Well it’s been quite an exciting week of cruise news! On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Virgin Voyages officially announced the launch of the cruise line’s first loyalty program called The Sailing Club.
We take a few minutes to break down the various perks offered across The Sailing Club’s two different levels (Deep Blue Extras and Red Hot Booking Bonus Months), and we talk about the three different ways to earn the two different levels of perks. It can be a little complicated at first which is why we wanted to put together a quick video.
Match and Sea More Status Match Program
Our favorite way to earn the two different levels of perks is Virgin Voyages’ new Match and Sea More status match program. Outside of MSC, Virgin Voyages is now the only other cruise line that offers a status match program. While only select loyalty programs apply – and then only select membership tiers inside those programs – we’re excited that our Diamond status on Carnival will carry over beautifully!
What’s Next
That’s the biggest question we’re left with: what’s coming in the future? Virgin Voyages says they want input into what the program should look like when it launches in 2023, deeming it the “first-ever crowd-sourced rewards club at sea.” While it all sounds great, we have some concerns about how Virgin Voyages speaks to the new loyalty club on their dedicated website that we speak to in the video. In fact, depending on what/how this rolls out, it has the potential to change cruise line status and loyalty programs – but not necessarily for the better.
What are your thoughts about Virgin Voyages’ new loyalty club? Are you excited about the perks? Do you share our concerns about how loyalty clubs could be changing? Let us know in the comments.
We belong to Princess cruise ELITE and we have Free washing, 10% on what you buy on the ship, no waiting when you go in or out of the ship, spirit in your frige when you arrive. What we have to do to have the same in the Resilient lady, going on the 25 /04/2024 ??
Hello. Thank you for the question. Wanted to make sure that we provided you with accurate information as things keep changing with the Sailing Club the Virgin launched. As it currently stands, you can only benefit from the Match and Sea More program if you book and sail on Virgin Voyages prior to April 30, 2023. If you are sailing beyond that timeframe, the best thing to do is wait to see if they open up the Sea More matching program closer to the sail date. We are set to sail in November this year and when we attempted to submit our loyalty we got a response that asked us to book and sail within a certain time to be able to activate the deal. As things change, we’ll try to keep this page updated, or even post a new article about it. Thank you!