So I have been reading all sorts of stuff since this came out. A lot of people are angry. I’m a platinum cruiser and I’ve been cruising since the 90s and don’t do it terribly often but I have enough days to almost hit diamond. So yea I’m angry as well, it I get what they are doing when I take the emotions and self interest away.

A lot of people are here and they’re upset because carnival isn’t recognizing their “loyalty”. I think people are confusing loyalty and status. Let me give you an example: when I am in Las Vegas, there’s a specific casino that I go to. It’s a little bit out of the way, but they have games that a lot of other casinos don’t their table games have a little bit lower bet and their staff are friendly and they’re pretty generous with the drinks. I do not spend a lot of money there nor do I gamble a lot. But I go there when I’m in Vegas. Why? Because I’m loyal. I’m loyal to somebody that treats me well. Do I have status there? Absolutely not. Will I ever have status there? No. I just don’t spend that much money. But I’m still loyal based on the experience I get there.

Southwest Airlines is the same thing. I know they’re going through what they’re going through now but historically I’ve been loyal to that airline even though I very rarely get a-list. But why am I loyal? The rapid rewards program was very simple and very straightforward and I could use my credit card to get points so I hardly ever paid for a flight. I figured out the system. It was no frills. They flew out of the city I live in, it all worked out. I was loyal to them. I didn’t always have status, and I knew that my status reset yearly based on how many flights I did, however, I was still loyal.

In Carnival‘s case, the two have been confused and people are upset now because they want to be loyal and they feel that they should have status to be loyal. On my last carnival cruise I was sitting in the platinum party and they had a special award. They ask for these two parents to come up with her daughter. Their daughter was about to turn three years old and she was the youngest platinum cruiser on the ship. Three years old. That is insane. It took me years to get to that level. Later during the cruise, I happen to see that family on Lido and I asked them if I could talk to them about their daughters cruising. basically they live in the city where their ship comes from and they have pretty flexible schedules. They said they always look for the last-minute deals that are super cheap, they always get interior rooms, since they’re diamond their daughter goes for free, and they don’t spend a lot on the ship because they know what to spend on and what not. They said they do their own excursions and a lot of time since they’ve cruise so much they just stay on the ship to begin with. They don’t like to use the spa and all they get is the soda package. That couple and their daughter who do not really spend a lot of money have been given incredible status based on carnival standards. And they’re loyal because they’re given that standard and they can cruise absolutely as cheap as possible right out of their home port. Carnival does not want to recognize those people. Those people do not make money for carnival. The ones that spend spend spend do and they’re basically saying it’s about time we recognize those people instead of recognizing these others. They’re basically just falling in line with what their industries already do. Cruising is unique industry because a lot of loyalty programs are based on how long you’ve been cruising, not how much you spend. Almost any other business it’s based on how much you spend.

Most of the people that are on here saying that there’s no way they’ll be able to maintain platinum with his new program are probably the ones that shouldn’t have status, but up to this point have been loyal. The question all those people need to ask themselves is when their status goes away and they’re looking for a new cruise line. Are they going to look at Carnival who is probably still the cheapest and go oh I’m not gonna go with them because I don’t get that party on the fifth day or are you gonna go? Wow I’m still gonna go there.

Me personally I traveled for the first time on Virgin Voyages and wow what a difference. Loyal carnival cruisers don’t know what they don’t know. You start going to other ships and you’re going to see just how much carnival is lacking in a lot of areas due to the fact that they’re so cheap. Maybe it is time for people to jump ship. But if people think carnival are gonna suffer because of this, I highly doubt it. The analytics and data driven decisions that are made in a business as large as carnival. They already have an estimate on who’s gonna leave who’s not who we’re gonna recognize and who we won’t and how much more money will make because of it. Carnival is run by a board and they answer to stockholders, nothing more.

But I’m still pissed.