Alright, we will forgive this one dalliance but let's not let this happen againWell if that’s how you feel I guess I could talk all my credit card wisdom and gifs somewhere else...
No need to ever speak of the RotR thread again....
@pinkxrayThe funny part to me is that as expensive as DCL is, it's the easiest to discount due to the GC deals. I had a hard time finding ways to discount NCL. Carnival, Princess, Royal and Celebrity all have GC's that can be bought with a discount, not so much for NCL. I ultimately discounted it by using my UR points to pay for the majority of the cruise fare. Having the CSR to redeem at 1.5x was a good discount.Also got an AmEx offer and had signed up for the NCL CC to discount some incidentals.
I think most of these have been touched on but I'll try to gather everything I know in one place.
1. CC points. UR from Chase get the 1.25/1.5 multiplier from the CSP,CIP/CSR cards. You have to call Chase travel to book cruises and they have access to exactly what you see on the cruise line site, the same promotions and inventory. They don't do any further discounts or specials.
MR from AmEx can be redeemed at .07 cpp through their travel portal. I've not been able to get through a mock booking so if you absolutely want to use MR I'd call. Near as I can see though they also have the same pricing and inventory as the cruise lines. It's just not the best redemption for MR but it would discount your cash outlay.
TY from Citi can be used as well but I'm not familiar with the Citi ecosystem. My understanding is they get 1 cpp except if you have the Premier (?) card you get 1.25. They also use the same TA as Chase for cruises, Connexions, so same options there - what you see on the cruise line website is what you get.
2. AmEx Offers. Occasionally you'll find an AmEx offer for NCL, last one was Spend $500 or more and get $150 back. If you get it after you book or can't make payments on the cruise you should be able to use it on other incidentals if you can buy it through the online portal. I think @wanderlust7 and @Mopedmom1 used it to by OBC successfully. I used it to prepay gratuities and book a couple shore excursions through the online portal. https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-60463905
It showed up around Feb last year, hopefully it comes around again.
3. CruiseNext. Doesn't help now but CruiseNext is NCL's OBB program. You can get a discounted deposit if you book a future cruise or future cruise cert on board. We used one on this cruise to secure the deposit before transferring to Chase and bought some more since we know we'll cruise them again within 4 years. That'll give us a $250 discount on the next cruise. Something to keep in mind on your trip if you think you'd like to cruise them again. https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext
4. NCL CC from BoA. Current offer for this card is 20k WorldPoints for 1k in spend. The offer I signed up under was 10k for a single purchase + 5k additional for 1k spend in 3 months; so for the same spend right now you're getting more points. On the surface it's no great shakes - 20k points is $200 off the cruise fare or $200 in OBC - but where this can be useful is the upgrades option. Full disclosure, I am not totally familiar with the ins and outs of the different upgrade options because they only apply to Inside, OV, and Balcony categories and we decided to go MiniSuite for this last cruise. But 20k points can get you a 4 category meta upgrade which can be worth more than the $200 cash redemption (Upgrade refers to a better available accommodation within the meta (Interior to Interior, Oceanview to Oceanview or Balcony to Balcony).) It may not be worth the additional spend but 30k points will get you a Cross Meta upgrade so you could go from Inside to OV, or OV to Balcony (Officially: "Cross-Meta upgrade refers to having the option to book a specific Oceanview category for the price of a specific Interior category or book a specific Balcony category for the price of a specific Oceanview category.").
Cruise Critic has a mega thread on the card benefits: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/553841-ncl-mastercard-faq/
If interested, start in reverse; the info in the beginning of the 10+ year thread is WAY not accurate.
WorldPoints can also be transferred between cards if you happen to have another WorldPoints card. This seems rare so there's not much else going on for the CC. I do happen to have a WP card but neither one has any real bonus categories so outside of the sign up bonus it's not doing much for me.
5. TAs. Check a few TA's including Costco/BJ's/Sam's/etc. Since Chase is a TA you wouldn't be able to combine a TA offer with using your UR/MR/TY points. You can combine it with the CruiseNext, NCL CC points, and AmEx offers. TA's may have different inventory if they bought a block, may offer discounted fare pricing and can offer different incentives in addition to the cruise line promotions.
The funny part to me is that as expensive as DCL is, it's the easiest to discount due to the GC deals. I had a hard time finding ways to discount NCL. Carnival, Princess, Royal and Celebrity all have GC's that can be bought with a discount, not so much for NCL. I ultimately discounted it by using my UR points to pay for the majority of the cruise fare. Having the CSR to redeem at 1.5x was a good discount.
I think most of these have been touched on but I'll try to gather everything I know in one place.
1. CC points. UR from Chase get the 1.25/1.5 multiplier from the CSP,CIP/CSR cards. You have to call Chase travel to book cruises and they have access to exactly what you see on the cruise line site, the same promotions and inventory. They don't do any further discounts or specials.
MR from AmEx can be redeemed at .07 cpp through their travel portal. I've not been able to get through a mock booking so if you absolutely want to use MR I'd call. Near as I can see though they also have the same pricing and inventory as the cruise lines. It's just not the best redemption for MR but it would discount your cash outlay.
TY from Citi can be used as well but I'm not familiar with the Citi ecosystem. My understanding is they get 1 cpp except if you have the Premier (?) card you get 1.25. They also use the same TA as Chase for cruises, Connexions, so same options there - what you see on the cruise line website is what you get.
2. AmEx Offers. Occasionally you'll find an AmEx offer for NCL, last one was Spend $500 or more and get $150 back. If you get it after you book or can't make payments on the cruise you should be able to use it on other incidentals if you can buy it through the online portal. I think @wanderlust7 and @Mopedmom1 used it to by OBC successfully. I used it to prepay gratuities and book a couple shore excursions through the online portal. https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-60463905
It showed up around Feb last year, hopefully it comes around again.
3. CruiseNext. Doesn't help now but CruiseNext is NCL's OBB program. You can get a discounted deposit if you book a future cruise or future cruise cert on board. We used one on this cruise to secure the deposit before transferring to Chase and bought some more since we know we'll cruise them again within 4 years. That'll give us a $250 discount on the next cruise. Something to keep in mind on your trip if you think you'd like to cruise them again. https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext
4. NCL CC from BoA. Current offer for this card is 20k WorldPoints for 1k in spend. The offer I signed up under was 10k for a single purchase + 5k additional for 1k spend in 3 months; so for the same spend right now you're getting more points. On the surface it's no great shakes - 20k points is $200 off the cruise fare or $200 in OBC - but where this can be useful is the upgrades option. Full disclosure, I am not totally familiar with the ins and outs of the different upgrade options because they only apply to Inside, OV, and Balcony categories and we decided to go MiniSuite for this last cruise. But 20k points can get you a 4 category meta upgrade which can be worth more than the $200 cash redemption (Upgrade refers to a better available accommodation within the meta (Interior to Interior, Oceanview to Oceanview or Balcony to Balcony).) It may not be worth the additional spend but 30k points will get you a Cross Meta upgrade so you could go from Inside to OV, or OV to Balcony (Officially: "Cross-Meta upgrade refers to having the option to book a specific Oceanview category for the price of a specific Interior category or book a specific Balcony category for the price of a specific Oceanview category.").
Cruise Critic has a mega thread on the card benefits: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/553841-ncl-mastercard-faq/
If interested, start in reverse; the info in the beginning of the 10+ year thread is WAY not accurate.
WorldPoints can also be transferred between cards if you happen to have another WorldPoints card. This seems rare so there's not much else going on for the CC. I do happen to have a WP card but neither one has any real bonus categories so outside of the sign up bonus it's not doing much for me.
5. TAs. Check a few TA's including Costco/BJ's/Sam's/etc. Since Chase is a TA you wouldn't be able to combine a TA offer with using your UR/MR/TY points. You can combine it with the CruiseNext, NCL CC points, and AmEx offers. TA's may have different inventory if they bought a block, may offer discounted fare pricing and can offer different incentives in addition to the cruise line promotions.
I love tamora pierce!To the Legos! We cleaned out our attic a year ago and donated a lot of old toys. DH spent a month putting together all the Lego sets, buying any missing pieces from some Brick website, photographing them, then taking them apart to store for future generations.
My church is having a book sale next month. All of DS's books are going. He is 28 and living 3000 miles away, he doesn't want them. It's me who has a hard time giving away all the Artemis Fowl, Eragon, etc books. So much sci fy/fantasy. I took pictures of DD 24's books so she could tell me what to keep. Everything but the Tamora Pierce books is going!
Can you book the excursion through Chase portal?
You would have to use a UR earning card to pay for the remaining balance. Since it codes as travel you'd earn 3x if you used the CSR. Should also be able to to use a CIP. The points value comes from the card they are sitting on, so you could pay with points from the CSR but use a different card for cash.
My church is having a book sale next month. All of DS's books are going. He is 28 and living 3000 miles away, he doesn't want them. It's me who has a hard time giving away all the Artemis Fowl, Eragon, etc books. So much sci fy/fantasy. I took pictures of DD 24's books so she could tell me what to keep. Everything but the Tamora Pierce books is going!
Currently re-listening to a Tamora Pierce series on audible. I like her too
Thanks! I was regretting the Biz Green I got when I thought the support wouldn't post, so now I'm good.
Hope your SUB posts tomorrow!
Yes I just did a week or so ago and I'll admit I'm having a difficult time adjusting to the format. It's so different from the way this is forum is set up, it just doesn't seem to flow as easily. I've gotten some good info from it, but I just have to get used to it I guess.
So I know nothing of RCCL GC really, other than they exist
This is NOT the first time that @SouthFayetteFan has strayed. The FIRE thread has long been his piece on the side, although I think the spreadsheet is a good indication that the RotR is a more serious relationship. But, none of us are entirely innocent. I mean, we all LOOK, at least... and maybe post once in a while.
No
No DCL from Chase. Can still book with Citi, who uses the same TA service (Connexions), but Chase made a "business decision" to remove all Disney from their travel offerings. We are all very bummed.
