No more Simply More

[iowananny]

A loss of almost $2000 is significant.  I think many of those who take longer cruises are going to think twice about booking with Oceania.  What O may have thought seemed like a good idea, although they've been through several what they thought were good ideas, might not work.

 

We've got two cruises booked so I assume we're still under the SM package but we will have to consider who to cruise with in the future.  I guess we're all lucky, there are plenty of cruise companies to choose from.

 

And I get to answer to the Wichita Lineman.  Remember, you're still on my miiiiinnnnd... ... ... ...

 

  

[jonthomas]

I would like to see O update the loyalty benefits, with improved incentives.

Not going to happen.

[ICT lineman]

Thank You 😉

 

21 minutes ago, iowananny said:

A loss of almost $2000 is significant.  I think many of those who take longer cruises are going to think twice about booking with Oceania.  What O may have thought seemed like a good idea, although they've been through several what they thought were good ideas, might not work.

 

We've got two cruises booked so I assume we're still under the SM package but we will have to consider who to cruise with in the future.  I guess we're all lucky, there are plenty of cruise companies to choose from.

 

And I get to answer to the Wichita Lineman.  Remember, you're still on my miiiiinnnnd... ... ... ...

 

  

 

[EJL2023]

18 minutes ago, iowananny said:

A loss of almost $2000 is significant.  I think many of those who take longer cruises are going to think twice about booking with Oceania.  What O may have thought seemed like a good idea, although they've been through several what they thought were good ideas, might not work.

 

We've got two cruises booked so I assume we're still under the SM package but we will have to consider who to cruise with in the future.  I guess we're all lucky, there are plenty of cruise companies to choose from.

 

And I get to answer to the Wichita Lineman.  Remember, you're still on my miiiiinnnnd... ... ... ...

 

  

It sure is! For our booked cruise the total difference is $1416. I know many say just have to look at it as a price increase and I get it, but that would be one heck of an increase compared to their usual quarterly price increases.  This would equate to about 2 quarters worth of price increase based upon how our currently booked cruises have increased each quarter so far this year.  We have 2 cruises booked and we may actually book another one before the end of the month with SM and take advantage of the 30 day prior onboard pricing and perks too. We have a 4 day window or so….after that, who knows. 

[Rainbow3fe]

10 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

I would like to see O update the loyalty benefits, with improved incentives.

Not going to happen.

Has anyone found out about the new Oceania Club perks?

     Do you think they'll be in effect for our current bookings on future cruises? We have 1 OLife and 2 SM coming up. I hope they'll honor the original Club level rewards. 

[ICT lineman]

My initial thought was that those of us with the pre-paid gratuities Loyalty perk should receive daily $ x number of days. Penthouse+ @ $36/day, other cabins @ $32/day.

 

Our shortest Oceania cruise was 10-days to Cuba with two at 38-days.

 

A blanket $250 SBC is not a ‘reward’ to Loyal passengers.

[Jayne E]

5 minutes ago, ICT lineman said:

My initial thought was that those of us with the pre-paid gratuities Loyalty perk should receive daily $ x number of days. Penthouse+ @ $36/day, other cabins @ $32/day.

 

Our shortest Oceania cruise was 10-days to Cuba with two at 38-days.

 

A blanket $250 SBC is not a ‘reward’ to Loyal passengers.

$250 is an insult to long time O cruisers. This change is targeting new cruisers and even they are getting short changed….just not that much. 

[Kay S]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

If posting "many who are venting are doing so because they are in many ways hurt", is not an unevidenced and unfounded presumption, then I really don't know what might be. 

 

 

 

Not to jump into a silly fight, but he did say "many" people are venting and not "all" people are venting, so the supposed presumption does not necessarily apply to you (or me.)

 

I am doing my inaugural O cruise under SM, so I don't have a lot of emotion invested in this.  My beef was always with the "forced" excursions.  

[ICT lineman]

13 minutes ago, Jayne E said:

$250 is an insult to long time O cruisers. This change is targeting new cruisers and even they are getting short changed….just not that much. 

My thought exactly !
 

I am sure someone, if not Jancruz, at Oceania has followed this thread.

 

I will stand by initial suggestion : ‘those of us with the pre-paid gratuities Loyalty perk should receive daily $ x number of cruise days’ … not $250.

[Jancruz]

20 minutes ago, ICT lineman said:

My thought exactly !
 

I am sure someone, if not Jancruz, at Oceania has followed this thread.

 

I will stand by initial suggestion : ‘those of us with the pre-paid gratuities Loyalty perk should receive daily $ x number of cruise days’ … not $250.

One person at O follows CC occasionally but he wont answer your questions..

I send a lot of your answers on Oceania threads to people there..if I think they might do something about it...

Jancruz1

Edited September 7 by Jancruz

[Woofa]

I have a question.  In truth this does not affect us at all with only 1 cruise so far.  I am getting the idea over the last few pages that people are saying the new program will be a  major issue for high loyalty level customers taking long cruises because they believe instead of free gratuities they will get $250 per stateroom.  Please forgive me if I missed this but I read the changes at included gratuities for all guests on any length cruise then on top the loyalty levels get the additional $250 per stateroom.  So in fact those customers actually gain the $250.

And I know it has been mentioned in this thread that it is possible, some TA's like ours who included gratuities on most cruises (we recently found out not all as our Thanksgiving Marina cruise is not covered,) might be able to substitute a different perk.

Can someone clarify?  

[Jayne E]

2 minutes ago, Woofa said:

I have a question.  In truth this does not affect us at all with only 1 cruise so far.  I am getting the idea over the last few pages that people are saying the new program will be a  major issue for high loyalty level customers taking long cruises because they believe instead of free gratuities they will get $250 per stateroom.  Please forgive me if I missed this but I read the changes at included gratuities for all guests on any length cruise then on top the loyalty levels get the additional $250 per stateroom.  So in fact those customers actually gain the $250.

And I know it has been mentioned in this thread that it is possible, some TA's like ours who included gratuities on most cruises (we recently found out not all as our Thanksgiving Marina cruise is not covered,) might be able to substitute a different perk.

Can someone clarify?  

I am booked with SM for a B2B Riviera for 18/14 days.  I am presently receiving $800 excursion credit for each cruise, total of $1,600 and the lesser drink package.

If this cruise is booked "after" 9/30, the drink package is gone and the $1,600 excursion credits will be replaced with $250 SBC for each cruise, a total of $500.

So....there is an immediate loss of $1,100 benefits without adding in the drink package. This is not insignificant.

Last May our B2B SM received $2,000 total excursion credit, plus drinks.

You can easily see the difference.

 

[ICT lineman]

4 minutes ago, Jancruz said:

One person at O follows CC occasionally but he wont answer your questions..

I send a lot of your answers on Oceania threads to people there..if I think they might do something about it...

Jancruz1

 

My only request is that Oceania rethink the blanket $250 to Loyal customers.

If Oceania needs an additional $864 (24 days x $36/day) from me, they can just continue with seemingly unfounded frequent fare increases.

 

Given the overall passenger demographics there are very few who are receiving the Silver+ perk.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Woofa said:

I have a question.  In truth this does not affect us at all with only 1 cruise so far.  I am getting the idea over the last few pages that people are saying the new program will be a  major issue for high loyalty level customers taking long cruises because they believe instead of free gratuities they will get $250 per stateroom.  Please forgive me if I missed this but I read the changes at included gratuities for all guests on any length cruise then on top the loyalty levels get the additional $250 per stateroom.  So in fact those customers actually gain the $250.

And I know it has been mentioned in this thread that it is possible, some TA's like ours who included gratuities on most cruises (we recently found out not all as our Thanksgiving Marina cruise is not covered,) might be able to substitute a different perk.

Can someone clarify?  

 

If I read it correctly, under the new program, top level guests would only receive $250 SBC. On our last 38-day cruise, the pre-paid gratuities perk = $1,368.

[Woofa]

14 minutes ago, Jayne E said:

I am booked with SM for a B2B Riviera for 18/14 days.  I am presently receiving $800 excursion credit for each cruise, total of $1,600 and the lesser drink package.

If this cruise is booked "after" 9/30, the drink package is gone and the $1,600 excursion credits will be replaced with $250 SBC for each cruise, a total of $500.

So....there is an immediate loss of $1,100 benefits without adding in the drink package. This is not insignificant.

Last May our B2B SM received $2,000 total excursion credit, plus drinks.

You can easily see the difference.

 

This is exactly what I thought and without question is a big loss.  I was only asking about the gratuity issue.

 

5 minutes ago, ICT lineman said:

 

My only request is that Oceania rethink the blanket $250 to Loyal customers.

If Oceania needs an additional $864 (24 days x $36/day) from me, they can just continue with seemingly unfounded frequent fare increases.

 

Given the overall passenger demographics there are very few who are receiving the Silver+ perk.

 

 

 

If I read it correctly, under the new program, top level guests would only receive $250 SBC. On our last 38-day cruise, the pre-paid gratuities perk = $1,368.

this is my question.  I read it as you will all gratuities free and then get $250 credit per stateroom.  This is the question I am looking to clarify.

[Rainbow3fe]

20 minutes ago, Woofa said:

I have a question.  In truth this does not affect us at all with only 1 cruise so far.  I am getting the idea over the last few pages that people are saying the new program will be a  major issue for high loyalty level customers taking long cruises because they believe instead of free gratuities they will get $250 per stateroom.  Please forgive me if I missed this but I read the changes at included gratuities for all guests on any length cruise then on top the loyalty levels get the additional $250 per stateroom.  So in fact those customers actually gain the $250.

And I know it has been mentioned in this thread that it is possible, some TA's like ours who included gratuities on most cruises (we recently found out not all as our Thanksgiving Marina cruise is not covered,) might be able to substitute a different perk.

Can someone clarify?  

      If everyone is getting the gratuities then Oceania Club Silver and above are losing that nice loyalty reward.

     We aren't gaining $250 because $125 pp isn't nearly enough to compensate for loss of gratuities as a perk. The loyalty incentives are now minimal. 

[Woofa]

6 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

      If everyone is getting the gratuities then Oceania Club Silver and above are losing that nice loyalty reward.

     We aren't gaining $250 because $125 pp isn't nearly enough to compensate for loss of gratuities as a perk. The loyalty incentives are now minimal. 

Okay so to be clear, you still get all gratuities plus the $250 and the main concern is that the loyalty perk is diminishing.  Again, I have no issue with that but I just had the feeling that some were thinking they actually had to pay for any gratuities over $250 per stateroom. I appreciate the clarification. And of course, like many newer cruisers, we would not sail exclusively with O just to get the loyalty perks.  Without question, what seemed a no brainer five years ago under cruise only fares has now become a case where we will have to put in more time comparing cruise lines in every situation before booking.  Time will tell and of course O sales may make a difference as well.  It had been our plan to purchase a "cruise to be named later on this next cruise as we did on our first.  We will most likely do that again but by November who knows?

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, Jayne E said:

$250 is an insult to long time O cruisers. This change is targeting new cruisers and even they are getting short changed….just not that much. 

 

When Crystal went out of business, SB offered status match to C refuges. We did a single cruise with C, but got Silver status on SB.

 

Then we booked MSC Yacht Club and they did status match to SB - we got Diamond, their highest status.

 

In both cases we got status without sailing a single day with them.

 

So yes, all lines are trying to attract new cruisers, and couldn't care less about loyalty. Maybe it would be different if guests voted with their wallets too, like we do. We sailed on 12 different lines and doing 2 more in the next 6 months. Always based on itinerary and the overall package. Never on loyalty.

 

Yes, getting a free cruise after 20 cruises is nice - but it's basically equivalent to 5% discount. Nice but doesn't change the big picture.

[ICT lineman]

Verses ‘Simply More’ …

 

under the new ‘Your World Include’ scheme, passengers are also loosing the Excursion credit ($600 to $1,400 value) and the Select Beverage package ($40/day x 2) a $1,020 value on a 14-day cruise.

[Thought2go]

2 hours ago, ICT lineman said:

 

 

Bottom line … $504 + $600 + $1,120 = $2,224 - $250 = a $1,974 USD loss.

This is a chunk of change and certainly does not bode well for Oceania. The loss of amenities for any class of customer- new or loyalty, IMHO, cheapens the image and message Oceania tries to portray in their glossies.

I’ve already struggled on their cuts to the menus I had come to expect to have available as was printed at time of booking and were important to me. Those cuts and changes happened in very short order from my booking on their R class this year. But what’s done is done and I’m sure their salads will be just the best at Sea…😳😎😳

[ICT lineman]

8 minutes ago, Woofa said:

Okay so to be clear, you still get all gratuities plus the $250 and the main concern is that the loyalty perk is diminishing.  Again, I have no issue with that but I just had the feeling that some were thinking they actually had to pay for any gratuities over $250 per stateroom. I appreciate the clarification. …

 

Earlier in this thread there was a Oceania PDF to download.

 

Those with Silver+ status will now get $250 per stateroom … not the previous $38/day x number of cruise days. This is a substantial $ amount.

 

 

[SATaxman]

We have been on one O cruise last October. Have 2 more booked. This is a big change and I can understand the uproar. Our TA provides gratuities for our next 2 booked under SM. Hopefully they will provide the drink package or more OBC for cruises booked after October 1st. Only time will tell. O is so much more to our liking than other lunes we cruised in the past.

[SATaxman]

Just now, SATaxman said:

We have been on one O cruise last October. Have 2 more booked. This is a big change and I can understand the uproar. Our TA provides gratuities for our next 2 booked under SM. Hopefully they will provide the drink package or more OBC for cruises booked after October 1st. Only time will tell. O is so much more to our liking than other lunes we cruised in the past.

Lines not lunes.

[cswhistler]

We have another cruise for 19 days Jan 25 and hopefully the contract will be honoured of beer& wine and credits. as we are Platinum members with 382 days with O we already have the grats covered. Loyalty has been decreased over the past years and this further reduction may make us shop around!

Not pleased about O dropping airfare as we usually booked that as well.

Now airfare can be added but at huge increased prices.

[EJL2023]

Heck, I guess we should be thankful they didn’t take that second WIFI away!!  yet….

[SATaxman]

16 minutes ago, cswhistler said:

We have another cruise for 19 days Jan 25 and hopefully the contract will be honoured of beer& wine and credits. as we are Platinum members with 382 days with O we already have the grats covered. Loyalty has been decreased over the past years and this further reduction may make us shop around!

Not pleased about O dropping airfare as we usually booked that as well.

Now airfare can be added but at huge increased prices.

I think the change is for bookings after October.