Anyone use CCL gift cert from CitiCard?

[iwunderu]

We are about to book a cruise as soon as we get these in the mail. Anyone on here use these gift certificates from CitiCard Thank You points? If so:

• • HOw long did it take to get them from Citi?
    

• The TY website states you must have the cert at time of booking? Is this true?
  
• Do you have to mail them in to Carnival or can you call them in?
  
• If there is any overage, could it be used for OBC?
  

 

Any other insight would be appreciated.

[blessedwith12]

I have used my ThankYou point for either 2 or 3 cruises with no problems at all. Citi usually ships quickly - probably less than 1 week.

I book through Carnival and tell my PVP at that time that I have rewards certificates. I have booked before my certificates came in the mail. She said, by booking over the phone, she has to put my deposit on a credit card anyways. Then, I mailed my certificates to her, and she refunded my credit card deposit. I have added more certificates to my cruise payments later, also. In other words, I had I think $ 600 I used at time of booking and I added $ 500 in certificates later. I'm not sure if they will let you do this, though, unless you have told them at the very beginning you are using certificates. If you don't have a PVP, send me an e-mail and I will send you the name of mine. I have used her for 3 cruises and I know she is familiar with the certificates. Also, I had no problem getting an Early Saver reduction through her. I didn't even have to fill out any paperwork - she handled it.

 

issymar at yahoo dot com

[iwunderu]

Thanks for the great info. I was kind of hoping that my hubby would rack up more points that we could get certificates for and use.

 

I sent you an email...

[dustyroad]

i am using them for my upcoming cruise in june. i already had my cruise booked when i found carnival on the rewards '' travel '' page. i got $400 worth of money towards the cost of the cruise for $360 charged too my card. they sent me the 4 $100 increment certificates in the mail. i copied them, filled them out with my name and cruise booking nunber and sent them too carnival at the address they specified. i then called carnivl and told them they would be arriving. when they got them they deducted the amount from what i owed for the cruise. it went very smoothly for me. but like i said, make copies and dont loose them. they will ask for the certificate numbers if you call about them. good luck and have fun.

[weloverunning]

I ordered my Thank You rewards Carnival certificates yesterday. Can these be used to pay the taxes and port charges as well? I call Carnival yesterday to get the price of the cruise we want so I could order the correct number of certificates to cover it in full. I spoke to two different people and go two different answers on this. Also, can you buy a future certificate on a cruise and then use this in conjunction with the Thank You rewards? Thanks so much for your help.

For anyone who deals with Citibank, you know if you talk to ten people, you get ten different answers.;)

Blessed: I am sending you an email requesting your PVP name. Thanks for the offer.

[mistyinca]

I love the Thank you network! I have 2 citi cards tied to the same account, so we rack up lots of points that way.

 

The cruise I'm going on I used 12 of those certificates. Not bad to have $1200 of "free" cruise money!

[dustyroad]

I love the Thank you network! I have 2 citi cards tied to the same account, so we rack up lots of points that way.

 

The cruise I'm going on I used 12 of those certificates. Not bad to have $1200 of "free" cruise money!

 

they are great for hotel rooms too. i have not tried them for air because i am leary of getting my flight except from the airlines, but i did save money with them for the hotel room in seattle. as i mentioned, make copies and call carnival and make sure they were applied in the right way too your account. it will show up as a credit on your modifiy booking screen with you cruise info and total cost yet too pay. have a great cruise. :)

[blessedwith12]

I paid for my hotel before and after the cruise with my points, too. We loved both hotels we stayed at and even better - they were free!

[dustyroad]

I paid for my hotel before and after the cruise with my points, too. We loved both hotels we stayed at and even better - they were free!

 

that is great. i am still debating on where too stay when we get off the ship in june. but i will be checking out what are offered from my citi card to save money. great plan and a perk for having the card.

[lakedad]

I ordered my Thank You rewards Carnival certificates yesterday. Can these be used to pay the taxes and port charges as well? I call Carnival yesterday to get the price of the cruise we want so I could order the correct number of certificates to cover it in full. I spoke to two different people and go two different answers on this. Also, can you buy a future certificate on a cruise and then use this in conjunction with the Thank You rewards?7u8

 

I was told I could not use the future cruise certificates with these. The thank you certs did not have my name on them so my friend who is cruising with us used them and gave me the cash. They say they are not to be used for taxes and tips but I am not so sure they do this.

 

Rick

[mistyinca]

I was told I could not use the future cruise certificates with these. The thank you certs did not have my name on them so my friend who is cruising with us used them and gave me the cash. They say they are not to be used for taxes and tips but I am not so sure they do this.

 

Rick

 

Yes you can. On the cruise I'm currently booked on, we booked two rooms with 1 future cruise certificate each and 6 $100 Carnival certs each from Thank you network.

[caribbound]

Is there any benefit in getting certs rather than just a cash payout? Is the payout higher? I think I recently cashed out and don't have more than a couple hundred points now, but if it's dollar for dollar, than why go thru the hassle of using certs in the first place?

[mistyinca]

Is there any benefit in getting certs rather than just a cash payout? Is the payout higher? I think I recently cashed out and don't have more than a couple hundred points now, but if it's dollar for dollar, than why go thru the hassle of using certs in the first place?

 

It's not dollar for dollar. Cash is the worst value for the points. 10,000 points will buy you a $100 Carnival certificate, but it costs (can't recall off hand) something like 10,000 points to get $75 cash or it may have even been $50. I remember looking into it and finding it was not a great deal.

[blessedwith12]

It's not dollar for dollar. Cash is the worst value for the points. 10,000 points will buy you a $100 Carnival certificate, but it costs (can't recall off hand) something like 10,000 points to get $75 cash or it may have even been $50. I remember looking into it and finding it was not a great deal.

 

 

I second that! We looked into it also and it's not as good of a trade to get cash instead of the certificates.

[caribbound]

I get $100 cash from 10000 points - a 1% return. The Citimiles will give you 1.25 %, but you know how miles can be impossible to redeem at the minimum cost so I'm nearly always better off w/ cash in hand to get my own ticket, often less than the min. $250 (25000 miles). The carnival credit card itself is 1% unless it's a Carnival purchase, then being 2%. If I spend $4000 between cruise and on board expenses, that's only $40 savings. Not worth opening up a new credit card for that little bit and lowering my credit rating by having too many cards.

[weloverunning]

Caribound: When you earn thank you points from Citibank, you can get more than 1% on purchases. My current Citibank AmEx pays me 5% on gas, grocery and drug and 3% on everything else. Therefore, I have to spend $2,000 on G,G and D to get a $100 Carnival gift certificate or $3,333 on anything else to get a $100 Carnival gift certificate.

 

For those of you earning Thank You points: I got a price using the gift certificates versus booking a cruise through the Expedia site for travel. You use a lot more points booking through Expedia. It came out over $300 more. The Expedia agent told me they charge 11,000 per $100 of cruise and also so many points as a booking fee. So as long as you are willing to cruise only Carnival or RC, you are better off ordering the certificates and booking yourself.

[caribbound]

ok, I have the No Hassle Rewards program and didn't see anything on their website for the Thank You rewards. Maybe we'll look into it for another year.

thanks for the info!

[the_woodman]

Can these certificates be used with travel agents (other than directly with Carnival)?

 

Also, is there any way they could be used after the final payment has been made?

[iwunderu]

The Thank You points Carnival gift certificates state on the back to call a special provided phone # to book. I got the recommendation of blessedwith12 to use her PVP that had experience with these. I called her PVP and she was very helpful. I booked our cruise. I copied all of my gift certificates and mailed them certified with tracking so I know that they arrived. I am waiting for them to be received. I will update again later.

 

The PVP said if we got anymore that we could mail those in and they would credit our credit card back the amount of the gift cert. I hope to have at least $100 if not $200 before our cruise in May.

[Wags67]

It's not dollar for dollar. Cash is the worst value for the points. 10,000 points will buy you a $100 Carnival certificate, but it costs (can't recall off hand) something like 10,000 points to get $75 cash or it may have even been $50. I remember looking into it and finding it was not a great deal.

 

I just redeemed 20,000 points for 2 $100 Carnival certificates :)

The cash redemption is 8,000 points for $50...I agree, if a person is gonna cruise, it's better to get the Carnival certificate over the cash.

Happy Cruisin':)

[mistyinca]

I just redeemed 20,000 points for 2 $100 Carnival certificates :)

The cash redemption is 8,000 points for $50...I agree, if a person is gonna cruise, it's better to get the Carnival certificate over the cash.

Happy Cruisin':)

 

There we go! I knew it was a not-so-hot deal for the cash.

 

I love this reward system. And I only recently figured out about working your cards for points--about 2 years ago. I used to pay for everything with a debit card, and then I learned about the points thing. So now I pay EVERYTHING with my CC and pay it off every month: cell phone, home phone, trash, water, insurance, groceries, gasoline. I think the only things I can't pay with it are electricity, gas (for the home), and my car payments. It racks up enough "free" points to get a carnival certificate every month.

 

Some people say they aren't disciplined enough to do this, thinking they'd rack up too much and not be able to pay it off. I think that is what works for me. Knowing that I must pay it off every month keeps me from using it frivolously. And since I REFUSE to pay credit card interest, it is a perfect "racket" :D for me.

[weloverunning]

I requested my rewards online last Wednesday and received them in the mail yesterday (Wednesday) and there was a weekend and holiday in the middle! Now, being the cheap (frugal) person that I am, I am holding out on booking hoping the price will go down. It will already be free (certificates) but why use more than I need to. We had a NCL Mastercard for years which paid 3% on everthing and accumulated a lot of $500 certificates. Therefore, our last five cruises have been on NCL. However, they did away with the program last year, so it looks like we are back to Carnival using Thank You points. Can't beat a free cruise. Now if we could just stay out of the casino : )

[mamma]

I just talked to CITI and they could not give me any information on which card being used is available for the certificates. Please let me know what the exact name of the CITI card that you are using.

 

Thanks,

 

MAMMA

[weloverunning]

Any Citibank card which earns Thank You points. Go into Citicards dot com, go to "find the perfect credit card" , click on "thank you rewards", and there should be six of them available. There is a separate site we have to go to spend our thank you points. You can look around there at thankyou dot com

We have a Citi Diamond Preferred and a Citi Platinum AmEx. Hope this helps.

[mamma]

Thanks for the information. I will start looking into this right now.

 

Mamma