AMEX - spend $800 get $250 credit back on Oceania

[Wheelhouse]

Didn't see this posted yet.  It appears on my no fee Amex Blue Sky Card.  There are also offers for Carnival (HA, Princess, Seabourn), and Celebrity

 

DETAILS

Get a one-time $250 statement credit by using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $800 in one or more transactions online at oceaniacruises.com, by calling 1-855-623-2642 or by contacting your preferred travel advisor by 1/30/2022. See terms.

[ORV]

I don't have a Blue Sky but have 4 other AMex cards. I looked through them recently for any Cruise deals, but will check again. Thanks for the heads up. 

[basor]

We have AMEX Platinum and has every cruise line but Oceania(😪

[ORV]

Checked mine and only thing I have is the Everyday card with 15,000 membership points for spending $500 with Celebrity. I don't use the Everyday Membership points, not even sure I know how it works. 

[Croooser]

Thanks Wheelhouse.

 

On my Blue Cash Preferred I am offerred $250 on $800 or more on Oceania. Also, $150 on $500 or more on any of the Carnival Brands.

[Paulchili]

10 hours ago, ORV said:

Everyday Membership points, not even sure I know how it works. 

I used to think like you and used the Sapphire card for most expenses.

I recently got an offer to renew my Amex Plat with a bonus of 150,000 points after a given spending.

That made me re-explore the usefulness of membership reward points and found that these points can now be converted into more different airlines and hotel rewards than the Sapphire points

[ORV]

9 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I used to think like you and used the Sapphire card for most expenses.

I recently got an offer to renew my Amex Plat with a bonus of 150,000 points after a given spending.

That made me re-explore the usefulness of membership reward points and found that these points can now be converted into more different airlines and hotel rewards than the Sapphire points

I'll take your word for it as I know you understand how to play the credit card game. I'll look at the details and see if I can figure out the benefit for me. At this point I don't remember why I took out that card, but it wasn't for the Membership points. It must have been some other bonus.  

[tgg]

13 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I used to think like you and used the Sapphire card for most expenses.

I recently got an offer to renew my Amex Plat with a bonus of 150,000 points after a given spending.

That made me re-explore the usefulness of membership reward points and found that these points can now be converted into more different airlines and hotel rewards than the Sapphire points

 

Paul, we too use the Chase Sapphire card because of the travel insurance benefit.  Have you found something to replace their great coverage? (As we've gotten older, the cost of travel insurance has gotten higher and higher.😡)  Toni

[Jancruz]

1 hour ago, tgg said:

 

Paul, we too use the Chase Sapphire card because of the travel insurance benefit.  Have you found something to replace their great coverage? (As we've gotten older, the cost of travel insurance has gotten higher and higher.😡)  Toni

Plus 1

Jancruz1

[Paulchili]

On 10/19/2021 at 10:50 AM, tgg said:

 

Paul, we too use the Chase Sapphire card because of the travel insurance benefit.  Have you found something to replace their great coverage? (As we've gotten older, the cost of travel insurance has gotten higher and higher.😡)  Toni

 

On 10/19/2021 at 12:28 PM, Jancruz said:

Plus 1

Jancruz1

While I still like the Chase Sapphire card itself and use it as my primary cc, I no longer am enthusiastic about their insurance policies and coverage.

For starters, they decreased the coverage limits and and are less than reliable in the fulfillment of their insurance promises & obligations.

IME their coverage is sporadic - I've had as many rejections from Chub as I have had payments.

The comprehensive insurances from one of the companies on Insuremytrip have been far more reliable IME

This of course is just my experience and my opinion - YMMV.

Toni, are you still happy with both Oceania and Azamara?

[gbits]

Each Amex card has different offers AND each customer gets different offers based upon what the Amex people decide to offer you. I know this because I called a couple of years ago to find out how I could get an offer that my friend got, both of us having platinum cards and that’s what I was told. Seems quite unfair to me as the majority of the offers on my card are for things I will never use. I have gotten cruise offers, but only for Celebrity & Silversea. Oceania would be one I could actually use….

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you want lots of Amex cruise offers, book on any of the Carnival group – they seem to have offers all the time.  Unfortunately, none of their cruises appeal to me...  The cruise lines I follow [Azamara, Noble Caledonia, Oceania, Windstar] never seem to have Amex offers!

[tgg]

4 hours ago, Paulchili said:

 

While I still like the Chase Sapphire card itself and use it as my primary cc, I no longer am enthusiastic about their insurance policies and coverage.

For starters, they decreased the coverage limits and and are less than reliable in the fulfillment of their insurance promises & obligations.

IME their coverage is sporadic - I've had as many rejections from Chub as I have had payments.

The comprehensive insurances from one of the companies on Insuremytrip have been far more reliable IME

This of course is just my experience and my opinion - YMMV.

Toni, are you still happy with both Oceania and Azamara?

I was not aware of Chase cutting their travel insurance coverage, Here's what I found on their web site:

"If your trip is cancelled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels."

 

I've had to rely on their coverage twice, and we were totally reimbursed for both. We do buy Medjet coverage too.

We still cruise on both Oceania and Azamara. We'll be on the Riviera in January. Our intensive Cuba cruise on Azamara (2019) was incredible. Because we always book our own air, we were not happy to hear that Viking won't issue a credit for their "free" air. We might go back to Seabourn or Regent for the right itinerary at the right price.

[Paulchili]

7 minutes ago, tgg said:

I've had to rely on their coverage twice, and we were totally reimbursed for both. We do buy Medjet coverage too.

I am glad that Chase insurance is working for you. No need to fix something that ain’t broken.

Just a caveat about MedJet in case that you may not be aware.

You have to spend 24 hrs in a local hospital before you can claim your benefits - including transfer to your local hospital of choice.

[Homerody]

No statement credit for me. 25k MR points for 800$ spend on Oceania.

 

Would have liked the $$$, but I'll take the points.  And likely transfer them to SkyPesos. 

[Croooser]

Thanks to Wheelhouse for posting this. The timing was perfect for us. We had a final payment due on the spring TA on Riviera and a Princess FCC that we needed to apply to a booking. So, we used our Amex Blue Preferred and received $250 on the Oceania final payment and $150 on the Princess down payment.

 

FWIW, our goto travel card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the insurance benefits. Interesting side note - the Chase insurance permits partial payments for a trip on the Chase card. This allows you to take advantage of other CC offers like the Amex offers.

 

"The Cardholder and Immediate Family Members are covered when the Cardholder’s name is embossed on an eligible Card issued in the United States, and the Cardholder charges all or a portion of a Trip to his or her Credit Card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account."

Edited October 27, 2021 by Croooser

[MisterBill99]

On 10/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, Homerody said:

No statement credit for me. 25k MR points for 800$ spend on Oceania.

 

Would have liked the $$$, but I'll take the points.  And likely transfer them to SkyPesos. 

 

It depends on your card. If your card does Membership Rewards, you'll get that instead of cash.

 

I got this offer in both forms, which was really surprising. I got the $250 offer on my Blue Cash Preferred card and the 25,000 MR point offer on my Blue card. It's unusual to get both forms of the offer, usually once you load one the other disappears. It used to be that you could load offers on multiple cards but AMEX closed that loophole. When we were able to load offers on many cards per person, I once split payment across eight cards!

 

Anyway, I ended up with the $ and MR offers for both my wife and myself. The offers did not show up on the authorized user cards I have in my kids names. Too bad, since I have an expensive Oceania sailing next April to pay for and would have been able to use more offers.

[MisterBill99]

On 10/27/2021 at 7:38 AM, Croooser said:

FWIW, our goto travel card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the insurance benefits. Interesting side note - the Chase insurance permits partial payments for a trip on the Chase card. This allows you to take advantage of other CC offers like the Amex offers.

 

"The Cardholder and Immediate Family Members are covered when the Cardholder’s name is embossed on an eligible Card issued in the United States, and the Cardholder charges all or a portion of a Trip to his or her Credit Card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account."

 

Wow, I did not know that!!! Thanks for the info! I have the CSR but thought I had to pay in full to get the insurance benefits.

Edited October 29, 2021 by MisterBill99

[mtnlvr53]

Shoot, my Hilton AM EX has no travel credits. I wish they did. Thanks for the heads up though. I sometimes forget to check the new offers

Janet

[MisterBill99]

On 10/30/2021 at 1:41 PM, mtnlvr53 said:

Shoot, my Hilton AM EX has no travel credits. I wish they did. Thanks for the heads up though. I sometimes forget to check the new offers

Janet

 

Travel company co-branded Amex cards rarely/never have offers for other travel companies, even if it's a different form of travel.

 

There are plenty of other free Amex cards you can get have better offers.

[tjm0701]

On 10/18/2021 at 10:40 AM, Wheelhouse said:

Didn't see this posted yet.  It appears on my no fee Amex Blue Sky Card.  There are also offers for Carnival (HA, Princess, Seabourn), and Celebrity

 

DETAILS

Get a one-time $250 statement credit by using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $800 in one or more transactions online at oceaniacruises.com, by calling 1-855-623-2642 or by contacting your preferred travel advisor by 1/30/2022. See terms.

Aren’t the key words “ online only”? I have a Celebrity offer of spend $500 get $150 back, but it says you have to book online. I booked through a travel agent and pay with my Amex Platinum Card through them. When I make my final payments and my travel agent pays Celebrity , will this qualify as an online payment? 

 

 

 

[Croooser]

42 minutes ago, tjm0701 said:

Aren’t the key words “ online only”? I have a Celebrity offer of spend $500 get $150 back, but it says you have to book online. I booked through a travel agent and pay with my Amex Platinum Card through them. When I make my final payments and my travel agent pays Celebrity , will this qualify as an online payment? 

 

 

 

Yes. As long as the card is billed directly to AMEX, you should be OK. We paid part of our final Payment to Oceania via our TA and received the AMEX benefit.

[MisterBill99]

I had this offer on four of our cards and my notes said that it had expired 1/30/22. However, I just checked the AMEX website, and it's still valid, and they have extended the expiration date to 2/18/22. It's very unusual for AMEX to extend the date on their offers, but in this case it may work out well for me, since I just thought about booking a Bermuda cruise from NY yesterday, then remembered there was an AMEX offer but thought that I had missed it. Had originally planned to use it for an April European cruise, but I cancelled that back in November when final payment was due and Omicron was just appearing.

 

For the inevitable "how do you have it on four cards" question, my wife and I each have it on one card as $250 back and another card as 25,000 Membership Rewards points back. It's very unusual to get it in both forms, but we got both this and the Celebrity offer in both forms. Not a huge fan of MR points, but I'm not going to turn down that number of points.

Edited February 8, 2022 by MisterBill99

[ORV]

1 hour ago, MisterBill99 said:

I had this offer on four of our cards and my notes said that it had expired 1/30/22. However, I just checked the AMEX website, and it's still valid, and they have extended the expiration date to 2/18/22. It's very unusual for AMEX to extend the date on their offers, but in this case it may work out well for me, since I just thought about booking a Bermuda cruise from NY yesterday, then remembered there was an AMEX offer but thought that I had missed it. Had originally planned to use it for an April European cruise, but I cancelled that back in November when final payment was due and Omicron was just appearing.

 

For the inevitable "how do you have it on four cards" question, my wife and I each have it on one card as $250 back and another card as 25,000 Membership Rewards points back. It's very unusual to get it in both forms, but we got both this and the Celebrity offer in both forms. Not a huge fan of MR points, but I'm not going to turn down that number of points.

If you don't mind me asking, which cards are these on? I have 4 different Amex cards between my wife & I and none of them had an Oceania offer. My Everyday card had a Celebrity offer which was spend $500 & get $150 back, and then a few days later they added a second offer of spend $500 and get 15,000 member ship points. I spent the $500 once and got both rewards. I converted the Membership Rewards points to my Marriott acct which is enough for a basic free night somewhere at a Fairfield, Residence Inn, Courtyard, etc. I was surprised I got both rewards for one spend. 

[MisterBill99]

37 minutes ago, ORV said:

If you don't mind me asking, which cards are these on? I have 4 different Amex cards between my wife & I and none of them had an Oceania offer. My Everyday card had a Celebrity offer which was spend $500 & get $150 back, and then a few days later they added a second offer of spend $500 and get 15,000 member ship points. I spent the $500 once and got both rewards. I converted the Membership Rewards points to my Marriott acct which is enough for a basic free night somewhere at a Fairfield, Residence Inn, Courtyard, etc. I was surprised I got both rewards for one spend. 

 

My offers are on my Blue and Blue Cash cards. That's interesting that you had both offers on one card. It's possible that I did as well, but I look at the Blue Cash offers first, and once an offer is loaded there it's no longer available on another card. In my case, I'm looking at booking a cruise that, with the $500 FCC I have would barely  allow me to redeem all four offers that I have, so not a big deal that I have the offers on different cards, other than the fact that I'd get a better rebate on the other money by charging it on a different card. Still, cannot complain about $1000 back on $3200 of charges!

 

I do need to look into redeeming the MR points for travel points. I actually have 40,000 from a targeted card upgrade offer last year that I haven't used.

 

I have the Celebrity offer on seven different cards. Three for cash and four for MR.

Edited February 8, 2022 by MisterBill99