Mariner Society- spending bonus

[richwmn]

I was very surprised to learn that, even though I purchased excursions for my family as the entire cruise was paid for by my DH and I, we were denied mariner points for the excursions I purchased for them. I called to complain, but was told that I could only get points for things that were personally used by my DH and me. I'm curious to know if the rest of my family (all six of them) received mariner points for the excursions I paid for them.

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

In addition to what others have said, think of the number of people who fly free on their vacations because of points earned while flying on business using tickets that their employers paid for. In your example, the employer should get the points since they paid for the tickets.

[ellieanne]

My experience has been that sometimes pre-cruise website spending counts towards the on-board spending bonus and sometimes it doesn't. I do not know what makes the difference.

 

But I do know that the spending for the cabin counts toward the on-board spending bonus, even if the other person in the cabin has registered a separate credit card.

[RocketMan275]

I was very surprised to learn that, even though I purchased excursions for my family as the entire cruise was paid for by my DH and I, we were denied mariner points for the excursions I purchased for them. I called to complain, but was told that I could only get points for things that were personally used by my DH and me. I'm curious to know if the rest of my family (all six of them) received mariner points for the excursions I paid for them.

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

It is standard industry practice that the points go to the actual traveler. There is a reason for this.

 

Back in the 80's when the whole concept of points first arrived, several companies decided they wanted the points earned by their employers. The travel industry wanted the employees to get the points since they felt the employees made the actual decision about which airline/hotel/etc they would patronize. These travel industries established the concept that the points went to the traveler to evade this practice.

 

In fact, there was a time when DoD required their employees to inform the travel components, usually a travel agency that all employees had to use, periodically of their points. Suppose employee A had 10,000 points and employee B contacted the agency to book a flight requiring 8,000 points. First the agency would try to book the flight using employee B's points. If B didn't have enough points, then the travel agency would contact employee A and direct him to book the flight using his points. This concept fell apart when the points had to be used by the actual person on the ticket.