MSC Current Status Match Tables

[Illbcruzn4life]

11 minutes ago, RichYak said:

AFAIK your only option for keeping status is to sail on an MSC cruise that ends prior to your status expiration. 

Think this is pretty spot on. If you haven't cruised in 3 years you'll lose your status and AFAIK you can't do another status match.

[CalGalTrvlr]

Thanks @RichYak

[CalGalTrvlr]

And thanks also to @Illbcruzn4life

[PAJunkie]

Submitted match at noontime One day. Received a match within 24 hours.  Replied and asked for my number to be added to my cruise. It was added within 24 hours. 

 

Marriott Lifetime Platinum matched to Silver.  I called and asked about it since the spreadsheet indicates Gold, but they said now the highest Marriott matches is silver. I also asked about the 5% refund as shipboard credit. This is still an option, but must be done through your travel agent. 
 

Customer Service was EXTREMELY helpful and kind. 

[Best Cat Mom]

1 hour ago, PAJunkie said:

Marriott Lifetime Platinum matched to Silver.  I called and asked about it since the spreadsheet indicates Gold, but they said now the highest Marriott matches is silver.

Do you mean Marriott Titanium? I am lifetime Marriott and they call my level Titanium. I matched to Diamond using it when we first joined MSC in 2018. Has the match for lifetime Marriott changed to only Silver now?

[PAJunkie]

Titanium is the highest level. I’m lifetime platinum. The spreadsheet noted that Titanium or Lifetime Platinum matched for gold, so I contacted them when I was matched silver. They changed their match and all levels at Marriott now match silver. I didn’t notice the match for Lifetime Titanium. 
 

When Marriott completed their merge with Sheraton, I remember Sheraton was happy with the changes and new level, Marriott members like me were disappointed (fewer benefits though the levels “sounded” higher).

So I am guessing once MSC realized, they changed their match. 

[Mark_T]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:38 PM, Best Cat Mom said:

Do you mean Marriott Titanium? I am lifetime Marriott and they call my level Titanium. I matched to Diamond using it when we first joined MSC in 2018. Has the match for lifetime Marriott changed to only Silver now?

Yes, it seems that both Titanium & Platinum match to silver now.

 

If you got grandfathered in to Platinum Premiere or you achieve Ambassador, you may get gold, but nothing from Marriott matches to diamond these days.

[NinjaShark]

Has anyone attempted Hotels.com Gold? Can see Expedia which it is part of but not Hotels.com

[UPNYGuy]

On 8/12/2023 at 6:22 PM, PAJunkie said:

Titanium is the highest level. I’m lifetime platinum. The spreadsheet noted that Titanium or Lifetime Platinum matched for gold, so I contacted them when I was matched silver. They changed their match and all levels at Marriott now match silver. I didn’t notice the match for Lifetime Titanium. 
 

When Marriott completed their merge with Sheraton, I remember Sheraton was happy with the changes and new level, Marriott members like me were disappointed (fewer benefits though the levels “sounded” higher).

So I am guessing once MSC realized, they changed their match. 

 

kind of like when NCL re-did the loyalty tiers back in the late 2010's. I have platinum, which (at the time) was the highest tier on the NCL loyalty totem. You could get 4x points per day by booking certain cabins, certain destination offers, enough time in advance, and something else I am forgetting. NCL ended up with a very top-heavy loyalty program, so they made platinum the mid point. I matched in (I think) 2017, and got black (now diamond).

 

Two years later, a woman next to me on seaside was being insistent about her match not being done properly while I was trying to book another sailing with the FCC. She was platinum on NCL and was matched to gold. I kept my mouth shut, but started wondering if MSC was doing the same thing and re-evaluating the matches. 

[mowogo]

4 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

 

kind of like when NCL re-did the loyalty tiers back in the late 2010's. I have platinum, which (at the time) was the highest tier on the NCL loyalty totem. You could get 4x points per day by booking certain cabins, certain destination offers, enough time in advance, and something else I am forgetting. NCL ended up with a very top-heavy loyalty program, so they made platinum the mid point. I matched in (I think) 2017, and got black (now diamond).

 

Two years later, a woman next to me on seaside was being insistent about her match not being done properly while I was trying to book another sailing with the FCC. She was platinum on NCL and was matched to gold. I kept my mouth shut, but started wondering if MSC was doing the same thing and re-evaluating the matches. 

And in general they have been trying to lower the hotel status matches. I was happy when last year I was able to match Hilton Diamond to MSC.  

[UPNYGuy]

11 hours ago, mowogo said:

And in general they have been trying to lower the hotel status matches. I was happy when last year I was able to match Hilton Diamond to MSC.  

 

MSC has been offering lower matches to hotel chains vs what they would if it were a cruise operator at the same level?

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

 

MSC has been offering lower matches to hotel chains vs what they would if it were a cruise operator at the same level?

They're lowering all the matches now. Hard to get Diamond now.

[cruise_mojo]

the other or one other NCL thing was lattitudes cruises with double points so that was a way to get the 4x points but when they took all our early cruises away of less than a certain amount of days away it ticked us off - that took status away from us, - then they gave it back - then they took it away again a couple years later - then we quit sailing ncl but never say never we may one day sail them again ....

[NinjaShark]

Update for anyone who is interested. They matched my hotels.com Gold to Silver. I selected Expedia in the drop down option but gave Hotels.com details. 

[UPNYGuy]

On 8/26/2023 at 6:19 AM, cruise_mojo said:

the other or one other NCL thing was lattitudes cruises with double points so that was a way to get the 4x points but when they took all our early cruises away of less than a certain amount of days away it ticked us off - that took status away from us, - then they gave it back - then they took it away again a couple years later - then we quit sailing ncl but never say never we may one day sail them again ....

I think that was how they ended up with a top-heavy loyalty program. Lots of people booking cheap weekend cruises with the 4x points to get to platinum, and they realized it.  You could have ended up platinum just by booking 8 weekend cruises with the old system of booking in advance, double points, and a suite.  

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by UPNYGuy

[Sakura Tomoe]

On 8/2/2023 at 10:37 PM, Illbcruzn4life said:

Think this is pretty spot on. If you haven't cruised in 3 years you'll lose your status and AFAIK you can't do another status match.

So am I understanding correctly that if you cruise with MSC at least once every 3 years, you'll maintain your status?  Even if you lose the matching status level in the program you used to get the MSC status?  I was able to get MSC Diamond by matching my Hilton Diamond status, but the likelihood of me keeping the Hilton Diamond status is almost non-existent since I only got it through a special promotion at the time.  The likelihood of me cruising with MSC every year or two is much higher (depending on how much I enjoy my first cruise with them in February) so if I can keep status just by cruising with them yearly, that would be great.

[David8965]

I filled in the status match form last weekend and heard nothing (Hyatt explorist). However, I've just receive a marketing email shows a card number and status as gold, which agrees with the spreadsheet. I can't seem to find anywhere on the MSC site that shows me my status though. Does anyone know where I could check this? I will definitely book an MSC cruise within 3 years as I'm eyeing up a UK cruise in 2024 but whenever I try and input my card number into the MSC site, it just comes up with an error.

[Sakura Tomoe]

2 hours ago, David8965 said:

I filled in the status match form last weekend and heard nothing (Hyatt explorist). However, I've just receive a marketing email shows a card number and status as gold, which agrees with the spreadsheet. I can't seem to find anywhere on the MSC site that shows me my status though. Does anyone know where I could check this? I will definitely book an MSC cruise within 3 years as I'm eyeing up a UK cruise in 2024 but whenever I try and input my card number into the MSC site, it just comes up with an error.

Do you have an account set up on the MSC site?  If so, then log in to your account and click on the MSC Voyager's Club tab.  That will show you your status and the expiration date.

[David8965]

Yes I've done that but nothing there. And when I go to enter my card number it comes up with an error. I'll give it a few days and see if it sorts itself out.

[Illbcruzn4life]

13 hours ago, Sakura Tomoe said:

So am I understanding correctly that if you cruise with MSC at least once every 3 years, you'll maintain your status?  Even if you lose the matching status level in the program you used to get the MSC status?  I was able to get MSC Diamond by matching my Hilton Diamond status, but the likelihood of me keeping the Hilton Diamond status is almost non-existent since I only got it through a special promotion at the time.  The likelihood of me cruising with MSC every year or two is much higher (depending on how much I enjoy my first cruise with them in February) so if I can keep status just by cruising with them yearly, that would be great.

Once you have your status match how you got it doesnt matter anymore. Just cruise once every 3 years to maintain your status with MSC.

[Mojobaby7]

I just sent a screenshot of my carnival platinum page and was matched within 24 hours to gold 4300 points.
 

I think some people with issues, just have to follow the instructions on the MSC status match page, make sure your picture isn’t too large, and make sure it’s in one of the three formats they except such as PDF etc.

[DaKahuna]

We will be taking our first MSC cruise in February.  I applied for matching status for our Celebrity Elite and received emails for both my DW and myself that it had been accepted and gave us a Voyager Club number.  That was two days ago.  Today we received another email confirmation of our status match acceptance and it showed a point level or 3200 points, even though we have not sailed.  Does that means we start counting toward Diamon status with 3200 points and that points from our upcoming cruise will be added to that number after the cruise? 

 

Also, When I go log into my booking and select Voyager Club and try to enter my number it keeps telling me my number is invalid. Is there a trick to entering the number or do I simply have to wait a few more days for my membership to process through all their systems? 

 

[Sakura Tomoe]

24 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

We will be taking our first MSC cruise in February.  I applied for matching status for our Celebrity Elite and received emails for both my DW and myself that it had been accepted and gave us a Voyager Club number.  That was two days ago.  Today we received another email confirmation of our status match acceptance and it showed a point level or 3200 points, even though we have not sailed.  Does that means we start counting toward Diamon status with 3200 points and that points from our upcoming cruise will be added to that number after the cruise? 

 

Also, When I go log into my booking and select Voyager Club and try to enter my number it keeps telling me my number is invalid. Is there a trick to entering the number or do I simply have to wait a few more days for my membership to process through all their systems? 

 

Yes, you now currently have 3200 points, and points from the upcoming cruise will be added to that afterwards.  As for the VC, I guess just give it a few days.  I can't recall if I had to wait to log in, and if so how long.  I've never sailed with them before either, but I do have a February one booked, and thanks to status match I'm at Diamond, so I'm maxed out on points, which is nice.

[jimbri]

I am confused about the status match.  I last cruised with MSC in Oct 2019.  Because of the pandemic we have not cruised since. So that's 4 years but of course there was no cruising for awhile. Is that taken into consideration?  (probably wishful thinking on my part) Thank you.

[capriccio]

45 minutes ago, jimbri said:

I am confused about the status match.  I last cruised with MSC in Oct 2019.  Because of the pandemic we have not cruised since. So that's 4 years but of course there was no cruising for awhile. Is that taken into consideration?  (probably wishful thinking on my part) Thank you.

Our last MSC cruise was January 2020.  During Covid we received an email (possibly more than one but I don't remember) that the 3 year period had been extended to 4.  We are booked on a December cruise that will allow us to retain our status match.  I haven't read of anyone successfully extending the the extension.