Seamiles free cruise with balcony

I see that Seamiles free cruise you can only get inside or outside, no balcony. Has anyone every booked outside with seamiles, and then upgraded from outside to balcony directly through Carnival?

I see that Seamiles free cruise you can only get inside or outside, no balcony. Has anyone every booked outside with seamiles, and then upgraded from outside to balcony directly through Carnival?

No, you need to deal specifically with SeaMiles.

Fred

I see that Seamiles free cruise you can only get inside or outside, no balcony. Has anyone every booked outside with seamiles, and then upgraded from outside to balcony directly through Carnival?

Carnival can't/won't work on a booking done by an agency without it being released. Not sure seamiles will give you credit for something they release.

Sea miles is horrible..........if you want to do any kind of upgrade it has to be at full fare or they say you are "double dipping"............so senior, past guest, Military are all out of the question.

I booked Military with Carnival to get the lowest fare I could and then switched to seamiles at final payment to burn up what I had "EARNED"............they took the points for $500 worth but only credited $400....because I was "double dipping".

When I tried to talk to a supervisor she said "why should you get full credit on points for a cruise you are already getting a discount on?".....................Because I used your card to EARN the money off.

Get another card that pays cash back and apply it to the lowest fare you can get. TRUST ME!!

Do you have to book through Seamiles to use the $500 discount? Or do they issue a credit you can use with Carnival?

Do you have to book through Seamiles to use the $500 discount? Or do they issue a credit you can use with Carnival?

No. You can book through your PVP and then they will transfer the booking to Solutions At Sea (ICE) to get the discount. This way your PVP gets credit for the booking.

The only time you can't do this, is if it is a completely free cruise.

Carnival can't/won't work on a booking done by an agency without it being released. Not sure seamiles will give you credit for something they release.

 

Sea miles is horrible..........if you want to do any kind of upgrade it has to be at full fare or they say you are "double dipping"............so senior, past guest, Military are all out of the question.

 

I booked Military with Carnival to get the lowest fare I could and then switched to seamiles at final payment to burn up what I had "EARNED"............they took the points for $500 worth but only credited $400....because I was "double dipping".

 

When I tried to talk to a supervisor she said "why should you get full credit on points for a cruise you are already getting a discount on?".....................Because I used your card to EARN the money off.

 

Get another card that pays cash back and apply it to the lowest fare you can get. TRUST ME!!

I know what you mean. We finally used the rest of our points up and "dismissed" this credit card!! It is a shame too because we have had a Carnival credit card since they started and it used to be a really really good deal. Now, it is a sad shadow of its former self.

Luckily, now we have American Express Blue Sky that gives us $100.00 off for 7,500 points. We can book through whomever we want to, at any time and use it on airfare, cruises, hotels or rental cars!! And you get the full amount regardless of the discounted cruise fare.

Cashback is best. The Fidelity 529 Plan American Express card gives you 1.5% back, invested in a 529 plan for your kids/grandkids. That is one of the best plans out there.

cardtrak dot com will show you the cash back cards available, but you have to visit the issuer's site (or call) to get the details.

Thanks for your responses. I have enough points for 2 $500 discounts. Does anyone know if you can use 2 on one booking(maybe one for me, one for DW)

Thanks for your responses. I have enough points for 2 $500 discounts. Does anyone know if you can use 2 on one booking(maybe one for me, one for DW)

knowing sea miles I would say no.......afterall "why should you get a second discount on something that you are already getting a better rate on".

If you try, please post back and let me know how close this is to what they say LOL.

Yes you can get a balcony through seamiles. We got a balcony room on the Miracle for my mother-in-law and a friend using all seamiles points for both of them. It just takes more points. For whatever reason, they just don't advertise that you can do that. We just called to book their room and asked if we could get them a balcony and they said yes and it would be a certain number of more points. My husband runs lots of money through his card in his business so we had alot of points to use.

Sharon

Sea miles will get you what ever cabin you want and call it a freebie as long as you have XXXX points. Thats fine, BUT if people would look beyond "it was a free cruise" they would hopefully see that the sea miles points don't truly equal out to a true points/dollar cycled thru their card and they are being charged a rate greater than they could probably get on their own.

You should be able to get your best deal and then use the points that you have earned........sea miles doesn't like you doing this so they pro-rate it.

I'll stop now.....it just irks me how they screw people out of what they earned.

We just booked a balcony using seamiles and got an upgrade as a past guest. I called 3 times, spoke with 3 different people and got 3 different answers regarding how we could/couldn't use our points. I finally got a "sr" agent who managed to apply all my points to one ticket and I paid for the second. While I figure our points saved us about half the cost, I switched to AmEx blue and am now just going to put the cash away to save for the next cruise and avoid the hassle.

OK, not to hijack this thread, lol, but in an attempt to ask my questions without starting another SeaMiles thread, here goes -

Any of you SeaMiles cardholders out there get an email this week with this offer???

"Give the Gift of Cruising this holiday season with the CarnivalSM Sea Miles® Cruise Savings Card*

Redeem 2,500 SeaMiles for a $150 Cruise Savings Card

-or-

Redeem 5,000 SeaMiles for $300 Cruise Savings Card

Now for the first time you can share your favorite vacation experience with all your friends and family with the Carnival Sea Miles Cruise Savings Card, valued at $150 or $300 towards the purchase of one of thousands of cruises to exciting locations on one of the World's Leading Cruise Lines!SM Simply use your SeaMiles to purchase your cards and make shopping easy for everyone on your holiday shopping list." (Of course, the cruise must be booked through SeaMiles.)

I called SeaMiles to ask a few questions that immediately came to mind when I read this offer - here is what I was told -

Can you "purchase" savings cards to use yourself? Yes

Is this correct? 2500 miles = $150 savings Yes

5000 miles = $300 savings Yes

How do I find out what cruises are included in "thousands of cruises to exciting locations on one of the World's Leading Cruise Lines?" You must "purchase" the savings card, activate it, and then you will have access to the list of cruises.

How long will this promotion last? Don't know - evidently can be withdrawn at any time - no deadline to purchase savings cards listed in the email.

Since you must use 25,000 SeaMiles to get $250 off a cruise you book with them, this seems like a much better deal. You are taking a chance that the cruise you want will not be on the list of thousands, so your choices are more limited compared to using your SeaMiles directly.

The representative who took my call had to go to her supervisor to get the answers to my questions.

Any other questions I should have asked? Any thoughts?

OK, not to hijack this thread, lol, but in an attempt to ask my questions without starting another SeaMiles thread, here goes -

Any of you SeaMiles cardholders out there get an email this week with this offer???

 

"Give the Gift of Cruising this holiday season with the CarnivalSM Sea Miles® Cruise Savings Card*

Redeem 2,500 SeaMiles for a $150 Cruise Savings Card

-or-

Redeem 5,000 SeaMiles for $300 Cruise Savings Card

Now for the first time you can share your favorite vacation experience with all your friends and family with the Carnival Sea Miles Cruise Savings Card, valued at $150 or $300 towards the purchase of one of thousands of cruises to exciting locations on one of the World's Leading Cruise Lines!SM Simply use your SeaMiles to purchase your cards and make shopping easy for everyone on your holiday shopping list." (Of course, the cruise must be booked through SeaMiles.)

 

I called SeaMiles to ask a few questions that immediately came to mind when I read this offer - here is what I was told -

Can you "purchase" savings cards to use yourself? Yes

 

Is this correct? 2500 miles = $150 savings Yes

5000 miles = $300 savings Yes

 

How do I find out what cruises are included in "thousands of cruises to exciting locations on one of the World's Leading Cruise Lines?" You must "purchase" the savings card, activate it, and then you will have access to the list of cruises.

 

How long will this promotion last? Don't know - evidently can be withdrawn at any time - no deadline to purchase savings cards listed in the email.

 

Since you must use 25,000 SeaMiles to get $250 off a cruise you book with them, this seems like a much better deal. You are taking a chance that the cruise you want will not be on the list of thousands, so your choices are more limited compared to using your SeaMiles directly.

 

The representative who took my call had to go to her supervisor to get the answers to my questions.

 

Any other questions I should have asked? Any thoughts?

How in the world did you get through? I sat on hold for almost an hour last night to ask these same questions. I finally gave up.

I am also quite interested in this as it seems like a much better deal, but it sounds shady that they wont tell you what cruises you can use it on.

How in the world did you get through? I sat on hold for almost an hour last night to ask these same questions. I finally gave up.

 

I am also quite interested in this as it seems like a much better deal, but it sounds shady that they wont tell you what cruises you can use it on.

if you can find a cruise to use it on , I bet the same double dipping rules apply............you can't use it on anything for witch you already have a discount.

if you can find a cruise to use it on , I bet the same double dipping rules apply............you can't use it on anything for witch you already have a discount.

Yeah I have been un-impressed with this card. I have only 25k miles left and would like to just use them and cut this card up. I stopped using it once I switched my chase card to the chase freedom card. I also got the royal caribbean card becuse they offer OBC credits with their rewards and we like to take the 3 day weekend cruise on the Sovereign every so often.

I too just want to use my points and be done with the SeaMiles card. There is a Royal Caribbean cruise I am interested in, and I don't know of any other discounts I am eligible for, so I was thinking of using my points for that. However, if using 5000 SeaMiles can purchase a $300 savings cruise card, that is more than my SeaMiles will save me redeeming 25,000 SeaMiles directly. I meant to ask if you can use another credit card to book a cruise with SeaMiles since I recently got the Royal Caribbean credit card. :D What the heck, I used the old Capital One Carnival card to book a Celebrity cruise several years ago.

if you can find a cruise to use it on , I bet the same double dipping rules apply............you can't use it on anything for witch you already have a discount.

Well I bit the bullet and ordered the $300 savings card. The rep on the phone seemed pretty clueless about it but she did say that I can use it on a 3 day Soverign booking so I hope she is right. They also said that it will be about 3 weeks before I get it which seems odd but maybe she was wrong. I figure I can still use 10k points on a shrt cruise for a minimal discount since the do honor pice drops and residency rates. She did say there were blackout dates, but I assume that would be holiday sailings and since I don't sail over the holidays no big deal to me.

I will post back when I get it with all the details.

So my question is...if you can use more than one $300 savings card per cruise..ie..redeem 10K miles and use the 2 $300 cards for payment? OR are you limited to 1 savings card redemtion per cruise? Anyone know..

So my question is...if you can use more than one $300 savings card per cruise..ie..redeem 10K miles and use the 2 $300 cards for payment? OR are you limited to 1 savings card redemtion per cruise? Anyone know..

The lady on hte phone said 1 savings card per booking. I assume that means 1 per cabin since if it were really 1 per booking then people would just hang up and call backand book another cabin with another savings card.

I really hope this works out like they say since this has to be the worst rewards card ever.

Hmmm..me thinks I need to just get rid of this card...anyone have any idea what 55,000 POINTS...will get me?

I was soo excited when I first saw that promotion. I've got 85000 points and thought I can parlay that into 17 300 gift cards. Take those and get me a great cruise. HOGWASH. You have to book through seamiles at their terrible prices and you can only use one gift card per booking. What a bunch of crap. I wouldn't even mind if the one gift card rule applied if I could use them to buy my cruise where I got the best deal or if I could give them as gifts that friends and family could use to book their cruises where they wanted to book.

I am soo disappointed in this card and as soon as I get my free cruise I'll be dropping it like a hot potatoe.