Thursday, March 23, 2017
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Loyalty Program News. -- What's this that I signed up for?
Statement of Principles for Loyalty Program News.
Uh, -- What's this that Isigned up for anyways?
Here's what the opt-in question says on the questionnaire fromwww.YourTravelScore.com [__] - Check here forLoyalty Program News. Opt in to receive our highly focused weekly newslettersometimes more often with breaking news) with the latest on how to buy, sell,trade, earn, get, share, give, and receive points in cruise ship loyaltyprograms worldwide, including which lines are honoring other line’s statuspoints. We will never spam you.
Our goal is to be the "gas in lamp" on this singlefocused topic of cruise line loyalty programs. [Yes, now and then we might wander over to hotel & air programs too.]
What prompted this?
There is a trend that started with the airline alliances thatcarriers will 'code share' and allow members of one loyalty status program to benefitfrom another program.
You can see that with the airline programs One World and StarAlliance:
One World key members are shown on their site:https:/ /www.oneworld.com/and include American Airlines and British Airways:
Star Alliance key members are shown here:https://www.oneworld.com/member-airlines/overview and include Untied, AirCanada, and Air China.
Basically there are two major alliances.
Will cruise ships do the same?
In some ways there already are two groups --- Those under theCarnival umbrella and those that are not.
According to Wikipedia Carnival controls 21% of the cruiseindustry with 25 ships under the Carnival flag and another 75 plus ships undernine other lines. There is some very limited reciprocity between lines. TheCarnival VIFP (Very Important Fun Person) program does not cross all lines.
There is a trend of cruise lines offering matching loyalty bonusto traveler who switch lines, as shown in the MSC Loyalty Status Match offer --that's here:
https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/MSC-Voyagers-Club/Loyalty-Match-Program.aspx
The advent of travel companies doing status match is clearlyshown for air, hotel, & car rental at http://www.statusmatcher.com/ -- sitethat reports on incidents of travel company accommodations to loyalty matching.
So, will this loyalty match phenomenon grow into cruise lineAlliance programs?
That the news story this blog will cover.
More news soon.
Take action today, request your Travel Score and opt-in for ourLoyalty Program News email newsletter at www.YourTravelScore.com Signing off.
Luck be with you.
Mitchell P. Davis
CEO, CruisingSociety.com
A Broadcast Interview Source, Inc.company
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