Here’s a need to know….
In the master Status Match Merry Go Round™ thread, we added a section 10A about going to Philadelphia and matching to Live! Black from Hard Rock Rock Royalty (which also seems dead – please let me know if Ocean Prime or MGM Gold still works!) and also to Rivers Black from there.
The point was a 10 day MSC cruise on offer from Rivers for Black card holders – another cruise one the never ending spate of free cruises ever since I discovered the Ocean Prime match which gave a free 7 day MSC cruise.
On March 24th, a group member posted about the Rivers match and corresponding 10 day balcony cruise.
(Nick, over at Frequent Miler, took it even further finding literally weeks of cruises from the various matches.)
Well, we’ve gotten reports in the MilesTalk Facebook group (and I’ve gotten several emails) about the MSC match from Rivers not be honored and being actively cancelled. Sometime between when this was discovered on March 24th and now, Rivers added the dreaded verbiage to their tier benefits page:
*Tier Status must be earned to receive cruise benefits. Cruise benefits based on rated play.
Well, you’d think that just means the deal is dead for NEW matches.
But that’s not appearing to be the case. In one of those cases of “WTF are you thinking?” MSC is calling people with confirmed reservations (it seems booked April 7th and later = probably when that webpage was change) and actually cancelling their cruises.
Worse, it seems to vary by call, but some people are even being told they won’t get their deposits back or are being told they will be charged $199 per person cancellation fees. They claim that Rivers “never validated” the cruise on their accounts.
I cannot independently verify the above at all and do not claim any of this as the truth – I’m simply posting what readers have said.
If you have an experience with this, please share. At the very least, the cancellation should come with a full refund and no cancellation fees – but in the real world, those that had confirmed bookings should have been allowed to keep them. MSC doesn’t know who has made non-cancellable arrangements to get to that cruise…. poor form.
Thoughts?
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I did the Status Match MGR just last month in hopes of using the cruises.
But between this, blackout fees and costs for adding two children I wish I had never done it.
This is weird. We went to Rivers a month and a half ago, tier matched to Platinum with our MGM Gold, and played for several hours. Hearing rumors that the cruise deal had changed recently to having to earn the status upon matching, I called MSC Casino dept. expecting a 30% off of a cruise I hoped to book. But instead I was told it would complimentary through my River’s offer. I was told this by one MSC agent and then I was disconnected. I called back and was told by a 2nd agent the cruise was free. I’m sort of confused. They took my Rivers Account number, and put me on a short hold. It was processed. I have a Booking (contract) they charged me $400, and what, I should expect an email or phone call at some point prior to going onboard saying my cruise is being pulled out from under me and my $400 is also gone with the wind? Pretty sure any verification that needs to be done should be in real time and not unilaterally cancelled down the road. What do you think I should expect?