Royal Caribbean Rewrites the Rules on Cruise Loyalty with Revolutionary Points Choice Program
Royal Caribbean Group launches Points Choice on January 30, 2026, letting passengers transfer loyalty points between Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea—a cruise industry first that fundamentally changes how multi-brand cruisers build status and benefits.
Cruise loyalty programs just got a major shake-up. Royal Caribbean Group announced a groundbreaking change that lets passengers decide where their hard-earned loyalty points actually go—a first in the cruise industry that challenges how we think about brand loyalty at sea.
Starting January 30, 2026, the cruise giant’s new “Points Choice” program allows guests to earn loyalty points on any Royal Caribbean Group brand and transfer them to whichever loyalty program serves them best. According to Royal Caribbean Blog, this unprecedented flexibility connects three major cruise brands under one umbrella: Royal Caribbean International’s Crown & Anchor Society, Celebrity Cruises’ Captain’s Club, and Silversea’s Venetian Society.
Breaking Down Loyalty Silos
For years, cruise passengers who sailed with multiple brands within the same cruise corporation faced a frustrating reality: their loyalty was fragmented. Points earned on a Royal Caribbean cruise stayed with Royal Caribbean. Celebrity points stayed with Celebrity. Silversea operated in its own isolated ecosystem.
Points Choice demolishes these silos entirely.
“Points Choice gives every guest the power to direct their loyalty points within our family of brands where they will have the biggest impact,” said CEO Jason Liberty in the company’s announcement.
The mechanics are surprisingly straightforward. After completing a cruise on any of the three brands, passengers have a 14-day window to submit a request transferring their earned points to a different loyalty program within the Royal Caribbean Group family. Miss that window, and the points automatically stay with the brand you sailed.
The Fine Print That Matters
Before you start mentally consolidating all your scattered cruise points, there are some important caveats to understand.
First, you must already be enrolled in the destination loyalty program before you can request a transfer. You cannot simply create a new account and funnel all your historical points there. The requirement ensures the system is used by actual multi-brand cruisers, not loyalty program hackers looking for loopholes.
Second, once you submit a transfer request, it is final. No take-backs, no do-overs. Royal Caribbean allows up to 30 days for processing these requests, and once the transfer completes, those points are permanently in their new home.
Third, points can only be transferred once between brands. You cannot bounce points back and forth like a loyalty ping-pong ball, moving them from Royal Caribbean to Celebrity one month and back to Royal Caribbean the next.
Finally, you cannot gift, sell, or transfer points to another member’s account. This is your loyalty, for your cruising.
Who Benefits Most from This Change
The Points Choice program creates the most value for passengers who actively cruise across multiple Royal Caribbean Group brands but have a clear favorite where they want to concentrate their loyalty benefits.
Consider a traveler who primarily sails Royal Caribbean but takes an annual Celebrity cruise for special occasions. Under the old system, those Celebrity points sat isolated, building slowly toward benefits the passenger might never use. With Points Choice, every Celebrity sailing can now contribute to Royal Caribbean status and perks that get used regularly.
The same logic applies in reverse. A Silversea devotee who occasionally books a Royal Caribbean family reunion cruise can now funnel those points back to Silversea, where ultra-luxury benefits hold more personal value.
The program creates a powerful incentive to stay within the Royal Caribbean Group ecosystem rather than wandering to competitors. Why book that Carnival or Norwegian cruise when your Royal Caribbean Group alternatives can all feed the same loyalty beast?
How Points Are Actually Calculated
Not all cruise points are created equal, and Points Choice does not change that fundamental reality.
The number of points earned on any given sailing depends on four key factors: which cruise line you sailed, the number of nights, your stateroom category, and whether you traveled solo. Each brand has its own earning structure, and those brand-specific rules remain intact.
What Points Choice changes is where those earned points ultimately land. The value of a point still varies by program. A Crown & Anchor point is not directly equivalent to a Venetian Society point because the benefits and tier structures differ across brands.
This means some strategic thinking is required. Transferring points to a program where you are close to the next tier threshold might deliver more tangible value than keeping them scattered across multiple programs where you are perpetually mid-tier.
The Coming Automation
For now, Points Choice requires separate action after each sailing. That 14-day request window means you need to remember to log in, navigate to the right page, and submit your preference after every cruise—a minor hassle that adds friction to an otherwise elegant system.
Royal Caribbean recognizes this limitation. The company announced that a preference center launching later in 2026 will allow passengers to set a default destination for all future loyalty points, eliminating the need for per-sailing requests.
Once that preference center goes live, Points Choice transforms from a reactive choice made after each cruise to a proactive strategy set once and forgotten. For passengers who consistently want all points flowing to one brand, this automation will be a welcome quality-of-life improvement.
Building on Status Match Success
Points Choice is not Royal Caribbean Group’s first attempt at creating cross-brand loyalty benefits. In May 2024, the company introduced Status Match, which allows loyalty members to enjoy equivalent tier status across all three brands.
Status Match addressed the recognition side of loyalty. If you achieved Diamond status with Royal Caribbean, you could immediately enjoy comparable benefits when sailing Celebrity or Silversea without starting from scratch.
Points Choice completes the other half of the equation by addressing the accumulation side. Now you can both earn and enjoy benefits across brands, creating a truly unified loyalty experience.
The combination of Status Match and Points Choice represents the most comprehensive multi-brand loyalty integration in the cruise industry. No other major cruise corporation offers anything comparable, giving Royal Caribbean Group a distinct advantage in competing for the business of frequent cruisers who value flexibility.
What This Means for the Industry
Royal Caribbean Group’s move puts pressure on other multi-brand cruise corporations to respond. Carnival Corporation operates nine cruise brands—including Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Cunard. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings runs three brands: Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Neither has announced loyalty programs with Royal Caribbean’s level of cross-brand integration. Passengers with those companies still face the old fragmented reality where loyalty points cannot move between sister brands.
If Points Choice proves successful, expect competitors to develop their own versions. The cruise industry has always been quick to copy innovations that resonate with passengers, whether it is ship design features, entertainment concepts, or loyalty program structures.
The Bigger Picture on Cruise Loyalty
Loyalty programs have become increasingly critical to cruise line economics. Repeat passengers book more frequently, spend more onboard, and require less marketing investment to convert. They are, quite simply, the most profitable customers in the cruise business.
Royal Caribbean Group understands that passenger loyalty is increasingly fluid across brands, especially among the growing demographic of younger cruisers who prioritize experiences over brand allegiance. Points Choice acknowledges this reality while incentivizing passengers to keep their wandering within the corporate family.
The program also creates a subtle psychological shift. Instead of thinking “I’m loyal to Royal Caribbean,” passengers can now think “I’m loyal to Royal Caribbean Group”—a broader identity that encompasses more sailing options while maintaining the benefits of concentrated loyalty.
For passengers, that is a win. More choice, better benefits, smarter accumulation strategies.
For Royal Caribbean Group, it is a defensive moat against competitors and an offensive weapon to capture multi-brand cruisers who might otherwise split their business across different corporate families.
Taking Action
If you sail with any Royal Caribbean Group brand and have cruises booked for dates after January 30, 2026, you will automatically be eligible for Points Choice. No enrollment, no fees, no hoops to jump through.
The key decision is strategic: where do you want your points to go? Before your first Points Choice-eligible cruise departs, take time to review your loyalty status across all three brands, identify where you are closest to meaningful tier thresholds, and determine which program delivers the most valuable benefits for your cruising style.
For some passengers, the answer will be obvious. For others, it might require a spreadsheet and some careful analysis. Either way, the power to decide is now in your hands.
That alone makes Points Choice a significant development in the evolution of cruise loyalty programs—and a clear signal that Royal Caribbean Group is willing to rethink industry norms when they no longer serve passengers’ best interests.