Reduced/Changes in onboard credits

[dorijo]

I just called Captains Club about my July 07 cruise on Constellation and she said I have the onboard $200 credit. I asked can they take it away and she said no. I asked her about the changes and she said they have been told nothing as yet but my credit is there and will be there in July. My level was posted up from select to elite pretty quickly as I left the Century on Feb 4 and they told me it could take 6-8 weeks to post. On the July cruise I will have $1000-$1050 OBC from OB booking,stock, credit card and TA. That is a really good perk to sail with X. I do have Carnival stock also but not the credit card. So for now I will stick with X, I don't think they will be stupid enough to do good things for RCCl and not X.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

Quick question... has anyone sailed recently and tried to book onboard ? Is the 100.00 choose any sailing (at the reduced OB Credit) the only choice at this time ? Or, are they still using the old system too ?

 

Any information would be appreicated.

[C 2 C]

We booked on Infinity just prior to the New "improved:rolleyes:" credit system based on the cost of a cruise rather than length of cruise.

We were able to lock in the $200 credit for 14 day sailings prior to March 1st. I booked Infinity for March 2008 because transatlantics were not available yet at time of booking.

However we were told later that the booking # is now non-transferable to a different ship, sailing date nor to RCL sailings. The new open sailing date booking was not available yet. Since I can no longer transfer to different sailings as in the past, I will most likely be cancelling five different booking numbers in favor of other cruises.

 

New bookings now offer a $50 credit for a $900 deposit on specified sailing dates for cruises of any length costing less than $2,500.

Many longer sailings such as most trans Atlantic are sold at a discount close to sailing dates. Why would anyone tie up a deposit for minimal benefit unless a specific cabin is desired?

Many agencies now offer larger savings for new bookings only.

Without a booking bonus that would encourage us to stick with X, we are now looking at other cruise lines which also have sell offs for competing itineraries.

This new policy will encourage this soon to be X X-guest to go back to the lines we cruised with before, namely HAL, Princess and RCL.

[LeslieSJ]

We booked for 2/08 while on the Constellation at the beginning of March. The OBC was only $100 since we were paying only $3200. The crew member helping us did say it was a change in policy -- basing it on price not on number of days or whatever the old criteria was. Our deposit was $450 per person and it is refundable.

 

I didn't hear anything about the other elements being mentioned in this thread -- the lower, non-refundable deposit, for example. But I spent a minimal amount of time booking since I had waited in line at a guest services counter for over an hour and there was a long line waiting (impatiently) behind me. There were no appointments available with the future cruise booking specialist so many people were trying to book at the counter. The change in OBC was not a deterrent to the passengers on our ship anyway.

[Andy]

We booked on Infinity just prior to the New "improved:rolleyes:" credit system based on the cost of a cruise rather than length of cruise.

We were able to lock in the $200 credit for 14 day sailings prior to March 1st. I booked Infinity for March 2008 because transatlantics were not available yet at time of booking.

However we were told later that the booking # is now non-transferable to a different ship, sailing date nor to RCL sailings. The new open sailing date booking was not available yet. Since I can no longer transfer to different sailings as in the past, I will most likely be cancelling five different booking numbers in favor of other cruises.

 

New bookings now offer a $50 credit for a $900 deposit on specified sailing dates for cruises of any length costing less than $2,500.

Many longer sailings such as most trans Atlantic are sold at a discount close to sailing dates. Why would anyone tie up a deposit for minimal benefit unless a specific cabin is desired?

Many agencies now offer larger savings for new bookings only.

Without a booking bonus that would encourage us to stick with X, we are now looking at other cruise lines which also have sell offs for competing itineraries.

This new policy will encourage this soon to be X X-guest to go back to the lines we cruised with before, namely HAL, Princess and RCL.

 

Hi Arno !

 

Thank you for your reply. It looks like our initial fears were realized, as this new plan looks to be near worthless. Yes, the deposit is lower, but the restrictions and reduced benefits make it not worth our time to plan in advance. As you mentioned, the new plan, will make me want to gamble, and wait for Happy Hour / last minute specials.

 

It very disappointing that Celebrity did not keep the old plan in addition to the new plan, as it would bring the best of both worlds to their passengers. Perhaps when Celebrity sees the rapid decline in Onboard bookings, they will reconsider this plan.

 

Oh well, I suppose we wont be booking any more Cruises onboard either, and that will be a lot of business that will be lost by Celebrity from us. Decisions like this truly make you wonder how they come to these conclusions. I realize it is all about the $$$, but bad decisions will make their passengers move to other lines in a hurry.

[stipmom]

I booked a cruise in Feb. for the Century with the intention of switching when Europe 2008 came out .On Monday I switched from that booking to a 7 day on the Splendour. My shipboard credit did transfer and was increased from the $50 amount to $100.

[dmk]

We always have booked on board before to get the on board credit. While I was on the Century in January, I booked a "phantom" cruise hoping to transfer it to the 2008 TA's. If we are no longer able to transfer the OBC to a new cruise booking, I will no longer book on board. I have better things to do with my deposit money.:(

[c-legs]

We booked on Infinity just prior to the New "improved:rolleyes:" credit system based on the cost of a cruise rather than length of cruise.

We were able to lock in the $200 credit for 14 day sailings prior to March 1st. I booked Infinity for March 2008 because transatlantics were not available yet at time of booking.

However we were told later that the booking # is now non-transferable to a different ship, sailing date nor to RCL sailings. The new open sailing date booking was not available yet. Since I can no longer transfer to different sailings as in the past, I will most likely be cancelling five different booking numbers in favor of other cruises.

 

New bookings now offer a $50 credit for a $900 deposit on specified sailing dates for cruises of any length costing less than $2,500.

Many longer sailings such as most trans Atlantic are sold at a discount close to sailing dates. Why would anyone tie up a deposit for minimal benefit unless a specific cabin is desired?

Many agencies now offer larger savings for new bookings only.

Without a booking bonus that would encourage us to stick with X, we are now looking at other cruise lines which also have sell offs for competing itineraries.

This new policy will encourage this soon to be X X-guest to go back to the lines we cruised with before, namely HAL, Princess and RCL.

:( Good afternoon, Arno.....

Quite a bummer....A shame that loyalty to ==x== like yours is eroded little by little ( or perhaps faster and faster.....). My understanding of this '' new & improved '' loyalty product is that there are now TWO ways to trigger '' benefits'' with onboard bookings: 1/ the ''old''way with OBC's now measured against $$ spent rather than ## days sailed,regular refundable deposit,specific sailing, transferable, two changes allowed, etc..etc & 2/ the '' new'' program with ''anytime'' sailing coupled with a nonref deposit $100, and once assigned to a specific sailing, non-transferable or changeable. Same OBCs measured against $$ spent, rather than ## days sailed.

Is that what you perceive the programs to be ?? Of course, calling ==X== will produce zilch....5 calls will give you 5 answers, and noway to ''split the difference''....as usual.

Isn't RCL ''instigating '' that monetary move ?? and wouldn't it be parallel to their own program?? Which I beleive is more clearly stated, IMO....

Like airfares ''surcharges'', I have a sneaky suspicion that new program will ''stick'' and CCL will feed it through their own brands in relatively short order....My opinion, anyways....

Cheers:rolleyes:

[Lois R]

Hi, I booked Galaxy for next March while I was on Mercury last week.

It is a 10 nighter but I only received 50.00 on board credit for it

because I book an inside cabin.

In the past it would have been 200.00.

[RLM77]

We disembarked Summit on March 17. At that point X was still accepting phantom bookings and the OBC was based on the total price of the cruise. Cruise duration is no longer a factor. For example, pax who pay between $3,500 and $5,500 (per cabin) receive a $150 dollar OBC. I don't recall what the other tiers were as the above range is almost always where we fall out.

 

It makes sense from X's perspective that the OBC should be linked to the total price paid. The old method of basing OBC's on cruise durations was clearly not in the best interest of RCL's shareholders.

 

According to Kristin, Summit's future cruise consultant, a new policy that replaces phantom bookings was supposed to be announced on or about March 20. I'm not sure whether or not this occurred and am as curious as the rest of you as to the details. My best guess is that phantom bookings will no longer be permitted. Instead, there will be a generic reservation option that has no specific ship or sailing date attached. There will be an OBC of some sort and a deposit, likely smaller than the standard amount, will be required. Those booking such a "reservation" will have one opportunity to convert it to a confirmed booking (and deposit additional funds). Any changes after that will probably require forfeiting the OBC. Note that this is all conjecture on my part, but these are educated guesses based on conversations with certain CFM's (not Kristin).

 

I will be interested to see how close to the mark this is, as we tend to use phantom bookings to secure OBC's, then convert early to "real" reservations to secure a more desireable cabin, such as an aft. While the new policy may be slightly less generous, I doubt that it will be enough of a change to influence our cruise decisions or booking patterns.

 

Rich

 

 

[usha]

:( I am not liking the sound of the new policy for the onboard credit for booking future cruises while onboard. We were on Galaxy in Feb, and booked a b2b on Summit for next Feb, and got the $100 OBC for each cruise. (whew!)

But I don't think I'll be spending any time on our next cruises sitting at the future cruise desk.:rolleyes: If X wants to hang onto cruise deposits for a year or more, they should really rethink this crummy new policy.

[I Fly]

I booked two cruises on the Galaxy sailing which left on February 23, 2007 and returned on March 5, 2007. We were told that as long as the booking was made before March 1, 2007 the old rules will apply. Both bookings we made were phantom bookings waiting for the 2008 Europe sailings to come out. We booked two seven day cruises to keep the deposit lower. On March 15th I booked a 14 day cruise and was required to pay some additional deposit, but my onboard credit was raised from $100 to $200. One other benefit which I also think my be coming to an end is the stock holder benefit. But at this point all bookings made by May 1, 2007 will still get the additional onboard credit of up to $250. I hope this information is helpful to those of you who already have booking numbers which were made prior to March 1 2007.

[Lois R]

We disembarked Summit on March 17. At that point X was still accepting phantom bookings and the OBC was based on the total price of the cruise. Cruise duration is no longer a factor. For example, pax who pay between $3,500 and $5,500 (per cabin) receive a $150 dollar OBC. I don't recall what the other tiers were as the above range is almost always where we fall out.

 

It makes sense from X's perspective that the OBC should be linked to the total price paid. The old method of basing OBC's on cruise durations was clearly not in the best interest of RCL's shareholders.

 

According to Kristin, Summit's future cruise consultant, a new policy that replaces phantom bookings was supposed to be announced on or about March 20. I'm not sure whether or not this occurred and am as curious as the rest of you as to the details. My best guess is that phantom bookings will no longer be permitted. Instead, there will be a generic reservation option that has no specific ship or sailing date attached. There will be an OBC of some sort and a deposit, likely smaller than the standard amount, will be required. Those booking such a "reservation" will have one opportunity to convert it to a confirmed booking (and deposit additional funds). Any changes after that will probably require forfeiting the OBC. Note that this is all conjecture on my part, but these are educated guesses based on conversations with certain CFM's (not Kristin).

 

I will be interested to see how close to the mark this is, as we tend to use phantom bookings to secure OBC's, then convert early to "real" reservations to secure a more desireable cabin, such as an aft. While the new policy may be slightly less generous, I doubt that it will be enough of a change to influence our cruise decisions or booking patterns.

 

Rich

 

 

 

Hi Rich, your posts are always interesting to read.:)

 

I spoke with Alex (the cruise consultant) and made my booking

knowing I would only get 50 bucks for 10 nights.

I said to him I was being penalizied because I book insides.

He said the company felt like those who spend more money

should receive more $...(basically). He didn't use those exact

words but that is what it boils down to....

I will still sail Celebrity because I am very happy with the product

but I guess not spending alot on a cabin really does penalize

those of us who cannot afford the expensive ones.

[usha]

Lois, all I can say is "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on X for not giving YOU full onboard credits.

(You're just the sweetest little single X cruiser ever!)

[Lois R]

Thanks for the kind words:) ....but they are so not true:eek:

.....I don't feel sweet:confused: ....I feel lost....I want

to be back on Mercury:(

 

But back to the topic of OBC...basically if you book a pricey

cabin you get a pricey credit.

[judyfssw]

Lois, it just doesn't seem fair that you pay twice as much a single woman with a friend for the inside room and you don't get the credit for the double payment that you made. Not fair!

[Lois R]

Hi Judy:) nice to see you again...well, the only thing I can

do is cancel and find something else on another line but I probably

wouldn't receive 200.00 bucks from them anyway.

And I don't want to cancel either:eek: so.....

[croftonbill]

on our mar.11th.S.A.cruise on infinity,received the same note from celebrity-following day booked a mediteranean cruise on century in 2008 and received $100.00,obc for selves and second cabin for family who had never cruised on celebrity?we are select members of celebrity but have received minimal rewards,and also with RCCI.and have concluded that loyalty memberships are worthless.in future[apart from the century cruise booked on board]we are going to disregard loyalty progs.and go with best itinerary for the price-really folks the differences are minimal.our maitre.d.agreed, celebrity has reduced the per diem set aside for food to rcci levels.TIME WE SMARTENED UP!!

[ISABELLA]

What will be next? First RCCL came up with " no price discounts", and now,

no incentives to book on board unless you booking expensive cabins or want that specific room. Just wait and see - they will take away stockholding benefit and people will be selling that no money making stock. They will definetely will loose some people, but seems so far, they don't care. Here is a true meaning of " loyalty" ?? If this program stays, they will never see my deposits 18 months in advance. And so far, this year they have my $2700 in deposits since last September. I don't like it at all. Hope thay read these negative responses. There is always a last minute deals on some ships.

[richsea]

Who comes up with these "improvements"? $50.00 OBC?? I don't think so!

 

Celebrity is making it harder & harder to remain loyal. The Captain's Club benefits have eroded to the point that they are a joke, the supposed decreasing of the food budget, the no discounts from TA policies, and, I hate to say, the unreliability of most of their M class ships.

 

Little by little they are taking away reasons to continue to cruise with them.:( :mad:

[greeneg]

I have to admit that I am disappointed at this development although I cannot say that I am surprised. There is a consistant thread here of reducing incenatives for established Celebrity Customers; first the reduction in Captain's Club benefits to the current level ( essentially worthless), and now taking away the real benefits of booking future cruises on board.

 

To my thinking, it appears that Celebrity ( and probably RCCL also) are being repositioned away from their traditional demographic towards a younger, perhaps less affluent, crowd who are more interested in shorter cruises, paying less upfront, less flexability, and/ or interest in challenging itineraries. Either there is an assumption on the part of Management that the Traditional Celebrity Base will not go elsewhere, or that enough of the Base will stay "home", despite these changes, so that the net overall result will be positive to the bottom line. I was taught to believe that the most efficient way of doing buisness in the long run was to do everything reasonable to retain your current customers, since it usually is considerably less costly to retain a current customer than to recruit a new one. ( the cost of overcoming the making a satisfied customer into a disatisfied one is, of course, several times that of keeping the customer happy in the first place.) Unfortunately, I see all sorts of evidence which imply that only short term results are important in today's American Managers resumes; long term results, positive or negative, are someone else's issue.

 

Granted, RCCL LTD continues to be profitable, so who am I to argue with that sort of success? I certainly am not a "manager or executive" by profession. But I do sometimes wonder who is managing what by what principles and towards which goals? Even I know that a business must balance shareholder returns and stock growth with customer satisfaction. Ultimately, there is a point at which customers have to be retained, replaced, or expanded; elsewise, revenues and stockholder values are reduced. ( Not to mention the value of Executive Stock Options, etc.)

 

I think that the next key thing to watch will be, as others have implied, whether or not the Shareholder Credit is retained at it's present or even a higher level. If that is reduced, or even done away with, that could well be the tipping point at which the "Base" really does " vote with its feet" and begin to move away from Celebrity to other venues.

 

I know that I have reached to point at which there is essentially no further advantage for me to book my next cruise while on board a current one; mess with the perks any further, and we will certainly be looking at all of the available options.

[tuggers]

Well said, Ed.

I am no fan of the 'Dan Hanrahan School of Management' as I like to call it. His policy is to keep all his senior executives so isolated from any contact with passengers that there is no hope they know what is really going on. All their information comes through flunkies who, I think, basically tell them what they want to hear. The bottom line is all they ever look at.

We are a far cry from the era of Jack Williams who would often pick up a phone to reply to a letter written by a passenger. Those were days when our opinions counted for something and sometimes were even acted on.

Sad, but I am beginning to look more and more towards HAL and others. My friend Jeff who is on Amsterdam doing a world cruise says he doesn't think he will ever go back to X and he had about 50 X cruises under his belt.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Very dissappoionted to hear about these changes. Our last 3 cruises were booked while onboard, eventhough they may seem like small incentives when booking 2 cabins those $200 OBC's add up!

 

Sounds like a number of people online are stockholders--is there anyway a stockholder can exert any influence. Now that I have written that statement down, I imagine institutional holders wouldn't agree. But if the loyal group leaves, won't that lower booking significantly, not only by not booking themselves but also the lose of recommendations. How many people have asked you which ship you would recommend; especially those 1st timers?

 

We have only sailed on X because we really like the product--but it sounds like the product is changing, starting with the food quality (impt in this family).

 

I guess we will find out first hand in a couple of months if we will be staying the course with X.

[DC2OC]

HAL offers some fantastic last minute deals.I wouldn't hesitate to try one.Princess has some nice South Pacific intineries.I haven't tried either line,but I'm sure I will.....................Frank:)

[tuggers]

IMO HAL has more of what we expect than Princess. HAL has good food, good service and they don't even pretend to give you anything for repeaters so no disappointment. You know what you're getting from the start!