alwayssingin

My daughter still has one certificate left, and needs to use it. I'm sure she'd appreciate the simplicity of it. Did this mail-in offer apply to everyone? Are there special circumstances?

We received the letter as well, but our original certificates were correct. I just assumed the FC at the end of the number stood for Final Certificate. If there is an FC on her cert, she is eligible to send her info via email.

Hope this helps.

Hi All,

 

I've just booked the last 'free' cruise :mad:. I've emailed NCL, and they've applied the BoA Final Certs. Question is, do I still need to mail the certs to NCL? The most recent BoA letter, that said to email NCL the info, left me slightly confused as to if I need to mail them or not.

No, if you're cruise is showing Paid in full, there is no need to mail them in. When you emailed the numbers on your certs, that took care of them.

Just an update -

I emailed my cruise certificate info to cashiers@ncl.com on August 9th. The letter said I would hear back from NCL within five business days. When I hadn't heard anything I resent the info on August 16th. August 17th I received an email from NCL stating they had not received my original email, but that my account had been updated. This morning my NCL account finally shows "Payment Complete."

So, the system does work for those who received the letter regarding numbers ending in FC, but you will want to make sure you send them in plenty of time to f/u if needed. We have two certificates left and will use them the same way in January. Nice to be able to do online!

I just emailed the info for three of our remaining certificates to the email address in the letters received. They say we should hear something from NCL within five business days, so I'll be checking our "balance due" daily. Will keep you updated on how this works out.

It restated in the letter received today as my certificates have always stated that they have to be APPLIED by January 2010 to a SAILING completed by January 2011. So you can book a January 2011 cruise but the certificates have to be applied by January 2010. It is nice though that you can apply the cash equivalent ones by email request and no longer have to do the registered mail thing.

I believe we are on the same page! I just wanted to alert people of what could happen. On September 30, 2008 I posted "I have to wonder if NCL will decide to cancel this deal someday because it's such a great deal! I also wonder if the current financial crisis will affect BOA in a bad way." On October 3rd someone received their letter stating the program was coming to an end. My gut tells me to be safe and send in my remaining coupons prior to January 31, 2010, so that's what I plan on doing. :)

What happens to the Compass Reward points that I have already earned?

 

You will receive Compass Reward Certificates by February, 2009, based on your Compass Rewards point balance on December 31, 2008. You may redeem these certificates for either a cruise discount or stateroom upgrade as you have done in the past. Simply book your cruise before the certificates expire; your travel date may occur after the expiration date but before January 31, 2011.

http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/cruiser/cmsPages.html?pageId=CompassRewardsFAQ

Yes, I agree that's what it says on NCL website. In fact, I have a printout of that in case it disappeared online. However, the letter received today states "All of the Final Certificates regardless of the date which appears on the Final Certificate expire on January 31, 2010. " BofA bolded that, not me, and it can certainly be interpreted differently that NCL's website.

Like I said before, it's not an option for all compass point certificate redemption, just those that end in FC (which stands for Final Certificate). Our final payment is due September 20th, and I had planned on mailing in our certs on August 20th, but I will try this instead since it says we will hear back from NCL within 5 business days of sending our email.

I am wondering about the first paragraph of the letter, which states verbatim/formatted:

I received two letters today from Bank of America (one for each NCL card using the old compass points) stating that if your certificate numbers end in FC, they can be redeemed online. Only those certificates issued when the program ended last year can be used this way. Has anyone else received this letter? I'm in the middle of fixing supper, or I'd type more info, but thought I'd throw this info out there!

Thanks!

Good luck and happy travels!

Thanks! You too! I agree with what you said, everyone's needs/uses for rewards is different. Some may prefer cash back, some hotels, some discounts on cruises - for us the airline credits just make good sense, since we are not close to any port. :)

We decided just to go with the Southwest VISA card. It's not as good as when he had it before, but with the bonus credits earned when we started using it last October, we only need one more credit for a free flight (which we'll get on our next statement). Of course, we live midway between two SW airports (Nashville & Louisville), so it's an easy choice for us. If something changes with that card, we'll look elsewhere.

Well, I looked up the original program rules (dated 2002):

Miscellaneous Charges-Miscellaneous charges, including but not limited to beverages and meals; government fees and taxes; taxis and other groung transportation; items of a personal nature; excess baggage charges; gratuities; insurance and any carrier ammnities are not eligible for offset with the use of Points or Certificates, unless specifically included in the cost of the travel arrangements as quoted by the cruise line operator.

 

I would take this to mean that if the air/transfer/hotel package is part the NCL package, it should qualify. If the air or other things were booked independently by you or a travel agent, then they would not qualify. Verify through NCL, and get someone's full name. I usually book directly with NCL when I have used these, and then deal with a cruise consultant at NCL so there is no go-between agent.......

That's exactly what I was looking for, but having a hard time finding. I makes sense. We have always booked directly through NCL as well. I think we'll hold off until Southwest posts their flights for December, then call and see what NCL has to offer.

Thanks again!

Just me but I would put $1500 on this cruise and use the other $1000 for another cruise. That's a lot off.

That is definitely what we will do if we don't use them for this cruise. I just thought if we could use them towards airfare, etc., that we might as well. It's just that with the loss of the Compass Points program we will me more likely to shop around and try other cruise lines.

I can see not using them for excursions, as those could get canceled if a port is missed.

I've tried several searches regarding what compass points can be used for, but I've not had any luck. Too many posts, I guess!

Does anyone know exactly what compass rewards can be used for? We have our cabin booked. If we were to add air, insurance, transfers, pre-cruise hotel, romance/spa package, excursions - anything - prior to when our final payment is due, would that be covered as well? Is there a list somewhere that I've overlooked? We have $2500 in certs, with a balance of just over $1500.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

Jenny

A question for those that are now actually receiving the correct certificates - how many of you called/emailed/mailed BoA about this? How many of you just waited it out? I got the wrong certificates initially like the rest of us and I'm wondering if they plan on mailing out corrected certificates to everyone, or just those people who complained. You would think they would correct the problems for everyone regardless of it the called or emailed, but then again, it is Bank of America we're talking about...

I did not do anything. I would have written, but once others did and started getting responses, I decided to wait. My deadline was Feb 20th, tho!

I FINALLY received my certificates today, and they are correct! Both envelopes were posted February 11th. One card had 1072 points and I received 2-$500 off certs and 1-$100 upgrade certs; the other had 1610 points and I received 3-$500 off certs and 2-$200 upgrade certs.

So, for those of you who, like me, had not received anything at all, there is hope! :p

As I posted several pages back, I am wondering why so many people were expecting their certificates now? All I can assume is that BofA is doing this is cycles? My Bank of America/NCL letter, dated 1/5/09, says "You will receive your final Compass Reward certificates by mail in 6-8 weeks."

 

By my calc, that means I shouldn't expect them until early March.....so why are so many people on here expecting them earlier than that?

Not everyone received that letter. Some still haven't received a letter. We have two accounts, received one letter, and it was the one stating that all certs would be mailed by January 31st.

I just realized that we have yet to receive our new card for an account that was closed due to unauthorized charges. Everything remains "correct" online, however. It doesn't matter, since we will close both accounts after we have used our certs.

And then there are those of us who still haven't received anything. If all certs were mailed by January 31st as originally promised, where do we fall in the scheme of things? I'm giving them until February 20th, but I'm tired of the date constantly changing and not hearing anything and won't wait any longer than that to take action.

I hope what they are saying is true, because there was still nothing in the mail today. I'm awaiting 5-$500 certs, and at least 2-$100 certs, all of which were earned prior to my December statements.

I think the most frustrating part for those of us who haven't received anything yet (or maybe it's just me), is that we don't have anything to be resolved. It would be easier for me to sit back and wait to hear about a resolution and instructions from the NCL/BOA if I had something to deal with. I feel like I should have something, even if it is messed up, and don't know how long to wait.:confused:

Still nothing in the mail today. If nothing arrives tomorrow I think I will go ahead and start getting my letter and copies of statements together.

Something I just thought about - This BOA claim that they can't access out old records. Right now, I, and I assume everyone else, can pull up their December 2008 records that show our Compass Reward points. I think we should all make printouts right away. I would hate to come back later when I need to get a printout for proof, and find those points can no longer be printed out. Paranoid? Yes.

I did just that as soon as I received my December statement online. When I started having a "gut feeling" that the Compass Rewards program was nearing an end (see page 64, post #701), I'm sure others thought I was paranoid. Shortly thereafter, it happened. No, I did not have inside information, and no, I'm not psychic!

Looking back, as soon as we received the BofA letter we should have gone ahead and called for our certs from one card so we'd have them for our upcoming cruise. We decided to wait so that we would have that extended expiration date in case something happened and we had to change our dates.

What bothers me the most about the responses that are being given from BOA is that they have NO access to our previous points history or statements?? How did BOA ever think that they were going to accurately send the correct certificates if they did not provide a good accounting of our points in the first place??

I have my BofA accounts pulled up right now and can access statements showing points back to September 2007 on one, and August 2007 on the other. Some department at BofA has to have this access as well...

As much as we enjoy NCL and Freestyle, if we do not receive our certificates correctly within the next few months, we will cancel our December Dawn cruise and book another cruise line. If we're going to have to pay for the entire thing because of this mess, then our money will go elsewhere.

BTW, we haven't received anything to date yet, either.

Wow , this is crazy. im on the phone right now and he's telling me that my 500 points from december all expired:eek:

obviuosly an error.... good grief

That just makes me nausea....:confused: