NCL Says Status Match Option “Not Something We Are About to Launch”

In “Norwegian Cruise Line Leans Into ‘Easiest Cruise Line to Work With,’” TMR reported that Norwegian Cruise Line was planning to launch a status match program to help travel advisors sell NCL cruises to clients that have not-yet tried the brand.

That is not, in fact, correct, said NCL’s senior vice president of sales for North America John Chernesky, who told members of NCL’s Partners First Facebook group that he was being somewhat “sarcastic” when he said yes to a question about such a program at a Q&A onboard Norwegian Aqua’s christening cruise.

“I then said, ‘we’ll take a look at it,’ but I think that got missed. What I meant to say was, from the very beginning, we hear you. We understand that might be popular, but it is not something we are about to launch.”

The reason Chernesky gave for NCL not being able to do a status match at this time is that programs like these can upset current high-level loyalty guests – something some of the advisors in the comments said they heard from their clients when word spread that the line would be doing a status match program.

“It can cause disruption and upset of our current Latitudes guests who have earned their status, and so that is why we have typically been hesitant to offer it out to people that might like other cruise brands.”

He added, “We will always be happy to look at changes to our Latitudes program, but we are not currently planning to offer any sort of status match.”