Over the years, the Status Match Merry Go Round™ has morphed a lot as various programs have caught on and changed things up on us.
One thing that has picked up steam, though, is the wealth of free cruises that have become a cornerstone of the Status Match Merry Go Round.
I believe it all started back in 2021 when I broke the news that the Ocean Casino program in Atlantic City would now include a free 7 day MSC cruise with a status match to Prime (at the time it also came with two free nights at Wynn Las Vegas, which has now been switched to two free nights at Hilton or Conrad inside Resorts World Las Vegas).
After that, crafty MilesTalkers figured out that you could both offer match and status match into other free cruises, namely on Carnival and then later to both Holland America and Princess. Nick at Frequent Miler took the reigns on this one, outlining them in detail.
Well, are you ready for one more?
Thanks to a nice catch by MilesTalk group member Susan N., we now know that Virgin Voyages, an adults-only cruise line (sorry families like mine! ;-)) is also offering an “offer match” as long as you have an offer for 3 or more nights. If you’ve done the Las Vegas Matching (with Wynn) and complete your two stays to get the Holland America 7 night cruise certificate, you could use that. If you have already offer matched to Carnival, Princess, or Holland America, you could use that.
You can’t have sailed with Virgin before, but as long as you haven’t – and you want to – there’s no downside to seeing what they will offer you (and we’d love some data points!)
Just fill out this form and away you go (hopefully!)
Bonus: If you already have status with another cruise line (or Virgin Atlantic!) you can status match into the cruise line’s loyalty program here. (UPDATE: It turns out you can’t stack loyalty program benefits with a comped cruise.)
Note: This is also separate from the occasional opportunity to redeem Virgin points for a Virgin cruise – which can make sense during a 30% transfer bonus.
Thoughts?
Anyone know how far out they will allow you to book these free cruises on Virgin? It was October 2024 for those matching around April 2024. Wasn’t sure if they extended it to December 2024 or March 2025? Would prefer to get something for later in winter/spring 2025.
When filling out the form it says you can only go out to end of March 2025. Not sure if they are lenient on that or not. They also say it’s good for a 7 day cruise but there seems to only be 6 or 8 day cruises offered. I’d be interested to know if they allow anyone to pick an 8 day.
Except Virgin Voyages was my worst cruise out 56 cruises. They are very variable with the on-board experience. If the ship is over 60% capacity, your cruise will be horrible. I won’t sail with them again and I paid for my cruise.
Just back from doing AC merry-go-round- if I’m reading assorted articles correctly, is Carnival the first cruise line to register for to set up a match? (we’ve never done a cruise anywhere). Which card is best to submit for matching between Caesars Diamond, Hard Rock Unity, or Ocean Prime?
Caesars is Carnival. Which once you have Caesars Diamond you can submit your request on-line. Ocean Prime is MSC. I think Hard Rock is also MSC.
They replied within an hour with booking confirmation.
When did you submit? It’s been 2 days and we haven’t heard anything. Submitted the holland América cruise offer we got last year. I’m wondering if it’s not recent enough? Will update in a week since it says 5 business days.
What did you submit?
The form doesn’t ask for proof of other offers you’ve received? Will they reach out to confirm after submission?
They do. It is the verrrrrry last thing and the place to upload magically shows up.
Do they book the same type of room as the offer? Balcony for Balcony?
I got a inside room offer then it changed to a balcony offer, I also got a Holland offer and. Princess offer. We are booked in Carnival in Nov and Alaska in June with Princess! Haven’t done anything with the Holland one and I dont want to waste anymore offers since I don’t have that much vacation (what a problem to have right). Both cruises had to be taken by June 25. I will wait until maybe after the first of the year and go for some more. Both of mine are balconies. Princess required the carnival offer to get upgraded to a balcony.
I think you want to book your Holland offer before going on your Carnival in Nov, unless you plan to gamble a lot to continue to get comp offers.
I have a free cruise offer from Princess (which I booked but had to cancel due to health reasons).
How to I send that offer to Virgin for one of their free cruises?
I would love to hear of any success matching VV with an MSC offer. I’ll be trying myself in 5 weeks after my AC MGR trip.
Any DPs if you can pay for a third guest or if anyone was able to do do next may/June?
Does it make any impact if I have a cruise coming up with them already? (but never sailed before). Because P2 just got the free cruise and we booked it right away for the 2 of us, and now I am going to submit my Holland America offer and saw the question asking if I had a cruise coming up with them (next question after have you sailed with us before).
Did you ever figure this out? I was going to try to match myself and then do P2 later for a second cruise (before we go on the first one) but I wasn’t sure if it would affect getting P2’s offer
Awesome, thanks!!
Yesterday morning I followed the link in the post and for the proof of a casino offer I attached a pdf I made by simply copy and pasting my confirmation email for a Princess offer.
About 12 hours later I got an email confirming I’d been booked on the Virgin cruise I choose, but needed to pay the balance in taxes and fees…
So I guess you just cost me round trip from Seattle to San Juan airfare…
They updated the online submission form. Now you can select bookings through July 2025.
Where did you see this? When I go through the form I only see Caribbean cruise options and only through 4/30/2025. Hoping I am doing something wrong.