Celebrity Visa

[rohudd1]

I have the Celebrity Visa card and I am planning to book quite a few excursions for my upcoming 10 day Edge cruise in October. I do have points for on board credit and the additional purchase will increase that.  Can I apply these points to this upcoming cruise before sailing? This is a card that I have recently received.

Thanks so much!

[bjahil47]

Yes, I redeem through the card.  It usually does not automatically go over to cruise OBC so you have to call Celebrity at 800-760-0654 Option 3 to have it applied.  

[Fly and Sail]

One of the worst credit cards in the entire market. Horrible!

[Andrewgary]

I am so unsatisfied with my Celebrity credit card that I hardly use it anymore. Put aside for the moment the fact you only get 1% credit for most purchases (a bit more for Celebrity related charges) but to say the card is not user friendly is an understatement. Every time I try and redeem points for a cruise there seems to be a problem and everyone involved just blames someone else. "It's Celebrity's problem! It's Visa's problem! Call your travel  agent!" Etc, etc. I still have the card but no longer use it as my go to, only for my cruise payments. 

On the other hand  my transatlantic on the Apex is less than two months ago and I can't wait!

[Pennstatedj]

I have also experienced many problems with this card. I was planning on getting rid of the card and then they, X, inadvertently used it when I was on the last cruise. I did not even give it to them as the X card to use. now I must keep for another couple of months until it clears.

The main issue was when I had several cruises canceled in March of 2020. At that time I had over $800 dollars of OBC credit on two cruises. Much of it was lost when the cruises were cancelled. I spent hours of phone time with CC, Boa, and X's department that handled cancellation problems. I vowed never to use the card again. Again this year, a cruise on RCL was cancelled due to us getting Covid. On this cruise we had $150 of OBC that had to be moved back to our credit card as a credit. However, they then took credit back as to the amount of the cruise value because the cruise was cancelled and we took cash. I know they have the right to do but they never tell you anything about what would happen. Lets just say the process is not one. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

All the major credit card review sites state the X card is a very poor value.

 

The amount you have to spend is to obtain that OBC is awful, for the same spend other credit cards could reward you 5x times.

 

Moving forward, only use the X card to buy something (gas, amazon purchase, etc) quarterly, use a better card for everything else.

 

Best for most:

No annual fee with cashback (don't have to worry about redeeming points/miles):  Costco's citi card

No annual fee with high value points/miles:  Chase Freedom Unlimited

Annual fee card if you'd utilize a perks: Cap1's Venture X card is the best (for most) at the moment

[Fly and Sail]

1 minute ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Best for most:

No annual fee with cashback (don't have to worry about redeeming points/miles):  Costco's citi card

No annual fee with high value points/miles:  Chase Freedom Unlimited

Annual fee card if you'd utilize a perks: Cap1's Venture X card is the best (for most) at the moment

 

Chase CSR or Amex Green earn 3X on Travel Purchases. Cycle (withdraw) 15k per cruise (5x3k daily) through the casino, free 45k points. 🙂

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Chase CSR or Amex Green earn 3X on Travel Purchases. Cycle (withdraw) 15k per cruise (5x3k daily) through the casino, free 45k points. 🙂

 

Yup, that's what I do at the casino!  I have the CSR and Amex Plat; the CSR also gives you 3X on dining.  With the AMEX plat, I've tried to downgrade for the past two years as I haven't been using it for anything other than the 5x airline purchases but both years they gave me a AF fee amount reimbursement retention offer.

 

But for most X cruisers or for those who don't fly more than a few times a year, the Venture X due to the lower AF fee would be better for them.  Like anything YMMV, use a credit card compare tool and pick the best for your needs.

[Fly and Sail]

2 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Yup, that's what I do at the casino!  I have the CSR and Amex Plat; the CSR also gives you 3X on dining.  With the AMEX plat, I've tried to downgrade for the past two years as I haven't been using it for anything other than the 5x airline purchases but both years they gave me a AF fee amount reimbursement retention offer.

 

Just open a second account with a Green card. It's cheap enough and you get $100 CLEAR credit. Real shame that the Plat has such horrible earn ratio.

[cruisestitch]

9 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

One of the worst credit cards in the entire market. Horrible!

Ok but that doesn’t answer the question

 

OP, yes you can redeem the points pre cruise.  Call to do it.

[Pennstatedj]

I always use computer to cash in points. Never had an issue with that part of program. I used for both X and RCL cruises. Sorry for not answering original question. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

20 minutes ago, Pennstatedj said:

I always use computer to cash in points. Never had an issue with that part of program. I used for both X and RCL cruises. Sorry for not answering original question. 

 

Was answered correctly in post #2.  I don't have the card but this a new X card redemption request frequently.  For most, even though they made the OBC request online, they still needed to call the number in post #2.

[NutsAboutGolf]

50 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Just open a second account with a Green card. It's cheap enough and you get $100 CLEAR credit. Real shame that the Plat has such horrible earn ratio.

 

Exactly what I was trying to downgrade to, plat also has the credit; I get clear free due to my delta status but won't have a high delta status in 2023 due to cruising out of the US more which greatly reduces my international land-based travel

[Fly and Sail]

Coming back to the Celebrity Visa card and the redemption process, the whole thing is absurd because jumping through all these hoops just to apply points to onboard credit doesn't make any sense. Transferring from to the shipboard account... please, talking about trying to invent the wheel a second time.

 

Pretty much any credit card rewards scheme allows you to offset card charges outright off your balance. For example, Chase Pay Yourself Back gives me 1.5 cents per point which is very solid for cash redemptions (double as much as amex offers with 0.75 cents for 1 MR points). All this is dont in a few clicks and takes seconds.

[NutsAboutGolf]

20 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

Coming back to the Celebrity Visa card and the redemption process, the whole thing is absurd because jumping through all these hoops just to apply points to onboard credit doesn't make any sense. Transferring from to the shipboard account... please, talking about trying to invent the wheel a second time.

 

Pretty much any credit card rewards scheme allows you to offset card charges outright off your balance. For example, Chase Pay Yourself Back gives me 1.5 cents per point which is very solid for cash redemptions (double as much as amex offers with 0.75 cents for 1 MR points). All this is dont in a few clicks and takes seconds.

I believe you can apply online but I’ve seen it repeatedly posted on here that after double checking with X, it doesn’t go through.  Many have claimed to complained about this to Bank of America but there hasn’t been any change in the process…A better question is, is this by design?

[Fly and Sail]

39 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I believe you can apply online but I’ve seen it repeatedly posted on here that after double checking with X, it doesn’t go through.  Many have claimed to complained about this to Bank of America but there hasn’t been any change in the process…A better question is, is this by design?

 

Considering we're talking BoA it's probably sheer incompetence. There is only one bank worse than BoA and that's Wells Fargo.