Are you heading out on a cruise? Here's Virgin Voyages' status match
Virgin Voyages is back to playing "airline" and relaunching the Status Match for its loyalty program: not only [...]
Virgin Voyages returns to "airline" play and relaunches the Status Match for its loyalty program: not only cruises, but also airline e hotel status become a shortcut to onboarding benefits. After MSC's status match had caused several readings to grind out., here is an interesting new "hook" for those who live by tiles, levels and perks: here the idea is simple - you bring your status, they give you "VIP" benefits on your next sailing.
In this article:
The program is called Sailing Club and has a tiered progression: "basic" access is triggered after 1 completed cruise, then come the Blue Extras (between the 3rd and 4th cruise) and the Deep Blue Extras (5+ cruises). On board, the "included things" remain typical Virgin ones (restaurants, Wi-Fi, group workouts, drinks, entertainment), but the interesting part are the extras: with the Blue Extras you have 1 specialty coffee per day, 1 bag of laundry, invitation to a exclusive cocktail event e dedicated assistance; going up to Deep Blue Extras increase some benefits (e.g. 2 specialty coffees per day, more laundry, and additional perks such as priority boarding e premium Wi-Fi).
On the programs involved, Virgin Voyages has expanded the perimeter quite a bit: on the airplane side you find big names like Lufthansa, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Qantas e British Airways (with respective tiers listed). On the hotel front, it is a status festival: Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Accor, Radisson Hotel Group, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and even GHA. Cruise side, in addition to "American" and premium companies such as. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line e Celebrity Cruises, more niche programs also appear (such as Windstar Cruises).
What if your next trip was because of points?
Join the Training Center and improve your knowledge in the world of travel reward
How the status match works, basically: you create (or use) the Virgin account, fill out the application by choosing program and level, upload a proof of status and send everything by February 28, 2026.
If approved, you receive via email a Access Key (code) to use when booking: you need to book a new cruise by March 31, 2026 and perks are applied only to that sailing (one submission and one sailing per person, single-use key, no retroactivity on existing bookings, valid on "revenue" cruises and not charters). Translated: it's a "one shot" promo to sample the Blue Extras treatment, then to keep it you have to fit into standard Sailing Club rules.
