Change to Latitudes Program in 2017?

[denatravels]

We get it, NCL, you're delighted :D

 

In the past they wouldn't have bothered with these pre-announcements, they would have just sprung the changes on us overnight. So this is a tiny step forward, I suppose…

 

 

Given that all the other changes have been "for my convenience", I'm hoping this one is positive (not for me and my measly 7, soon to be 21, points-- but for the rest of ya)

 

 

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[wdsted]

Yup, and then their are folks like me that can only book about 6 months out at best because I have to book around my handicapped son's care here at home. I am bronze, and get single points per cruise, and am not worried about it. Honestly these perks are not really that big a deal to most of you, are they?

 

Not a big deal, but it's nice to get 2 free bags of laundry, 2 free meals @ Le Bistro, and the occasional behind-the-scenes tour. That's it for us.

[KeithJenner]

We got ours the hard way after 14 cruises or so.

 

 

 

Yup, all that cruising sure is hard work. :)

[armwinder]

Yup, all that cruising sure is hard work. :)

 

Yes and we love it, the rest of the kids inheritance just gets frittered away;)

[don't-use-real-name]

We get it, NCL, you're delighted :D

 

In the past they wouldn't have bothered with these pre-announcements, they would have just sprung the changes on us overnight. So this is a tiny step forward, I suppose…

 

Now if NCL would go ahead and let the cat out of the bag with INSIDER information about these new tiers promos etc. !

[pe4all]

This is why the Latitudes program has become such a joke. The only solutions is higher levels for those that earned Platinum the old fashioned way and have continued to sail NCL for many years.

445 points with 36 NCL sailings

 

I agree, it was a bit of a shock to see so many Platinum members appear all of a sudden, after they only sailed a few times. We got ours the hard way after 14 cruises or so. Even a back to back of 14 days only counted as one cruise, (unless it was booked as two cruises with added cost). It would be nice for those of us who have many cruises under our belt could be recognized. Even though I appreciate having Platinum status it has lost its appeal now there are so many others.

While the tiers don't mean a lot to me - Carnival had quite an uproar a while back when they changed their tiers. Carnival's Platinum (one level below their diamond level) is 75-199 cruise days. To get to their Diamond level, you now need over 200 cruise days (points) and they give nothing for early booking, suites, etc. I will be going on my 21st cruise with them in February - all 7 days or longer, and will still have only around 149 days! (under their old system, 25 cruises - no matter how long- made you Diamond) So I will still need 7 more cruises with CCL to reach Diamond status. Yet with NCL I got/will get "double" points for booking 9 months out, and have almost reached Platinum. While I am thrilled to get "freebies" from cruise lines for loyalty, I don't cruise for them - unless they'll give me a free suite!!:D

[hawkeyetlse]

Several cruise lines have switched their loyalty programs from number of cruises to number of cruise days, and they usually take advantage of this change to make the levels harder to attain. NCL kind of screwed this up, because they actually made it much easier to get to Platinum when they changed over: it used to require 14 cruises, but now most people can get to 76 points with fewer cruises than that, sometimes a lot fewer cruises.

 

So all I have to say is… lightning doesn't strike twice. NCL may think the upcoming changes are exciting and delightful, but I expect to see some significant cutbacks for the existing tiers this time around.

Edited December 3, 2016 by hawkeyetlse

[punkincc]

 

So all I have to say is… lightning doesn't strike twice. NCL may think the upcoming changes are exciting and delightful, but I expect to see some significant cutbacks for the existing tiers this time around.

 

 

Well, actually, it's probably more so that they want US to think the upcoming changes are exciting and delightful, thus all the advance hoopla to get us into that mindset.;)

 

I hope NCL is smart enough not to dilute existing tier benefits. I would be really ticked to get knocked back from Platinum to Gold for instance, or to lose some of the perks I already have as Platinum. Now, if they want to add a new level, maybe Diamond, with additional perks to aspire to, then that's fine with me.

 

Some say they do not book for the perks, but honestly, if price and itinerary are fairly equal, those free dinners, free laundry, and Concierge service are quite an enticement to stick with NCL. And the perks in this program costs NCL next to nothing to provide, so I don't know why they would worry that too many are now Platinum.

Edited December 3, 2016 by punkincc

[NLH Arizona]

While the tiers don't mean a lot to me - Carnival had quite an uproar a while back when they changed their tiers. Carnival's Platinum (one level below their diamond level) is 75-199 cruise days. To get to their Diamond level, you now need over 200 cruise days (points) and they give nothing for early booking, suites, etc. I will be going on my 21st cruise with them in February - all 7 days or longer, and will still have only around 149 days! (under their old system, 25 cruises - no matter how long- made you Diamond) So I will still need 7 more cruises with CCL to reach Diamond status. Yet with NCL I got/will get "double" points for booking 9 months out, and have almost reached Platinum. While I am thrilled to get "freebies" from cruise lines for loyalty, I don't cruise for them - unless they'll give me a free suite!!:D

Same thing happened on Celebrity. They added two tiers. Elite Plus is between 750 and 2,999 points, which is still attainable to some, but the perks are not great in some cruisers estimation and Zenith which kicks in at 3,000 points with great perks. Those who were complaining that there were too many Elites and too easy to achieve Elite status wanted to (1) have more tiers and (2) make it difficult to reach the top tiers got exactly what they wanted, except they thought they would be give special consideration because of the number of cruises they took and that didn't happen. Now, it is just as hard for them to move up the tiers, as it is everyone else. When Celebrity changed the Captain's Club tiers many complained that they will never make Zenith and that is unfair to them.

 

And I'm with you, I don't cruise for loyalty perks. On both Celebrity and NCL, I think the only perk I've ever used is the free laundry and if they didn't have that, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

[hawkeyetlse]

I hope they don't go to a system like Celebrity's or MSC's where you get hundreds of points for each cruise, but that is the logical next step if they want to take into account how much people actually spend on their cruises. You know how they list your cabin category (inside, outside, balcony, etc.) in your cruise history, but they don't actually do anything with that information? It would make sense if insides earned fewer points than mini-suites.

 

Some other ideas from MSC that could be coming soon to a loyalty program near you: You can earn points for pre-purchased extras (beverage packages, excursions, etc.) Some really cheap fares (e.g. last-minute) don't earn any points at all. And all your points disappear if you don't cruise at least once every 36 months…

[NHL Philly Fan]

While the tiers don't mean a lot to me - Carnival had quite an uproar a while back when they changed their tiers. Carnival's Platinum (one level below their diamond level) is 75-199 cruise days. To get to their Diamond level, you now need over 200 cruise days (points) and they give nothing for early booking, suites, etc. I will be going on my 21st cruise with them in February - all 7 days or longer, and will still have only around 149 days! (under their old system, 25 cruises - no matter how long- made you Diamond) So I will still need 7 more cruises with CCL to reach Diamond status. Yet with NCL I got/will get "double" points for booking 9 months out, and have almost reached Platinum. While I am thrilled to get "freebies" from cruise lines for loyalty, I don't cruise for them - unless they'll give me a free suite!!:D

 

We sailed a free CCL cruise earlier this year form our land based casino. On the cruise they offered me another freebie. I turned it down. Free was over-priced for a CCL cruise. I could not imagine going on 21 of them.

[mitsugirly]

The Secret to scoring Latitudes Points is in the booking.

 

Start with the basic 1 point per night

 

Insider offer if available

1 point per night

 

Book more than 9 months away

1 point per night

 

Stateroom is a Suite

1 point per night

 

Total 4 points per night (maximum)

times the number of days the cruise is

 

 

 

We just got off the Epic and when I looked at my latitudes points, they had given each of us 21 points for the cruise. Yes, we booked more than 9 months out, but there was nothing that told us we were booking an insider offer (and we didn't have a suite), so I was shocked to see that many points this time around. But that's all I can figure that it was.

 

 

On another note, it would be nice to add more tiers...at least you feel like you are striving for a goal. Once you are platinum...we wait forever to reach 250 :(

[ncklhaus]

Our next cruise is January 2, 2017 on Breakaway in a Haven suite for 13 nights. That sailing will get us 26 points and we will become Platinum. I am hoping that they leave the current perks as they are and they add levels that are still attainable. It would be nice to see something like OBC or maybe allowing you to "cash in" some points for extra's like the frequent flyer mile programs or credit card points programs work.

[hawkeyetlse]

We just got off the Epic and when I looked at my latitudes points, they had given each of us 21 points for the cruise. Yes, we booked more than 9 months out, but there was nothing that told us we were booking an insider offer (and we didn't have a suite), so I was shocked to see that many points this time around. But that's all I can figure that it was.

I think there are actually a couple of different Latitudes extra point offers. If it was an Insider Offer you would have gotten some OBC, too ($50 or $100 per stateroom). There is a different (?) offer with the code "LATBONUS" that gives you an extra point, but I don't know if there's a list of eligible sailings or how it works. Did you have that code on your booking confirmation from NCL?

[mitsugirly]

I think there are actually a couple of different Latitudes extra point offers. If it was an Insider Offer you would have gotten some OBC, too ($50 or $100 per stateroom). There is a different (?) offer with the code "LATBONUS" that gives you an extra point, but I don't know if there's a list of eligible sailings or how it works. Did you have that code on your booking confirmation from NCL?

 

 

The only OBC we received was with our TA. There is absolutely nothing on my booking confirmation that said any bonus or latitudes info. I booked using a TA, so would that matter on my confirmation since it would have been sent by the TA?

[pe4all]

We sailed a free CCL cruise earlier this year form our land based casino. On the cruise they offered me another freebie. I turned it down. Free was over-priced for a CCL cruise. I could not imagine going on 21 of them.

To each their own! Maybe I can't see why someone follows the Flyers- even though they are first in their division at this moment. :p:D

[hawkeyetlse]

There is absolutely nothing on my booking confirmation that said any bonus or latitudes info. I booked using a TA, so would that matter on my confirmation since it would have been sent by the TA?

Documents issued by a TA won't necessarily show the cruise line's promo codes (since they are meaningless to most customers anyway).

[mitsugirly]

Documents issued by a TA won't necessarily show the cruise line's promo codes (since they are meaningless to most customers anyway).

 

 

Ok, so maybe that's it. I can't explain it otherwise and everyone in our group got it (8 of us). It's weird though because my TA usually tells me these things (plus the fact that we didn't get any OBC for this special as stated above).

[hawkeyetlse]

You could ask your TA, they should have the docs from NCL with the promo codes. LATBONUS is an extra point with no OBC (we had this on our Baltic cruise this past summer).

 

I wouldn't call NCL about it, in case they discover they gave you the extra points by mistake… :eek: Enjoy the points, you're that much closer to 250! :p