The other feature Ponant has free ocean cruises. Various repos to start or end a regular season are "free". Also, the more consecutive cruises that you string together, the more the discount. So a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th consecutive cruise could be 20, 30, or 40% off (or some such,) You also get a further discount for elite status.

Elite tier is reached when booking, so it you start at 0 and book 2 cruises before one sails the first, you are already base elite in the Yacht Club (or whatever they call it).

I was under the impression the Explorer class were also some icebreaker-class rated, but nowhere near Le Commandant Charcot-rated..

Note, my only Ponant experience was in the Pacific onboard sister ship to Le Boreal, Le Soleal, booked through VTG due to never-to-be-repeated stellar blowout deals in 2018 (<USD 200 p.p. p.n.) $5k p.p. for nearly 4 weeks onboard which will not pay for one single Antarctic cruise.

BTW, what Champagne were they serving? Standard fare on my (albeit cheap) cruise was some passable stuff with Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin served on special dinners.