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Royal Caribbean Group announced some exciting news this morning. They are now offering a full status match between their three primary brands, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea.
What Does This Mean?
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have long had an elite status match arrangement where certain elite tiers received a near equivalent status in the other’s program. With this announcement, there will now be a full equivalent match between the programs and it now includes Royal Caribbean Group’s more luxurious line, Silversea. This is “one for one” status meaning that if you’re in the top tier of one program, you’re top tier across them all.
For example, my Diamond Plus status with Royal Caribbean has historically granted me “ELITE” status with Celebrity Cruises. A solid benefit for sure, but slightly below where I’d be with equivalent status with Celebrity. Now, I’m “ELITE Plus” on Celebrity, and true to their word, my elevated status on Celebrity was reflected in my profile within hours of when I first heard of this announcement this morning. And soon, I’ll have an equivalent status with Silversea. Here’s a chart reflecting where matching status will fall across the three lines.
According to Royal Caribbean Group,
“The new program is part of the Group’s commitment to delivering the best vacations responsibly is increased with the new Loyalty Status Match. By aligning its three industry-leading brands and recognizing guest loyalty across the fleet, the Loyalty Status Match programs aims to provide an unparalleled vacation experience that rewards guests. Program highlights include:
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- Seamless Status Recognition: Members of Crown & Anchor Society, Captain’s Club and Venetian Society are now eligible to receive one-for-one status match across all three brands after enrolling in each of the brand programs.
- Onboard Benefits: When sailing on each sister brand, guests can enjoy the onboard benefits offered by each brand for their equivalent tier status.
- Effortless Tier Matching: Guests already enrolled in two or three of the individual brand loyalty programs will be automatically matched with the other brands within seven days to ensure guests receive their appropriate loyalty status. For guests not currently enrolled in one or more of the programs, their status will be matched automatically within seven days once they do enroll in the various brand loyalty program.
- Enhanced Travel Experience: Status match enables guests to select from a broader and more diverse range of vacation experiences and destinations.”
Conclusion
This is a real benefit enhancement for those that regularly cruise with the Royal Caribbean Group lines. Personally, I will benefit from this as I have both a Royal Caribbean (where I hold Diamond Plus status), and Celebrity cruise (now Elite Plus status) this year. If you’re already enrolled in all three loyalty programs, you’ll automatically be elevated to a matched status, as I was with Celebrity Cruises. If you’re not enrolled in others, as I am not in the Silversea program, you’ll receive an email or should have on May 30th, to instruct you on how to enroll in a matching program.
Overall, I think this is a real enhancement in loyalty programs for cruise lines that are members of a family of multiple brands. Now, let’s see if Carnival Corporation comes up with something similar.
-MJ
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This is great news and industry leading! Hopefully the other biggies follow their lead. Would love for my Oceania status to be matched on NCL and RSSC cruises. It’s also smart marketing as it makes me want to build on my Celebrity Captain’s Club status to reap benefits on the other lines.
I think it’s good news as well, Michael.
For the most part, this is a “full” status match in name only. I also am a RCCL Diamond plus and receive 5 comp drinks per day and 2 free days WIFI (among other things) when sailing on a RCCL cruise. If this was a true “full” status match, why doesn’t Celebrity offer these same perks with their Captain’s Club Elite Plus status?
Well, there is the Captain’s Club cocktail hour from 5 to 7pm daily. Granted, not the same as 5 drinks any time. We’ll see if that evolves over time as a result of the enhanced status match.