C&A points discrepancy with spouse’s number

[gi_pam]

Frustrating situation that I haven’t seen here, wonder if anyone has had this and got a resolution. 
 

My husband and I are Emerald. I see 74 points on my profile, we have a cruise booked for May 2023. I was in Florida for work in December so I jumped on a 3-day cruise solo, figured I’d get the 6 points and get Diamond before our 9 night cruise in May (worth over $1000 for the 4 drinks per day)

 

One month later, I still have 74 points. So I called to see what was up.

 

I had 67 points, my husband had 74. He has one more cruise than I do (which I knew). So now I have 73 points. But my profile still says 74.

 

2 of our cruises, and the one that my husband did with friends are from before the point system changed. If I add up what’s on my past cruises list, I don’t get 74, or 67, or any other number that makes sense because those pre 2011 cruises say 1 or 2 points. Until today I didn’t know what specifically they did to convert from the old system to the new. The person on the phone walked me through it and I do understand how I was at 67 before, 73 now, and that my husband is at 74. 
 

But…my C&A profile says 74 points, and I used that number as the basis for booking my short solo cruise to get to Diamond. As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to see how many points I actually have. 
 

I completely understand how status matching works, and it’s not points matching. Everything in their system makes sense to me, and now I know I legitimately only have 73 points. TBH, I only took that cruise to get to Diamond, I wouldn’t have gone if I’d known I only had 67 points. I made the decision based on the info I had, which was wrong. 

 

Do I have any hope of getting anything out of this?

 

While I was on the phone with them, she did say something about escalating it. However then she said something that I disagreed with (I forget now exactly, I think she said that I didn’t agree with my total points), so I tried to correct her and she hung up on me. Fully believe she hung up on me because earlier in the call she couldn’t hear me, and called me back. The second time, disconnected and no call back. 
 

 

[Anton]

If I understand your question the answer is no, you will not get the extra point.  The points that show on the website for accounts linked by relationship will always show what the person with the most points has, for both people, even though both may not have that many individual points.  Since your husband has more points than you, his point total appears for both of your accounts.  If you were to no longer be linked on C&A your 73 points would then appear as your total.  There is no way to see what your actual points are without calling them. 

[firefly333]

Sorry you feel like you took a 3 day cruise for no reason. I did 4 legs on grandeur to get to 340 pts in sept rather than dec. It did what I expected though logically I havent saved as much on my 9 future bookings as the 4 legs cost me. But I did get the pts from cruising, I think 44. Needed 43 or some such.

 

Even though logically i didnt save as much as it cost me, i would be complaining even more about price hikes if i didnt get there when i did. Dont beat yourself up. They wouldnt give you pts if you cant justify them other than you hoped to get to diamond sooner. Do another short cruise? Sounds like if your husband took the short cruise was what you all needed to reach diamond.

 

Rcl does have us jumping thru hoops but the result is worth it, i agree. 

[Biker19]

34 minutes ago, gi_pam said:

Do I have any hope of getting anything out of this?

Out of what? You misunderstood how the point system works and everything is correct as per C&A accrual policy.

[gi_pam]

29 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Out of what? You misunderstood how the point system works and everything is correct as per C&A accrual policy.

That I made a decision and spent money based on information on my profile that wasn’t correct. The policy is clear, in a generic way, but I can’t tell how many points I have. It’s not even implied that those aren’t my points, it says I have 74 points, even when I had 67 (now 73).
 

It would be one thing if it was something I should have known from reading something somewhere on the website or in an email, but the fact that 7 of those points are my husband’s points, not mine, and how they calculated our pre 2011 points aren’t there for me to see. 
 

our vacation dollars are planned and budgeted, I would have much rather spent the money from that short cruise on our big trip in May. A couple of days alone on an older ship vs drinks, excursions and specialty restaurants on our Hawaii trip. It wasn’t wasted, but it’s an expensive lesson on the inaccuracy of my points total 

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, gi_pam said:

It wasn’t wasted, but it’s an expensive lesson on the inaccuracy of my points total 

You could have called C&A and gotten your actual points or come here and asked (this is a well-known issue). It is unfortunate that many/most rely on the accuracy (or lack thereof) of RCI's web site for financial (or other) decisions.

[DiWilliams]

If you want to find out "your" C&A point total you can manually add up the points listed in the 'Past cruises' section of your C&A profile. As with any RCI IT it is not guaranteed to be error free and I have no idea how pre-2011 cruises are handled but this is how I check "my" points. My partner has always had a higher level and point count than I do as he sailed with his family way before we met. My C&A profile - once we got around to linking accounts - only shows my partner's level and points but I like to keep track of my personal status and point level.

[firefly333]

5 minutes ago, DiWilliams said:

If you want to find out "your" C&A point total you can manually add up the points listed in the 'Past cruises' section of your C&A profile. As with any RCI IT it is not guaranteed to be error free and I have no idea how pre-2011 cruises are handled but this is how I check "my" points. My partner has always had a higher level and point count than I do as he sailed with his family way before we met. My C&A profile - once we got around to linking accounts - only shows my partner's level and points but I like to keep track of my personal status and point level.

Only works up to a point. I couldnt figure it out. About half my cruises were before the 1 pt per day current system. And half of the old ones fell off so I cant see them. I have to call for the really old ones in my history.

 

Depends how long you been cruising. It took me 20 years to get here but I havent been loyalty to just rcl. 

[BND]

Someone posted the formula Royal used to calculate points when they made the change on here several times.  Not sure the best way/term to search for it, but it is somewhere.  

 

Ah, found it using google:

 

Conversion from old cruise credits to cruise points:

If credits were 1-4, points = credits * 7 + 1

If credits were 5-7, points = credits * 7 + 3

If credits were > 7, points = credits * 7 + 13

Edited January 3, 2023 by BND

[twangster]

1 hour ago, gi_pam said:

That I made a decision and spent money based on information on my profile that wasn’t correct. The policy is clear, in a generic way, but I can’t tell how many points I have. It’s not even implied that those aren’t my points, it says I have 74 points, even when I had 67 (now 73).
 

It would be one thing if it was something I should have known from reading something somewhere on the website or in an email, but the fact that 7 of those points are my husband’s points, not mine, and how they calculated our pre 2011 points aren’t there for me to see. 
 

our vacation dollars are planned and budgeted, I would have much rather spent the money from that short cruise on our big trip in May. A couple of days alone on an older ship vs drinks, excursions and specialty restaurants on our Hawaii trip. It wasn’t wasted, but it’s an expensive lesson on the inaccuracy of my points total 

 

This has been addressed at length in numerous topics here and it's documented in the terms and conditions of the CAS program.   It's is unfortunate you misunderstood.

 

A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other* by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the Crown & Anchor Society program.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/crown-and-anchor-society-benefit-grid.pdf

 

[gi_pam]

29 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Only works up to a point. I couldnt figure it out. About half my cruises were before the 1 pt per day current system. And half of the old ones fell off so I cant see them. I have to call for the really old ones in my history.

 

Depends how long you been cruising. It took me 20 years to get here but I havent been loyalty to just rcl. 

This is my situation, 30 years to get here in our case, cruising on multiple lines, and we like many other types of vacations, including skiing which also takes a big chunk of our travel budget. 
 

I appreciate the empathy from some who responded 

 

To answer some of the “you shoulda known…”

 

- 2 cruises (plus one on my husband’s profile) are listed on the old way, 1 or  2 points. 1992, 2009, and his in 2010. All different lengths, one was in a JS. We weren’t active cruisers in 2011 when they changed the system, I wasn’t on cruise critic, and when we booked a RC cruise in 2015 after a 6 year gap we had a bunch of points that made no sense. The math doesn’t math. Our 1992 cruise was missing, we sent them something, so all of cruises are accounted for, that was all I checked. 

 

- I could have just added up my points? Let’s see…1+2+16+7+22+6=74? Nope, it adds up to 54. Nothing on the website that shows how my numbers add up to (now) 73. 
 

-It’s a well known issue? I don’t read every thread here…does anyone? I am pretty well informed. I know points aren’t the same for spouses, but status level is. We sometimes go a year or two between RC bookings when I’m not on Cruise Critic much. I had no idea how to search this particular issue here, and really didn’t think that when my profile said 74 points I needed to doubt it. How do you know to search for something that you don’t know is a problem? 
 

- website problems yes, but I’ve also seen many poster skewered here for not knowing stuff that could have been answered on the website. So which is it? Look on the website or don’t trust the website? 
 

Minor problem in the grand scheme of things, I’m not stranded in a foreign port or anything…was just wondering if I had any hope of anything. 

[gi_pam]

3 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

This has been addressed at length in numerous topics here and it's documented in the terms and conditions of the CAS program.   It's is unfortunate you misunderstood.

 

A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other* by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the Crown & Anchor Society program.

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/crown-and-anchor-society-benefit-grid.pdf

 

The thing about what you’ve quoted here though is that it says that my points will be based on my cruises. It doesn’t say that the points that show on my account will actually be my husband’s points…that is the issue. I didn’t misunderstand. I had 67 points, my husband had 74. My account said 74. (I didn’t know what my husbands said, I only have been piecing  this together today) I had good reason to believe I had 74, the math didn’t add up because of the pre 2011 stuff, and my account said 74. 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, gi_pam said:

This is my situation, 30 years to get here in our case, cruising on multiple lines, and we like many other types of vacations, including skiing which also takes a big chunk of our travel budget. 
 

I appreciate the empathy from some who responded 

 

To answer some of the “you shoulda known…”

 

- 2 cruises (plus one on my husband’s profile) are listed on the old way, 1 or  2 points. 1992, 2009, and his in 2010. All different lengths, one was in a JS. We weren’t active cruisers in 2011 when they changed the system, I wasn’t on cruise critic, and when we booked a RC cruise in 2015 after a 6 year gap we had a bunch of points that made no sense. The math doesn’t math. Our 1992 cruise was missing, we sent them something, so all of cruises are accounted for, that was all I checked. 

 

- I could have just added up my points? Let’s see…1+2+16+7+22+6=74? Nope, it adds up to 54. Nothing on the website that shows how my numbers add up to (now) 73. 
 

-It’s a well known issue? I don’t read every thread here…does anyone? I am pretty well informed. I know points aren’t the same for spouses, but status level is. We sometimes go a year or two between RC bookings when I’m not on Cruise Critic much. I had no idea how to search this particular issue here, and really didn’t think that when my profile said 74 points I needed to doubt it. How do you know to search for something that you don’t know is a problem? 
 

- website problems yes, but I’ve also seen many poster skewered here for not knowing stuff that could have been answered on the website. So which is it? Look on the website or don’t trust the website? 
 

Minor problem in the grand scheme of things, I’m not stranded in a foreign port or anything…was just wondering if I had any hope of anything. 

Lol I paid quite a bit imo for my b2b on allure I just did in dec. I had originally thought once I get the 340 pts for the solo discount of course they would apply to all future cruises. Pushed and got them in sept but meanwhile had to pay for dec. So it was paid off.

 

I dont see anywhere where these rules are either, that you cannot apply a solo discount once you pay a cruise in full. Theres lots of these secret rules. Rcl isnt straightforward like other lines. But the perks are very good once you get there going forward. I just booked a great deal. Doesnt do any good woulda shoulda coulda. I've been so mad at carnival I said never again during Ike the hurricane. But eventually came back. They dont care. Rcl has more hoops than other lines. Some take delight learning them. It's like a secret language. Lol

Edited January 3, 2023 by firefly333