reciprocal status amenities

[frugaltravel]

10 minutes ago, getting older slowly said:

I was thinking along the lines of a cruise once every two years to stop the reset...

Airlines do that to keep your redeemable miles from expiring (i.e. for free flights). But you can't fly a year or two later to keep your status and corresponding benefits from expiring 😀

Edited June 8, 2020 by frugaltravel

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Pam in CA said:

According to a well-known Entertainment Director, Carnival Corporation constitutes almost 50% of the mass cruise industry. Combining loyalty programs would be an anti-trust violation. 
 

P&O owned Princess before being bought by Carnival Corporation. Once P&O was purchased, the two lines became separate entities. Because they were once the same company, loyalty was reciprocated for years. 

 

Anti-trust would apply to different corporations such as CCL Corp and RCCL Corp colluding on benefits.

 

But sharing within the same corporate structure would not be an anti-trust violation.

[flyboy88]

Currently, MSC is the only one who will match your Status from another cruise line.   We are Elite with Princess and love the brand, however if we ever were to try another cruise line it would be MSC solely based on the status match.  I’d hate to try a new cruise line and start at the bottom of the loyalty ladder knowing MSC would match.  
 

https://www.msccruises.ca/manage-booking/msc-voyagers-club/status-match

[Coral]

Oddly - when CCL was buying Princess, it was "allowed" because they did not see it as an anti-trust violation because there are "other types of vacations". So they didn't look at this purchase as making CCL larger/stronger - this didn't affect their decision.

[Daniel A]

16 hours ago, skynight said:

Additional levels could help with those hundred or so passengers on board with 100's of days. These benefits could include things like priority luggage delivery on boarding. Also think the system should go strictly to days plus bonus days with bonus days only good for some of the benefits.

The problem with adding perks such as you described with the priority luggage is that there are only so many luggage handlers. When one passenger's luggage becomes high priority that means another paying passenger's luggage becomes low priority.  Therefore, it is the other passenger who is paying the price for the other passenger's perk.  I do think it's ridiculous that people can take a one day cruise out of Seattle and get the same credit as somebody who takes a much longer cruise.  I think Princess should stop giving Captain's Circle credit for cruises of less than 7 days.  (But that's just my arbitrary number...)

[Ombud]

Can I stack OBC on other lines like I do on Princess? Shareholders + military  + loyalty? 

[voljeep]

21 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

stop giving Captain's Circle credit for cruises of less than 7 days.

that would be outrageous !!!

 

what about all the west coasters that take the 1-2 day repo cruises sailing solo in a suite ??? that's 3 credits 🤑

 

we'd lose 8 cruise credits !!!

[caribill]

9 hours ago, Daniel A said:

The problem with adding perks such as you described with the priority luggage is that there are only so many luggage handlers. When one passenger's luggage becomes high priority that means another paying passenger's luggage becomes low priority.  Therefore, it is the other passenger who is paying the price for the other passenger's perk. 

 

Carnival Cruises sells a "faster to the fun" option to anyone that includes priority embarkation luggage delivery. They do limit how many "faster to the fun" packages are sold for each cruise.

[skynight]

19 hours ago, voljeep said:

that would be outrageous !!!

 

what about all the west coasters that take the 1-2 day repo cruises sailing solo in a suite ??? that's 3 credits 🤑

 

we'd lose 8 cruise credits !!!

That is one reason it makes sense for Princess to consider the marketing value of strictly days. It makes little sense to give a 1 day cruise the same marketing value as the 28 day South Pacific cruise.

[caribill]

17 hours ago, skynight said:

That is one reason it makes sense for Princess to consider the marketing value of strictly days. It makes little sense to give a 1 day cruise the same marketing value as the 28 day South Pacific cruise.

 

If counting cruises, a 1 day cruise gives you 1 credit towards the 5 to become Platinum (not including any extra for solo or full suite). It also gives you 1 day towards the 50 to become Platinum.

 

The 28 day South Pacific cruise gives you 28 days towards that 50. If sold in segments, it gives you one point for each segment towards the 5 needed for Platinum (not including any extra for solo or full suite) no matter if you booked it as one cruise or as multiple segments,. 

 

If the 28 day is sold as two segments and you are solo in a full suite, you can become Platinum at the end of your first Princess cruise with 6 points.

[Cuedon]

They also give jumps; I was Platinum after my first 7-dayer.

[skynight]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

If counting cruises, a 1 day cruise gives you 1 credit towards the 5 to become Platinum (not including any extra for solo or full suite). It also gives you 1 day towards the 50 to become Platinum.

 

The 28 day South Pacific cruise gives you 28 days towards that 50. If sold in segments, it gives you one point for each segment towards the 5 needed for Platinum (not including any extra for solo or full suite) no matter if you booked it as one cruise or as multiple segments,. 

 

If the 28 day is sold as two segments and you are solo in a full suite, you can become Platinum at the end of your first Princess cruise with 6 points.

The question for Princess is which methods of counting have the greater marketing value. After all the purpose of any loyalty program is to attract more customers to your brand. This is a question Princess has to answer if they decide to make any adjustments to their program.

In your 1st example the by the cruise method earns you 20% of the platinum requirement. The per day method earns only 2%. A real imbalance. In the 2nd example the cruise method earns you 20% while the per day method earns you 56%.

Both examples are not really balanced. It is my opinion that a more balanced counting approach would be both beneficial to Princess and their customers. 

Note: Doubtful that changing loyalty programs is high on Princess' to do list at this time.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, skynight said:

The question for Princess is which methods of counting have the greater marketing value. After all the purpose of any loyalty program is to attract more customers to your brand. This is a question Princess has to answer if they decide to make any adjustments to their program.

In your 1st example the by the cruise method earns you 20% of the platinum requirement. The per day method earns only 2%. A real imbalance. In the 2nd example the cruise method earns you 20% while the per day method earns you 56%.

Both examples are not really balanced. It is my opinion that a more balanced counting approach would be both beneficial to Princess and their customers. 

Note: Doubtful that changing loyalty programs is high on Princess' to do list at this time.

 

But that is the point. Customers can advance faster under what is for each person the best of the two options for their circumstances.

 

Cut out one of these methods and some passengers will not advance as quickly.

 

That does not mean it will not happen. RCI, for example, did switch from cruise count only to days only, but having two options is better for customers than one option.

[Daniel A]

29 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

But that is the point. Customers can advance faster under what is for each person the best of the two options for their circumstances.

 

Cut out one of these methods and some passengers will not advance as quickly.

 

That does not mean it will not happen. RCI, for example, did switch from cruise count only to days only, but having two options is better for customers than one option.

So by allowing people with only a one day cruise to get the same cruise credit as the 28 day cruise only benefits people on the west coast.  Princess really doesn't do one or two day trips from the east coast.  Then the west coast people get priority tendering over others because they jumped to elite much faster than the east coast customers.  I don't see the issue as being how to get to platinum, rather I see it as more of an issue of getting elite status.  As it stands now, some passengers already don't advance as quickly.

[pms4104]

9 hours ago, Cuedon said:

They also give jumps; I was Platinum after my first 7-dayer.

Based on what, pls?

[PrincessLuver]

On 6/7/2020 at 7:03 PM, frugaltravel said:

If you want to make it like the airlines then you get reset to zero every so often (airlines reset every year) and you have to start from scratch again to earn status.

 

 

I like the airline model also.....you earn you status for a year or two and then you have to maintain your status by meeting certain travel or spend requirements each year.  

 

Usually if you fly over a million miles on some airlines you earn lifetime status which we have done.  Princess could grant lifetime status to people who, for example, cruise a 1,000 days or more.

 

For all people spend to gain Captain Circle levels I find the perks very weak.  I would much rather have it be if you cruised 100 days you got a free cabin upgrade to next cabin level or if you cruised 250 days you got a free cruise in an inside cabin and could upgrade.  

 

Right now you get a $25 OBC for over 20 cruises....wow!!!

 

To me it seems like almost everybody is Elite when you get on a ship which is not saying much and shows just how easy status is to acquire on Princess which really makes it less meaningful.

 

They could make the rewards program much more motivating and valuable if they wanted to.

Edited June 10, 2020 by PrincessLuver

[caribill]

2 hours ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

They could make the rewards program much more motivating and valuable if they wanted to.

 

And they could make a lot less passengers eligible for benefits they already have which you find not meaningful as well as limiting the "more motivating and valuable" benefits you want to a handful of passengers.

[skynight]

4 hours ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

I like the airline model also.....you earn you status for a year or two and then you have to maintain your status by meeting certain travel or spend requirements each year.  

 

I don't think the airline model works well for cruise lines. An airline loyalty program primary focus is frequent business travel customers, ones that travel many, many times a year. Some also have plans where you can earn life long status by reaching certain large mile levels.The plan is to keep those customers loyal to their airline. Airlines also earn income from their credit cards and points awarded with their use.  

On the other hand I believe most cruise customers travel only once per year and may move around to various lines during their early years of cruise vacations. At least that is what we did when we were working. So, it takes longer to reach loyalty levels with a cruise line and much more difficult if you add time limits. Losing loyalty status by not booking a cruise with the same line for a few years would not be an incentive to stay with that line. Are you aware of any cruise line that uses the airline model?

[triple7tahoe]

On 6/4/2020 at 1:55 PM, jocap said:

Not any longer- after the P&O Princess Line was bought by Carnival, that was so (my first P&O points were from a Princess cruise), but first P&O stopped, then the management of Princess changed to the HAL line, I believe, and Princess stopped the reciprocity with P&O.

Very true about the dealings with P&O. We first started cruising with P&O in 1964 and then Princess. At first sea days/cruises were combined and then P&O started saying P&O only so we were not able to maintain our P&O status since they required a sailing every 2 or 3 years to keep from going back to the bottom. In 2016 or 2017, Princess decided to no longer count P&O days toward Princess. Now there is confusion, among Princess folks, if all P&O credit is to be removed or only that after Jan 2017. In all cases, it seems that only MSC offers reciprocity.

[capriccio]

8 minutes ago, triple7tahoe said:

 In all cases, it seems that only MSC offers reciprocity.

 

MSC is more like the airline model in that you must cruise at least once every 3 years (IIRC it has been extended to 4 years during the pandemic).  If you don't you lose your status and start all over again.

[Cuedon]

11 hours ago, pms4104 said:

Based on what, pls?

Very high casino play (by their standards, at least). Courtesy of the same, I also got Elite at something like 7 cruises/50 days.

[pms4104]

13 minutes ago, Cuedon said:

Very high casino play (by their standards, at least). Courtesy of the same, I also got Elite at something like 7 cruises/50 days.

Thanx for clarification

Edited June 11, 2020 by pms4104

[deliver42]

Carnival Corp doesn't allow any reciprocity, unlike Royal who encourages it.