Should loyalty points have an expiry?

I know that the automatic answer to this will be no

But if points have an expiry, it would reward more consistently loyal cruisers and prevent top tier benefits become devalued e.g. cocktail parties, as too many people become members of that tier

It's not unheard of for points to expire in other industries. Each cruise line would have to make the decision for itself, but if the standard is to let the points accumulate without a time limit I suspect it would take a brave cruise line to buck that trend. One air line miles program I belong to has it set up so miles don't expire, as long as you earn miles once every 18 months. Maybe something like that would work. I wouldn't be surprised to find out this has been discussed in more than one board room.

I know that the automatic answer to this will be no

 

But if points have an expiry' date=' it would reward more consistently loyal cruisers and prevent top tier benefits become devalued e.g. cocktail parties, as too many people become members of that tier[/quote']

 

That's ridiculous! Cruising isn't like flying or staying in a hotel. A lot of cruisers are lucky if they can afford one cruise every year or two, yet are very loyal. However, just like air travel, expecting a traveler to use the same airline or cruise line for every trip isn't practical as they don't offer the same service to all locales.

How long would it take you to accrue 500 cruise days to reach the top Mariner tier with HAL for instance? Even if you received double days for staying in a suite and maxed out the onboard spending bonus, you're looking at 167 days at sea to get there. Do the math on how long it would take, even with 100% loyalty and 14 days a year at sea - 12 years! What's your expiration cut-off going to be?

That's ridiculous! Cruising isn't like flying or staying in a hotel. A lot of cruisers are lucky if they can afford one cruise every year or two, yet are very loyal. However, just like air travel, expecting a traveler to use the same airline or cruise line for every trip isn't practical as they don't offer the same service to all locales.

How long would it take you to accrue 500 cruise days to reach the top Mariner tier with HAL for instance? Even if you received double days for staying in a suite and maxed out the onboard spending bonus, you're looking at 167 days at sea to get there. Do the math on how long it would take, even with 100% loyalty and 14 days a year at sea - 12 years! What's your expiration cut-off going to be?

Agree with this. Additionally, points are not "cashed in" for rewards or free travel but are accumulated for tier level recognition and benefits. The concept of having them expire doesn't fit the type of program they are established for in the first place. The intent of generating loyalty over time would be lost completely if after being loyal long enough to acquire any given tier status they would expire and be taken away from you! The question of should they have an expiry is not well thought out and makes absolutely no sense - sorry.

I find it funny that everyone knows how the lines should run their business.

Why not start your own line if the current crop are getting it so wrong.

No -- "points" should not expire on cruise lines.

We are Elite with Princess and still have a long way to go and will never be able to get to HAL's highest level -- 1500 ACTUAL sailing days to be invited to the President's Club. We started sailing HAL in 1996 while still cruising other cruise lines. Back then we got paper awards. Then HAL changed their program (don't remember the exact year) and started awarding Medallions and Lapel pins for various levels. When we got to 700 days we got our Platinum medals and pins. Then HAL changed the program in 2009. When the program began we were already at the highest level then -- 4 star mariners at 200 days. Then a couple of years ago HAL added the 5 star level for 500 days -- naturally we already had that many days. At the present time we have over 1000 actual sailing days -- I don't bother counting the extra points we get for staying in a suite or spending money on specialty restaurants, excursions, cocktails, etc. It takes a long time to get to 1500 actual sailing days. We will never make it.

I for one wouldn't be happy to lose my points it's been darn hard and expensive to achieve. However I don't take advantage of all of the benefits I could have I rarely go to the elite drinks hour or the captains cocktail party and very very rarely have my clothes washed but I love my free internet. Please don't even put this idea into the cruise lines heads

Sounds good to me. Have them expire after 24 months.

Lower the points required for the higher tiers dramatically. This way you are rewarding people who actually cruise regularly and people can be phased out of the higher tiers.

The issue is that, at least on RCCL the special lounges and stuff are getting more and more and more packed as more and more people meet the level requirements.

I'm in loyalty programs where they keep a lifetime point count and points that expire in 12 months that determine your major benefits. Works fine. Keeps me going as often as I can to get those sweet sweet benes.

For the programs to have any real value for the lines, the points should expire - the reason the program exists is to encourage SIGNIFICANT repeat business, not just a cruise every five or so years. Of course, the rewards should be enhanced as well so there would be SIGNIFICANT benefit to the genuine frequent cruiser.

For the programs to have any real value for the lines, the points should expire - the reason the program exists is to encourage SIGNIFICANT repeat business, not just a cruise every five or so years. Of course, the rewards should be enhanced as well so there would be SIGNIFICANT benefit to the genuine frequent cruiser.

Offering enhanced rewards would help smooth some of the feathers that would get ruffled by the change.

P&O already do something similar for top tiers. To keep your Baltic Status you need to have sailed 80 nights in the past three years and for Ligurian it's 201

For cruise lines maybe a restriction, i.e. If you don't sail in xxx you lose a % of your points. If the purpose of the captains club is to rewArd loyal cruisers it may work in their behalf.

For the passenger perspective" please please don't take my points away"

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some cruise lines have already made it much harder to gain points recently....what an upset that caused.

A lot of the program's really offer trivial rewards - hardly worth not considering other lines if pricing and itinerary were at all interesting.

A lot of the program's really offer trivial rewards - hardly worth not considering other lines if pricing and itinerary were at all interesting.

I don't care about anything except possible stateroom upgrades so the levels are of little consequence to me at this point. However, I don't think points should expire just becuse a lot more people are enjoying the perks. Not very egalitarian, that.

I don't care about anything except possible stateroom upgrades so the levels are of little consequence to me at this point. However, I don't think points should expire just becuse a lot more people are enjoying the perks. Not very egalitarian, that.

"EGALITARIAN"??? The simple notion of giving ANY benefits to SOME passengers simply because they cruised before is certainly not egalitarian.

Of coursenot. NO WAY

I don't think points should expire. I haven't sailed on Royal Caribbean since the 1990s, but if we ever find another RCI cruise to take, I don't want to have to start all over. (We were not very high up--just three cruises.) Similarly we don't sail a lot on Holland America. We're just 2-star Mariners right now, about halfway to becoming 3-star Mariners. I'd hate to have to start all over just because we haven't sailed with them in 3 years.

When we took my mother-in-law on a Carnival cruise a few years ago, I was invited to the past passenger party even though it had been 24 years since my one and only cruise on a Carnival ship.

I vote with the keep it the way it is side...no time limits. For us, we tend to take few vacations but our last three cruises (in the last ten years) have been two week ones. It wouldn't be difficult to tack on a short cruise if Princess had them out of San Pedro (I think the shortest is 7 day ones) that we don't have to travel far to take, but we rather do the two week ones as that first day and the last day aren't full days.

As for benefits, the one that I look forward to, I just earned after our last cruise -- the Internet credit. So it would be nice if that's not taken away just because we might not cruise for a few years (kid in college is a pretty good reason).