Yacht Club Loyalty Program

[Jamesh1910]

No compassion with Ponant and double standards.

My Wife was seriously injured in Venice on June 2nd 2019 whem MSC Opera crashed into the Uniworld boat we were on. 2 weeks in hospital in Venice and then 3 weeks in Australia. We were due to Cruise with Ponant on June 3rd Best of Croatia. Unable to make the cruise due to hospitalisation.

Ponant have said even though they have our money because we didn't cruise we have been downgraded from Admiral to Major. 

In Feb 2014 an Australian company Scenic charted the entire boat for an Antarctic cruise. We cruised on this but it doesn't count because it was a charter. Were is the consistently?

We have 2 cruises booked next year with Ponant and we did one last year with Ponant along the Kimberley Coast in Australia. We booked these because we were so impressed with the 2014 cruise, but it doesn't count in their Loyalty Program. By the way the Aussie Kimberley Cruise is unbelievable. Must do for anyone who can make to Australia and have the time.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Everything you describe is how all travel companies treat these events.  We had to cancel a Backroads hiking tour two weeks before the start for health reasons – no refund from Backroads, as they tell you beforehand.  Thankfully we had good Trip Insurance, so we were reimbursed every penny.

 

Also, even though we had paid in full, no credit in the Backroads loyalty program.  I had my TA double-check, and she reported that not only is that Backroads' approach, it is also the industry approach – as you have seen with Ponant.

 

Same thing for trips that you book with one vendor that use someone else's ship: you are the customer of your main vendor, not the cruise line.  We are doing Iceland next month with Backroads, sailing on a Ponant ship.  We will get Backroads loyalty credit but not Ponant.  That's how the industry works.

 

The consistency is that you only get loyalty credit if you (or your TA) book direct with the cruise line AND you sail on the cruise.  It may not make sense, but that's how everybody does it.