loyalty

[John&LaLa]

Marriott don't charge you anything up to $17 a day for tips for the staff though!

Most folks with high airline and hotel rewards levels don't pay for them anyway.

 

Several hotels have resort fees, room service fees, mandatory tips, etc..

 

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[CruisingNole]

Sam's

 

Beginning to hate Synchrony though.

 

Our card gets blocked for fraud twice a month. Always BS. They even block Royal sometimes. Their fraud team is way overly aggressive. Never had that issue with BOA.

 

 

 

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Interesting you say that. In 2013 I was driving to Ft. Lauderdale on my way to board Allure. I'm like an hour from the port and I get notified that fraud activity was detected on my account, card was being frozen and new card had to be issued. And of course, that was the card I was going to use for the cruise. As a newbie to cruising at the time, I had left my other cards at home, because I was afraid to lose my wallet overseas, and letting a thief have a shopping spree with my cards. Yeah, amateur move, I know. Thankfully the woman I was dating at the time was able to bail me out, but if I were alone, I would have been (no pun intended) ROYALLY screwed.

 

And ironically, I've never had fraud issues since on that account. :')

[belmontcrew]

Big difference in that you have to requalify every year with hotel and airlines. With royal I can come back 2 years later and still get the d+ benefits.

 

Also been plat premiere with Marriott for 5 years and plat for almost a decade. I can say i have gotten more benefits from being d and d+ on royal for the past 2 years than a decade with marriott.

 

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You are correct, I do have to requalify for my hotel, but not my airlines. But even doing that, I always have my points that I have earned to spend. If I don’t reach my current level, it only results in fewer bonus points being earned the following year.

 

I most likely will not make D+ in my life time and many of those benefits are really good. If I were ever at that level my opinion would probably change. I should reach D, but I am not sure if the loyalty program at that level would ever make me want to only travel with Royal.

[John&LaLa]

Interesting you say that. In 2013 I was driving to Ft. Lauderdale on my way to board Allure. I'm like an hour from the port and I get notified that fraud activity was detected on my account, card was being frozen and new card had to be issued. And of course, that was the card I was going to use for the cruise. As a newbie to cruising at the time, I had left my other cards at home, because I was afraid to lose my wallet overseas, and letting a thief have a shopping spree with my cards. Yeah, amateur move, I know. Thankfully the woman I was dating at the time was able to bail me out, but if I were alone, I would have been (no pun intended) ROYALLY screwed.

 

And ironically, I've never had fraud issues since on that account. :')

Had another one last night. At least twice a month.

 

So was your example an actual fraud case. Ours have never been. Happens on almost every cruise.

 

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[CanobieFan]

I have only sailed on Royal.... But I am open to trying other lines. But when I look at say.... Carnival, the ships look poor and the itineraries don't interest me or I've done similar already. Plus they have a sort of reputation.... Celebrity look like some nice ships and they have some crazy good looking itineraries.... But out of my price range. Disney I would like to try but it's way out of my price range.... And I work for the company! Haha. and then I've come close to doing Norwegian but the date didn't work out.

[molsonschooner]

Rccl is our favorite and recently made diamond plus, but do like trying different lines and ships , we recently did a celebrity music charter which we loved and already booked same for next year, perfer suite perks on celebrity, most likely will book a msc yacht club cruise also for 2019, which also seems to have better suite perks.

 

I think that might have been the cruise that a friend of mine was playing on. He is in a beatles tribute band call"All you need is love"

[frank808]

Marriott don't charge you anything up to $17 a day for tips for the staff though!

Not $17 but I have been charged $25 a day resort fee. Though if I call they sometimes waive them.

 

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[frank808]

You are correct, I do have to requalify for my hotel, but not my airlines. But even doing that, I always have my points that I have earned to spend. If I don’t reach my current level, it only results in fewer bonus points being earned the following year.

 

I most likely will not make D+ in my life time and many of those benefits are really good. If I were ever at that level my opinion would probably change. I should reach D, but I am not sure if the loyalty program at that level would ever make me want to only travel with Royal.

What airline are you flying that doesn't need requalification? I fly united every year and have to requalify as plat or 1k. When you fly enough you are a million or two million mile flyer, but that is like getting to pinnacle. You have basically spent all that money also with one airline.

 

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[John&LaLa]

What airline are you flying that doesn't need requalification? I fly united every year and have to requalify as plat or 1k. When you fly enough you are a million or two million mile flyer, but that is like getting to pinnacle. You have basically spent all that money also with one airline.

 

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Frank, do you fly for work, or is it all leisure travel

 

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[Biker19]

When you fly enough you are a million or two million mile flyer, but that is like getting to pinnacle.

You certainly don't get pinnacle like perks.

 

Biker, who is a United million miler (got very lucky with the Continental merger miles).

[George C]

I think that might have been the cruise that a friend of mine was playing on. He is in a beatles tribute band call"All you need is love"

 

They most likely were on flower power cruise which was 60's , heard that was great, we did rock and romance which was 70's by far most entertaining cruise ever Michael McDonald, America, BJ Thomas , Stxt , Air Supply , Poco, War and other tribute bands , next year flower power has beach boys and Check and Chong but they are sold out, Rock and romance has Boz Scaggs , Foreigner and others

[frank808]

Frank, do you fly for work, or is it all leisure travel

 

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A combination of both. I would say almost 50/50 between business and leisure.

 

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[frank808]

You certainly don't get pinnacle like perks.

 

Biker, who is a United million miler (got very lucky with the Continental merger miles).

Ok you are right, not as good as pinnacle status. But that is what I was saying that the rci loyalty levels are great. Much better than airlines and hotel loyalty line programs are.

 

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[CruisingNole]

Had another one last night. At least twice a month.

 

So was your example an actual fraud case. Ours have never been. Happens on almost every cruise.

 

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Actually, it was legitimate. Someone had attempted to use my card number internationally, don't remember the country. No telling how it was obtained, maybe through a skimmer or maybe a merchant that I did business with online was hacked.

 

That was the only issue I've had with that card though, very odd that you have issues with the same one on a regular basis. That's insanely annoying, but the rewards make it worth the hassle IMO. :)

 

However, I do have a Visa from another issuer that I had to stop using because of constant bogus fraud alerts. Rewards weren't that great on it, so I had no problem ditching that one.

[mom2tcdx2]

NEVER loyal to any "one" cruise line. Love them all for different reasons. So little time and soooo many ships to sail.

 

I could second this. I really look more for pricing and boy are there are ton of ships I would love to be able to book. I just need more money and more vacation time.

[smplybcause]

I have only sailed on Royal.... But I am open to trying other lines. But when I look at say.... Carnival, the ships look poor and the itineraries don't interest me or I've done similar already. Plus they have a sort of reputation.... Celebrity look like some nice ships and they have some crazy good looking itineraries.... But out of my price range. Disney I would like to try but it's way out of my price range.... And I work for the company! Haha. and then I've come close to doing Norwegian but the date didn't work out.

If you work for them... did they get rid of their great last minute cruise deals for employees? When I worked for them if you could cruise with less than 2 months notice it was as cheap or cheaper than royal. Never could find a sailing buddy before I stopped working for them.

 

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[bonsai3s]

Looks there to me. [emoji848]

 

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Oops, sorry John, missed it...bad eyes, senior moment....:eek:

[belmontcrew]

What airline are you flying that doesn't need requalification? I fly united every year and have to requalify as plat or 1k. When you fly enough you are a million or two million mile flyer, but that is like getting to pinnacle. You have basically spent all that money also with one airline.

 

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You are correct again. I fly SW and can earn an A-boarding group and a free companion pass that would need to be requalified. I don’t fly enough to get that and forgot it was available. With work flights and the SW visa rewards I do earn enough that I seldom have to pay to fly for any personal flights for myself and my wife.

[coaster]

Things change. Loyal to NCL in the 90’s. They got rid of traditional dining with Freestyle. We moved on to other cruise lines. No need to be loyal when you are not happy with changes that you disagree with.

 

 

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Edited July 14, 2018 by coaster

[grest]

We'll be in Limerick next few days. West side of state.

 

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Love the Limerick area. Just spent a week in Maine (my home state, but now in FL full time), visiting family and friends, eating lobstah! Enjoy your summer in that beautiful state.

[John&LaLa]

Love the Limerick area. Just spent a week in Maine (my home state, but now in FL full time), visiting family and friends, eating lobstah! Enjoy your summer in that beautiful state.

80th birthday party for Laura's uncle. And there will be Lobstah.

 

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[George C]

Things change. Loyal to NCL in the 90’s. They got rid of traditional dining with Freestyle. We moved on to other cruise lines. No need to be loyal when you are not happy with changes that you disagree with.

 

 

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Same here loved old Norway but they went downhill starting with there freestyle dinning.

[island lady]

Safe travels and enjoy.

 

Thanks! One of these times we will get lucky and sail on the same ship...and enjoy many of those free drinks we have earned together as Loyal Royals in the CL/DL. :D

[island lady]

80th birthday party for Laura's uncle. And there will be Lobstah.

 

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Mmm...lobstah!! Having two big boys delivered freshly steamed directly to our picnic table tonight up here in Maine at the site we are staying at. Bring on the buttah!! :hearteyes:

[pcur]

We started cruising with Princess in 2010, because RCCL took the Mariner away from the Mexico itinerary out of Los Angeles. We then sailed HAL to get home from an Australia cruise, as they gave us more days for $400 less, and took us to Seattle instead of Hawaii. In 2013 we sailed Princess to Hawaii and Tahiti, because it was roundtrip from Los Angeles.

 

I went on the NCL Spirit in Europe last year with a friend and loved it, but my husband and I had a so-so cruise on NCL this year. It was an interesting b2b2b where we did 3 different cruise lines out of Tampa: NCL, HAL, and RCCL.

 

We like Celebrity, but find it is usually more expensive for the same itinerary.

 

We enjoyed all these cruises very much, and are booked again on the Princess Tahiti cruise in 2 years. But, we prefer RCCL above other lines. It's not the loyalty perks so much as we just like the ships and crews more. We avoid huge mega-ships, though. We found on the Allure the crew were pretty stressed out taking care of over 6,000 people, and the ship itself was waaaaay too crowded in the common areas.

 

RCCL has the right combination of ships, itineraries, and staff for us. Out of the 5 cruises we have in the hopper right now, 4 of them are RCCL. It they did a Tahiti/Hawaii itinerary, we probably wouldn't stray at all.