Royal Caribbean (RCL) recently made a massive change to its loyalty programs across all three of its cruise line brands. It now recognizes passengers on all three cruise lines at the highest level of status they have earned on any of the lines.
The three cruise lines, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea, used to offer a limited match program. Basically, the sister brands previously only matched status to the level two from the top.
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That level — Diamond on Royal Caribbean, Elite on Celebrity, 250 Days on Silversea — is essentially the first one with meaningful perks.
Under the new program, it's a full status match so people who have top-tier status on any of the Royal Caribbean brands now have it across all three. They still only earn points toward status on the line they're actually sailing on, and each line has its own points total.
In addition, the perks do not travel between lines. Instead, the passengers get the benefits for the comparable level on the line they are sailing.
For example, Royal Caribbean Diamond-level members get four free drinks up to $14 each day that can be redeemed at any time, pretty much anywhere on the ship. Celebrity Elite members (the level that corresponds with Diamond) get a daily happy hour from 5-7 p.m. where a limited selection of drinks are offered at some of the ship's bars (but not in its restaurants or dining rooms).
Carnival Corporation (CCL) , like Royal Caribbean, also operates multiple cruise lines. One of its passengers asked Brand Ambassador John Heald a key question about its VIFP loyalty program.
Image source: Dennis Post/ComeCruiseWith.com
Carnival takes on loyalty match question
"Since the parent company owns other cruise line brands besides Carnival, what is the possibility of having agreements between the brands to share points? So I could sail on Carnival and say Cunard and get credit for overall sailings. This is similar to, say, Caesars, where they have different brands, but points earned at each brand go to total points and rewards," Bill Chick Hart asked.
Caesars Entertainment's (CZR) situation is a little different. It operates a number of different hotel/casino brand names including Harrah's, Horseshoe, the Linq, and more, but all of those brands share the same management.
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean operate their various cruise lines as separate businesses. Brands like Costa, Princess Cruises, and Holland America Line have their own profit-and-loss sheets and management, while Caesars' brands are really just different names, not fully separate businesses.
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Heald, however, did address the question.
"Thank you so much; unfortunately, at the moment, there are no plans to do this. Each of the cruise lines is run completely separately with a completely separate loyalty program, so at the moment, there is no synergy between us," he wrote.
Carnival does not offer any loyalty match between its brands. That could entice passengers to try another cruise line that offers a loyalty match.
Both Virgin Voyages and MSC Cruises have loyalty match programs. They don't give passengers who earned status on other lines the same perks the passengers get on their "home" cruise line, but they do give them the comparable Virgin or MSC status level.
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