Since announcing a revamped loyalty program on June 18, 2025, Carnival Cruise Line has been feeling the heat from angered and hurt cruisers.
The new program, which is supposed to go into effect on June 1, 2026, will transition to a points-based system that rewards guests for onboard spending as well as sailing.
While this may sound okay in theory, it eliminates the lifetime status for VIFP club members and sees loyalty tiers resetting every two years. Especially among long-time Carnival cruisers, the rage about losing their permanent status has been intense.
After a letter issued by Carnival President Christine Duffy on June 21, 2025, did little to assuage the negativity online, the cruise line has issued another letter to guests through Brand Ambassador John Heald.
The letter, which came from the “Beards,” began by emphasizing that the cruise line is listening to the feedback from the cruising community.
“We made the decision to share our plans well in advance of the launch to give everyone plenty of time to understand the benefits of the new program which will provide more flexibility and ways for you to earn greater rewards and recognition when you sail with us,” the letter begins.
“Please know we are reading your comments and taking in your feedback. To be clear, no changes will be implemented until June 1, 2026, nearly 12 months from now. We will be answering all your questions well in advance of the program launch,” it continues.
Somewhat curiously, the statement about no changes being made for the next year is a bit ambiguous.
It could confirm that the new program will not be implemented until that date, as has previously been announced, or that no changes to the new program will occur until the cruise line sees how it functions once implemented.
If the latter is the case, the statement contradicts a post from John Heald following the announcement, in which he wrote that the cruise line has “a year to look at it, possibly, maybe, fine tune it and change some things around.”
Clarifying Confusion Isn’t Helping
As with any new program or major change, there is a lot that is still unknown and rumors are running wild. But clarifying and reminding cruisers of the benefits of the revamped loyalty program seems to only be adding fuel to the fire right now.
For example, the family friendly brand clarified that all VIFP members retain their membership status until June of 2028 to help ease them through the transition, while elite Diamond members will maintain their status until June of 2032.
They also clarified that the co-branded Carnival Rewards Mastercard, which was also recently announced, is not required to earn points onboard.
However, signing up for the Mastercard does mean that cruisers can earn points through everyday spending ,even when they aren’t on vacation.
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“We believe these changes will allow us to reduce the growth challenges of the current program, which today often result in us being unable to fulfill the current benefits on sailings with large numbers of VIFP Club top tier guests,” Carnival stated.
This references one of the previously announced reasons behind the change, which was that there are now too many elite VIFP members to reward them properly.
“Thank you for your continued loyalty as we work through this transition together. We recognize that this is a big change but believe that this new program will unlock greater opportunities and benefits to you, our valued guests,” the cruise line continued.
But judging by the comments section on Heald’s Facebook page, the letter has done little to soften the negative response. Of the over 4,000 people who responded to the post, the majority expressed that Carnival had lost their business.
The widespread talk of switching to other cruise lines using loyalty status matching programs has also persisted.
Additionally, there is now also a petition on Change.org to stop the new rewards program from coming to fruition. In just a few days, the petition has received more than 1,000 signatures.
Given the continued frustration, it will be interesting to see how Carnival responds next.
