World Club Question

[Poole Boy]

Just come off the QA Round Britain, No Captains welcome party and No Senior officers Party  on this 14 day cruise, if this now the same on the other ships ? All my recent cruises on QE / QV have had restrictions on parties due to either Covid or Noro, so don't have a recent cruise to compare to.

 

We did however get a 1/2 bottle of PA on the evening of the CWC party and a glass of Fizz at dinner on the first formal evening.

[Pushpit]

Just now, Poole Boy said:

Just come off the QA Round Britain, No Captains welcome party and No Senior officers Party  on this 14 day cruise, if this now the same on the other ships ? All my recent cruises on QE / QV have had restrictions on parties due to either Covid or Noro, so don't have a recent cruise to compare to.

I've been invited to these parties on QM2 and QV in the last 6 months.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, Victoria2 said:

I had heard the scheme was up for revision.

 

Loyalty to me means regular booking of Cunard cruises, be it in a Q1or an inside although I think trips longer than shorties should be considered simply because location plays a part in the shorties as much as loyalty.

 

Good luck in fathoming any revision out Cunard! 😄

OOPS Huge error

 

SHOULDN'T be considered simply because location plays a part in the shorties as much as loyalty!

[david63]

It comes down to how do you define loyalty?

 

Is it the number of cruises, the number of nights, the cruise price, the onboard spend or any combination of these?

[Bell Boy]

36 minutes ago, Poole Boy said:

Just come off the QA Round Britain, No Captains welcome party and No Senior officers Party  on this 14 day cruise, if this now the same on the other ships ? All my recent cruises on QE / QV have had restrictions on parties due to either Covid or Noro, so don't have a recent cruise to compare to.

 

We did however get a 1/2 bottle of PA on the evening of the CWC party and a glass of Fizz at dinner on the first formal evening.

The 'Captains Reception' that 'everyone' had an invitation to ( regardless if one was already a member of the Cunard World Club or not) has now been discontinued, however, on your QA Round Britain a CWC party ( in fact three over two evening) took place.  the Senior officers party ( usually a lunch time affair) still take place on the QM2/Vista fleet .

 

    

[Se1lad]

11 minutes ago, david63 said:

It comes down to how do you define loyalty?

 

Is it the number of cruises, the number of nights, the cruise price, the onboard spend or any combination of these?

I think it should be a combination of these.  With the current setup you could book 15 x 2 night cruises at £200pp = £3000 pp in total to get to Diamond.  You could book a 2 week cruise in a Q1 and spend £7,500pp and be silver!

[Victoria2]

 You could book a 2 week cruise in a Q1 and spend £7,500pp

 

Really?

 

Don't you mean a week?

[Victoria2]

17 minutes ago, david63 said:

It comes down to how do you define loyalty?

 

Is it the number of cruises, the number of nights, the cruise price, the onboard spend or any combination of these?

Nightmare!!

[Pushpit]

Loyalty, when it comes to customer relationships, is quite different to loyalty to your friends, your church, your dog, your political party. So you should chuck out any sense of love, attractiveness, fairness, whether you are somehow more deserving compared to others. It's business, big business.

 

Where does this loyalty help Cunard? A mailing list of people who can be relied upon to meet your sunk costs, particularly when things don't go to plan. Dob the fares 5%, send an email, and they will book up. Getting 10 sailings out of one person, for less marketing cost than 1 new person is fantastic for business.

 

Some here think it's in some way wrong for shorties to count - well again you can ditch that moral compass, what matters to Cunard is that they fill every stateroom, ideally with someone who drinks / gambles / goes to the spa / alternative dining. An empty stateroom isn't just a lost fare, it is a huge lost opportunity, hence why Southampton - Hamburg 2 nighters can go as low as £99 per person (and with perhaps $75 OBC). They make nowt from the stateroom at that fare, but the bar revenue is close to 50% margin on many items so for Cunard it's still money in the till. Those non drinkers (like me) are a bit of a waste of space on the whole, but a good fare for me is a good fare for Cunard's owners.

 

Oh, and life is unfair folks.

[exlondoner]

11 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

Loyalty, when it comes to customer relationships, is quite different to loyalty to your friends, your church, your dog, your political party. So you should chuck out any sense of love, attractiveness, fairness, whether you are somehow more deserving compared to others. It's business, big business.

 

Where does this loyalty help Cunard? A mailing list of people who can be relied upon to meet your sunk costs, particularly when things don't go to plan. Dob the fares 5%, send an email, and they will book up. Getting 10 sailings out of one person, for less marketing cost than 1 new person is fantastic for business.

 

Some here think it's in some way wrong for shorties to count - well again you can ditch that moral compass, what matters to Cunard is that they fill every stateroom, ideally with someone who drinks / gambles / goes to the spa / alternative dining. An empty stateroom isn't just a lost fare, it is a huge lost opportunity, hence why Southampton - Hamburg 2 nighters can go as low as £99 per person (and with perhaps $75 OBC). They make nowt from the stateroom at that fare, but the bar revenue is close to 50% margin on many items so for Cunard it's still money in the till. Those non drinkers (like me) are a bit of a waste of space on the whole, but a good fare for me is a good fare for Cunard's owners.

 

Oh, and life is unfair folks.

I am a disaster for Cunard. I don’t gamble, have never used the spa (and never would), only use alternative dining when it is a freebie, and rarely use the bars, though we do have wine with meals. I’m surprised they still allow me on board. 😀

[Pushpit]

23 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I am a disaster for Cunard. I don’t gamble, have never used the spa (and never would), only use alternative dining when it is a freebie, and rarely use the bars, though we do have wine with meals. I’m surprised they still allow me on board. 😀

I think you don't book that many £99 Inside staterooms at 3 weeks notice via direct purchase though? 

[Victoria2]

20 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I am a disaster for Cunard. I don’t gamble, have never used the spa (and never would), only use alternative dining when it is a freebie, and rarely use the bars, though we do have wine with meals. I’m surprised they still allow me on board. 😀

and us, although we do use the bars and pay for additional bottles of alcohol when having folk 'in' rather than bringing bottles onboard.

 

Rather shabby of us too I guess!  😀

 

I did buy a teddy in the shop though, will that count as revenue for Cunard? 😁

[WantedOnVoyage]

We had 3-4 invites to various Senior whomevers for Diamond/Platinum whatevers during our 25 days aboard QV last month and as usual, gave them all a pass.

 

I'd rather, as we did, have numerous pleasant chats with Captain Hoyt who, rather unusally, for a Cunard captain, actively circulates in the public rooms during the evenings, including the Grills Lounge one evening which was delightful.  Or, indeed, chat with QV's lonely sole deck cadet. One of the reason we like QV is she often has very sociable officers as well as super friendly crew without the artifice of "Senior Officers.... parties."  

 

But these mass pat-on-the-head receptions don't float our boat or egos... we had something like 1,500 (!) Diamond and Platinum members on the outward leg from Southampton and there's nothing more deflating that "belonging" to a club that everyone belongs to. And get a vaguely flat half-filled glass of something for the effort. 

Edited June 9 by WantedOnVoyage

[david63]

1 hour ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

"belonging" to a club that everyone belongs to

In the words of Groucho Marx

[NE John]

To thin out the ranks of CWC members, regarding so many that can take advantage of priority boarding, Cunard should lower a passenger’s tier one level with no cruises after five years and a pax must from scratch if no cruises within 10 years. Time between cruises is also a measure of loyalty. 

[exlondoner]

11 hours ago, Pushpit said:

I think you don't book that many £99 Inside staterooms at 3 weeks notice via direct purchase though? 

Not usually, no. 😀

[exlondoner]

11 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

and us, although we do use the bars and pay for additional bottles of alcohol when having folk 'in' rather than bringing bottles onboard.

 

Rather shabby of us too I guess!  😀

 

I did buy a teddy in the shop though, will that count as revenue for Cunard? 😁

When there is a bookshop, I nearly always buy a book. Hint, hint, Cunard.

[King Amo]

4 hours ago, NE John said:

To thin out the ranks of CWC members, regarding so many that can take advantage of priority boarding, Cunard should lower a passenger’s tier one level with no cruises after five years and a pax must from scratch if no cruises within 10 years. Time between cruises is also a measure of loyalty. 

Have to say I disagree with this. There are many reasons why people's circumstances may change and lead to pauses, not least having children (I recognise this isn't an issue for much of Cunard's main demographic🙂), looking after loved ones or health-related inability to travel (the latter two much more likely). To have your loyalty benefits eroded would seem very unfair. 

[Clewgarnet]

3 minutes ago, King Amo said:

Have to say I disagree with this. There are many reasons why people's circumstances may change and lead to pauses, not least having children (I recognise this isn't an issue for much of Cunard's main demographic🙂), looking after loved ones or health-related inability to travel (the latter two much more likely). To have your loyalty benefits eroded would seem very unfair. 

 

I'd disagree. (And I say that as somebody who will be losing my Lufthansa Senator status this year, because an injury led to me having to cancel a handful of planned flights.) It's pretty common for loyalty status to age out if it isn't used.

 

Maybe something whereby it doesn't take as much to 'reactivate' a status, rather than achieving it from scratch?

[Victoria2]

9 hours ago, WantedOnVoyage said:

We had 3-4 invites to various Senior whomevers for Diamond/Platinum whatevers during our 25 days aboard QV last month and as usual, gave them all a pass.

 

I'd rather, as we did, have numerous pleasant chats with Captain Hoyt who, rather unusally, for a Cunard captain, actively circulates in the public rooms during the evenings, including the Grills Lounge one evening which was delightful.  Or, indeed, chat with QV's lonely sole deck cadet. One of the reason we like QV is she often has very sociable officers as well as super friendly crew without the artifice of "Senior Officers.... parties."  

 

But these mass pat-on-the-head receptions don't float our boat or egos... we had something like 1,500 (!) Diamond and Platinum members on the outward leg from Southampton and there's nothing more deflating that "belonging" to a club that everyone belongs to. And get a vaguely flat half-filled glass of something for the effort. 

We don't bother with mass frequent flyer parties either but they are popular and if folk like them, then they should stay.

There again, I'm not bothered if we never meet the Captain just as I'm sure deep down, the Captain isn't bothered meeting us either. As long as he/she is competent driving the boat or making sure their staff are too, that'll do.

 

So saying, a couple of cabin parties has meant we have met a couple of deputy captains. All jolly pleasant chaps.

[NE John]

4 hours ago, King Amo said:

Have to say I disagree with this. There are many reasons why people's circumstances may change and lead to pauses, not least having children (I recognise this isn't an issue for much of Cunard's main demographic🙂), looking after loved ones or health-related inability to travel (the latter two much more likely). To have your loyalty benefits eroded would seem very unfair. 

I’m not sure if I agree with myself too but there is concern that the priority lines are too long so maybe culling the CWC would help with that issue. 

[Pushpit]

5 hours ago, King Amo said:

Have to say I disagree with this. There are many reasons why people's circumstances may change and lead to pauses, not least having children (I recognise this isn't an issue for much of Cunard's main demographic🙂), looking after loved ones or health-related inability to travel (the latter two much more likely). To have your loyalty benefits eroded would seem very unfair. 

Fairness isn't relevant to Cunard (it may well be for you). The sole question from Cunard's perspective is whether booting someone out of CWC is commercially sensible or not. Bear in mind that the costs of "making the deal" to someone completely outside of Cunard is a lot higher than someone who knows and presumably likes the Cunard product. So as it happens, Cunard would agree with you, a former passenger is a future passenger waiting for the right time.

 

We can be pretty confident that if it made commercial sense to ditch someone from CWC or cut their status, then Cunard / Carnival would have done so. I can't see the commercial sense in doing this, since the added benefit they would get out of other CWC members is not obviously higher than enticing a former customer.

[napria]

Gee, when I started this topic all I wanted was a pin, and a discount on internet 😆

[Host Hattie]

29 minutes ago, napria said:

Gee, when I started this topic all I wanted was a pin, and a discount on internet 😆

Thank goodness it wasn't something really controversial like tipping or dress code 🤦‍♀️

[Toffeegirl68]

I have my pin on my lanyard.

 

I wear the lanyard during the day with my room card attached .... many things I wear don't have pockets and it saves me having to carry a bag about just for a tiny little card 🥰.