Best Reward Credit Card

[rlkubi]

I'm looking for the best credit card with either airline mileage or cruise points. Please send me your opinions. Thanks!

[Mikew0805]

I have had a few reward cards. ( Carnival Capital One, Carnival Sea Miles, and Capital one No hassle rewards ) All those are junk in my opinion, and I have since paid them off and closed them. The one card that I am really pleased with is my Citibank AAdvantage card. I never have had a problem with them, and American Airlines AAdvantage miles are posted promptly. Since there are rarely blackout dates with American to use your miles, I feel this is a better reward than anything for a cruise. Not to mention, when I signed up a year ago, I got 20,000 bonus miles, A free companion certificate, and a $50 voucher for AA. I love the card, and use it to pay bills like insurance, Cell phone, Cable and utilities. Then I just send a check to Citibank to cover those bills. Lots of miles each month, and I pay before interest starts accruing, so technically these are free miles.

 

-Mike

[Pugs]

I have always used American Express, I get double Pts for Groc. Gas, and they have new suppliers almost every Mo.

 

Pugs

[caribbean dreams]

I also use American Express rewards card and love it.

[Pugs]

The only bad thing is you have to make sure you can pay it off every Mo.

I use it in place of cash and keep the cash in my acccount and the write the check at the payment time. Did I say this correct?

 

Pugs

[caribbean dreams]

The only bad thing is you have to make sure you can pay it off every Mo.

 

Nope not mine, i have a $15 minimum monthly payment.

If i decide not to pay it off each month and keep a balance, the APR is 13.24%

[Pugs]

"REALLLLLLY " I want that one, is it called the Bule card?

 

 

 

Pugs

[caribbean dreams]

"REALLLLLLY " I want that one, is it called the Bule card?Pugs

 

It's the Costco True earning American Express.

[truecruiser]

i am totally disgusted w/ my carnival seamiles card for many reasons (have been charging up a storm, and really have no real benefits/rewards to speak of at this date. it seems to take eons to earn w/ this card, and you must book a cruise w/ their travel agent -- no one else. don't like that all - a take it or leave it price.

 

i started a thread just like this a couple of months ago and got a citibank diamond rewards card after reading a lot about it from another CC member (Drew's Wife). she has gotten a lot of use out of the card and loves it.

 

in the few short months that i have had it, i am already very close to getting my 1st $100 CCL gift certificate which i can apply toward one of my booking pymts. now, that's fast.

 

to give you a better indication of the disparity between the 2 programs: citibank gave me 6,000 thank you points for getting the card. you need 10,000 per $100 cert. seamiles gave me 5,000 seamiles years ago to which i have added thousands more (seamiles), and i've got squatola from them!

[letsgocruz1]

i am totally disgusted w/ my carnival seamiles card for many reasons (have been charging up a storm, and really have no real benefits/rewards to speak of at this date. it seems to take eons to earn w/ this card, and you must book a cruise w/ their travel agent -- no one else. don't like that all - a take it or leave it price.

 

i started a thread just like this a couple of months ago and got a citibank diamond rewards card after reading a lot about it from another CC member (Drew's Wife). she has gotten a lot of use out of the card and loves it.

 

in the few short months that i have had it, i am already very close to getting my 1st $100 CCL gift certificate which i can apply toward one of my booking pymts. now, that's fast.

 

to give you a better indication of the disparity between the 2 programs: citibank gave me 6,000 thank you points for getting the card. you need 10,000 per $100 cert. seamiles gave me 5,000 seamiles years ago to which i have added thousands more (seamiles), and i've got squatola from them!

 

I have the Citicard Diamond Rewards Card as well, and I love it. Dh and I are booked on our second "free" cruise compliments of them!!

 

You do have to book through Carnival, though. Just keep that in mind if you are used to booking through a TA.

[truecruiser]

you know i don't know if i knew that. thank you. i always use carnival or one certain TA. but my TA hasn't done anything special for me after all of the cruises i have booked w/ her, so my last 2 cruises were booked w/ carnival.

 

i like that carnival has honored the price drops. my TA never has...and not to say my TA hasn't given me good prices, but i cld do better w/ CCL if there is a sale. i never even gotten so much as a fruit basket or bottle of wine and in addition to my bookings, i gave her 3 new clients who also used her to book cruises! (my mother, my friend, my SIL). i think that's worth a thank you. so, i'm okay to book w/ a good pvp or cvs. instead of her for the cert.

 

i asked the pvp about the cert. he said it was easy to use, just send it registered/insured whatever, b/c it's like sending cash. do you find the redemption process easy?

[ute_fan]

Well, it's probably no help to you since this is the Carnival board, but my favorite rewards card is NCL's mastercard. It's currently administered by Bank of America, and since we opened our account 2 1/2 years ago, I've been able to submit $2,000 worth of certificates to help pay for my cruising addiction.

 

If you ever plan on trying NCL, I'd highly recommend getting one. It's lots easier to redeem than my American Express skymiles card -- no blackout dates to deal with. Once you earn 500 points, you can request a $500 certificate that you use just like cash

[truecruiser]

Well, it's probably no help to you since this is the Carnival board, but my favorite rewards card is NCL's mastercard. It's currently administered by Bank of America, and since we opened our account 2 1/2 years ago, I've been able to submit $2,000 worth of certificates to help pay for my cruising addiction.

 

If you ever plan on trying NCL, I'd highly recommend getting one. It's lots easier to redeem than my American Express skymiles card -- no blackout dates to deal with. Once you earn 500 points, you can request a $500 certificate that you use just like cash

 

in 2 1/2 yrs wow! 500 points/$500 wow! now i want this one!

[LRene]

We've had a bunch of different cards and our Delta Skymiles American Express (Platinum) has been the best card yet. Good on Delta or any of their partner airlines like Northwest, Continental, Alitalia etc.

 

We use it for everything that we can possibly charge to AE all month long and pay it off. We've cashed in for 2 tickets to FLL to cruise, 2 tickets (first class) to Rome to cruise and will be booking 2 tickets to San Diego to cruise in the near future and will still have enough for a few more trips while gaining every month. We get one free companion ticket a year as well and a bunch of other Platinum perks well worth the $135 annual fee.

 

They run a lot of double points promo's and we always rack up miles fast. It may not pay for a cruise but we sure don't have to pay for airfare on TOP of our cruise! :)

[parrothead0918]

I looked into the different cruise credit card programs and felt NCLs is best. In one year I accumulated 1000 points which is the equivalent of a $1000 discount to be applied to the cost of a cruise (not shipboard accounts). We charge everything and wish we could use it to pay the mortgage. Here is some info of their program I found on an NCL thread:

 

 

NCL COMPASS REWARDS

 

Earn points

Retail purchases anywhere: 3%

NCL products & services: 4%

 

Maximum earnable

Per month: 250 pts from max charges $6,250 NCL only,

or

$8,333 other only

Per year: 1,000 pts from max charges $25,000 NCL only,

or

(12 consecutive months) $33,333 other only

 

Points accumulate for a maximum of 3 years;

Max accumulation and redemption over 3 years = 3,000

points.

 

You may redeem certificates in denominations of 500

points each, as many certificates as you have earned;

e. g., if you accumulate 1500 points, you may redeem 3

500-point certificates. Certificates must be used

within 12 months of requesting them.

 

A certificate for 500 points = $500 discount on NCL

cruises; 1000 pts = $1000 discount, etc.

 

Watch out for large monthly charges on the card; if

you go over the maximum charge in one month you will

lose anything in excess of 250 points that month; the

same goes for the 1000 annual limit. If you expect to

do so, get a second card to split the charges so you

don’t lose anything. You can see it might be easy to

exceed the limit in any month where you charge a

cruise. Keep your eye on your balances each month; the

statement shows your reward balances.

[ute_fan]

There are several regular NCL posters who actually have 3 or 4 cards in order so that they aren't limited to the 1,000 points per year. I wouldn't have accumulated as much as I have done if it wasn't for having 2 kids in college. Even thought it's only a community college, the tuition and books still add up :eek: .

 

We could probably charge more than we do, as I still use a debit card for a lot of my routine purchases, but we've been running right around that 1,000 point max per year, and I haven't bothered to get a second card yet. Living in Utah, I wish I could find an airline card that worked as well. Getting from here to any of the ports is almost as bad as the cruise!

 

I've become a huge fan of the program. We certainly aren't at the income level to be able to afford 5 cruises between Jan. 2004 and May 2007 without having this program to help us out.

[bthorn1108]

We have the Chase Freedom card. You can earn 3% on groceries, gas and fast food restaurants. It takes 18,500 pts. to get a $200 cert. to be used towards the cost of a cruise. The cruise must be booked directly through Carnival, however, most people would be fine with that (at least you don't have to book through a special TA). In the 3 months we have been using the card, we have accumulated 13,500 pts. At this rate, we'll save approximately $400 year on cruises, sounds good to me. BTW, they also offer certs for RCCL, if that is your cruiseline of choice.

[quagmire0]

You're probably better off using a cash back rewards card. I've found that most of the travel themed cards aren't as rewarding when you really break down what you spend vs. what you get.

 

http://www.cardoffers.com is a good site for checking out cards, and include reviews on those cards as well.

[LHP]

You're probably better off using a cash back rewards card. I've found that most of the travel themed cards aren't as rewarding when you really break down what you spend vs. what you get.

 

http://www.cardoffers.com is a good site for checking out cards, and include reviews on those cards as well.

 

We use a cash back rewards program. (and just spend the cash back on cruising) That way we can book with whomever we want to and do not have to worry about 50,000 points not really getting you $500.00 off but $375.00 because the CC travel agency (which for Sea Miles is ICE ~enough said) decided we had already gotten a good enough deal from Carnival on that cruise....so they decreased the amount we could get for our 50,000. All perfectly legal of course. Ethical ... well that is another story.

[Maryutah]

We have RCI (Time share) through MBNA, and earn points on any purchases. We pay for everything except our house payment on it, and pay off end of each month as to avoid interest charges. We even paid off the last few thousand dollars of our car, to get points.

 

Worked great exchanging points for airfare for 2 to Italy, after booking us two (my sister and I) and paying for my mom's full price ticket, we shared the end price at $500 each on what would normally have been a $1,100 flight (each)! And we still have points left!

 

Not sure it's for everyone, but we were sure pleased!

 

Doesn't matter what kind of card you get, just get something that rewards you for use! I can't imagine using a 'normal' credit card ever again!

[crookedhalo]

I just spent some time recently looking at a variety of rewards type cards. After a lot of searching, I've come to the conclusion that it is best to use a cash-back card. Amex has their Blue Cash card that has a fairly complicated system of %'s, but they have a "calculator" at their site that gives you an idea as to what you might earn. Based on just minimum purchases (gas, groceries and having certain bills paid monthly), looks like we should net out around $1200/year. Heck of a nice chunk:D Nice thing is I'm free to get the best deal I can and then use the cash to pay for it.

[Barkingowl]

Amex would be my first choice too.

[Host Kewlguy]

Norwegian Cruise Lines Master Card is by far the best cruise rewards card out there. And I sail mostly with Royal Caribbean.

[KtBarker]

Amex would be my first choice too.

 

I am PRETTY sure that all the AMEX rewards points systems have just recently changed. I just realized I wasn't earning double points any more for things like grocery shopping, so I wrote a letter and complained. I received a call a few weeks later from AMEX CS and they told me the only way to earn double points was by shopping in their online portal. They rewarded me with 2500 points as an apology, but still no more double points for gas etc...

 

In order to earn double points now you need to shop through their online portal. There are tons of good stores on there, but places with $$$ purchases like home depot, I would just not 'think' to log in to pruchase items.

[KtBarker]

Does anyone have a link as to where I can find info on the NCL CC? I have done a few searches and can't seem to find it on the BOA website either... :rolleyes: