Voyagers Club sign up question

[CruisinShips]

Hi all.  We just booked our first MSC cruise.  I completed the status match application and (quickly) got back confirmation that I am deemed Gold level.  My question is this:  Do I have to do the same thing for my wife?  Or is there a way to link status between members (she has not yet signed up for Voyagers Club), or does it not really matter if she has status match since we cruise together?

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited April 29 by CruisinShips

[Essiesmom]

Yes, you need to do it for her, too.  EM

[Até]

Matching a travel partner won't matter for some of the Voyagers Club benefits, such as 5% discount and even Diamond specialty meal, priority tendering and welcome back events where one Gold member is enough to get both in.  But for other benefits like Early booking OBC, gifts and photo both would need to have the higher VC status.  Otherwise your wife will automatically be assigned Welcome status with zero points at embarkation and get her first points after sailing.

[Mark_T]

19 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Yes, you need to do it for her, too.  EM

... or hold her status match in reserve so she can use it in the future if they lose status under the 3 year rule...

 

When travelling together it really doesn't make much difference if only one of you has status.

 

She should get her Voyager membership done though.

Edited April 29 by Mark_T

[brovol]

I was going to post similar question.  I was struggling to get mine set up, because the MSC website and app stinks.  But I called and the rep helped quite a bit.  We have a higher status on both Princess and Norwegian.  They used Princess and I got my MSC Gold status within a day.  Then gave that to my TA, who called and got 10% off the cruise I had already booked.  That is a huge deal.  In our case it was $600 off for a YC suite.  Generally the Voyager Gold perks don't look all that exciting, but the 5%+5% discount, if booking at least 6 months out, is awesome. 

 

My wife still has to get her status match, so I continue to remind her. Shes more of a procrastinator. 

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, brovol said:

My wife still has to get her status match, so I continue to remind her. Shes more of a procrastinator. 

If you are booking YC I'd question the logic in having her do a match as it is a one-time only thing and she will hit Gold from zero pretty quickly...

 

I matched to Gold last year and after two YC cruises (one very short), I am Diamond and my wife is Gold. 

[brovol]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

If you are booking YC I'd question the logic in having her do a match as it is a one-time only thing and she will hit Gold from zero pretty quickly...

 

I matched to Gold last year and after two YC cruises (one very short), I am Diamond and my wife is Gold. 

Im not sure I understand this?  I believe I read that in order to maintain voyager club status level it is necessary that the individual cruise at least once every three years.  Is this what you are referring to?  So if my wife doesn't join voyager club, and doesn't get her gold status, we could theoretically wait four years before sailing with MSC, and then she could activate her status match, and even though mine expired, we would still be able to get the gold benefits when she activates at that time?  If so though, she wouldn't get other benefits, including the OBC, right? 

 

If wife does activate her status match, we will both receive $50 OBC for this sailing, right?  Does that amount go up with additional cruises? 

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, brovol said:

So if my wife doesn't join voyager club, and doesn't get her gold status, we could theoretically wait four years before sailing with MSC, and then she could activate her status match, and even though mine expired, we would still be able to get the gold benefits when she activates at that time?

Yes, but she doesn't have to wait to join the Voyagers club, she can do that now and just start at zero points, the 'one-shot' aspect is just for the status match.

 

1 hour ago, brovol said:

If wife does activate her status match, we will both receive $50 OBC for this sailing, right?  Does that amount go up with additional cruises? 

No, that doesn't increase, and you only get it when you book more than 9 months in advance of the departure date. You get that from Silver upwards and she will hit that very quickly even starting at zero...

[di T]

13 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Yes, but she doesn't have to wait to join the Voyagers club, she can do that now and just start at zero points, the 'one-shot' aspect is just for the status match.

 

No, that doesn't increase, and you only get it when you book more than 9 months in advance of the departure date. You get that from Silver upwards and she will hit that very quickly even starting at zero...

Mark, we have just had our status match applied and I emailed the travel agent with our club numbers to add to a booking in Yacht club. Received word to say she added the membership numbers to the booking but we wouldn’t get the 50 OBC as the cruise was booked last year.We are in the UK is there different rules? Dianne

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, di T said:

Received word to say she added the membership numbers to the booking but we wouldn’t get the 50 OBC as the cruise was booked last year.We are in the UK is there different rules? Dianne

The rules are the same for all, but there is this bit in the T&Cs:

 

4.1.2 The only way to be eligible for the MSC Voyagers Club benefits is to provide
the MSC Voyagers Club Identification number at the time of the cruise booking.

 

We do often see people getting the benefits applied when they status match shortly after making a booking, but it sounds like you booked a few months ago and only recently got the match...

 

Did you get the 5%+5% discount?

[di T]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

The rules are the same for all, but there is this bit in the T&Cs:

 

4.1.2 The only way to be eligible for the MSC Voyagers Club benefits is to provide
the MSC Voyagers Club Identification number at the time of the cruise booking.

 

We do often see people getting the benefits applied when they status match shortly after making a booking, but it sounds like you booked a few months ago and only recently got the match...

 

Did you get the 5%+5% discount?

Not sure but I was happy for the price offered, it will be our first MSC so decided to try yacht club. We cruise mostly with Celebrity and our yacht club inside wasn’t much more than our usual balcony on Celebrity.Looking forward  to trying this.

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, di T said:

Not sure but I was happy for the price offered, it will be our first MSC so decided to try yacht club. We cruise mostly with Celebrity and our yacht club inside wasn’t much more than our usual balcony on Celebrity.Looking forward  to trying this.

It seems unlikely if you are only now, some months later, sending your Voyager Club numbers to the TA...

 

Pity as the savings are worth having, but it is probably too late to do anything about it this time.

 

How long until you sail? ... is there any availability to let you cancel and rebook perhaps? (if the prices have not risen significantly)

Edited April 30 by Mark_T

[di T]

We sail in October from Barcelona, embark the same day we get off Celebrity Accent.Prices do seem higher, but if we enjoy will probably book for next year.then we should get all the perks! Dianne

[Mark_T]

3 hours ago, di T said:

We sail in October from Barcelona, embark the same day we get off Celebrity Accent.Prices do seem higher, but if we enjoy will probably book for next year.then we should get all the perks! Dianne

If you book onboard you'll benefit from some extra OBC and double Voyager points on the next cruise. You can still transfer the booking to your TA ...

[CruisinShips]

FWIW, my TA just notified me that MCS gave me a 5% discount based on my status match (Gold) on a 7 night YC booking.

[di T]

2 hours ago, CruisinShips said:

FWIW, my TA just notified me that MCS gave me a 5% discount based on my status match (Gold) on a 7 night YC booking.

That’s great! Did you have your status match when you booked? If I book again hopefully I’ll get the discounts for my next cruise.looking forward to the yacht club, but maybe will look at the non yacht club experience too.We cruise a lot each year now we are retired and are happy to try lots of different lines.

[CruisinShips]

16 minutes ago, di T said:

That’s great! Did you have your status match when you booked? 

I did not.  I believe the status match page asked for a booking number of a future or past MSC cruise.  So I booked the cruise, signed up for the status match, and then handed it to my travel agent and he called about the status match discount.

[bobndee]

I'm new to MSC but got status-matched up to the Gold level. Thanks to the people on this forum I learned about the 5%+5% discount. I called this morning and was able to get a significant reduction on my recent Yacht Club booking.

 

Thanks for the heads-up!