Announcing the NEW Romance Rewards Program

[mshell]

Randy, would you please clarify this part of the Romance Rewards terms and conditions:
Anyone traveling on discounted rates will not be eligible to receive any Romance Rewards benefits or accrual of nights.
From what I can tell,almost ALL rates are discounted rates.
Thanks in advance for clearing this up.

[TandJ]

Randymon~ I just read the terms and conditions and am I correct in the wording has changed quite a bit?
As far as keeping your nights stayed, I thought before you just had to return within a certain number of years to keep them, now it seems to state that, no matter if you return or not, nights are automatically deducted after 4 years? Am I reading this right? And if so does that mean the 30 nights I have(from when the program changed from points to nights in 08)will be taken off my account in 2012 even though I've returned every year since them?
Also,can you clarify what it means by discounted rates not being eligible for either accrued nights or Romance Rewards perks? That doesn't mean you would need to pay full rack rate to get RR perks does it? I can't imagine that would be the case but just want to make sure thats not the case.

So I just clicked on the link that Randymon posted, and I have the same questions. We purchased our trip last year on the early booking bonus with the $500 resort credit, reduced rates, and free upgrade. If I am reading them correctly, it implies that we won't be able to enjoy our previously earned Romance Rewards perks on our upcoming trip in August, in addition to not accruing any additional days for our stay, because we did not pay full rack rates. Is that correct??

I, along with many posters, would also like confirmation that accrued days earned expire 4 years after they are earned on the new program. I think there is a lot of confusion because the new rules as stated originally (I believe at the beginning of this post?) are different from what is currently stated on the rules link Randymon provided above.

Thank you in advance for the clarification!

[randymon]

Re: discounted nights, this refers to things such as travel agent rates, complimentary nights, etc. Anything below the normal market rates. 99.9% of you all don't need to worry. We will reword to make it more clear.

re: expired nights. The terms and condition page that I have posted here again is accurate and correct.

http://www.couples.com/RomanceRewards/04-Terms.htm

[mshell]

Thanks Randy! I assumed it was something like that but just wanted to be sure.

[ElaineChick]

Wow, that part about nights expiring wasn't clear. That's disappointing. Other aspects of the Rewards revamp are great, but the nights expiring bit comes as a surprise and not realy a nice one, to us.

[Sueboo]

Expired nights: Does this makes sense to everyone - For example if you are repeater's at the Passionate level and currently have 28 nights because you have stayed 7 nights each year since 2008. In 2012 you return for 7 nights and have 35 nights but you lose the 7 expired nights from 2008 so you STILL have 28 nights and are STILL at the Passionate level? In other words as long as you come back each year for 7 nights you will stay at the Passionate level? This is just one example that might apply to YEARLY repeater's. (I don't think you would lose ALL 28 nights in 2012 because they are not ALL 4 years old)

[jannette]

Randy, with respect, the terms and condition are somewhat confusing.

For instance

Only one Romance Rewards Member may accrue Nights Stayed at a participating Couples Resort. (Benefits will only be awarded to 1 person per room.)

To someone who did not know how this works, it makes it sound as if only one person will get any benefits and not that they are shared per couple!

[Blondie]

Maybe because I am in sales and marketing, but it makes sense to me that your nights would expire after four years. The whole purpose of the Romance Rewards, as I see it, is to generate more business. The same as a frequent flyer program. But if you only go to one of the resorts every 5 years expecting to get the same perks as someone who does go to a Couples property every year or every other year, that would defeat the whole purpose of the program. As least that is how I see it.

The bottom line is that everyone is never going to be happy. There will always be someone that is playing the "it's not fair" card. But someone show me a resort that offers what Couples does?

[melody]

Re: discounted nights, this refers to things such as travel agent rates, complimentary nights, etc. Anything below the normal market rates. 99.9% of you all don't need to worry. We will reword to make it more clear.

re: expired nights. The terms and condition page that I have posted here again is accurate and correct.

http://www.couples.com/RomanceRewards/04-Terms.htm

We understand that it is correct but we want to make sure we are interpreting it correctly. I will post what I asked again if that helps. Does this mean that nights expire regardless of weather or not you accrue more nights during the 4 year period? If we don't stay enough nights during that 4 year period we would go down a level when our original nights expire? Please let us know if that is correct or not.

Quote:
Originally Posted by randymon View Post
Please review the terms and conditions at

http://www.couples.com/RomanceRewards/04-Terms.htm

This is correct.

I don't mean to argue but that doesn't really say anything that we weren't already reading on the other page. Does it work the same way I described in my prior post (I will repost that below) or is it like some of the other folks think it is, that as long as you stay during that 4 years you retain all your points?


Prior post- The way it is worded is very confusing. I originally took it to mean you had to stay at least once in that 4 years but technically it means they expire regardless of weather you have another stay or not. For example, if you have 25 nights in Jan 2008 and then stay for 5 nights in Jan 2010 and Jan 2012, you would only be at the first level with 10 nights in Jan 2014 because your first 25 nights would have already expired. I don't know if that is what they meant for it to be or not.

This thread is really frustrating. I (and others) ask question after question and try to word them clearly so they will be easy to answer but I haven't gotten a single one! Nobody is returning my emails either. It's not like I am trying to be rude or anything, I genuinely want to know the answers. I don't think I am asking anything ridiculous since other people have asked the same questions. I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong here.

[melody]

Expired nights: Does this makes sense to everyone - For example if you are repeater's at the Passionate level and currently have 28 nights because you have stayed 7 nights each year since 2008. In 2012 you return for 7 nights and have 35 nights but you lose the 7 expired nights from 2008 so you STILL have 28 nights and are STILL at the Passionate level? In other words as long as you come back each year for 7 nights you will stay at the Passionate level? This is just one example that might apply to YEARLY repeater's. (I don't think you would lose ALL 28 nights in 2012 because they are not ALL 4 years old)

That's what I was thinking too. A simple "Yes, this is correct" or whatever would be really helpful.

[Amy]

Melody, because nights are cumulative, they do not expire on a four year incremental cycle. Per the terms and conditions, "...accumulated nights expire 4 years after they have been earned."

Using your example: If you have 25 nights in Jan 2008 and then stay for 5 nights in Jan 2010 and Jan 2012, your total nights would be 35. You would be at the Passionate level. If you do not return in 2013, but do in 2014, you would still be at the Passionate Level with 35 nights. However, if you do not return until 2017, four years would have passed and your cumulative points would have expired at which point you would be back to 0 nights.


The spa prices are not necessarily the same at all resorts. At CSA, a 50 minute couples massage is $210. There are spa price sheets on each resort website. The 30 minute massage is not on the spa sheet because it is not regular service.

Hope this helps!

[melody]

Melody, because nights are cumulative, they do not expire on a four year incremental cycle. Per the terms and conditions, "...accumulated nights expire 4 years after they have been earned."

Using your example: If you have 25 nights in Jan 2008 and then stay for 5 nights in Jan 2010 and Jan 2012, your total nights would be 35. You would be at the Passionate level. If you do not return in 2013, but do in 2014, you would still be at the Passionate Level with 35 nights. However, if you do not return until 2017, four years would have passed and your cumulative points would have expired at which point you would be back to 0 nights.


The spa prices are not necessarily the same at all resorts. At CSA, a 50 minute couples massage is $210. There are spa price sheets on each resort website. The 30 minute massage is not on the spa sheet because it is not regular service.

Hope this helps!

I understand that it is not a regular service but I know they sell it since someone was booking and getting the price for one when we were there. They also offer an upgrade to the 1/2 hour massage but it's not on the list either. Surely someone knows the price but I just can't figure out who that person is. It seems as though the whole point to that change is that many people do not enjoy massages so this way the people who want one can buy one and the others can do or buy something else. Great idea actually. Now if only we could find out how much that massage costs.

The expiration is still very, very unclear. I don't understand cumulative to mean that you can never subtract anything from it, just that something is adding up. A squirrel accumulates a lot of nuts for the winter but that doesn't mean he keeps them forever. If they did intend for the nights not to expire after 4 years then why would they add that part to the terms? When would they expire since they mentioned nothing about needing to stay again during that 4 year period. It used to say something about that though. As long as you stayed at least X number of nights during that time period you would stay at your current level. Now on the Romance Rewards page it just says they expire after 4 years. It just makes no sense. Why would they say they expire if they don't and why can't they just tell us weather we are understanding it correctly or not? With all these theories there must be at least one person who is correct.

[TandJ]

Melody and Amy - this is exactly why a reply of "yes, this is correct" to a post (or some other form of clarification) from Randymon would be preferable to just saying "the rules as posted are correct". You are both reading the same rules and applying completely different interpretations to them.

Maybe they are still ironing out the details and don't want to confirm or deny how the rule should be interpreted yet, so they are leaving it up to our own interpretation? I don't know.

What I do know is that I really appreciated Randy's clarification on the "discounted" rates. Since most people book at some sort of discount, whether it's FILA, early booking, or whatnot, that would have excluded almost everyone from using their romance rewards perks. Nice to know that's not what they intended.

I am interpreting the rule about expiring points to mean that the 9 days I earned in Feb 2008 will "expire" in Feb 2012 (4 years), which at that time will drop me from 30 points to 21. Which is a bummer, because I will be earning 7 nights in Aug 2011 which will put us into the highest level (we are currently at 23) for our next visit, but as that visit wouldn't be until Aug 2012, we will drop back down a level before we can use the increased rewards. It would be nice to know if that really is the case, although we will still be happy with whatever we get the next time we return.

[redy4vac]

Melody, because nights are cumulative, they do not expire on a four year incremental cycle. Per the terms and conditions, "...accumulated nights expire 4 years after they have been earned."

Using your example: If you have 25 nights in Jan 2008 and then stay for 5 nights in Jan 2010 and Jan 2012, your total nights would be 35. You would be at the Passionate level. If you do not return in 2013, but do in 2014, you would still be at the Passionate Level with 35 nights. However, if you do not return until 2017, four years would have passed and your cumulative points would have expired at which point you would be back to 0 nights.


The spa prices are not necessarily the same at all resorts. At CSA, a 50 minute couples massage is $210. There are spa price sheets on each resort website. The 30 minute massage is not on the spa sheet because it is not regular service.

Hope this helps!

Very good explanation. This should help everyone. I was trying to think of the way to say it but you got it perfect.

[Randon]

Melody, we called the toll-free no. & asked the rewards concierge service to clarify this issue. She told us that nights expire 4 years after they are posted to your account. If you stay in April 2011 and points are posted to your account on May 1, 2011, those points will expire May 1, 2015. You do NOT keep those keep those points because you return for visits in 2012, 2013, etc.
For example, points credited to our account in 7/2008 will expire in 7/2012. Our last trip was 2/2011 and posted to our account on 3/4/2011. Those points will expire on 3/4/2015.
Sharie was very helpful. I would certainly recommend calling if you want more information.

[randymon]

Sharie's conversation with Randon is an accurate interpretation of the terms.

BTW - 25 minute his/her massage = $110