Elite /Elite +

[dkjretired]

There will be new levels. This was confirmed to me yesterday by the Captains Club hostess on my current cruise on the Equinox.

I doubt that they would subtract current perks for what is now called Elite.

I can envision the following:

Elite. 10 credits

Elite Silver. 20 credits

Elite Gold. 35 credits

Platinum. 50 credits

 

The perks could include free drink packages, specialty restaurants and free Internet for the highest tiers.

 

I do not doubt what was said to you but Celebrity's rumor mill has got to be the worst I have ever seen. Very high ranking officers usually give poor information. That is just the history, sorry but it is the truth.

[dkjretired]

What's the difference between points and credits? Or are they one and the same.

 

I'm sticking to my guns about being given status based on cruise days.

 

What with the abysmal web of Celebrity I am sure that they are going to royally screw up, no matter how they allott the the levels.

 

Should be fun. Luckily I kept all of my sea pass cards.

 

Sorry but Celebrity does not base their system on number of days cruised. They will only give you the equivalent level that you are on Royal. Exception to that is if you are Diamond or Diamond plus you get Elite on Celebrity since the highest level they have is Elite. Days cruised means nothing right now on Celebrity and for transfer purposes the only thing that counts is your level.

[ghstudio]

I do not doubt what was said to you but Celebrity's rumor mill has got to be the worst I have ever seen. Very high ranking officers usually give poor information. That is just the history, sorry but it is the truth.

 

Very high ranking officers get the same poor, inconsistent information from HQ that the folks in HQ who answer phones and questions get. RCL converted from points to days, so that's not an issue, if that's what Celebrity wants to do. If the corporation wanted to develop corporate RCCL loyalty, they would just convert celebrity points to days and add anything you earned with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and azamara together. Of course, the lines compete and corporate seems not to care about any corporate identity, so that type of logical step would never happen.

 

It's pointless to guess....it will be what it will be...and I, like many others, just assume the new program will be announced just prior to our boarding our next celebrity cruise and we will find that we no longer get any of our current elite perks on that cruise or any after it. Okay...so I'm paranoid...

[Oville]

Since I'm already Elite (qualiied this year), I'll do them next year, to qualiy for the next step up...not this year. If it has to be a suite, I'd book it. It took me way too long to qualify for Elite, because I took longer cruises, so if they keep it the same, I'll take shorter ones to qualify faster for the next tiers.

 

My assumption is that days rather than points will be used when changes are made to the Captain's Club levels. To be honest, I'd be shocked if cruise days are not used as the current system is unfair.

[mpbmark]

I believe you are mistaken on this. The brouhaha occurred when they tossed the Diamonds out of the Concierge Lounge, leaving it only available for Suites and Diamond Plus guests. Royal eventually caved and set up the Diamond event where you could get wine and sparkling wine free and a 25% discount on other beverages.

 

You are absolutely correct. The Diamonds were, IMHO, thrown overboard by RCCL in mid 2009. The RCCL threads on cruise critic were extensive and filled with vitriol by people who had spent years working their way up the Diamond level based upon promises made by RCCL relating to various perks. I managed to enjoy one cruise with concierge lounge access but then it was yanked away. The diamond event put in place as a result of the outrage expressed by loyal (at the time) RCCL cruisers was and probably remains a poor substitute.

 

I continued to cruise with RCCL as opposed to canceling previously booked cruises for short time. I ceased cruising with RCCL for a number of reasons but one of them was a feeling that the rules had been unfairly changed in the middle of the game. I fully realize that RCCL reserved upon itself the right to make those changes but to apply them to people who had already committed business to the company in anticipation of additional benefits was, again, IMHO, inappropriate.

 

Hopefully, when or if changes occur with Celebrity, they will have the foresight to announce them well in advance and to apply them to new cruisers as opposed to taking away benefits/perks from those individuals who had previously earned them.

 

Having said the above, let the flaming begin. :eek:

[dkjretired]

Very high ranking officers get the same poor, inconsistent information from HQ that the folks in HQ who answer phones and questions get. RCL converted from points to days, so that's not an issue, if that's what Celebrity wants to do. If the corporation wanted to develop corporate RCCL loyalty, they would just convert celebrity points to days and add anything you earned with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and azamara together. Of course, the lines compete and corporate seems not to care about any corporate identity, so that type of logical step would never happen.

 

It's pointless to guess....it will be what it will be...and I, like many others, just assume the new program will be announced just prior to our boarding our next celebrity cruise and we will find that we no longer get any of our current elite perks on that cruise or any after it. Okay...so I'm paranoid...

 

Agree,I don't believe anything until I see a press release, too much history with rumors. I do believe they should convert to days, this seems to be the standard in the industry and a much better comparison when dealing with Royal.

[CruisingTheWaves]

Celebrity should take away the credit system and change that to Points systems like RCCL.

In order to make more in line with RCCL.The following is my suggestion.

 

Any categories below Concierge class will get 1 point per day.

Concierge and Aqua Class will get numbers of days cruise multiply by 1.5

Suite Class will get numbers of days cruise Multiply by 2

The new Elite level should be match with RCCL thats mean 80 Points.

For Elites+ it should be at 175 points like RCCL.

In that case I believe reciprocity might work.

 

the issue with this is that if you make the new elite 80 points, many current elites don't even have that many days at sea on celebrity, and i'll be damned if they take my status away after it has already been granted. not only that, but those that are just a credit or two shy of elite before implementing such a system will be royally pissed off.

[mpbmark]

the issue with this is that if you make the new elite 80 points, many current elites don't even have that many days at sea on celebrity, and i'll be damned if they take my status away after it has already been granted. not only that, but those that are just a credit or two shy of elite before implementing such a system will be royally pissed off.

 

 

Be prepared to be "damned" as that is exactly what RCCL did to Diamond members only a few years ago. The rationale was that there were too many Diamond members taking up space in the concierge lounge and rather than open an annex lounge, just booted all Diamonds out. :eek: Then they came up with he new tier system and many were shut out of Diamond Plus due to the change in how the status was determined. :eek: And plenty of people were "pissed off". :mad:

[richsea]

I can see by some of th

E remarks on this thread that No matter what changes Celebrity makes to the Captain's Club levels there will be an uprising from those who are going to feel slighted. No matter what they do' it won't be good enough or fair enough for some people. They cannot win with some.

[Wine-O]

I can see by some of th

E remarks on this thread that No matter what changes Celebrity makes to the Captain's Club levels there will be an uprising from those who are going to feel slighted. No matter what they do' it won't be good enough or fair enough for some people. They cannot win with some.

 

I'm happy with what I have. :)

[mpbmark]

I can see by some of th

E remarks on this thread that No matter what changes Celebrity makes to the Captain's Club levels there will be an uprising from those who are going to feel slighted. No matter what they do' it won't be good enough or fair enough for some people. They cannot win with some.

 

I must respectfully disagree. I think X can do this and come out a winner but it all depends on the implementation. Hopefully they have learned something from the RCCL fiasco and instead of taking away benefits that have been earned by loyal cruisers, they come up with a fair way of grandfathering in those that have participated in the Captain Club program and already earned Elite status . We shall see. :rolleyes:

[maggie.1008]

IMHO the problems started with too many Elites when X decided to let RCCL into Elite lounges. When I became Elite they were small affairs in Michael`s club. Even when the Solstice came out, still in Michael`s club. All of a sudden the masses showed up in the Sky lounge. Many RCCL customers. I have all of my credits ( points ) on Celebrity and I hope they keep my loyalty in mind when changing Elite program.

[miched]

Some of the way that they give cruise credit points doesn't help.

 

1 for a cruise

 

1 for cc or better

 

1 for a cruise 12 days or longer.

 

Someone can take two 7 day cruises in CC and get 4 credits, If someone takes a 14 day cruise in CC they only get 3. Someone could also take two 5 day cruises and one 4 day in CC and get 6 credits for sailing 14 days.

 

If someone takes three four day cruise in CC they would get 6 credits for sailing 12 days, whereas someone taking a 12 day cruise in CC would only get 3 credits.

 

Those that sail 10 or 11 day cruises really get raked over the coals.

 

Plus the reciprocal of benefits doesn't help.

 

They reward people living close to the cruise port by giving them special prices for being a resident there plus giving them the credits for short cruises. People living a distance away aren't going to spend a ton getting there for only 4 or 5 days so they take longer cruises. I know that you can do a B2B and we have done that but most times one of those cruises is way more than the other or they do the same exact cruise.

.

[mpbmark]

For those who don't think this is a big deal, check out this RCCL thread, one of many. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=956473&highlight=diamond+event

 

Note it ran from March 27, 2009 until April 14, 2009 when it was closed after only 4288 posts. :eek:

 

As I said before, I hope Celebrity does a better job of implementing any changes it chooses to make.

[excitedofharpenden]

I can see by some of th

E remarks on this thread that No matter what changes Celebrity makes to the Captain's Club levels there will be an uprising from those who are going to feel slighted. No matter what they do' it won't be good enough or fair enough for some people. They cannot win with some.

I think you are right. It's easy to add perks, but much more difficult to take them away and dare I say it give extra to some without others thinking "I should have that". For me at least some of the benefits are nice to have and some I don't use, but at the end of the day it's the overall cruise experience that I enjoy the most and has me coming back. Membership of Captain's Club is just a bit of frosting on top. If it were me I'd be fairly radical in the re-work to truly differentiate and reward more frequent cruisers and then a gap like Royal Caribbean's Pinnacle Club for the top group.

 

Phil

[sandancer]

We spent 28 nights on the Millie this year and got 3 points. We have 4 cruises booked next year - a total of 44 nights straight through. For this long cruise we will get only 5 points. 1 for each cruise + 1 extra for one of the cruises which is 18 nights. This means for 72 nights we will get 8 points. The sooner the better they change to nights cruised as Royal and Princess do. Having said that we are happy with our perks and knew when we booked that this was the credits situation so this definately not a rant.

[excitedofharpenden]

Yep, converting to days cruised would seem the fairest way of doing it.

 

Phil

[iSailor]

Yep, converting to days cruised would seem the fairest way of doing it.

 

Phil

 

I do think my suggestion is pretty fair and balance.

I wish what ever tiers we are now I hope they will grandfather in.

Convert all our previous cruise to points and the next tier up will base on the NEW SYSTEM.

[Oville]

Then they came up with he new tier system and many were shut out of Diamond Plus due to the change in how the status was determined. :eek: And plenty of people were "pissed off". :mad:

 

Your statement above is 100% false. No one lost "status," the formula for converting made sure everyone was grandfathered in their current level.

[Oville]

the issue with this is that if you make the new elite 80 points, many current elites don't even have that many days at sea on celebrity, and i'll be damned if they take my status away after it has already been granted. not only that, but those that are just a credit or two shy of elite before implementing such a system will be royally pissed off.

 

When Royal Caribbean converted each cruise credit was worth 7 days and a number, based on cruise points, was added. This made sure no one lost their current level.

[mpbmark]

Your statement above is 100% false. No one lost "status," the formula for converting made sure everyone was grandfathered in their current level.

 

While I stand corrected as to status (poor choice of words), :o I'm not sure everyone "was grandfathered in their current level". I certainly lost any hope of ever reaching Diamond Plus because of the way the system was changed. :(

 

Furthermore, my biggest complaint was the change in benefits that were put in place by the change in how levels were awarded. The one time I had access to the lounge was a cruise with a large number of Diamond and Diamond Plus members. There was no way the small concierge lounge could accomodate all the members so RCCL opened up another venue which worked fine. Then they apparently decided that wasn't a such a good idea and simply eliminated Diamond members from the lounge.

 

As you noted in post #21, they "tossed" out Diamonds from the concierge lounge and then backpedaled by offering a diamond event which was not near the same level as the concierge lounge benefit. I thought the offer was an attempt to placate Diamond members, but this was not readily accepted as noted in my post #39. :eek:

 

Anyway, as I previously stated, if changes are deemed necessary, I hope they do a better job of it.

[Oville]

While I stand corrected as to status (poor choice of words), :o I'm not sure everyone "was grandfathered in their current level". I certainly lost any hope of ever reaching Diamond Plus because of the way the system was changed. :(

 

Furthermore, my biggest complaint was the change in benefits that were put in place by the change in how levels were awarded. The one time I had access to the lounge was a cruise with a large number of Diamond and Diamond Plus members. There was no way the small concierge lounge could accomodate all the members so RCCL opened up another venue which worked fine. Then they apparently decided that wasn't a such a good idea and simply eliminated Diamond members from the lounge.

 

As you noted in post #21, they "tossed" out Diamonds from the concierge lounge and then backpedaled by offering a diamond event which was not near the same level as the concierge lounge benefit. I thought the offer was an attempt to placate Diamond members, but this was not readily accepted as noted in my post #39. :eek:

 

Anyway, as I previously stated, if changes are deemed necessary, I hope they do a better job of it.

 

Everyone was grandfathered in including you. Unless you only take short 3 or 4 night cruises, the change had very little, if any impact on your reaching the next level. I think you'll agree that more credit should be given for longer cruises.

 

You are also mixing together two separate events. The removal of Diamond members from the Concierge Lounge and the conversion of points to days did not occur at the same time.

 

Whatever way Celebrity makes changes to the Captain's Club levels I can promise you 3 things, some people will be angry, some will be neutral and a few will be elated.

[beachchairs2]

all I want to know is when?

 

have heard officers, captains, etc. talk about this for a very long time....

 

does anyone know anything definitive as to when it would actually come about?

[mpbmark]

Everyone was grandfathered in including you. Unless you only take short 3 or 4 night cruises, the change had very little, if any impact on your reaching the next level. I think you'll agree that more credit should be given for longer cruises.

 

I've never taken a cruise less then 7 days and that seemed to short.

 

You are also mixing together two separate events. The removal of Diamond members from the Concierge Lounge and the conversion of points to days did not occur at the same time.

 

I am mixing them together as in my mind (as small as it may be), they represented a change in the overall cruise experience. Even if one were to accept that the point system was superior, the change in Diamond benefits was poorly implemented.

 

Whatever way Celebrity makes changes to the Captain's Club levels I can promise you 3 things, some people will be angry, some will be neutral and a few will be elated.

 

On this we can agree. :D

[A Sixth?]

When Princess updated their system, there were two ways of counting to achieve Elite category.

 

First the standard cruise count. Get 15 cruises you're Elite

 

A number of years ago they added a cruise days count that if one cruises a total of 150 days you are Elite. The original system was left in place as well

 

So if you did 15, 4 day cruises you would become Elite with only 60 cruise days.

 

But if you went on 6, 25 day cruises you became Elite.