Points and Miles for Cruises
Cruising is such a popular way to vacation, however cruises can be pricey! Keep reading below for some ideas on how to use credit card points to book your cruise, how to save money when paying cash for a cruise, and how to earn more points on a cruise purchase!
Two Popular Ways to Book a Cruise with Points and Miles:
Disclaimer: Redeeming points and miles for a cruise is usually not the best way to get the biggest value out of your points, but if you value more cash in your pocket and want to cruise for free, it is definitely possible!
You can pay for your cruise with a Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and cover your expense with Venture Miles!
You can book a cruise through Chase Travel℠ with Chase points.
Expert Tip: One way to stretch your points further when booking a cruise is to cover your cruise expense with Aeroplan Miles! You can learn how to do this -> HERE
Chase Ultimate Rewards
You can get the highest redemption value booking a cruise through Chase Travel vs other bank’s points. That’s because when you book through Chase Travel, your points are worth 25 percent more if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (for example you can book $1,250 worth of travel for 100k points). Or your points are worth 50 percent more if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve® (for example you can book $1,500 worth of travel for 100k points). The Chase Sapphire Reserve card also comes with a $300 annual travel credit, which you could use to help pay for your cruise.
In order to book a cruise through Chase, you need to call a Chase travel specialist directly. You can search for cruises through Chase Travel or directly on a cruise line’s website then walk the travel specialist through the booking. At checkout, you tell the travel specialist how many points you’d like to apply towards your cruise.
Capital One Miles
Capital One offers the most ease and flexibility to use your miles for a cruise because it doesn’t require talking to an agent or booking through a travel portal. All you need to do is pay for your cruise with a Capital One Venture or Capital One Venture X card. Then, log into your account and use the “Cover your travel purchases” option to apply your miles towards your purchase. You can learn more about how to do cover your travel purchases with Venture Miles -> HERE.
Fund your Cruise with Bank Bonuses
Another way to offset the cost of cruises is through cash back credit cards & bank bonuses. One of the best cash back credit cards is the Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card. This card does not earn Chase points - it is solely cash back but it has a solid cash back welcome offer that you can put towards your cruise purchase! Not sure if you qualify for a business credit card? -> You probably do!!!
Bank bonuses are another way that you can earn cash to use for travel purchases! A bank bonus is a financial incentive offered by banks to encourage people to open a new account. To earn a bank bonus, you usually need to meet certain requirements like making a minimum deposit, completing a certain amount of deposits and maintaining your account balance for a certain period of time. Bank bonuses are usually given in the form of a cash deposit, and can range from around $100 to $1,000 (these vary greatly!). If you want to find the best current bank bonuses that are available, I recommend checking out Doctor of Credit’s bank bonus page.
Save More with Merchant Offers
Sometimes you can save on cruises through merchant offers! Merchant offers are essentially coupons that different banks offer with your credit cards. You can find these from Chase, Citibank, Capital One, and American Express. They change regularly, vary in a specific amount of cash back verses a percentage of cash back, and they all have certain terms & conditions that need to be met in order to receive the cash back. One annoyance about these offers is that you DO need to add each of these offers to your specific credit card in each bank account - they are NOT automatically applied. These merchant offers change and vary often so I recommend checking the offers on your cards frequently.
Below are some examples of some cruise line merchant offers from American Express.
American Express offers can be found on the home screen of your American Express banking website or under “offers” on the app. It is important to note that there will be different offers for each card you hold. If you have multiple cards with the same bank, some offers may overlap and be available on multiple cards.
When you click on the specific offer, you will be able to add it to your card, see when the offer expires, as well as the terms & conditions of how much you need to spend in order to receive the offer.
This is an example of a cruise offer from Citibank. For this offer, you can get $150 cash back in the form of a statement credit with a purchase of $1,000 or more from LuxuryEscapes.com.
Book Through a Shopping Portal
Stack your point earnings on a cruise purchase by going through a shopping portal first to make your booking. You can see more details about utilizing shopping portals in this post here.
A shopping portal will help you earn additional cash back or points on many online purchases you make, and sometimes include cruises. Utilizing Cashback Monitor can be a great way to see where you can earn the most points or cash back on any given day for many different websites. In this example below for MSC Cruises, you can earn 4% cash back or 4 American Express Membership Rewards points for each dollar you spend on msccruisesusa.com.
Once you click through to a website like Rakuten, you will see the cash back terms & exclusions, as well as additional coupon codes that may be available for you. Note: Shopping portals may not give you cash back if you use a coupon code that was found from somewhere outside of their shopping portal, so be careful of this.
Disney Cruise Tips:
Disney Cruises are definitely not the cheapest of cruises, but it may be a bucket list vacation for some! Here are some additional ways you can save on Disney Cruise Line:
Take advantage of current deals or offers, cruise off peak, and book right when Disney opens their releases their schedule.
Book with a travel agent! Many travel agents offer an onboard credit around $200 if you book with them.
Pay with Disney gift cards that you purchase at a discount like at Wholesale clubs like Sam’s Club.
Save 10% on your next cruise by putting down a $250 placeholder deposit while onboard. You must book your cruise within 24 months after you sail and the deposit is totally refundable if you decide not to book another cruise.
Bottom Line
If you are wanting to maximize your points, I recommend prioritizing using points and miles to cover the flights and hotels before your cruise. While it can be harder to cover the entire cost of a cruise with credit card points, it’s not impossible!
FREE Beginner’s Guide to Points and Miles
Want to travel for free?! ✈️ Grab a FREE Beginner's Guide to Points and Miles and learn how to redeem FREE TRAVEL this year! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.
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