NCL Mastercard FAQ

[WYB!]

Hello,

I just want to say thank you to mscdivina2016

Mscdivina2016 has been most helpful with information, has saved me thousands since I made contact and his advice has been spot on.

- WYB

 

 

[mscdivina2016]

On 4/9/2020 at 1:47 AM, WYB! said:

Hello,

I just want to say thank you to mscdivina2016

Mscdivina2016 has been most helpful with information, has saved me thousands since I made contact and his advice has been spot on.

- WYB

 

 

WYB,

Thank you, that's very kind to say.

Glad I could help.

Steve

[Ozzieru1e]

Anyone knows if NCL Mastercard have an email address for sending messages?

[mscdivina2016]

14 hours ago, Ozzieru1e said:

Anyone knows if NCL Mastercard have an email address for sending messages?

Depends on the purpose of the Email.

If its cruising related, then Contact NCL world points. If not then Bank of America.

You can email BOA, NCL email goes to a general customer service rep who will reply to call and ask for a World points rep.

 

Keep in mind World points is not in office and you will not (should not) be able to do anything with points till they get back in office or make other accommodations.

Steve

[Ozzieru1e]

29 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Depends on the purpose of the Email.

If its cruising related, then Contact NCL world points. If not then Bank of America.

You can email BOA, NCL email goes to a general customer service rep who will reply to call and ask for a World points rep.

 

Keep in mind World points is not in office and you will not (should not) be able to do anything with points till they get back in office or make other accommodations.

Steve

 

Thank you...will contact BOA.

[cruiser7140]

FYI, talked to a WP rep today about restoring 50K in points redeemed for a cruise (3/22) that was canceled.  They stated that reps are working from home and don't have access to the system they would need to refund the points.  Also stated that they weren't sure if the points would be automatically refunded when everything is back to normal, so i should check back in 3-4 weeks to be sure.

[petersw]

Apologies if this same question has been asked before...

 

We are booked for a 14 day cruise on the NCL Star starting July 12th.  While I’m still quite worried that our cruise will be cancelled, I wanted to ask a few questions regarding upgrades on NCL. We’ve been on other cruise lines in the past, but this will (or would) be our first time on Norwegian.

 

We are travelling as a family of 4 (my wife and I, plus our two girls who are 6 and 12). We are currently fully paid for a family inside cabin. Several months ago I signed up for a NCL credit card, and have earned about 40,000 points now, which would be enough for a single upgrade, I think. For example, to a cabin with a window.

 

I’ve also heard about an upgrade bidding process, but do you need to be invited to bid? I never received any notification from NCL on this.

 

Would it make sense to use the credit card points to upgrade to a window, and then try to bid for a balcony? Can you even do that? What’s the best advice? 

 

Thanks, and let’s hope this dream still becomes a reality!

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, petersw said:

Apologies if this same question has been asked before...

 

We are booked for a 14 day cruise on the NCL Star starting July 12th.  While I’m still quite worried that our cruise will be cancelled, I wanted to ask a few questions regarding upgrades on NCL. We’ve been on other cruise lines in the past, but this will (or would) be our first time on Norwegian.

 

We are travelling as a family of 4 (my wife and I, plus our two girls who are 6 and 12). We are currently fully paid for a family inside cabin. Several months ago I signed up for a NCL credit card, and have earned about 40,000 points now, which would be enough for a single upgrade, I think. For example, to a cabin with a window.

 

I’ve also heard about an upgrade bidding process, but do you need to be invited to bid? I never received any notification from NCL on this.

 

Would it make sense to use the credit card points to upgrade to a window, and then try to bid for a balcony? Can you even do that? What’s the best advice? 

 

Thanks, and let’s hope this dream still becomes a reality!

I doubt your cruise will happen as the CDC has extended the no sail for an extra 100 days, and that was last put out on the 9th and supposed the be approved on the 13 th, so thats the end of July. I have lost 3 cruises myself.

So to answer your questions yes you have enough for whats called a "Meta" upgrade. You need 30,000 points.

Yes you need to be invited to bid and that time frame is not accurately known. Figure a month out, if you qualify and there are rooms to bid on.

Yes you can upgrade to a window and bid on a balcony. I actually use points to go from inside to Balcony and I still get to bid on Suites.

Personally, I would not use points for inside to Window, the value is not much versus window to Balcony. Pay a little more for a window, which would probably be less than bidding on a Balcony.

Right now, World points is not in office and you cannot use your points as of yet.

Let me caution you on a few things. What ever inside category you got you can only get that category on an ocean view cabin based on availability. You can go down, not up.  In other words, book the highest inside category, so you can get any category in the one you want.

steve

[petersw]

35 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I doubt your cruise will happen as the CDC has extended the no sail for an extra 100 days, and that was last put out on the 9th and supposed the be approved on the 13 th, so thats the end of July. I have lost 3 cruises myself.

Thanks for the advice, Steve.

 

As to the CDC guidelines, I should have clarified that our cruise will be leaving from England, and only docking in European ports.  While the health authorities of other counties may choose to implement guidelines similar to the CDC, I don't think the CDC rules themselves would apply.

 

I've also learned that our ship (NCL Star) has no balcony cabins that could accommodate 4 people.  Thus, our upgrade options seem to be either oceanview or mini suite. 

[Derbie]

Good afternoon,

 

DH and I are looking at booking a 16 day cruise out of Los Angeles in November of this year, that goes to the Panama Canal.  I am wondering given our points (not a lot) probably 35K or so.  Would this amount of points be able to up us from an interior to a ocean view.  I know there are lateral moves, etc.; however, I am not familiar with the wording on this. Any information would be helpful. We need to book soon, as we prepaid a reservation on a past cruise, and it has to be used up this year (if I remember correctly).  Thanks so much in advance.

[Clay Clayton]

Below is a screen shot of the reward table. As always, you should verify by logging onto your account and verifying how many points you have and that the chart I found after a quick google search is the current one. 

[mscdivina2016]

12 hours ago, Derbie said:

Good afternoon,

 

DH and I are looking at booking a 16 day cruise out of Los Angeles in November of this year, that goes to the Panama Canal.  I am wondering given our points (not a lot) probably 35K or so.  Would this amount of points be able to up us from an interior to a ocean view.  I know there are lateral moves, etc.; however, I am not familiar with the wording on this. Any information would be helpful. We need to book soon, as we prepaid a reservation on a past cruise, and it has to be used up this year (if I remember correctly).  Thanks so much in advance.

To answer your question......Yes !  with 35,000 points, you only need 30,000 for a "Meta" upgrade.

Now what I have done or do is I will book a cruise, pay for it in full so on my next statement I get the points and since its an NCL product, you get triple.Then call back and do the upgrade.

 You could have no points, book $10,000 cruise, pay for it, wait till next statement and have 30,000 points.

Let me caution you.........Never book the lowest inside category,as an upgrade is lateral or down.

Id to od

ic to oc or od

ib to oc,od,ob

ia to oc,od,ob,oa

The upgrade is based on availability so by booking an IA you have 4 categories of ocean view you can move to "If" needed.

 

Steve

[Derbie]

8 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

To answer your question......Yes !  with 35,000 points, you only need 30,000 for a "Meta" upgrade.

Now what I have done or do is I will book a cruise, pay for it in full so on my next statement I get the points and since its an NCL product, you get triple.Then call back and do the upgrade.

 You could have no points, book $10,000 cruise, pay for it, wait till next statement and have 30,000 points.

Let me caution you.........Never book the lowest inside category,as an upgrade is lateral or down.

Id to od

ic to oc or od

ib to oc,od,ob

ia to oc,od,ob,oa

The upgrade is based on availability so by booking an IA you have 4 categories of ocean view you can move to "If" needed.

 

Steve

Thanks so much!  This is great information.  I think we are going to try to do a oceanview to a balcony.  Do you recommend the same route?  I so appreciate your wealth of knowledge!!!

 

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, Derbie said:

Thanks so much!  This is great information.  I think we are going to try to do a oceanview to a balcony.  Do you recommend the same route?  I so appreciate your wealth of knowledge!!!

 

Yes, it works the same for ocean view to balcony.

Your best bang for your points is to go to a balcony. The cost of inside to OV is much cheaper than ocean view to balcony.

If you have 30,000 points and have not booked, you can call and find out what the cheapest balcony category they have available and then book the corresponding OV and do the meta upgrade all in the same call.

Keep in mind right now due to corona, world points is not in office yet.

Steve

[EmeraldCoastCruisers]

On 11/3/2019 at 12:29 PM, WYB! said:

Hello,

I suggest if you are going to try to use points for a cabin meta upgrade you'll want to book at least 4 months ahead of the cruise date:

to get a BA Mid-Ship Balcony, using 60,000 points (double meta upgrade), you'll need to book a I1 Family Inside

to get a BA Mid-Ship Balcony, using 30,000 points (single meta upgrade), you'll need to book a O1 Family Oceanview Picture Window

When redeeming points with NCL for a meta upgrade you'll get 1 cabin category down from what you book.

(ie booking in a category: 1 can get you an A, A can get you a B, B can get you a C, etc.)

 

The further out you book the greater the chance of you getting it.

 

Use a Cruise Next Certificate to create a reservation number.

You should then contact the world points people (1-866- 954-4077) the day you get a NCL confirmation number. They will tell you if you can redeem the points or not. If they are unable to accept the points to upgrade you can still cancel your cruise booking.

 

You can't do a meta upgrade if you book in a Sail Away "X" category.

 

Things you can also redeem points for:

https://www.ncl.com/world-points

 

Safe travels,

 

- WhosYourBuddy!

I know this is an older post and a lot has happened in between!  However, I am looking at booking an inside cabin for a cruise in Feb 2022 with a portion of my FCC on a cruise that was cancelled.  IF I book an inside cabin in hopes to use the double meta upgrade to a balcony cabin should I be concerned this far out?  I'd really like a balcony, but have 58,498 points right now and looking to get those up to 60,000 to do this.  Any advice appreciated!

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, EmeraldCoastCruisers said:

I know this is an older post and a lot has happened in between!  However, I am looking at booking an inside cabin for a cruise in Feb 2022 with a portion of my FCC on a cruise that was cancelled.  IF I book an inside cabin in hopes to use the double meta upgrade to a balcony cabin should I be concerned this far out?  I'd really like a balcony, but have 58,498 points right now and looking to get those up to 60,000 to do this.  Any advice appreciated!

No concern,

 As far as the extra points you need......Book it now, have them put down a minimum of $501.00   Not $500   Being an NCL product you will get triple points and it will post with end of credit card cycle, so you will have 60,001 points.

 

World points is closed still. I am waiting to use points for 2023 cruises now.

Steve

[EmeraldCoastCruisers]

9 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

No concern,

 As far as the extra points you need......Book it now, have them put down a minimum of $501.00   Not $500   Being an NCL product you will get triple points and it will post with end of credit card cycle, so you will have 60,001 points.

 

World points is closed still. I am waiting to use points for 2023 cruises now.

Steve

Brilliant!  Thank you so much!

[vince_g]

On 5/5/2020 at 8:06 AM, mscdivina2016 said:

To answer your question......Yes !  with 35,000 points, you only need 30,000 for a "Meta" upgrade.

Now what I have done or do is I will book a cruise, pay for it in full so on my next statement I get the points and since its an NCL product, you get triple.Then call back and do the upgrade.

 You could have no points, book $10,000 cruise, pay for it, wait till next statement and have 30,000 points.

Let me caution you.........Never book the lowest inside category,as an upgrade is lateral or down.

Id to od

ic to oc or od

ib to oc,od,ob

ia to oc,od,ob,oa

The upgrade is based on availability so by booking an IA you have 4 categories of ocean view you can move to "If" needed.

 

Steve

Steve, this was not my experience for the last upgrade I did.  I booked category IF on Breakaway and upgraded straight into a category BA.  Maybe because Breakaway has so many balconies as compared to the Jewel class of ships.  Also once I had booked an inside, and when I called to do the double meta upgrade they told me I needed to be booked 1 category higher in order to get the balcony category I wanted.  The world points rep upgraded me to the correct inside category on the spot (I recall it cost me something like $30 or $40), and then applied the double meta upgrade.  My advice to anyone stuck on which category to book, is not to sweat it.  World points will fix it when you call to request the upgrade.

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, vince_g said:

Steve, this was not my experience for the last upgrade I did.  I booked category IF on Breakaway and upgraded straight into a category BA.  Maybe because Breakaway has so many balconies as compared to the Jewel class of ships.  Also once I had booked an inside, and when I called to do the double meta upgrade they told me I needed to be booked 1 category higher in order to get the balcony category I wanted.  The world points rep upgraded me to the correct inside category on the spot (I recall it cost me something like $30 or $40), and then applied the double meta upgrade.  My advice to anyone stuck on which category to book, is not to sweat it.  World points will fix it when you call to request the upgrade.

Your correct, The amount of Balconies does matter. You are also correct on they reps fixing it if needed, but keep in mind that if one needs to be a couple categories higher to meta, you pay the difference at today's rate not when you booked it.

 That's why I say book higher inside especially on the older smaller ships. I also want to throw it out there that the cruise type makes a difference as well. Weekly Caribbean cruises versus a 3 ocean repo cruise there would be an easier time and affordable option getting a meta on the Caribbean cruise.

Steve

[WYB!]

To make the most of the meta Points upgrade, I like to save the upgrade, for either a long voyage (+15 day) or a back to back voyage (B2B, 2 voyages under the same reservation number).

- WYB

Edited May 13, 2020 by WYB!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

To make the most of the meta Points upgrade, I like to save the upgrade, for either a long voyage (+15 day) or a back to back voyage (B2B, 2 voyages under the same reservation number).

- WYB

FYI, spoke to the worlds points office yesterday and they are still working from home. She said a few of the staff will be moved in at a time and thought the first ones might be fairly soon, that it was moving a little faster than anticipated. My plan is all again on Mondays to check. I’m already booked but the good balconies are filling up quickly so I’m hoping to grab one before I have to go to settle for a lower category balcony.


76 past cruises
Upcoming:
CCL Dream 8/22/2020. Western Caribbean
NCL Breakaway 1/10/2021 Western Caribbean
CCL Dream 5/16/2021 Western Caribbean
NCL Star 6/27/2021 - Scotland, Norway & Iceland

[EmeraldCoastCruisers]

On 5/10/2020 at 9:57 PM, EmeraldCoastCruisers said:

Brilliant!  Thank you so much!

I think I may have made a mistake when booking (in order to use the upgrade option with the CC points).  I booked an IA as I thought that's what I read before, but that appears to be an Inside GTY cabin.  Should I go ahead and get moved to an IF and then use my upgrade, or will they upgrade with an IA category?

[kjquilts]

3 hours ago, EmeraldCoastCruisers said:

I think I may have made a mistake when booking (in order to use the upgrade option with the CC points).  I booked an IA as I thought that's what I read before, but that appears to be an Inside GTY cabin.  Should I go ahead and get moved to an IF and then use my upgrade, or will they upgrade with an IA category?

 

Booking an IA category will allow you to upgrade to OA oceanview for 30,000 points or BA balcony for 60,000 points if staterooms are still available for meta upgrade in that category.  IA is one of the highest inside stateroom categories and it gives much more flexibility for meta upgrade options.

Edited June 2, 2020 by kjquilts

[karinad]

I haven't cashed in on any of my MC points in a couple yrs, even though I have cruised on NCL the last few yrs. My question is, can the points be used to book airline tickets or is it just for the cruise or getting money back? Most of my cc are airline cards like United, AA and I know how they work, only for air travel. Thanks!

[flumpa]

Hi I have a few questions and I am hoping someone can help...I have never used points for a cabin upgrade and wanted to get some information before I call World Points.  I am currently booked on the Pearl for an Xmas New Years Cruise 2020 (fingers crossed that it will still take place)! Originally, I was booked in an inside cabin but the prices dropped from when I booked so now I am in an obstructed ocean view.  I have 48,000 points (more if I wait until August when final payment is due).  I understand a meta category move is an inside to ocean or ocean to balcony.  Question how do I know which balcony categories I am eligible for in an obstructed room? After the initial 30k points can I use additional points to get a better balcony? Also, if the price drops before I use my points and move up to a balcony, can I use my points to go from a balcony to mini suite? Last question, if I cancel my cruise, will I be able to get my points back?  Thank you for your help!