Carnival Mastercard

[wendyandcliff]

I have points on my Carnival MasterCard that will expire soon. How do I use them? Can I make a payment on an upcoming cruise or pay a bill on a past cruise? I have no idea how this works, thanks for your help.

[leaveitallbehind]

Our experience is with a different cruise line and card, but there should be information on the cruise line website indicating point level rewards and redemption guidelines. You can also contact the credit card company directly and they can advise options. But typically the points are applied towards an OBC or other on board benefit, or as a portion of a booked cruise at no charge. Not aware of bill payment options in general, but your card may provide for that.

 

In our case (prior to the change in policy defining expiration) we applied points for a free cruise and most recently on our cruise two weeks ago applied a remaining balance prior to expiration for a significant OBC.

 

Check with both the cruise line web site (or call) and credit card for your options and redemption procedures.

Edited December 23, 2016 by leaveitallbehind

[FlyerTalker]

Just a note or two:

 

1) In general, you get lousy returns from cruiseline credit cards. (1% return or less) Much better rewards can be found, even with cashback cards which will give you more back from your spend. Calculate your return and don't fall for the marketing hype. Plus, a cashback card will give you actual cash that you can spend anywhere, not just on a cruiseline, as well as not making you wait to hit an award level.

 

2) If you can't understand how you can apply your "points" and what they are good for, then you probably shouldn't have that card - as you will not have done the return calculation mentioned above.

[ARcruisin2]

The best bang for your buck is to use points to pay for items on your bill. (several other threads break it down for you).

 

I was thinking that as of the past few years, the points do not expire, but the eligibility of the items on your billing list expires after so many days from purchase date.

 

If you do need to spend them, there are other options for spending them on the Carnival/Barclay site.

[leaveitallbehind]

Just a note or two:

 

1) In general, you get lousy returns from cruiseline credit cards. (1% return or less) Much better rewards can be found, even with cashback cards which will give you more back from your spend. Calculate your return and don't fall for the marketing hype. Plus, a cashback card will give you actual cash that you can spend anywhere, not just on a cruiseline, as well as not making you wait to hit an award level.

 

2) If you can't understand how you can apply your "points" and what they are good for, then you probably shouldn't have that card - as you will not have done the return calculation mentioned above.

 

While this all may be true, the OP was asking about a card on which they already have points established but have never redeemed. Whether or not they should have the card isn't the point or relevant to their questions.

[wendyandcliff]

The reason we got the card was because we were going to Canada, not on a cruise and I needed one with no fees and no international conversion charges. Carnival had one, so I said why not. Since then we have only used it on our most recent cruise, but I do not want to loose the points I have gained. I am not looking to save a ton of money because of it, just like I said, I want to use the points I have earned. Thanks for the input.

[FlyerTalker]

The reason we got the card was because we were going to Canada, not on a cruise and I needed one with no fees and no international conversion charges. Carnival had one, so I said why not. Since then we have only used it on our most recent cruise, but I do not want to loose the points I have gained. I am not looking to save a ton of money because of it, just like I said, I want to use the points I have earned. Thanks for the input.

My post was about going forward with this card. Many many cards now have no foreign transaction charges, including most American Express cards, so you may want to look into other cards.