Speaking of Gift Cards

[Butterbean1000]

We have accrued $250 in Funpoints on our Carnival Mastercard. We have been trying to cash them in on a Carnival Gift Card and for the last month or more, their website says they are out. How do you run out of gift cards? They want us to just apply them to our OBC, but we are not comfortable doing that as the cruise is still a few months away and I have hip surgery scheduled. If you cancel the cruise, you lose your OBC. Suggestions?

[firemanbobswife]

Just charge a Carnival purchase such as payment or your onboard account to the card and erase the purchase. You will get a better redemption rate that way.

[Butterbean1000]

Just charge a Carnival purchase such as payment or your onboard account to the card and erase the purchase. You will get a better redemption rate that way.

Not following. ..[emoji52]

 

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[firemanbobswife]

Not following. ..[emoji52]

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Forums mobile app

 

OK. So instead of using your points for OBC, use the Carnival Mastercard for your S&S account onboard. Then when you get the credit card bill in the mail, use the points to "erase" the charges. So your 25,000 points will be good for $250 off your statement. If you cash the points in for OBC ahead of time, you will need more than 25,000 points to equal $250. Hope this helps. It's kind of hard to explain on the computer.

[sailor05]

You are better off spending $250 either on Carnival or whatever and getting a statement credit using the points than taking the OBC. The OBC costs 12,500 for a $100. So for your 25,000 points you would only get $200 OBC but for a statement credit you would get the whole $250 for the same 25,000 points. Make sense?

 

Edit: firemanbobswife you were typing at the same time but I'm leaving my explanation there as well. It is kinda hard to explain though...

[firemanbobswife]

You are better off spending $250 either on Carnival or whatever and getting a statement credit using the points than taking the OBC. The OBC costs 12,500 for a $100. So for your 25,000 points you would only get $200 OBC but for a statement credit you would get the whole $250 for the same 25,000 points. Make sense?

 

Edit: firemanbobswife you were typing at the same time but I'm leaving my explanation there as well. It is kinda hard to explain though...

 

I know it's hard to explain. Hopefully between the 2 of us, we can get the point across :D

[Michelle236]

To get $200 in OBC it is only 20,000 points, not 25,000. To redeem for a $100 it is 12,500, but there is an option for a $200 one for 20,000.

[CanWeGoYet?]

You actually get a bit of a break, better than the point per dollar ( by a small amount, maybe $10 or $15) if you use points to pay the ships gratuity. I kept hoping the $100 gift cards for 10,000 points would come back, they finally pulled it from the rewards site after showing "out of stock" for months.

 

Anyway just a suggestion. There is also a 20,000 / $200 spa gift card, or as mentioned the $200 gift card for 20,000.

[balcony bound]

Also, if you have a Carnival Cruise purchase over 1500.00 your points redemption increases to 1.5% if you use it against that charge.

 

So say your cruise fare charged to that card is 1500, you can go to the redemption center and use your points to pay against that charge - if you have 25,000 points instead of 250 your redemption is now 375. Its a much better deal that buying OBC or gift cards if you have an expense over 1500.00.

[Butterbean1000]

OK. So instead of using your points for OBC, use the Carnival Mastercard for your S&S account onboard. Then when you get the credit card bill in the mail, use the points to "erase" the charges. So your 25,000 points will be good for $250 off your statement. If you cash the points in for OBC ahead of time, you will need more than 25,000 points to equal $250. Hope this helps. It's kind of hard to explain on the computer.

 

Duh, got it, sorry.:p Thank you, I think that will work.