Royal Caribbean, Celebrity may combine their loyalty programs

Royal Caribbean Group owns both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. That's not something many passengers notice unless they look pretty closely at the app used by the cruise company where logos for both brands appear.

When you board a Royal Caribbean ship, you have no idea that the company has a connection to Celebrity. You can't book a Celebrity cruise at the Next Cruise desk and you don't ever see material promoting one brand while on the other.

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The two cruise lines have separate leadership while both being under the overall auspices of Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) - Get Free Report CEO Jason Liberty. Both cruise lines have separate casino programs and completely separate loyalty programs. 

The two brands, however, do offer each other's customers some level of courtesy. If you have status on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity will match up to its second-highest level. The same applies to Celebrity passengers who wish to travel on Royal Caribbean.

That's nice from a perks point of view — cruisers used to having elite status on one of the two brands get that treatment on their sister line — but a match does have some weaknesses.

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Celebrity, Royal Caribbean consider loyalty program change

Cruise line loyalty programs operate on a points basis. For both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, passengers earn points based on nights spent on board. Different classes of rooms earn more points and as you hit certain point levels, you reach different tiers.

Earning points toward status helps keep people loyal. Regular cruisers want to move up in their preferred cruise line's loyalty program because the rewards offered by them are meaningful.

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Royal Caribbean Diamond members, a level that takes 80 points to earn, get access to a dedicated lounge onboard, four free drinks per day, a concierge who can help with reservations, and other perks. Celebrity's Elite status, roughly the equivalent level, comes with daily receptions, a free happy hour from 5-7, and other perks.

When a Royal Caribbean passenger sails on Celebrity (or the reverse) they get a status match but earn points on the line they're sailing, not their main line. Those points accrue on the new cruise line toward earning the status they have gained from the match.

That does not help either cruise line's top customers work toward earning a higher status level with their preferred brand. In theory, while the status match is a nice courtesy, rivals like MSC and Virgin Voyages offer matches as well, so there's nothing keeping Royal Caribbean or Celebrity customers from trying another company if they want to stray from their main brand.

Royal Caribbean Group, however, may change that by combining the Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society with Celebrity's Captain's Club.  

Celebrity, Royal Caribbean may combine loyalty programs

Loyalty programs exist to build brand loyalty. If Royal Caribbean and Celebrity combined their programs, it would give passengers looking to vary up their cruises incentive to stay in the family.

That would be a blow to rivals like MSC and Virgin Voyages, which offer status matches, and even Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) - Get Free Report, which does not. During a Captain's Club webinar on Sept. 26 Celebrity cruise line's Associate Vice President of Loyalty floated the idea of combining the two programs, Matt Hochberg of the Royal Caribbean Blog reported.

"We have some status match between the brands today, but there's such a huge opportunity for us to do more and really take advantage of the connection and us being part of the same family," she said.

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A joined program would, in theory, mean that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity passengers would earn higher-tier status faster. If the merged program combined points earned on each line, passengers who have cruised on both would see their totals rise.

That's a valuable change that would be good for passengers while also being good for the cruise line as it would greatly increase the incentive for passengers to be "loyal to Royal," keeping them away from MSC, Virgin, and Carnival.