp556]

We're Four Star Mariners and received the Private Sale mailing this past week. There are some excellent prices in it, but we're already booked for what we want.

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL has to attract the younger generation.

We older sailors aren't going to be around much longer.

Sounds like good marketing to me.

[bjarrett7]

My husband and I are 4-star Mariner with over 200+ days at sea with Holland America. We book our cruises directly with Holland rather than using a TA. We also constantly monitor pricing on HAL's website to book the best deal. My 89 year old grandmother is a 1 star Mariner having sailed only one cruise in her lifetime and hasn't sailed with HAL for 3+ years. She receives "Private Sail" mailings from HAL offering the same sailings at $100 or more than my 4-star Mariner price. We have also recently noticed that on the majority of occasions, our 4-star Mariner price is the same as the non-Mariner price.

 

 

 

Having worked in Marketing for years at a large US corporation, I suspect that HAL is targeting my grandmother with special pricing in an effort to entice her to cruise more with them, but come on! Perhaps HAL views its loyal Mariners as a captive audience who will continue to sail with them regardless of price? Of course HAL's pricing practice is purely legal. But in my opinion, it is a despicable and a slap in the face to its loyal Mariners.

 

 

While I am not a 4 star mariner, I am 1 star mariner. When on the phone making my most recent reservation, she asked me if I had received the brochure you spoke of. When I told her I hadn't, she went in and noticed that somewhere along the way I had requested to not have things mailed or emailed to me. She made the change and now I am receiving these special incentives! Have you tried calling them??

[lazey1]

I just became a 4* Mariner last month. In the last 4 years HAL has rewarded my loyalty with 10 excellent experiences lasting 7-28 days each. What greater reward could I want.

 

Roy

 

Where is that darn like button.

[OlsSalt]

Time has a funny way of turning "younger" people into older cruisers on its own, so the supply of previously younger cruisers will always be there. Particularly as the baby-boomers move over the hump into old age - huge demographics out there for already-older cruisers. When they hit their 60s, retire and think about cruising I think HAL can hit their sweet spot just the way she is right now. Time will tell. Hope they keep targeting the 60 plus crowd - but I say that selfishly.

Edited July 26, 2015 by OlsSalt

[serendipity1499]

Sorry but I don't agree with you at all.. Why would it be despicable? Have you actually figured out the per diem fare..Hals' prices at this time are the lowest we've ever seen them..We are still paying the same per diem as we paid in 1998..

 

We too are 4 star Mariners & as a 4 star we get many perks on HAL such as: 50% discount on Speciality Restaurants, wine packages beverages in Explorations café, mini bar purchases etc...Priority check-in discount on spa treatments, priority tender, discounts at shops, etc.. As a 4 star you will receive these perks too..

 

We also received the brochure which your Grandmother received..But our fare for our cruise this fall is actually less than these prices by booking through our travel agent..Cruise line published fares are really very low on a per deim basis & the perks we receive on board are more important to us..

 

BTW you may still receive the brochure.. HAL mails these out by area, names & sometimes by state..

 

One of the most important 4 star Mariner perks, which I completely forgot is "Free Laundry & Pressing" ..It was one of the best perks we had on our 68 day cruise to Antarctica & South America.. As it was I packed much too much, but having the free laundry was a godsend! We sent most of our everyday clothes including DH's shirts out to be laundered before we disembarked..Only had to launder or have our Evening wear cleaned when we arrived home..:D:D

[POA1]

I just became a 4* Mariner last month. In the last 4 years HAL has rewarded my loyalty with 10 excellent experiences lasting 7-28 days each. What greater reward could I want.

 

Roy

Off topic, but not caring....

 

Congratulations, Roy! I want you to know that my wife and I really appreciate your live from threads. They're always a great read.

[sail7seas]

Some people are not happy unless they complain!

 

BTW since I have the same brochure the OP's Grandmother received I wonder if the Op realizes that the fares listed in that particular brochure DO NOT include Taxes, Fees & Port Charges..

 

Our cruise happens to be listed.. if we add the fees on to those fares our cruise would actually be much more for our upgraded VD (balcony) cabin than the fares listed in this brochure for the least expensive balcony cabin.. I can't give an exact figure, as we have a booking & when I put our info into HAL's WEB site it recognizes our Mariner Numbers..

 

But I'm happy that we will receive the 4 star benefits on our cruise..

 

I have been caught in the trap of reading some of HAL's sale fliers/brochures and know I am not the only one who sees my ship, my date listed and when I called by PCC to inquire, I was reminded they list a number of dates that Cruise is available/that ship doing that itinerary but the wonderful sale price is not applicable to all the dates. I have since learned to read more carefully and while HAL is stating accurately what they are selling for when, it is easy to misread and think your date applies.

 

[take us away]

We've read here similar reports from other CC'ers, high Star Mariners. I have mixed feelings about it. While we all want to pay the lowest possible and get the most for our money, marketing is marketing. Those of us with lots of days have proven our loyalty to HAL and they have good reason to think they have 'won' us. Sure, Mariners come and go, some go to other cruise lines, some die, some stop sailing etc but there is always going to be some attrition. The question is how many 'newish' cruisers do they gain vs how many Four and Five Star Mariners do they lose?

 

Also to consider is that 'newish' cruisers often (not always) do more on board spending what with photos, ship sponsored excursions, souvenirs and whatever from the shops onn board etc Many of us Five Star might still be buying wine/cocktails but are not likely buying lots of photos and many are booking their own excursions.

 

It balances in the end and the bean counters can cite the numbers. :)

 

 

Well said s7s as usual. HAL knows they have the higher star mariners as future passengers while they may feel they need to 'attract' the lower star mariners.