NCL Mastercard FAQ

[Beaumont Barbie]

54 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I’d forgotten about that, we’ll all have to keep our eyes open and alert the rest.  Thanks for the reminder.

I have two cruises to pay off by January 2025. I’ve been keeping an eye out all year. I was hoping it was offered more than once a year; it appears that’s not the case. 

[julig22]

10 minutes ago, Beaumont Barbie said:

I have two cruises to pay off by January 2025. I’ve been keeping an eye out all year. I was hoping it was offered more than once a year; it appears that’s not the case. 

From looking it up, it was new in 2022 so not a lot of history. So hoping it continues...

[Viamin_Sea_26]

OK, this has probably been asked somewhere in the past 250 pages, but I'm using points for the first time to upgrade.  (YAY!!!)  And I'm clueless as to how to make this smooth.

 

We booked the cruise in March onboard our last cruise last week and my DH is hearing to NOT upgrade until final payment is due.

I also found out and am very happy that the cruise we booked qualifies for double latitude points (for a 12 day - we'll be Platinum after that!!).

When we booked onboard, the CruiseNext agent gave us IF category (inside F) and guarantee room as she knew we'd be upgrading.  Using 60K points to upgrade to a balcony, and yes we're fine with BF.

Our PCC said he can't do the upgrade for us and also said we needed to be booked Family Inside to upgrade to balcony (I don't think he's right from what I read and what the CruiseNext clerk stated).

 

My questions (since I have so many):

- Do I call BOA/WorldPoints to do the upgrade, or NCL?

- Do I wait until final payment or should we do it now to ensure there are balconies left?

- Most importantly, do we keep ALL promo codes from when we originally booked, my main concern is the double Latitude points?

- We are able to do the double-meta from Inside-F to Balcony-F like we planned, right?

- Anything else I should be aware of before upgrading (like I read in recent pages not to let them say it costs money to upgrade to balcony)?

 

Sorry for all the questions and long post, but I figure the regulars on here are much more of the experts than probably those employed by NCL, BOA, or WorldPoints.  

[jds2001]

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

My questions (since I have so many):

- Do I call BOA/WorldPoints to do the upgrade, or NCL?

You call WorldPoints to do the upgrade. Per my experience, you'll need to have your TA on the phone to do it.

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

- Do I wait until final payment or should we do it now to ensure there are balconies left?

Do it now, make sure that the cabin that you want is available.

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

- Most importantly, do we keep ALL promo codes from when we originally booked, my main concern is the double Latitude points?

Yes, this does not change the effective date of the booking. It's a complimentary upgrade, according to NCL. I should also note at this point that FAS amenities are applicable to the original category booked - so you don't get that third specialty meal going from an inside to balcony on your 12-day sailing. 

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

- We are able to do the double-meta from Inside-F to Balcony-F like we planned, right?

Very likely, but not guaranteed - the rules are somewhat arcane, especially on smaller ships. But IF-BF should be doable.

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

- Anything else I should be aware of before upgrading (like I read in recent pages not to let them say it costs money to upgrade to balcony)?

This goes with the previous answer: if the target category can't be gotten to by the original category booked, you might need to pay the difference. In that case, it very well may change the effective date of the booking, resulting in promo code loss. Be very careful with this.

21 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

Sorry for all the questions and long post, but I figure the regulars on here are much more of the experts than probably those employed by NCL, BOA, or WorldPoints.  

No worries, always happy to help. The disclaimer is that I'm employed by BOA (no offense taken) but not in any customer-facing role or anything that has anything to do with this, and I certainly have no inside knowledge. Just a tech guy.

Edited September 9 by jds2001

[jds2001]

4 minutes ago, jds2001 said:

You call WorldPoints to do the upgrade. Per my experience, you'll need to have your TA on the phone to do it.

Actually, you mentioned PCC. That's a direct booking; there's no need to have anyone else on the phone when doing it. My bad.

[kismetique]

38 minutes ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

- Do I wait until final payment or should we do it now to ensure there are balconies left?

 

The only thing I would add, is to make SURE you want to spend these points on this cruise.  Apparently there is a new rule that has maybe always been in place, but is now being enforced...maybe, somewhat?  No give backs on the points should you cancel the cruise.  

 

I would use my imagination on how to secure the cabin you want without upgrading with the points until you are absolutely certain you're going on this cruise.  So if you do change your mind, you've not used the points yet.

 

I only caution as I had booked several successive cruises and upgraded most of them with points.  NCL cancelled 2 in the middle of these, and while I got those points back, I'm guessing I can no longer get the points back on the cruises that came after the cancelled ones.  I made it work by sliding in a cruise and land stop in place of the cancelled cruises in order not to go through the hassle.  But I'm very wary using my points again until I'm absolutely certain that the cruise is set in stone.  When you're booking B2B2B2B something can always go wrong, and while I realize your cruise is not a B2B, I wanted to give you an example.

 

No give backs appears to be something new that's happening and might not be strictly enforced or maybe only with certain CSRs....calling again and getting someone different might have different results.  

[wncretired]

This doesn’t seem possible. Or is it???

17 day Trans Pacific on the Norwegian Sun, October, 2025.  Leaves Vancouver, makes 3 stops in Alaska, and 3 in Japan, ending in Tokyo. 
 

price for an Interior (IA) is $4,454, including all FAS.

price for Balcony (BA), is $10,669 including all FAS. 

 

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????
I love the idea, but it seems to good to be true!!

[jds2001]

Just now, wncretired said:

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????
I love the idea, but it seems to good to be true!!

You can do just that!

[Beaumont Barbie]

7 minutes ago, wncretired said:

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????

Yes, you can. We saved more than $5,000 upgrading a 20-day Panama Canal cruise from inside to balcony. 

[julig22]

36 minutes ago, wncretired said:

This doesn’t seem possible. Or is it???

17 day Trans Pacific on the Norwegian Sun, October, 2025.  Leaves Vancouver, makes 3 stops in Alaska, and 3 in Japan, ending in Tokyo. 
 

price for an Interior (IA) is $4,454, including all FAS.

price for Balcony (BA), is $10,669 including all FAS. 

 

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????
I love the idea, but it seems to good to be true!!

Yes but make sure to check prices on ov. It's often an even better deal to pay for ov and save 30k points for another cruise.

[jds2001]

3 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Yes but make sure to check prices on ov. It's often an even better deal to pay for ov and save 30k points for another cruise.

I just looked at it for this cruise - it's $4517 from OA to BA so the first 30K points is still ~$1700

[Viamin_Sea_26]

22 hours ago, jds2001 said:

No worries, always happy to help. The disclaimer is that I'm employed by BOA (no offense taken) but not in any customer-facing role or anything that has anything to do with this, and I certainly have no inside knowledge. Just a tech guy.

 

THANK YOU so much for the info!!

And no, I wasn't saying anything bad about NCL, BOA, or World Points, I'm just well aware that people in call centers may very well be newbies and not know all the inside details like well read travelers who hang out on message boards trying to be even more well read.

The bonus is you're both so can validate some of the rules more easily than little ol' me.  

 

Thank you again!!

[jds2001]

1 minute ago, Viamin_Sea_26 said:

The bonus is you're both so can validate some of the rules more easily than little ol' me.

Hah! I wish! I've searched high and low and can't find anything. More than likely it's outsourced to a third party who has all the secrets!

[The Traveling Man]

On 9/8/2024 at 11:11 PM, wncretired said:

This doesn’t seem possible. Or is it???

17 day Trans Pacific on the Norwegian Sun, October, 2025.  Leaves Vancouver, makes 3 stops in Alaska, and 3 in Japan, ending in Tokyo. 
 

price for an Interior (IA) is $4,454, including all FAS.

price for Balcony (BA), is $10,669 including all FAS. 

 

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????
I love the idea, but it seems to good to be true!!

Yes you can.  If you earned all your points for purchases you made with Norwegian, you received three points for each dollar spent, so those 60,000 points cost $20,000.  Saving $6,215 amounts to a "cash back" equivalent of more than 31%.  That certain tops the standard one or two percent on most "cash back" cards.  We try to average at least 25% return on our BoA NCL World Points Mastercard.  Our best was over 40%. 

 

If you intend to cruise frequently with NCL, you may find that it makes more sense to pay for an Ocean View stateroom and just use 30,000 points for a single meta upgrade.  Save the other 30,000 points for a future cruise.  On many cruises the price difference between Inside and OV is rather negligible, while the difference between OV and Balcony is much greater.  Spend your points wisely and enjoy saving money on your cruises!

[The Traveling Man]

On 9/8/2024 at 11:54 PM, jds2001 said:

I just looked at it for this cruise - it's $4517 from OA to BA so the first 30K points is still ~$1700

And maybe next month you spot another cruise you want to take where the price difference between OV and Balcony is $3000 or more.  If you already have spent all 60,000 of your points on the Sun, you may not have enough points left to take advantage of that next cruise.  YMMV, so check carefully before jumping in with both feet.  We usually try to keep somewhere close to 30,000 points in reserve and always look for a savings of at least $2500 or $3000 per 30,000 points.

[julig22]

On 9/8/2024 at 9:11 PM, wncretired said:

This doesn’t seem possible. Or is it???

17 day Trans Pacific on the Norwegian Sun, October, 2025.  Leaves Vancouver, makes 3 stops in Alaska, and 3 in Japan, ending in Tokyo. 
 

price for an Interior (IA) is $4,454, including all FAS.

price for Balcony (BA), is $10,669 including all FAS. 

 

Can I use 60,000 WP’s to upgrade from IA to BA and save $6,215 ??????
I love the idea, but it seems to good to be true!!

When comparing prices you do need to look at the price of the fare, not the total, assuming you are taking the FAS packages. Slight difference in the number of specialty meals - and you will only get the package for the category you are paying for (although they have been known to make mistakes LOL).

I have a cruise booked in December, as a solo - no solo supplement on this one so paid about $1K for an OV, balcony was nearly $3.5K last I looked (no longer on the NCL site). If I was paying double, my savings from OV to Balcony would have been nearly $5k, obviously more from an inside.

As an aside, I took the TP from Tokyo to Alaska (we ended in Seward) in April on the Jewel. I booked it 2+ years in advance, well worth the wait!

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

And maybe next month you spot another cruise you want to take where the price difference between OV and Balcony is $3000 or more.  If you already have spent all 60,000 of your points on the Sun, you may not have enough points left to take advantage of that next cruise.  YMMV, so check carefully before jumping in with both feet.  We usually try to keep somewhere close to 30,000 points in reserve and always look for a savings of at least $2500 or $3000 per 30,000 points.

Exactly. Although I have upgraded when the difference was over $2K and then the balcony prices came down, so actual savings weren't that great. But still more than $300.

And yes, you can still take advantage of price drops (both before and after final payment) - when it affects the category you paid for. But it sometimes takes a more knowledgeable rep to understand how to make that work.

[laudergayle]

When doing a mock booking the only Balcony cabins are Guarantee.  I have an OA booked on the Sky.  While I’m a few points short, my question is do I need to wait until balcony cabins are no longer Guarantee before I can upgrade and pick my cabin?

[julig22]

3 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

When doing a mock booking the only Balcony cabins are Guarantee.  I have an OA booked on the Sky.  While I’m a few points short, my question is do I need to wait until balcony cabins are no longer Guarantee before I can upgrade and pick my cabin?

You don't need to wait to upgrade but you might not be able to pick your cabin - it kinda depends on which cabins are available for upgrade. So you'd need to call the WWP people - they are usually quite friendly.

Why cabins are listed as GTY is one of the mysteries of NCL - sometimes they stay that way, sometimes they go back and forth, no guarantee they will ever go back to giving choices.

[Kierste]

Hi all! Just got our card a month ago, by my calculations I will have 60k points racked up before final payment for our cruise for next summer (11 night European cruise). We are in adjoining club balcony with a regular balcony next door (for my dd) I assume that since we will be close to final payment that the 60k to upgrade, that we don’t fit the upgrade ideal. We rarely need OBC because I pre-pay for gratuities etc and try to walk out with no bill. Do I use the points as a statement credit, or knock off some of the price of our room, save it for the next cruise (because there is always a next cruise) Is there something I am missing?

Edited Friday at 12:04 AM by Kierste

[laudergayle]

Just an FYI.  And, I will post in the NCL Mastercard FAQ.

 

right now, the points for a new NCL credit card is 30,000 which is enough for a one category upgrade…limited to Balcony at the highest.  Sorry CBS, Suites and Haven.

 

best offer I’ve seen ever.  Check out the first post on the NCL Forum for lots of details. 

[laudergayle]

I just noticed that sign up bonus is now 30,000.  Unless the rules have changed, this is enough for a one category upgrade.

[IAcruising]

 

Not an expert, but any other travel credit card will give you far more bonus value than a simple cabin upgrade. But hey, points are points.

 

[julig22]

8 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

Not an expert, but any other travel credit card will give you far more bonus value than a simple cabin upgrade. But hey, points are points.

 

Come again??? Please tell me what travel card gives you 25% back? My $300 worth of statement credit ($10K in NCL purchases) saved me $2.5K on an upcoming cruise. You get 3% on NCL purchases, less for other travel or general purchases. And I don't pay any fees for the card or for foreign travel. I'm just fine in a balcony so I think I'll keep it.

 

[IAcruising]

3 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Come again??? 

 

I apologize. Value is relative. I received 3-nights at the Marriot Amsterdam Town Centre and 2-nights at the Courtyard Marriot in Seattle with points to spare.

I'll take that over a category upgrade.

 

To each their own.