Status Match: Expiration date?

[hawkeyetlse]

Once your Status Match application is accepted and you get your new MSC points/status, how long do you have to book a cruise, before they take the status away again? I thought it was 3 years, just like Voyagers Club points earned through cruising, but evidently it is less than that. Does anyone know the official policy?

 

[ziggyuk]

9 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Once your Status Match application is accepted and you get your new MSC points/status, how long do you have to book a cruise, before they take the status away again? I thought it was 3 years, just like Voyagers Club points earned through cruising, but evidently it is less than that. Does anyone know the official policy?

 

 

It is 3 years, your points, status and expiry date all show in the Voyagers Club section of the website after logging in.

[hawkeyetlse]

I should specify this is for MSC USA, because things may work differently in different countries. 

 

I have friends who successfully status-matched in 2017, but they haven't been able to book an MSC cruise until this year (which is still within 3 years). But MSC says their VC membership is expired, and that they will have no status if they take this cruise. 

[Beamafar]

When have they booked the cruise for?  You must cruise within the 3 year time frame - not just book within 3 years.

[Essiesmom]

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

When have they booked the cruise for?  You must cruise within the 3 year time frame - not just book within 3 years.

 

This.  You have to get on the ship before the expiration date.  EM

[hawkeyetlse]

Their Status Match was accepted in early 2017. The cruise they want to book is this summer, 2019. They are definitely within the 3 year time frame, no matter how you look at it. 

 

So my initial question remains: Is this in fact the time frame that MSC uses for Status Match points? Or is it less than 3 years? This post by user LBCABob on another thread seems to suggest that it's less than one year:

 

Background:  I got BLACK Status with a match to my RCI Diamond status in August 2017 and assigned a seemingly random expire date of 07/19/2018 (is there a rule giving a 1 year life to a Status Match?).

 

If anyone has done a Status Match but not yet sailed, could you log in to your MSC Voyagers Club space and see what it says about the expiration date for your points/membership? (And what was the date you received your Status Match?)

[ziggyuk]

18 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Their Status Match was accepted in early 2017. The cruise they want to book is this summer, 2019. They are definitely within the 3 year time frame, no matter how you look at it. 

 

So my initial question remains: Is this in fact the time frame that MSC uses for Status Match points? Or is it less than 3 years? This post by user LBCABob on another thread seems to suggest that it's less than one year:

 

 

If anyone has done a Status Match but not yet sailed, could you log in to your MSC Voyagers Club space and see what it says about the expiration date for your points/membership? (And what was the date you received your Status Match?)

 

I can tell you that when we were issued our VC numbers I immediately set up two accounts and liked the numbers, the expiry date without a booking was 3 years, we now have bookings but did not at that point.

 

Did they not use the number to set up an account? I just wonder if a VC number that is not "used" (ie liked to an account) could expire, I have no reason to think this is the case, just a guess on my part.

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

If anyone has done a Status Match but not yet sailed, could you log in to your MSC Voyagers Club space and see what it says about the expiration date for your points/membership? (And what was the date you received your Status Match?)

I am in the US and just received my status match in late March and we are due to sail in January 2020.  On the MSC Voyagers Club site it reads:

 

Expiration date: 2022-03-24

 

[LBCABob]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Their Status Match was accepted in early 2017. The cruise they want to book is this summer, 2019. They are definitely within the 3 year time frame, no matter how you look at it. 

 

So my initial question remains: Is this in fact the time frame that MSC uses for Status Match points? Or is it less than 3 years? This post by user LBCABob on another thread seems to suggest that it's less than one year:

 

 

If anyone has done a Status Match but not yet sailed, could you log in to your MSC Voyagers Club space and see what it says about the expiration date for your points/membership? (And what was the date you received your Status Match?)

FYI, since the expire date was never changed per their website, I contacted MSC 01/02/2019 regarding my VC status on the two cruises booked for later in 2019 after enjoying BLACK perks on my Seaside Nov 2018 cruise.  The CSR contacted the VC folks (with whom I was not permitted to speak directly) and they promptly cancelled my original BLACK VC# and assigned me a new CLASSIC VC# w/500 points for my Seaside cruise - as if my status match never existed.

 

The MSC staff seem to go out of their way to screw over their customers (I am still waiting, 6 months later, for a refund of the $108 Tax+Fees for my cabinmate on the Seaside cruise who was a "No Show" due to a family emergency).  While their ships are very nice, I just can't bring myself to continue doing business with such a poorly managed organization.  I have since cancelled one of the two 2019 cruises (20 nights on Seaview).  I would have cancelled the other but could not find any alternatives that matched my firm travel dates (had booked 4 cruises B2B2B2B).

 

Good Luck to everyone who continues to sail with MSC!

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Their Status Match was accepted in early 2017. The cruise they want to book is this summer, 2019. They are definitely within the 3 year time frame, no matter how you look at it. 

 

I dug out my old acceptance letter, there was no expiry printed on it but the email ends:

 

"If you require further assistance regarding msc club, please contact myself 
Kind regards
Msc club 
xREPS NAMEx"

StatusMatch@msccruises.co.uk

 

So... I would ask your friends to dig out the email and reply to it (FAO: whoever's name is there) asking what happened to the status match.

 

Alternatively, just reapply, it should be a one time offer but others have done it a second time and even been advised by MSC to reapply.

[DWhit]

I recently checked my status match , and noticed that mine had gone from Black to Classic, while my wife's had stayed at Black.    I was still within three years of my last cruise, but the MSC rep told me it was downgraded as soon as the calendar year rolled over, not when the actual  3rd anniversary month occurred.   She said she thought my wife's status had not changed because it just "slipped through the crack". I told her that downgrading by calendar year is not consistent with the webisite language.  

 

But I also told her not to worry about it, because my wife still had black status and we were going to be Yacht Club anyway.

 

[hawkeyetlse]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and advice. According to MSC, since my friends took one MSC cruise years ago, and have not cruised since then, their Voyagers Club membership expired forever, and the successful Status Match in 2017 doesn't change that. In other words, their Status Match was completely meaningless and would never have been honored. Doesn't make a bit of sense to me, but that seems to be their final answer.

[sidari]

MSC are correct, if as they say the VC number lapsed then there is nothing to status match it against.

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and advice. According to MSC, since my friends took one MSC cruise years ago, and have not cruised since then, their Voyagers Club membership expired forever, and the successful Status Match in 2017 doesn't change that. In other words, their Status Match was completely meaningless and would never have been honored. Doesn't make a bit of sense to me, but that seems to be their final answer.

 

That makes complete sense to me, it was not a new card and therefore the existing cards expiry still applied.

 

All they are doing with a status match is awarding free points, if those points go on a new card you will have 3 years from issue, if those points go on an existing card you have 3 years from the last cruise.

[hawkeyetlse]

But what is the point then of putting Status Match points on an expired card?

 

They could treat someone with a lapsed membership just like a new customer. If they instead prefer to hold a grudge against people who stopped sailing with MSC, fair enough, but then they should make it clear that such customers are NOT eligible for Status Match. As opposed to giving them status match points that they cannot actually use. 

[Beamafar]

26 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

But what is the point then of putting Status Match points on an expired card?

 

They could treat someone with a lapsed membership just like a new customer. If they instead prefer to hold a grudge against people who stopped sailing with MSC, fair enough, but then they should make it clear that such customers are NOT eligible for Status Match. As opposed to giving them status match points that they cannot actually use. 

 

I was under the impression that those who status-matched received a new VC number.  It seems crazy that they would add points to an existing member's account just because they sailed regularly with another company.  The whole idea of status-match was to entice people to try MSC.

 

Although I'd heard of people who'd sailed MSC before applying for s-m, I believed that they didn't use their VC number in the status-match process.

[thetaro]

so don't mention anything about the old card, and submit a new status match with the new card? 

 

MSC has world-class IT trolls that love to f with customers. 

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

But what is the point then of putting Status Match points on an expired card?

 

They could treat someone with a lapsed membership just like a new customer. If they instead prefer to hold a grudge against people who stopped sailing with MSC, fair enough, but then they should make it clear that such customers are NOT eligible for Status Match. As opposed to giving them status match points that they cannot actually use. 

 

You did not say when the old VC card expired (it would have been 3 years after their last sail), are you sure it was expired when the status match took place.

 

For Example:  if the last sailed in Jan 2015, their status would have been good until Jan 2018, if the 2017 status match did not extend the 3 years they would still have an expiry of Jan 2018. 

 

I'm not saying it's right but just trying to make sense of what has happened, it would be key to know when they last sailed with MSC and when in 2017 they did the status match.

[little britain]

Went to check my expiry date....

 

Useful

eh?!

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Went to check my expiry date....

 

Useful

eh?!

 

 

It's been mucked up like that for a couple of weeks now on the UK site, you can't book andy excursions or extras while it is like that either!

It came back last week for one day and my status was still intact, just keep checking, it will come back eventually.

 

[sidari]

Ziggy ... Before I logged on here I was looking at our Xmas booking on the UK site, like you I looked at my VC details and got a similar page to you although mine included previous cruises and points earned which mysteriously appear to have gone down by 4,000!

The really odd thing was a Poesia cruise taken on 30th December 1899 ! ... 😲

Edited May 2, 2019 by sidari

[ziggyuk]

3 minutes ago, sidari said:

The really odd thing was a Poesia cruise taken on 30th December 1899 ! ... 😲

 

LOL, that must have been a rough trip back then on sail power!

 

Seriously, the site has been really messed up for a few weeks but every time it comes back my details have been good again so fingers crossed. 

[Beamafar]

Mine has been showing like this for the last 14 months - Classic with no points indicated:

 

 

I've given up trying to get it adjusted.  Every time I book, the correct level, ie, Black, is indicated on my confirmation invoice (and on the subsequent tickets).  My correct points count (35700) is showing on the MSC for Me app, so it's really irrelevant that the website isn't right.  I always email VC after a return from a cruise to have my point count confirmed to ensure that the points are being added correctly - including the bonus 100 points lol (though they're of absolutely no use or value to me - I don't get anything extra for them!  🙄)

 

 

[hawkeyetlse]

14 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

You did not say when the old VC card expired (it would have been 3 years after their last sail), are you sure it was expired when the status match took place.

 

Their one MSC cruise was probably 10 years ago, so their membership expired well before 2017 and before Status Match even existed.

[ziggyuk]

55 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

 

Their one MSC cruise was probably 10 years ago, so their membership expired well before 2017 and before Status Match even existed.

 

Well..... that's just ridiculous then, status matching against an expired card!

 

I would get them to do three things:

 

1, Double check the status match email, mine had a PDF attachment with a picture of a black card and a new VC number, if they missed that they may have a new number sitting on the system with status. As Bea said earlier they normally issue a new number when they match, it could be the CS agent could not see the new number when your friend called.

 

2, If your friends are a couple and only one has been matched before the other person can legitimately apply in their own right, you really only need one person per cabin to have status.

 

3, They could try a new status match, as I said earlier, it should be a one-time deal but others have reapplied and some have even been told by MSC to reapply, it only takes 10 minutes and it's worth a try, the worst will happen is they are turned down.

If you do a new status match, I would use a different email address.

Edited May 3, 2019 by ziggyuk