New Crystal Society Programme Announced for 2024

[BWIVince]

34 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

So it turns out no backpedal by Crystal or other unscrupulous behaviour - more a case of not all the facts being put on the table

 

The EI reduction trumps the Crystal Society benefit and there’s no double dipping on discounting. Hardly an unusual clause from a merchant 

 

So in this case Crystal is just doing what most vendors do (although the EI programme is a very special concession that few companies would provide)

 

A lesson learnt that all the background info needs to be tabled to avoid people leaping to conclusions 

 

I absolutely agree with the first part of your message, but I'm not so sure on the lesson learned about "all the background" being on the table part...  Lest we forget that the travel agent had multiple calls with Crystal on the subject, including a customer-facing one and this was considered a closed issue in Crystal's mind at the time Rob posted it.  Exactly how much longer were we supposed to wait before discussing it?  I think at that point it's fair game to discuss with all of the qualifiers that we added because we were working with only one side of the story.

 

That said, I find it VERY odd that the issue got as far as it did and got through multiple calls with the agency, including a call with the consortium, and somehow Crystal forgot to explain this detail during any of those discussions?  This is SUCH a standard term that it seems like something that could/should have been explained to Rob's agent before any of the subsequent elevations happened.

 

Vince

[Stickman1990]

13 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

Exactly how much longer were we supposed to wait before discussing it?  I think at that point it's fair game to discuss with all of the qualifiers that we added because we were working with only one side of the story.

 

That said, I find it VERY odd that the issue got as far as it did and got through multiple calls with the agency, including a call with the consortium, and somehow Crystal forgot to explain this detail during any of those discussions?  This is SUCH a standard term that it seems like something that could/should have been explained to Rob's agent before any of the subsequent elevations happened.

The terms and conditions of each offer were there to read from the day they were released - if those involved, including the TA, had read them then it would have been Crystal clear 

 

My point is none of us could really advise or  make an informed comment without knowing that in this case there was an Exceptional Initiative benefit involved already 

[ryndam]

🤪🥴🤩😂🤣

We are sailing with unexpected $$ in our account. No idea that the EI was not in concert with additional accrued milestone benefits fare reductions. The appropriate Crystal representative responded quickly and clearly.

 

Final point to my initial post, and subsequent follow-up post: milestone benefit fare reductions cannot be deducted from the fare if the fare was already reduced by use of the EI certificate, or any other marketing fare promotion/reduction.

 

Peace. Out. See y’all onboard. 😁

Rob

[Keith1010]

I am glad that it had a happy ending.  I am glad that Rob was pointed in the right direction as to who to go to at Crystal. 😀 In the end, the good thing that came out of this is a reminder that sometimes offers are not combinable. And finally, a reminder that the devil is in the details.

And one final reminder. When people agree or disagree over here I sometimes think to myself in addition to "What A Wonderful World" 😀 for everyone to take a step back and think back to that time that many thought Crystal would not return. And then when it was announced that the ships were bought that many said great but it won't be the old Crystal.  Well, it's not Old Crystal but it is New Crystal with many of the attributes of its former self mixed with enhancements. Oh, and a few of the old problems too.  LOL.  

 

So glad we are able to discuss on this board the Crystal of today; both current and future.

 

Happy Cruising.

 

Keith

 

[sullaRaffaello]

I'm on board the Serenity now, and just got confirmation from Paula Jean that the milestone credits cannot be requested on board. They must be arranged in advance by the travel agent. Right now, I'm on my 34th cruise, Capetown to Tema. Tema to Las Palmas will be my 35th, which will earn me a $300 milestone reward. Las Palmas to Miami will be my 36th, yet I'll be unable to use my milestone reward on that voyage since the agent didn't request it in advance. I wonder how many people will forget to have their agent request it when making reservations.

[BWIVince]

On 5/9/2024 at 2:54 AM, sullaRaffaello said:

I'm on board the Serenity now, and just got confirmation from Paula Jean that the milestone credits cannot be requested on board. They must be arranged in advance by the travel agent. Right now, I'm on my 34th cruise, Capetown to Tema. Tema to Las Palmas will be my 35th, which will earn me a $300 milestone reward. Las Palmas to Miami will be my 36th, yet I'll be unable to use my milestone reward on that voyage since the agent didn't request it in advance. I wonder how many people will forget to have their agent request it when making reservations.

That does create the question of how the “advance” part of that is supposed to work if you’re on B2B cruises?  I’m fine with the agent part (more on that in a sec), but how are they supposed to apply the milestone to the cruise after you qualify in advance when you’re rolling right into that voyage?

 

The agent part I do get and fully support though...  The milestones (instead of the history) are managed in the back-end financial system, which the agents onboard don’t have access to.  (The same reason A&K doesn’t have that OC data.) The ships are often not even in the same business day as Miami.  What follows is often an inefficient back-and-forth that that is more efficiently managed by a passenger’s agent that is actually tasked with that type of work.  I’ve had family and traveling companions both forget to apply the onboard credit in advance over the years with OC and that process was never clean onboard, always met with “no promises, but we’ll try,” and often took days depending on where the ship was timezone-wise.

 

Vince