Mal617 Posted June 28 #1 Share Posted June 28 Hello All! I am currently booked on my 7th cruise and realized that I did not redeem my shipboard credit for my 5th milestone. I reached out to the loyalty team with Crystal and they expressed to me that they are not able to retroactively redeem past milestone rewards and that my next eligible milestone reward would be milestone 10. Does this sound right? I am really perplexed as to why I am unable to redeem my 5th milestone reward if it has never been used. Has this always been the case? Any clarification on this would be appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ryndam Posted June 28 #2 Share Posted June 28 Mal617, we recently had a similar experience with an unclaimed past milestone award accrued on OC. Our TA tried very hard with various Crystal representatives without much success. If you had any old, unredeemed milestone awards accrued under OC, you are just plain out-of-luck until you reach the next milestone level with NC. The new Crystal ownership acknowledges the number of sailed past Crystal cruises, but they apparently have no way to verify or validate if any previous milestone awards were redeemed or not. In your case, you will be eligible for your 10th milestone upon booking your 11th Crystal cruise. Your old, unredeemed 5th milestone award accrued under the previous ownership is, well, just a fond memory. We try to redeem our accrued loyalty awards (cruise lines, airlines, hotels, vendors, etc.) as soon as possible after accruing then, since we never know if those loyalty benefits will change or merely disappear. Your situation is not unique to those of us that were "in-between" milestone levels with unredeemed past milestone awards under the previous ownership. Rob 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWIVince Posted June 28 #3 Share Posted June 28 Old Crystal's financial records (where the loyalty award history lives) died with the assignment, basically. A&K has no right or access to that data. Fortunately a partial sailing history (mostly) exists in the customer data that A&K bought, so they can figure out how many voyages you've taken, and for most years they can see the basics of which cruises. That's the basic reason they're honoring everything you earn moving forward, but have no info on the old award history. Vince 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted June 28 #4 Share Posted June 28 Vince and Rob are correct. Crystal has no records of what milestone were used so what you were told is correct. Once you hit milestone 10 then you can use it on your 11 cruise. There is a saying use it or lose it so I always recommend using them as soon as you can. Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal617 Posted June 28 Author #5 Share Posted June 28 Thank you all for your thorough responses. It is good to know that the details given to me by Crystal were accurate. Very reassuring. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crickette Posted June 28 #6 Share Posted June 28 To put it another way - there are 2 databases. The customer database, and the financial database. A&K bought the customer database, which contains e-mail addresses, your cruise history, that sort of thing. The milestone rewards were recorded in the financial database, and it died with OC. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted June 29 #7 Share Posted June 29 those "lower" milestones are not the problem ... but suppose you did finish your 25 th ??? i did my 20th on the Esprit in 2019 and that was the highest level during that cruise- nearly all the other pax were first timers exception made for a couple in the owner's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Tillie Posted June 29 #8 Share Posted June 29 7 minutes ago, vistaman said: those "lower" milestones are not the problem ... but suppose you did finish your 25 th ??? i did my 20th on the Esprit in 2019 and that was the highest level during that cruise- nearly all the other pax were first timers exception made for a couple in the owner's Even with old Crystal, when they changed the Crystal Society program, the old program became immediately void. The 25th milestone in the old program was a free 7 day cruise in a balcony (or 7 free days prorated to a longer cruise). The new program was something like $3,000 off any cruise. By that time 7 days in a balcony cost more than $3,000. I know several people who had "banked" that milestone and lost out. Lesson, use any and all milestones as soon as earned. Patty 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted June 29 #9 Share Posted June 29 2 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said: Even with old Crystal, when they changed the Crystal Society program, the old program became immediately void. The 25th milestone in the old program was a free 7 day cruise in a balcony (or 7 free days prorated to a longer cruise). The new program was something like $3,000 off any cruise. By that time 7 days in a balcony cost more than $3,000. I know several people who had "banked" that milestone and lost out. Lesson, use any and all milestones as soon as earned. Patty i started in 2002 on Crystal , doing one cruise every year on C i remember after a fifth there used to be a small credit for every cruise in those days - times are changing I was still doing Cunard and SB ( i did receive a one week free cruise ) in those days before i moved to Hapag in 2007 there was also something as some upgrades - by booking a "better" balcony one could reach the cheapest 🤑 PH on old C - what i also missed I know 21 C cruises is not a lot in the US - in Europe it is something else SS is having a poor reward system - I got a match on MSC - diamond you do receive cheap bottles fruits candies and chocolates and a souvenir ( in Yacht Club ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted June 29 #10 Share Posted June 29 3 minutes ago, vistaman said: i started in 2002 on Crystal , doing one cruise every year on C i remember after a fifth there used to be a small credit for every cruise in those days - times are changing I was still doing Cunard and SB ( i did receive a one week free cruise ) in those days before i moved to Hapag in 2007 there was also something as some upgrades - by booking a "better" balcony one could reach the cheapest 🤑 PH on old C - what i also missed I know 21 C cruises is not a lot in the US - in Europe it is something else SS is having a poor reward system - I got a match on MSC - diamond you do receive cheap bottles fruits candies and chocolates and a souvenir ( in Yacht Club ) Crystal used to give things often and that included gifts. It must have cost them a fortune.When they changed that around 2005 people were very upset. I am not sure which brought out the most anger; changing that or when they announced inclusive. Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comas Posted June 29 #11 Share Posted June 29 We returned to Crystal Symphony in September 2023. During that cruise we found in our room two Emerald badges signifying our 5th. cruise. Puzzling, as we’d already received that award from Old Crystal. We returned them, with an explanation, to the future sales person who would investigate. We never did get a response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaman Posted June 29 #12 Share Posted June 29 3 hours ago, Keith1010 said: Crystal used to give things often and that included gifts. It must have cost them a fortune.When they changed that around 2005 people were very upset. I am not sure which brought out the most anger; changing that or when they announced inclusive. Keith😄 that was the same on the defunct Royal Viking Line , bought by Cunard in 1994 and Cunard itself was also in trouble you started with 2 aquavit glasses , then wine glasses, a silver plated beaker, a decanter ... all sent to your home address with a bill by the customs😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWIVince Posted July 3 #13 Share Posted July 3 On 6/29/2024 at 6:47 AM, Keith1010 said: Crystal used to give things often and that included gifts. It must have cost them a fortune.When they changed that around 2005 people were very upset. I am not sure which brought out the most anger; changing that or when they announced inclusive. Keith In the 90’s, I can remember the swag display that used to live in the Crystal Plaza, showing the gifts you got at each tier. 😁 Vince 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now