At Last – NCL, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Honoring Highest Elite Status Across Brands

It is about time! For those not up to speed Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is the parent company that runs Norwegian Cruise Lines as well as Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas. While they are all separate and offer very different experiences they are all under the same umbrella if you will. Each of these lines has their own loyalty program and until now even if you had status with one line you would not get ANY perks or recognition for your loyalty when sailing the others. Clearly this has been a failing since they are all owned by the same company.

That has now, at long last, changed (see link here on NCL.com for all the FAQs).

This is NOT a straight up status match, that is, if you are say GOLD with one line you are automatically GOLD with the others but an ongoing 1x match for the cruise you have booked. A bit of a pain, yes, but I get why they are doing it this way and am AOK with this. What you have to do, before you sail, is request the status “match” (or status honoring as they call it) for your cruise this way:

• Loyalty Status Honoring Request Submission
• Requests must be submitted at least ten (10) days prior to the date of sailing.
• Requests cannot be processed once the voyage has commenced.
• Requests must be submitted via email to the brand the guest is sailing with:
• Norwegian: StatusHonoringNCL@ncl.com
• Oceania: StatusHonoringOCI@oceaniacruises.com
• Regent: StatusHonoringRSSC@rssc.com
• To process a request, guest must include:
• Reservation number and sail date
• Ship name and brand of future sailing
• NCLH loyalty program numbers (all enrolled programs)
• Full name, date of birth, email address and phone number

Then, for all intents and purposes, you are the same elite level with whatever line you have the top status with for the cruise you are on with the line you have booked including all the perks you would expect if you were that level with the line you are on (there are a few exceptions you can read about in the T&C).

Since it is a temporary status match you have to request a match every cruise with the other lines. Also you earn night credits on the line you are sailing on NOT on your preferred line and this is the only thing about this new program I am not very happy with. How hard would it be to let you choose the program you want your nights onboard credits to credit to? Ah well.

I am only a few hundred nights away from NCL’s very top Ambassador level and will reach it at some point over the next 5 to 10 years of cruising. I have been wanting to book Oceania after seeing how amazing Michael’s posts have been but have been disappointed all my years of loyalty to NCL would not be rewarded if I choose to sail with one of their other lines so this change is a smart move for so many like me who started with NCL and now want to try the higher end lines.

What do you think of this new program? Will it move you to try the other NCLH lines? – René