Analysis: Another Carnival Line Makes Loyalty Program Cuts

Seabourn has announced significant changes to its loyalty program.
While there are some useful benefits, overall long-term customers are likely to see less value from their loyalty status, due to the increased difficulty in acquiring complimentary cruises.
Guests will now need to sail an extra 200 days to be entitled to a seven-day free cruise.

Luxury cruise line Seabourn has announced an overhaul of its loyalty program. There are some new bonuses for loyalty guests, but there are also new caveats.

Just a few weeks ago, Carnival cruisers complained when it was revealed that the cruise line’s new loyalty program would have a rolling two-year expiry. This meant that every two years, loyalty points would be reset. After the new program was announced, 47 per cent of users on a Carnival forum said they would reconsider sailing again with Carnival in the future.

Analysis by Cruise Passenger showed that if the removal of lifetime loyalty status from cruise lines would continue to be a trend, particularly for cruise brands owned by Carnival Corp, Princess Cruises could be vulnerable to a similar change.

The good news is that the latest changes to Seabourn’s program have not followed Carnival’s harsh reset on lifetime loyalty, and the program’s new ‘club points’ will still stand for a lifetime.

But the line will be scaling back on the additional perks that come with each loyalty tier.

The new system works with club points, which are earned via sailing days, onboard spend, pre-and-post cruise excursions and sailing in higher category suites. These points move you through the loyalty tiers.

The system also has club days and these are earned just via sailing days – these earn you complimentary cruises.

Until now, the best part of Seabourn’s loyalty program is that after 150 cruise days, you are entitled to a one-week free cruise, or a two week free cruise after 250 sailing days.

The number of required days has increased with a seven-day cruise now only arriving after 350 days, and a 14-day cruise being earned after 460 days.

This will also be a lot harder to achieve, as Seabourn has now instituted that if three years pass without you cruising with Seabourn, your club days will be forfeited. This will mean that even if you’ve sailed hundreds of days with Seabourn over the years, if you don’t cruise in a three-year window, your sailing days will be gone.

Seabourn’s loyalty tweak – what it really means

The new program updates will make it easier to elevate your loyalty status, but more difficult to earn a free cruise.

Upon examination, Seabourn’s loyalty benefits alone are not extensive, and the complimentary cruises were by far the biggest drawcard of their loyalty program.

We can compare the benefits of someone who has sailed 150 nights, and what benefits they’d receive under the new system versus the old system.

Under the old system, after sailing 150 nights, a guest would have Platinum Member Status, which offers some benefits such as shore excursions savings, a free massage and one bag of laundry.

These guests would also earn a free seven-day cruise. This could for example be used on this seven-day Balkan Jewels cruise, which is worth USD$6298 (AUD$9654).

If we assume that a night of sailing costs USD$500, this would mean the cruiser under the old system would need to spend USD$75,000 to earn a seven-day free cruise, and some loyalty benefits on top.

Under the new system, a guest could reach a higher loyalty category with only 150 days of sailing. For example, if they did 150 days worth of sailing, at $USD75,000, and then spent another USD$25,000 onboard, this would mean that after 150 days of sailing, they would already be a Diamond Member.

However, they would not get a free cruise, and would still need to sail another 200 days to receive this benefit.

In fact, the only benefits they would receive that a platinum member doesn’t is free laundry and priority embarkation, as well as 5 per cent extra savings on premium wines and spirits.

This means in this example, a cruiser is spending an extra USD$25,000, USD$100,000 in total, only to see minimal extra benefits, and not receive a free cruise.

It’s also important to note that Seabourn’s loyalty benefits are not particularly comprehensive. The attraction of their loyalty program was the complimentary cruises.

Loyalty points on Seabourn will earn you some benefits such as a premium WiFi package, or a percentage off more expensive wines and spirits. However, WiFi, wine and spirits are also included in the cruise fare, apart from the ultra-premium alcohol brands.

Some loyal statuses do include a massage, 15 per cent off shore excursions, 20 per cent off luggage shipping services and a complimentary laundry service.

While these benefits are handy, they provide at best only a few hundred dollars of monetary benefit to a cruiser.

Under the previous system, those same 150-days would be earning the seven-day free cruise, which is of much higher value to a cruiser.

Cruisers are getting the short end of the stick. They can speed through the loyalty tiers with significant spending, but will find it extremely difficult to obtain the complimentary cruises, which means they’re seeing less return on their investment into the cruise line.

The program tweaks mean that Seabourn no longer has to give as much of a financial benefit to customers that sail consistently over many years.

princess ship — Could Princess be the next cruise line to see loyalty program cuts?

Should other Carnival lines’ fans be worried?

Cruise lines are a business and need to profit where they can, Carnival Corporation has in fact, been increasing its profit targets as cruise demand soars.

With the cruise line reporting that the record demand of 2025 is continuing into 2026, this might give some insight into why loyalty program benefits have been cut across two of their cruise lines.

If Carnival is seeing demand high enough for cruise, particularly from new cruisers or cruisers who have only sailed a few times, this creates a situation where they don’t need to rely on their more loyal customers, who have accrued significant loyalty benefits, to fill their ships.

This means that the cruise lines can cut back on loyalty programs, saving themselves from paying out the rewards, while still having totally full ships. Customers without loyalty benefits can often prove more beneficial, as they are not receiving any perks, they have to spend more onboard.

As Carnival conceded themselves, loyalty programs with lifetime guarantees can also have somewhat of a ‘tipping point’, where too many customers have high loyalty status, making it difficult for the cruise line to deliver their benefits, and make a profit. Carnival mentioned this as a key cause for the changes in their loyalty program.

With the watering down of loyalty programs being a strategy that Carnival Corp is looking to employ, it is possible that other Carnival Lines such as Princess Cruises, Cunard and Holland America Line could see similar changes.

Read the fine print!

Another key thing to note for the new Seabourn changes, is that guests have until October 20 to manually opt-in to the program. If they don’t, they risk being excluded by the new program.

The process is simple: open your latest email from Seabourn explaining the changes, click the link at the bottom, type in your name and select ‘opt-in’.

If you can’t find an email, try going to their website or contacting support.

How the new program works

You move through the loyalty tiers, based on club points.
One day of sailing earns one club points.
One day of sailing in the highest suite categories earns another club point.
One night with Seabourn Journeys (pre-and post cruise excursions) earns a club point.
Each USD$500 spent onboard earns one club point. However, you can’t earn more onboard spend points than the amount of days you sailed.
Complimentary cruises are earned in club days, which is measured per day of sailing. After 350 days you can sail a seven-day cruise for free, after 460 days you can sail a 14-day cruise for free. After these, you earn another seven-day cruise each 110 nights. However, if you don’t cruise for three days, you lose all your club days.