Charles wrote:
> In article , George Leppla
> wrote:
>
> > You won't be able to afford to cruise because of this? Is advertising
> > revenue down that much that you can't afford $100 for an additional 250
> > minutes? On other lines you will pay for ALL the minutes. Please... spare
> > us the tales of poverty.
That's a really SILLY argument when Princess was the one that
voluntarily offered the perk to the frequent cruisers. I would NOT
have cruised 6 times within one year to become Platinum in the
first place. I averaged 6 cruises a year on Princess cruises ever
since.
I would not take anyone with the intelligence of above that of a
moron to figure out that being able to AFFORD to cruise or pay
anything on cruises has anything to do with this sudden (and
short-lived) program of theirs.
That was how the Marriott lost my business FOREVER about 20
years ago. They started the hotel perk with many nice free stays
and suite upgrades, so I quickly became a Marquis member. But
within about a year or two, they raised the number points required
for the same perk by a factor of 5 or 10, while they did NOT have
the suite upgrade nearly all of the time.
What Princess is doing is cutting their own throat on the most
frequent of their cruising customers.
> You would think that if Princess was picking up a large amount of
> business because of the unlimited free access that the other cruise
> lines would have noticed and matched this perk. Or that Princess would
> notice and leave it in place. I suspect that those who really need
> hours of access either get compensated by their employer or charge it
> off to their customers if they have their own business.
Neither YOU nor the Princess knows exactly how their unlimited
internet access pick up what amount of their business, be it for
people who use the internet for business, or for pleasure,as I do.
> I do think that the cruise lines will lose business if they don't keep
> the charges for internet access reasonable.
They already charged unreasonably high rates ($30 an hour some
ships and about $20 for others). Their Elite membership program
was at most 1 year old, certainly less than 2. What they are doing
is the "bait and switch" (or their perk policies) as soon as there are
enough suckers who fell for the BAIT.
They are making a KILLING from the internet rates charged to the
non-Platinum and non-Elite members.
> --
> Charles
I've had nothing but good thing to say about the Princess Line --
which had MY business of about 6 cruises a YEAR for several
years.
2007 will the year when I'll STOP patronizing those bait-and-switch
and will STOP recommending others to the cruise line.
The fact that their perks were better than all OTHER cruise lines
WAS the reason they were the "preferred" cruiseline to me. The
fact that they had the Captain Circles program was one of the
reasons for their popularity.
That's also the reason why I was a Continental Platimum Elite
member for the frst 7 years their Program was as advertised. And
when those some weaseling executive started raising FFM for
complimentary flights and adding minimum fare to be internationally
upgradable, they are committing the same kiri-kiri Princess is doing
now.
-- Reef Fish Bob.
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