Credit card rewards

[dpepper64]

I have a NCL credit card with about 60,000and planning on booking a cruise when we are on our next cruise.  As I understand if we book on a cruise you get a upgrade, and then we can use points to upgrade again.  We usually get a balcony or a spa balcony but I want to surprise the wife with a Haven room.  Any ideas best way to accomplish this?  Thank you again inadvance for any help.

[KP@Sea]

I would ask on this thread. A lot of helpful information

 

 

[julig22]

55 minutes ago, dpepper64 said:

I have a NCL credit card with about 60,000and planning on booking a cruise when we are on our next cruise.  As I understand if we book on a cruise you get a upgrade, and then we can use points to upgrade again.  We usually get a balcony or a spa balcony but I want to surprise the wife with a Haven room.  Any ideas best way to accomplish this?  Thank you again inadvance for any help.

The pinned post, albeit very long, is good reading.

But in a nutshell, for what you are asking, I believe the best you are gonna get from the CC points is $600.

An onboard upgrade gets you a better location on the ship but I think that's limited to Balcony and below.  If you use your CC points to upgrade, I believe they use the cabin you paid for, not the upgraded cabin (but I could be mistaken) to figure the CC upgrade. That's how it's seemed to work, but I've really not paid that much attention, a balcony is a balcony in my opinion!

But in any case, no upgrades to Haven with points as far as I know.

[smillerholmes]

1 hour ago, dpepper64 said:

I have a NCL credit card with about 60,000and planning on booking a cruise when we are on our next cruise.  As I understand if we book on a cruise you get a upgrade, and then we can use points to upgrade again.  We usually get a balcony or a spa balcony but I want to surprise the wife with a Haven room.  Any ideas best way to accomplish this?  Thank you again inadvance for any help.

Points will only get you to a balcony at the most.  So on the ship you can either book an Inside or Oceanview (check your prices - sometimes there is not much difference) and then use your points to move to balcony.  Inside to OV or OV to Balcony is 30K.  Inside to Balcony is 60K.  Once you have your balcony cabin assignment the Upgrade Advantage program kicks in and you should have the opportunity to BID on Haven, but that is no guarantee you will get it - also no guarantee how much you may have to bid.  Also assume you use either NCL or a Travel Agent that participates in the program.

 

I believe it is possible to PAY for an upgrade with NCL directly once you have the balcony cabin, but I have reached the end of my knowledge/experience and hopefully someone will come along that can provide some insight on that angle.  I think @mscdivina2016 might have some experience with this, but I can't remember all the details.

 

Good Luck!  

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, dpepper64 said:

I have a NCL credit card with about 60,000and planning on booking a cruise when we are on our next cruise.  As I understand if we book on a cruise you get a upgrade, and then we can use points to upgrade again.  We usually get a balcony or a spa balcony but I want to surprise the wife with a Haven room.  Any ideas best way to accomplish this?  Thank you again inadvance for any help.

Perhaps you might want to exchange your points for cash and then use the cash towards a haven room.  

[julig22]

1 minute ago, smillerholmes said:

I believe it is possible to PAY for an upgrade with NCL directly once you have the balcony cabin, but I have reached the end of my knowledge/experience and hopefully someone will come along that can provide some insight on that angle.

Unfortunately, a paid upgrade seems to be based on the price you've paid, so any points used to upgrade would be wasted - and whether you can get them back seems to be somewhat random.

[thirstyman1]

I have several points on my card also. Is it possible to transfer them early into OBC?

Cruise is not for 6 months, but if booking shore excursions in advance would like to use the points??

[julig22]

2 minutes ago, thirstyman1 said:

I have several points on my card also. Is it possible to transfer them early into OBC?

Cruise is not for 6 months, but if booking shore excursions in advance would like to use the points??

You cannot use obc to book shore excursions prior to the cruise. On board only.  But you can request a statement credit to use against the cost of the excursions.

[thirstyman1]

Thanks for the information!!

[kikipug]

I put absolutely EVERYTHING on my NCL card (cell phone, internet bill, car insurance, medical bills, EVERYTHING), to maximize my points. Have been doing this for years. Pay it off in full every month so you don't have any interest charges. 

 

I do the double meta upgrade (from inside to balcony) for 60K points.

 

You book the inside stateroom, then call the rewards # to use your 60K in points and update your reservation to a balcony. Then, you take whatever else you have in points at the time, and apply it to that same reservation # as a cruise discount.  (Remember, you're going to get triple points for your deposit and for pre-paying your gratuities, so do this before you make your final points redemption)

 

Don't make your final payment until the due date, so that you can keep redeeming your earned points for additional discount to be applied.  We're doing 10 days in June for a ridiculously small amount thanks to this! 

 

 

[ngrund]

2 hours ago, kikipug said:

 

 

I do the double meta upgrade (from inside to balcony) for 60K points.

 

 

 

 

I have a couple of questions-

 

When you do this can you still select your balcony cabin or is it assigned by NCL?

 

Do you get the same "free at sea benefits" as if you booked the balcony direct (2 specialty meals)?

[kikipug]

4 hours ago, ngrund said:

I have a couple of questions-

 

When you do this can you still select your balcony cabin or is it assigned by NCL?

 

Do you get the same "free at sea benefits" as if you booked the balcony direct (2 specialty meals)?

When you book the inside room, book for the same subcategory that you want for a balcony room. (i.e, if you book the lowest inside category, you’ll get the lowest balcony category.) I always have an idea of exactly which room I want, I make sure it’s still available, and then when I call the rewards people (with the deck plan up on my computer for reference) I specifically ask if I can have that particular room. I’ve always had good luck with a good phone rep.
 

You do NOT get the additional specialty dining, but, do the math. On our upcoming 10-day cruise, through the upgrade alone (before the $900 in additional discount reward credits) I saved over $2k… for that savings, I’ll pay for my own additional! 

[ngrund]

Thanks! was just curious, I also don't really care about the meal, as on any future cruises (if we go NCL again)  we will get the Platinum voucher.

 

We do like to choose our location, and wife is Diamond with CET so we would not get that discount. I also have to think about if it is worth using the NCL card and giving up the higher cash back I get from my other cards.

 

 

[603NHCruiser]

15 hours ago, ngrund said:

Thanks! was just curious, I also don't really care about the meal, as on any future cruises (if we go NCL again)  we will get the Platinum voucher.

 

We do like to choose our location, and wife is Diamond with CET so we would not get that discount. I also have to think about if it is worth using the NCL card and giving up the higher cash back I get from my other cards.

 

 

There has been some back and forth recently regarding upgrading a casino reservation using BOA WP. Not many folks appear to be trying to use both so YMMV, but its worth a go if you are booking outside of final payment because you can always book through CAS to get the CET diamond discount for an interior room and then call WP to try and get the reservation upgraded. From what others have posted, it sounds as though a full comp through CAS will not be eligible for an upgrade, however no one has posted with direct knowledge regarding just a CAS % discount room.

[ngrund]

2 hours ago, 603NHCruiser said:

There has been some back and forth recently regarding upgrading a casino reservation using BOA WP. Not many folks appear to be trying to use both so YMMV, but its worth a go if you are booking outside of final payment because you can always book through CAS to get the CET diamond discount for an interior room and then call WP to try and get the reservation upgraded. From what others have posted, it sounds as though a full comp through CAS will not be eligible for an upgrade, however no one has posted with direct knowledge regarding just a CAS % discount room.

Thanks-as you say, it is worth a try, but first I would need to get the 60,000 points-right now I only use the NCL card for NCL spend since I get much higher cash back amounts on several other cards.