NCL Mastercard FAQ

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Ok, I got it now.  Obviously low on caffeine earlier but now eyeing the wine cooler, so I’d best answer before the siren’s song gets me.

 

as others have said, I do not think your scenario of pay for IN, go to OV with points and pay for BAL upgrade is allowed.  If your heart is set ona balcony, buy the lowest OV that will allow you to go to a low level balcony.  Those categories will vary by the ship so you need to callWP and ask what OV. Category will get you to a balcony

 

FAS varies between the categories  And as someone said earlier, if you book an IN and upgrade with points, you will only get the perks for your booking category.

Edited July 23, 2023 by MagnoliaBlossom

[3dogmom]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:10 PM, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I haven’t but someone posted very recen fly about redeeming for a cruise.  I don’t recall if it was on this thread or not, but it can be done.  Maybe if you search for it you can glean so,e information from her post.  It may have been on a social site but I don’t go there very often, so I’m thinking it was here.

That was me!

 

From reading this thread, I now know upgrades give you the best value to spend your points on.  I think I still may use on a 7 night cruise since I'm not sure when we'll cruise NCL again. 

[3dogmom]

To expand on my thoughts above after reading the last few posts, I can upgrade from an Inside to Oceanview Porthole for around $330. I'm thinking about then cashing in 30,000 points for a balcony. Can you go from Porthole to Balcony or does it have to be the larger category; Oceanview with Large Picture Window?

[MagnoliaBlossom]

6 minutes ago, 3dogmom said:

That was me!

 

From reading this thread, I now know upgrades give you the best value to spend your points on.  I think I still may use on a 7 night cruise since I'm not sure when we'll cruise NCL again. 

So glad you responded!  Just for my edification, when you use points for a cruise, do you get to choose your cabin or are you restricted to certain categories.  Thanks!

[3dogmom]

6 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

So glad you responded!  Just for my edification, when you use points for a cruise, do you get to choose your cabin or are you restricted to certain categories.  Thanks!

 

No idea! 😂 Guess I'll find out if we do decide to spend all our points on one cruise.

[karinad]

19 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

Ok, I got it now.  Obviously low on caffeine earlier but now eyeing the wine cooler, so I’d best answer before the siren’s song gets me.

 

as others have said, I do not think your scenario of pay for IN, go to OV with points and pay for BAL upgrade is allowed.  If your heart is set ona balcony, buy the lowest OV that will allow you to go to a low level balcony.  Those categories will vary by the ship so you need to callWP and ask what OV. Category will get you to a balcony

 

FAS varies between the categories  And as someone said earlier, if you book an IN and upgrade with points, you will only get the perks for your booking category.

Thank you! It's the Escape I'm looking at. We definitely want a balcony! As the rates look now it wouldn't be worth using the 30000 to upgrade from OV to Balcony. I'll keep watching the rates and it might be worth just using the 30000 for a statement credit of $300. It's all a hit and miss game!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Oh, I am thinking of someone who said they had done it already.  But let us know should you do it!

[karinad]

2 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

Oh, I am thinking of someone who said they had done it already.  But let us know should you do it!

I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask!

[3dogmom]

19 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

So glad you responded!  Just for my edification, when you use points for a cruise, do you get to choose your cabin or are you restricted to certain categories.  Thanks!

 

To update, I paid to upgrade to an OV cabin. I then used 30k points to upgrade and select my balcony. In order to choose the balcony cabin I wanted, It was just shy of $25 more than if NCL assigned me a balcony cabin. I paid $593.00 for the upgrade. 

 

Thanks again for all your help!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

15 minutes ago, 3dogmom said:

 

To update, I paid to upgrade to an OV cabin. I then used 30k points to upgrade and select my balcony. In order to choose the balcony cabin I wanted, It was just shy of $25 more than if NCL assigned me a balcony cabin. I paid $593.00 for the upgrade. 

 

Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks you for that but I’m hoping someone who has used points for the entire cruise will come back and tell us how that works.

[mscdivina2016]

20 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

So glad you responded!  Just for my edification, when you use points for a cruise, do you get to choose your cabin or are you restricted to certain categories.  Thanks!

I have used all points more than once.

Yes you get to pick but it might not be your 1st choice .   Depends on the ship.

On the Sun, I ended up with a BD.  On the Jewel a BA. Available cabins also matters . I ask what's the highest available.

 

No afts!!  Keep in mind your fare is considered complimentary so if you want to upgrade, it won't work.  Now bidding was not around back then so I do not know if you can.

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I have used all points more than once.

Yes you get to pick but it might not be your 1st choice .   Depends on the ship.

On the Sun, I ended up with a BD.  On the Jewel a BA. Available cabins also matters . I ask what's the highest available.

 

No afts!!  Keep in mind your fare is considered complimentary so if you want to upgrade, it won't work.  Now bidding was not around back then so I do not know if you can.

Yes, you can bid if you upgraded using points.  And you may get FCC if the price drops, based on any difference between your original cabin cost and the current cost of that cabin.

[BSR]

19 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I have used all points more than once.

Yes you get to pick but it might not be your 1st choice .   Depends on the ship.

On the Sun, I ended up with a BD.  On the Jewel a BA. Available cabins also matters . I ask what's the highest available.

 

No afts!!  Keep in mind your fare is considered complimentary so if you want to upgrade, it won't work.  Now bidding was not around back then so I do not know if you can.

Hi Steve, I looked into this last year for a balcony cabin.  I was told that I couldn't add on any free at sea promotions and ended up cashing in a lot of my points.  I still have more than enough for another balcony cabin.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

MSC, I do remember now that it was you who posted that.  Yu had like a zillion points, as I recall.  Thank you for the input.  Don’t think I will ever amass that many, as we sail several times a year and I use up those 30 and 60 Ks pretty readily.   But I’m a curious creature.

 

thanks,

Georgia

[mscdivina2016]

3 hours ago, BSR said:

Hi Steve, I looked into this last year for a balcony cabin.  I was told that I couldn't add on any free at sea promotions and ended up cashing in a lot of my points.  I still have more than enough for another balcony cabin.

That's right.  When I did it years ago, free at sea wasn't really around. I also cashed in points for OBC to pay for drinks.

 

[karinad]

Who do you think I should call? I haven't booked the cruise yet but I'd need an answer before I put money on it. From what I understand I'd have to book the cruise with my travel agent(I don't have one I use all the time. I book with the one that has the best perks) and then call World Points to do the upgrade. Once I get the upgrade from Inside to Outside, who would I ask to see if I could pay to upgrade from outside to balcony? Since the cruise is in final payment I'd need to know before I do anything. Travel agent or World Points? Thank you!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I would start with WorldPoints.  They should know if the upgrade is a final resolution or if it can be added to with cash.   I believe it will that you cannot add on to it but that’s an assumption based on what others have said.  But situations change.  Let us know what they say, please.

[karinad]

2 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I would start with WorldPoints.  They should know if the upgrade is a final resolution or if it can be added to with cash.   I believe it will that you cannot add on to it but that’s an assumption based on what others have said.  But situations change.  Let us know what they say, please.

I will let you know. If the cruise wasn't in final payment I would just go ahead and book it and then see what happens. I realize that no one would know unless they've done it and like you said, things change. Our points are worth more than money to all of us. Thank you for replying!

[karinad]

26 minutes ago, karinad said:

I will let you know. If the cruise wasn't in final payment I would just go ahead and book it and then see what happens. I realize that no one would know unless they've done it and like you said, things change. Our points are worth more than money to all of us. Thank you for replying!

I just talked to world points and Amanda told me that I can pay the difference from outside to balcony once I book with the points for the inside to the outside. I asked her if she knew of the availability of the balcony and she said I'd need the booking #.

[mscdivina2016]

53 minutes ago, karinad said:

Who do you think I should call? I haven't booked the cruise yet but I'd need an answer before I put money on it. From what I understand I'd have to book the cruise with my travel agent(I don't have one I use all the time. I book with the one that has the best perks) and then call World Points to do the upgrade. Once I get the upgrade from Inside to Outside, who would I ask to see if I could pay to upgrade from outside to balcony? Since the cruise is in final payment I'd need to know before I do anything. Travel agent or World Points? Thank you!

Any one at NCL will let you pay to upgrade to a balcony. 

 But.......the cost difference is what you actually paid, not the category you are in.

 So if you paid $1000 for inside and wanted. $2000 balcony, you would owe $1000 more.

If you paid $1000, then used points to an OV and then wanted to pay for a $2000 balcony, you still owe $1000.

 

There is no value other than what you paid out for a "complementary upgrade"

[julig22]

5 minutes ago, karinad said:

I just talked to world points and Amanda told me that I can pay the difference from outside to balcony once I book with the points for the inside to the outside. I asked her if she knew of the availability of the balcony and she said I'd need the booking #.

Good luck with that - I have my doubts...

[mscdivina2016]

9 minutes ago, karinad said:

I just talked to world points and Amanda told me that I can pay the difference from outside to balcony once I book with the points for the inside to the outside. I asked her if she knew of the availability of the balcony and she said I'd need the booking #.

She doesn't know what she is talking about.

 

[karinad]

11 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Any one at NCL will let you pay to upgrade to a balcony. 

 But.......the cost difference is what you actually paid, not the category you are in.

 So if you paid $1000 for inside and wanted. $2000 balcony, you would owe $1000 more.

If you paid $1000, then used points to an OV and then wanted to pay for a $2000 balcony, you still owe $1000.

 

There is no value other than what you paid out for a "complementary upgrade"

This is what I asked her: I'd use 30,000 points to upgrade from inside to outside. After I have the outside cabin and wanted to go to the balcony and I gave her an example. If the difference between the OS ($1100) and balcony is ($1200) she said I'd pay $100. 30,000 points plus $100.

[karinad]

18 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

She doesn't know what she is talking about.

 

Do you work for World Points or a travel agent or have you tried to do this? I'm only repeating what she answered me. The first girl I talked to handed me over to a specialist.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Katrina,  the problem, as you will find, is that agents, whether it is WP or NCL, may give you wrong answers.  In a perfect world every agent would give you the same, correct answer.  But I would be very cautious in this going forward.   Call another agent, try one at NCL outside of the WP dept and see what they tell you.

Edited July 27, 2023 by MagnoliaBlossom