Credit Card with Best Benefits for Cruisers

[horseymike]

Hello Everyone,

 

Any suggestions for a credit card that offers the best benefits for cruisers ?

[CruiserBruce]

Some of the cruise lines have credit cards. Not aware of any card that works for all cruise lines.

[Joebucks]

47 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Some of the cruise lines have credit cards. Not aware of any card that works for all cruise lines.

 

The cruise line credit cards are awful. However, good luck convincing anyone that any decisions made around vacation, in any form, are a bad idea. 

 

Chase Sapphire Reserve is my favorite. Includes travel insurance, zero foreign transaction fees, and 4.5% rewards (when redeemed for travel, sometimes higher) on all travel purchases. Not to mention airport lounge access, global entry, 15% Lyft cash back, etc. 

[EatonDoolittle]

If you are an AAA member, they have a Visa that gives 3% cash back on all travel. Rental car, airline, cruise, hotel. No annual fee, but I suppose the membership could be considered a fee, if you only use it for the credit card. 

Currently also giving 5% on gas, which is nice. 

[WatchHill]

I don't have any cruise line credit cards, but do have airline cards - still need to get to the ship. Our jet Blue card gets us from BOS to FLL, and recently BOS to LHR, by moving the miles to True Blue. Delta is another card that has been good for us. Best perks are free luggage, priority onto the plane. No foreign transaction fees, too.

 

Darcy                                        

Edited August 13, 2023 by WatchHill

[Aquahound]

I agree to avoid specific cruise line cards. 
 

Check nerdwallet.  They rank best travel cards every year. Chase Sapphire seems to always be at or near the top. I use AMEX and I’m very happy with it, but do not claim it as best. 

[Szt]

We like to take advantage of any cruise credits or discounts offered when signing up for the card. Then we use it just enough to keep it active and pay for the next cruise with it if we get discounts or credits. Then se cancel it. We always pay the balance off in full. This isn’t good to do if you are planning on a big expense like a new home or car. Opening and closing ccs may (probably) hurt your credit a bit. 
on NCL they offer 2 $250 cruise next credits for the price of one and you can buy 2 ( get 4). We’ve done this twice. We know we will travel and having a little money pre-paid pushes us to go when we get lazy. They are really good about special circumstances. But I’m going off topic. There are usually bennies if you buy these with an NCL cc. 

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Aquahound said:

I agree to avoid specific cruise line cards. 
 

Check nerdwallet.  They rank best travel cards every year. Chase Sapphire seems to always be at or near the top. I use AMEX and I’m very happy with it, but do not claim it as best. 

 

There are a few websites like this.  I'm not sure if they all give the *exact* same information, and please keep in mind that they earn their money when people click on their links.  So that probably affects how they position things on each website, etc.

 

Here is a start:

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=compare+credit+card+perks&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

They should give similar results.

 

It's an "It Depends" type of answer for any specific person/people.  Do you want points that can be used on specific airlines, or cash back, for starters.  Do you want a bonus for signing up?  Those can vary from approximately 50k to 100+k points.  Will you use it enough to warrant an annual fee (AF)?  A hefty annual fee?  Want to take luggage on flights without extra fees?  Access to nice airport lounges when connecting between flights?  Some of the best perks are with the expensive cards, but if those particular perks aren't what *you* want, then there's no reason to pay the extra AF.  That goes for any card/program.  No matter how highly any "recommendation" site or person ranks a card, it may or may not be a good fit for you!

 

IF you are getting points/awards, and not cash back, try to avoid losing the points if you think there is any chance of using them.  You may not get enough points for, say, a RT air ticket to <place> right away, but if you use that card and get 1-2 points per mile, over a few years you might be surprised.  [We've had glorious international business and first class air trips on top international airlines to some very distant locations to catch cruises, even though we haven't used the points for any cruises themselves. 🙂 ]

 

We've been using credit cards awards for quite a while, and we have two main cards in good part because each has a mostly different group of "airline partners".  There's a bit of overlap, but the two networks give us access to *most* (not all!) airlines.  Some of the *best* ways to use the points are often on airline PARTNER airlines!  However, there are a very few airlines that aren't in either network.  IF that were an airline we thought we'd be taking, then we might try to get a card that does include that airline (directly or as a partner airline).

 

Some of this sounds confusing.  Uh, that's because it *is*, at first!  And especially getting awards tickets on those partner airlines.  But we do it for every foreign trip, be that to Norway/Italy/other European destinations, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand/Australia.

[We have used an "awards service" for quite a few of these, especially for the more exotic locations or most premium cabins.  www.FlyerTalk.com has a separate section about these services.]

 

Here endeth todays lecture! 😉

If you think the cash back is the easiest, then do that.  But try to get *some* useful perks from any card you get.  And then don't let that card (or those cards) expire without transferring the points or just making one small charge to keep the card "open".

 

And then, soon (or later?) ENJOY the perks, whatever they are!

 

GC

[Flatbush Flyer]

Travel a lot? 
Lots of folks swear by Chase Sapphire Reserve. But, it’s $400+ per year.

We’re pretty loyal to United Airlines and use its Mileage Plus card at <$100/year. Pays for itself in no extra bag fees (also 70 lb limit/per bag), 2 club passes annually, extra points for any United purchase, etc.)

[Joebucks]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Travel a lot? 
Lots of folks swear by Chase Sapphire Reserve. But, it’s $400+ per year.

We’re pretty loyal to United Airlines and use its Mileage Plus card at <$100/year. Pays for itself in no extra bag fees (also 70 lb limit/per bag), 2 club passes annually, extra points for any United purchase, etc.)

 

It's actually $550. When it first came out at $450, I said no chance in hell. Once I actually learned the benefits, I learned it was a great value. In That $550, there's a $300 travel credit that you hit without even having to think about. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

Similar to what others have said about cards, I use the same card as @Aquahound, the AmEx card, and feel that the insurance - that comes with a Platinum card - makes the cost of the card worthwhile. It's also expensive, but the many benefits in addition to the great coverage for trips makes it a good value in my opinion.

 

You can tell how old I am by the fact that I said "in my opinion", rather than IMHO! 

 

I'm not qualified to compare it with Chase Sapphire, as I haven't tried that.

Edited August 13, 2023 by YourWorldWithBill

[George C]

I use Amex Hilton card a get 5 or more free nights great for precruise no annual fee. Dropped my AA card .

[YourWorldWithBill]

9 minutes ago, George C said:

I use Amex Hilton card a get 5 or more free nights great for precruise no annual fee. Dropped my AA card .

This might be the best I've heard; that many free nights can be worth more than discounts or credit offered. Probably doesn't include insurance, correct? The comparison would be something worth evaluating. Am I assuming correctly that the number of nights probably depends on the price of the cruise?

[George C]

3 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

This might be the best I've heard; that many free nights can be worth more than discounts or credit offered. Probably doesn't include insurance, correct? The comparison would be something worth evaluating. Am I assuming correctly that the number of nights probably depends on the price of the cruise?

The number of free nights depends on how much you spend with the card .