Have boarding times become later .

[Se1lad]

29 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

I'm an onlooker here as we get to board first anyway but I agree with you. I did hear at one point. pre Covid 'they' were having a look at  the CWC system, but nothing further was heard.

 

Changing to number of nights spent on board would be a more fair reflection of loyalty, be that in an inside cabin or a Q1 suite.

I’d prefer they move to a system where you had to do a minimum number of nights (or even fairer minimum spend) over a rolling period (say 5 years) to maintain status.  With reduced numbers of platinum and diamond Cunard could potentially improve the benefits as well!

[MylesS]

4 minutes ago, Se1lad said:

I’d prefer they move to a system where you had to do a minimum number of nights (or even fairer minimum spend) over a rolling period (say 5 years) to maintain status.  With reduced numbers of platinum and diamond Cunard could potentially improve the benefits as well!

Yeah I agree, make it similar to the way airlines work I think.

[Pear Carr]

We decided to give lunch a miss and arrived at the terminal at 2.20pm 6.6.23 and on board by 2.35pm! We had a boarding time of 3.30 (platinum) and think we could have arrived and boarded earlier but opted to miss the crowds. Glad to be back on QV and so far have had excellent service in all areas - no complaints with our food quality/prep/options so far and very much enjoying the hot canapés in the Commodore club! 

[Victoria2]

47 minutes ago, Se1lad said:

I’d prefer they move to a system where you had to do a minimum number of nights (or even fairer minimum spend) over a rolling period (say 5 years) to maintain status.  With reduced numbers of platinum and diamond Cunard could potentially improve the benefits as well!

I hesitated to mention 'spending'. As Q1/2 bookers, it would suit us down to the ground but unfair for those who are regular Cunard passengers and so thus are loyal, but don't book expensive cabins.

 

 I sort of agree with maintaining status but one trip every now and then should maintain it.

[Windsurfboy]

If you take the airline analogy for boarding and embarkation privileges then it's irrelevant to those who book first, they board first and get into best lounges. It's same with Cunard. Status is irrelevant. 

 

If we think of extra benefits, then these are based on status, which is linked very directly to how much you spend in the preceding year. Being based on distance flown and class of travel.

 

Whether Cunard goes this far is debatable, but clearly it makes business sense to reward current loyalty,  e.g. cruises in last 3 years.. 

 

Whatever it does benefits should be clear and meaningful.  Giving 60% of ship priority status doesn't work

[Victoria2]

16 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

If you take the airline analogy for boarding and embarkation privileges then it's irrelevant to those who book first, they board first and get into best lounges. It's same with Cunard. Status is irrelevant. 

 

If we think of extra benefits, then these are based on status, which is linked very directly to how much you spend in the preceding year. Being based on distance flown and class of travel.

 

Whether Cunard goes this far is debatable, but clearly it makes business sense to reward current loyalty,  e.g. cruises in last 3 years.. 

 

Whatever it does benefits should be clear and meaningful.  Giving 60% of ship priority status doesn't work

It is irrelevant to us as the only Diamond perks we use, is any internet credit [and that's gone down the pan!] and any 20% laundry discount but it's still important for  loyal Cunard passengers, whatever their spend, to feel valued.

When passengers feel valued, they will continue to book and that's a tad important to the bean counters.

[BigMac1953]

There is a point though.

 

We took years to get to Diamond, and the total cost in QG was nearly £100K.

 

Others arrive there after spending less than £5K.

 

You would think that any business would recognise their high spending customers, but Cunard only recognises bums on seats.

 

Years ago, there was talk of a Crystal top tier, but it never happened.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, BigMac1953 said:

There is a point though.

 

We took years to get to Diamond, and the total cost in QG was nearly £100K.

 

Others arrive there after spending less than £5K.

 

You would think that any business would recognise their high spending customers, but Cunard only recognises bums on seats.

 

Years ago, there was talk of a Crystal top tier, but it never happened.

Whilst I can see your argument CWC is a loyalty programme and you could have one couple do a world cruise in QG spending many thousands of pounds and another couple who have been on 20+ Cunard cruises in a balcony stateroom spending a lot less money. Who is more loyal to Cunard?

[david,Mississauga]

15 hours ago, Se1lad said:

Cunard could do with revamping its loyalty scheme.  It's not really that difficult to get to Diamond status (I've only started cruising properly in the last few years and I am already nearly there).  Once you've got the status you never loose it.  They could do with a tier above Diamond maybe linked to spend and minimum regular trips with some better benefits.  They could then make priority boarding just Diamond and the new tier.

 

On one of my recent trips it appeared that half the ship had priority boarding!

 

It isn't necessarily easy to get to Diamond. We had our first Cunard crossing in 1973 and we didn't reach Diamond, i.e. 15 voyages, until 2017.

[Se1lad]

6 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

 

It isn't necessarily easy to get to Diamond. We had our first Cunard crossing in 1973 and we didn't reach Diamond, i.e. 15 voyages, until 2017.

With the airline frequent traveller model you probably wouldn’t have any loyalty status with the trips spread out over so long.

 

If I was designing a revised scheme for Cunard I’d use a hybrid model:

 

1. obtain status based on rolling number of nights (and not number of cruises) over a period of 5 years.  This would help to reduce the number of diamond and platinum members therefore alleviating the current situation where sometimes over half the ship has priority boarding.  It might also mean that Cunard could enhance the status benefits a bit.

 

2. obtain lifetime status based on overall spend with Cunard.  This would mean it’s still possible to be lifetime diamond but it would be based on how much you’ve spent with them.  There could also be a tier higher than diamond with some added benefits - free transfers to the terminal etc.

 

The above suggestion would reward people both on frequency of trips and cumulative spend.  Some airline frequent traveller schemes have started to move in this direction.  For example, BA introduced lifetime status in 2010ish.  They had sufficient records to go back to the inception of their loyalty scheme (sometime in the 1980s I think) to add up all historical tier points to give lifetime totals. Also, Lufthansa’s scheme is now based in part on how much you spend on your tickets.  Sadly I don’t think Cunard’s IT is capable though!

[tacticalbanjo]

P&O's Peninsular Club rewards both lifetime and current loyalty in their upper tiers. For the top tier Ligurian you need 250 nights with at least 20 being in the last three years. P&O also manage to give on board spend discounts to all their tiers which is a nice touch.

 

The problem for Cunard is that unless you made Platinum and Diamond conditional on sailings in the last few years then you'd only have all but the most frequent travellers on Silver and Gold. And if you introduce new tiers on the top and want to restrict priority embarkation to those new tiers then you risk upsetting passengers by taking away a perk from them. Unless they did some sort of complex grandfathering thing.

[NE John]

After five years of inactivity with Cunard, you get dropped a notch and after 10 years you get dropped from the program and have to start over. 
That should help clear the decks of too many in upper status while rewarding loyal paying guests. 

[david,Mississauga]

After reading all these suggestions (and they are very interesting suggestions)  I have to think there will never be a loyalty programme that is even close to perfect. I suspect Cunard will just leave it alone.

 

I am amused when I think back of how easy it used to be to board a ship. In the "old days" there were no formalities other than showing your passport and surrendering a ticket. For example: several times we took the boat train to the Southampton P&O dock (now called Mayflower) and there was no queue. We just passed a table where someone looked at our passports, a second person removed the ticket from the folder and we went up the gangway. It was much the same with Cunard and Union-Castle and other lines  in Southampton and other ports - no security, no credit card to produce, no photos. I am well aware of the various reasons why those days will never return.

[Dermotsgirl]

17 hours ago, BigMac1953 said:

There is a point though.

 

We took years to get to Diamond, and the total cost in QG was nearly £100K.

 

Others arrive there after spending less than £5K.

 

You would think that any business would recognise their high spending customers, but Cunard only recognises bums on seats.

 

Years ago, there was talk of a Crystal top tier, but it never happened.

Bums on seats is a loyalty scheme.

Recognising expenditure is a reward scheme.

 

 

[Victoria2]

4 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Bums on seats is a loyalty scheme.

Recognising expenditure is a reward scheme.

 

 

I must admit, I thought a loyalty scheme is also a reward initiative. Spending lots of dosh isn't necessarily anything to do with loyalty.