Anyone have a Celebrity Visa card?

[JEDIKNIGHT]

I wasn't able to find the proper disclosure.

 

Like all these affinity cards, the Celeb Visa has rewards based on points earned. Anything from OBC's, to $250 cruise discounts, etc.

 

Question: If someone has the card, how "useable" are the rewards? For instance would OBC's earned via VISA CARD be compatible with OBC's from my 'future cruise deposit'? If I was awarded $250 off cruise fare, could Celeb say it's not compatible because they discounted the fare, did a 2-for-1 deal, whatever?

[firstplacechef]

We have never had a problem with the OBC's from our BoA Celebrity Visa and we have had Happy Hour cruise rates, credit from booking onboard, etc.

We used the credit for whatever we needed and on one cruise we actually had a balance left and they credited it back to the card. 5000 pts = $50, 10,000 = $100, etc. Scott

[flclsax]

I have had this card for several years and have cashed in many points to apply credits to cruises. Never had a problem

[jackdiamond]

We have had this card for years; and, every so often wife does something and they send us $120.00.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Your on board credit from Celebrity Visa should be compatable with any other on board credit. It's the onboard booking credit that can not be combined with other Celebrity credit programs such as the one offered in January.

 

Another thing to consider depending on how many points you have with visa: if the # of points to redeem for an on board credit = the # of points to redeem for cash you would be better off taking the cash and using it to pay on board charges. That way, you earn double points on the on the full onboard charges. I do think you need to have around 50K points to break even between credit and cash.

 

Mary Lou

[Katie H]

I have recently redeemed points for an OBC on a cruise I booked with my TA. It was very difficult and I spent hours on the phone. It seems that BOA is phasing out the Celebrity rewards and they are now World Points. If you book your cruise through the agency that is associated with BOA, they can handle everything for you - either discount on cruise or OBC. If you booked elsewhere, you end up getting transferred around and around and around. They tell you that you can only redeem online. The site makes it difficult to find the place to redeem for Celebrity rewards. After I finally did that, I got an email telling me that I had redeemed for OBC, but no instructions for how to get the OBC applied. The next step is to get the voucher number. This is the part that took hours of being transferred around. Once I finally got that number, I called X and had no problem getting it applied. After this experience, we are going to close the account.

[tntornadox]

I think it's funny how BoA is randomally not showing they offer the X Visa again...

[firstplacechef]

My BoA page shows my card as a Celebrity Rewards Visa and always has a link on the rewards page and if easy to navigate to get the rewards. There are usually 3 windows and it scrolls through them, sometimes the X rewards are the first one and other times second or third. Never really had a problem here.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I have recently redeemed points for an OBC on a cruise I booked with my TA. It was very difficult and I spent hours on the phone. It seems that BOA is phasing out the Celebrity rewards and they are now World Points. If you book your cruise through the agency that is associated with BOA, they can handle everything for you - either discount on cruise or OBC. If you booked elsewhere, you end up getting transferred around and around and around. They tell you that you can only redeem online. The site makes it difficult to find the place to redeem for Celebrity rewards. After I finally did that, I got an email telling me that I had redeemed for OBC, but no instructions for how to get the OBC applied. The next step is to get the voucher number. This is the part that took hours of being transferred around. Once I finally got that number, I called X and had no problem getting it applied. After this experience, we are going to close the account.

 

I redeemed points online for my January cruise and had no problem. Celebrity called me to find out where to apply them. Then they sent me a confirmation e-mail. I thought it was quite easy.

[jer_l]

I have recently redeemed points for an OBC on a cruise I booked with my TA. It was very difficult and I spent hours on the phone. It seems that BOA is phasing out the Celebrity rewards and they are now World Points. If you book your cruise through the agency that is associated with BOA, they can handle everything for you - either discount on cruise or OBC. If you booked elsewhere, you end up getting transferred around and around and around. They tell you that you can only redeem online. The site makes it difficult to find the place to redeem for Celebrity rewards. After I finally did that, I got an email telling me that I had redeemed for OBC, but no instructions for how to get the OBC applied. The next step is to get the voucher number. This is the part that took hours of being transferred around. Once I finally got that number, I called X and had no problem getting it applied. After this experience, we are going to close the account.

They offer both Celebrity Rewards and World Points with the BoA X Visa. They've done this for the past few years. You can book cruises through World Points, but the key is to go to the Celebrity Rewards to get your credit. If you save enough for a free cruise you must call an 800 number to book that cruise. We took a free cruise a year ago and it was quite simple to book. The 125,000 could be used for $1250 credit or a free cruise for two. We opted for the free 10 day cruise making the credit worth far more than $1250.

[Katie H]

I had difficuly finding the place to redeem for Celebrity rewards at the site. When I called BOA and was transferred to the travel agency that books for World Points, that person gave me steps to get to the correct place on the web site. She also said that the department at BOA that handled Celebrity rewards had been shut down several months before and it all had to be done on the website. She said she received many calls transferred to her by BOA from frustrated people trying to redeem Celebrity rewards. The steps she gave me didn't work, but steered me in the right direction so that I was eventually able to find the right place and redeem. The site gave no info on how the transaction would be completed - just sent the auto email saying that I had redeemed - and my points disappeared from my account. I expected that after I completed the redemption, there would be instructions, but it did not happen. When I called BOA to ask, I was told that I would receive a confirming e-mail in 24 hours with the voucher number. I commented that it would be helpful if that info was on the website, thus avoiding a call.

 

I waited 5 days and never received an email with voucher number. So I called again and was transferred around and around for 2 hours! I got nowhere. I called X and they said I needed the voucher number. I tried again a couple days later and again was transfered around and around. After another 2 hours I was connected to an agent who simply said she could give me the voucher number and she did and it was easy from there. The problem is that very few people at BOA even knew what I was talking about. Those who had no problem may have been lucky enough to get one of the few customer service reps who understood the program on your first call. Obviously, the last person I talked to knew how to handle it, but I spoke to many other people before I reached that one who had no idea what he program was or how to help me. I think they kept transferring me to get me off their phone rather than try to get the info.

 

I am usually pretty good at navigating sites and gettting things done. I have never encountered a problem like this with any other redemption I have done on various cards for various rewards. I believe the other posters who say it was easy for them, but this was my experience. We have redeemed for rewards on BOA - RCCL card and it was the easiest thing I have ever done. This is just my experience on this redemption. And I was told that BOA is phasing out the Celebrity rewards although I have never received a written notice. Maybe the person who told me that is wrong. I was certainly given a lot of other wrong info from the customer service reps as I tried to redeem these points.

[floridafolks]

We recently took out the card- so they are still issuing it. The redemption for OBC was done online and an email was received. BUT to have it applied to our upcoming cruise we called Captains Club (even though this is our first celebrity cruise and we do not have a captains club number) The prompt told you what number to punch if you wanted to apply the Celebrity Visa OBC. The people there are wonderful and know exactly what to do--easy as pie.

[librarylady19]

We recently took out the card- so they are still issuing it. The redemption for OBC was done online and an email was received. BUT to have it applied to our upcoming cruise we called Captains Club (even though this is our first celebrity cruise and we do not have a captains club number) The prompt told you what number to punch if you wanted to apply the Celebrity Visa OBC. The people there are wonderful and know exactly what to do--easy as pie.

 

Good to know! We just got one of these cards solely to get points towards another cruise! The quicker that can happen, the better.

[Katie H]

Glad to hear everyone else is having a better experience than I had and that the person who told me they were phasing out Celebrity rewards was probably wrong. It truly sounds like I was in an alternate universe when I tried to redeem my points. But we now have a card that gives us 2% on everything and can be redeemed for gift cards at many retailers and restaurants, so think we will stick with that one.

[Wolfmanjim]

Can you say what card that is and whether it can be used to charge an upcoming cruise?

[tomatopa]

I also had a terrible time trying to redeem for OBC.....many hours on the phone and lots of frustration....

 

Taking a TA in November and hope to have lots of OBC...maybe I should start now....LOL

 

any helpful hints would be appreciated.

 

Judy

[emptynest1]

I had a hard time using points for OBC and after talking with the BofA rep we both decided it was easier to get cash for the points and use it to pay off the visa bill at the end of the cruise. One point to make...if you take the cash and then use it to pay off the card at the end of the cruise you will get all the points(double points) for what you have purchased on the cruise. If you use it as OBC then you don't get the double points for the OBC because your bill will be that much smaller.

I hope that wasn't too confusing:confused:

[hajekfam]

I had a hard time redeeming my points for OBC - it seems that you can't go to the logical place when you call BoA which would be travel, instead you have to go to merchandise. Once I got to the right place, I had no problem redeeming points a week before our cruise. They told me they would mail a certificate, but I told them the cruise was in a week (last minute booking of an Exciting deal) and we were already in Florida so they gave me the certificate number to give to Celebrity.

[Katie H]

Wolfman - I don't know if I am allowed to say the credit card name here. My email is in my signature.

 

Judy- from my experience, I would say that once you have redeemed online, if they do not send you an email with voucher number within 24 hours, start calling. Don't let them transfer you to the travel agency - they cannot help you. Just call customer service and tell the rep you want your voucher number. If you are lucky, you will get it then. If they don't know how to do it, ask for their supervisor. If the supervisor does not know, just hang up and call back. Keep doing this until you get one of the reps who knows how to give you a voucher number. It takes only seconds once you get the right person. My mistake was sticking with it and letting them transfer me around and around to departments who had no idea what I was talking about.

[tomatopa]

Thanks, Katie! I think if you have enough points...like over 25,000 you can get the same $$$ in cash...but if less..you get like $80 instead of $100 OBC....

 

Judy