Royal Caribbean Group announced a change to how cruisers earn loyalty points that will make it easier to cruise between its brands and earn status at the same time.
During an earnings call with investors, Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty revealed his company's plans to introduce Points Choice.
Coming at some point in 2026, Points Choice will change how cruisers earn loyalty points when they cruise between lines.
Up until now, if you sailed with Royal Caribbean International, you would earn loyalty points within just the silo of that line. A cruise on sister brand Celebrity Cruises would earn a separate point count.
That appears to be changing.
Introducing Points Choice
Coming soon will be Points Choice, which is the name of an expanded loyalty status match program.
In 2024, the company introduced status matching between Royal Caribbean Group's three brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea.
Points Choice will go beyond that, "Building on the success of status match, I'm excited to announce Points Choice, the next evolution, and how guests earn and apply loyalty points across our family of brands beginning in early 2026," said Mr. Liberty.
"Guests will be able to apply loyalty points to the Royal Caribbean Group brand they prefer, regardless of which brand they are sailing with."
For the first time, guests will be able to apply loyalty points earned on any Royal Caribbean Group brand toward the brand program of their choice. This applies to Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society, Celebrity’s Captain’s Club, or Silversea’s Venetian Society, Points Choice.
For example, if a Royal Caribbean guest is sailing with Celebrity Cruises for the first time, they can choose to apply the points earned for the Celebrity sailing to either brand’s loyalty program.
One other note, members will not have the option to apply points already earned to a different brand.
"Points Choice will be offered only on cruises departing on or after the launch date," according to Celebrity Cruises' website.
Furthermore, benefits will remain the same for Crown & Anchor, Captain’s Club and Venetian Society program.
In addition, the Status Match program is not changing. Members can still receive one-for-one tier matching across all three Royal Caribbean Group brands: Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea.
The program will debut in early 2026, with details on exchange rates, eligibility, and program rules to follow ahead of launch.
Making the change to combine guest demand and profitability
On the surface, it's clear Royal Caribbean Group offering point sharing between its brands matches a customer need while likely driving additional revenue.
Mr. Liberty said he thinks this change will build loyalty with its customers, "This initiative further strengthens the overall value of our loyalty proposition, deepening engagement across our portfolio and reinforcing our commitment to putting the guests at the center of our orbit as our ecosystem expands."
He sees it a way to compel cruisers to cruise more because it allows them to get to higher loyalty status, "It creates a virtuous cycle of demand, value and advocacy, one that drives both short term performance and enduring growth. It's a model that compounds over time, and we're just at the beginning of what it can become."
Royal Caribbean hinted at better loyalty enhancements
Today's announcement makes comments clearer made by Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley during a fan event earlier this summer.
He was asked about improving the Crown and Anchor Society so that points could be earned interchangeable between Celebrity and Royal Caribbean.
He answered it before the Points Choice announcement, but it's clear this has been a program that's been worked on for a while, "You'll see over the coming months and year or two that things will continue to improve in terms of accessibility, simplicity, making it easier to sail between the brands, get offers, this type of thing."
"Ultimately, we have not defined this yet, but ultimately we are going to get to a one platform database of our loyalty members for Royal Caribbean Group."
"I don't have the exact timeline. And I think we've had this discussion before, and we've maybe over the last couple of years, we started this journey with loyalty two years ago."
"Now this is awesome news!"
News of Points Choice spread quickly among cruisers, and most of our readers seemed excited for the change.
Renne Patterson posted, "Now this is awesome news!," she shared on Facebook because it will allow her to move up the loyalty ladder even if trying another line.
"This will definitely impact our choices positively! Might even result in us cruising a bit more!"
Michael Lewis wrote, "This is how you keep your loyal cruisers, unlike Carnival." His comment alludes to changes Carnival Cruise Line made to its loyalty program that have been received poorly by fans.
Luke Wallace added, "Yes, I've been thinking they should do something like this for a while! I was hoping it would be a system where you earned points on every loyalty program at the same time, but maybe with status match this is effectively the same. Time to book a Celebrity cruise!"
Jenny Schuber posted, "Finally! This has been stopping me from trying Celebrity. Nice they status match but I want the points to count towards overall nights across the board."
