You either love cruises or hate them but it is clear that a lot of people certainly love them since the ships are so full these days. In the travel hacking community, questions about travel hacking are common and there never seems to be a good answer. I did some research and found some of the articles on this subject to be pretty bad with no real information. So I thought I’d write a complete guide so that this one article can answer many different questions. If you think I left something out, please let me know.
Travel hacking is a broad subject and sometimes the topic of discussion goes well beyond points and miles. There are some things that I can discuss that would not really involve points and miles but I’ll leave those for other people. Everything in this article will discuss using or earning points or miles in the context of booking a cruise or paying for a cruise. However, I’ll make one exception with the first topic.
Credit Card Offers
Like I said, this is the only exception but I add it here because I think the only people that really pay attention to credit card offers are travel hackers. If you’re not familiar with credit card offers, you are missing out and I suggest you look into this right away. They are easy to use. The only issue is that they are random so you never know what’s going to come out. Offers vary by card so you can have one card that has horrible offers and another card that has great ones. The same offer can be on multiple cards. As soon as you see one you want, just click to activate it and then make a purchase with that merchant. Your credit card company will then refund you the amount of the offer.
Here’s an example with Chase. In 2023 they had an offer for $35 back when you spend $100 on Carnival. If you have 5 cards, you can have this offer on all 5, less than 5 or none. So let’s say that you wanted to book a cruise with Carnival and it was on 5 of your cards. You can pay 5 different $100 purchases on Carnival with all of your cards. You’d spend $500 and get back $175 (5 x 35). Pretty good huh? The only problem is that you don’t know when these offers will come up so it’s not something you can depend on.
Also note that you need to make this purchase either directly with Carnival or a travel agent. You cannot book a Carnival cruise through Expedia or some other third party as Chase will see that as an Expedia purchase. If you absolutely must book through a third party, you would not be out of luck. Carnival allows you to buy Carnival cash which is basically like pre-paying for on board credit (we’ll discuss this again later).
These offers aren’t limited to Chase. Royal Caribbean had a nice deal with Amex. In 2021, there was an offer of $500 back after spending $1,500. Celebrity cruises, which is owned by Royal Caribbean, also had an Amex offer around the same time of $150 back after spending $500. When any of these offers will come around again and on what card are anyone’s guess. If you’re looking to book a cruise, check your offers. Continue to check your offers until you’re sailing date to see if there’s any other offers you can take advantage of.
Cruise line’s credit cards
The major cruise lines each have their own credit card and they are pretty much junk. I know someone that has one of these cards and I don’t have the heart to tell him that its a garbage card because he’s so excited about it. He also has no ability to handle points so there’s not really a good alternative for him except perhaps a cash back card which isn’t as exciting (for him anyway). Let’s look at each offering from the big 3.
-Carnival Mastercard
SUB: 20,000 in FunPoints (worth $200) after first purchase or balance transfer
Annual fee: $0
Earn 2x FunPoints for every dollar spent with a Carnival brand cruise (includes all of their brands like Princess, HAL, etc). Earn 1x FunPoints on everything else.
Perk: 10% statement credit on Carnival excursion booked prior to cruise
This is a joke huh? Basically you earn 2x back on Carnival but that is limited to the FunPoints ecosystem which is limited. I looked through the terms and conditions and these FunPoints are mostly used for Carnival related purchases but you can also use them for gift cards and for other travel through Barclays. There’s a number of problems here including that you can only redeem your purchases at certain levels. So for travel, it starts at 10,000 FunPoints. Have just 9,500 and want to book travel? Tough luck. You’re also just redeeming these points at 1 cent per point. I can keep going but what’s the point. No one should have this card.
-Royal Caribbean Visa
SUB: 25,000 bonus points (worth $250) after spending $1,000 or more in first 90 days
Annaul fee: $0
Earn 2x points for every dollar spent with Royal Caribbean. Earn 1x on all other purchases.
Perk: $50 Air2Sea Airfare Discount (terms apply)
This card is a little better than the Carnival card since it is a Visa Signature card which has some built in benefits but there’s still no reason to have this card. The points are generally redeemable at 1cpp but there are some higher levels where you can get a little more out of that. That requires a ton of spending and it’s just not worth it.
-NCL World Mastercard
SUB: 20,000 in bonus points (worth $200) after first spending $1,000 in the first 90 days
Annual fee: $0
Earn 3x World Points for every dollar spent with NCL, 2x on eligible air and hotel purchases and 1x on everything else.
Perk: None
This is a better card than the other two since you can earn World Points which is Bank of America’s points currency. Problem is, those World Points are worth 1cpp so while this card give you more redemption options, there’s still no reason to get it.
So what’s the best card to use?
I’m sure some will disagree but for me, the Chase Sapphire cards are the best cards to use for cruises. This is because their travel categories are so broad that they include cruises. Some are limited to flights and hotels. The Sapphire Reserve gets 3x on cruises and the Sapphire Preferred gets 2x on cruises. While there are plenty of other cards that get 2x on everything, not all points are created equal. I value Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2cpp and its fairly easy to find redemption rates above that especially with Hyatt. Many other cards only offer points that are valued at 1cpp. These cards also have great travel protection built in as well. Note, you don’t have to pay for the entire cruise with one of these cards but the deposit should go on one of them. We’ll discuss paying the balance later.
You can read more about these cards here.
What’s the best way to book a cruise?
The problem with booking cruises is that prices can vary from place to place for the same cruise. On top of that, there’s all sorts of add-ons like free gratuities, drinks included, on board credit, etc. This can make it very difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison as it would require a lot of math on your part. Add in other discounts, cash back, bonus points, etc. and this could really make your head spin. Since things change so often, I really can’t direct you to one go-to place for the best deal. Sometimes a travel agent will have an amazing deal for you, other times it’ll be somewhere else. You just have to decide how much time you want to put into all of this, but I’ll give you all of your options.
-Travel agent
Your first decision should be whether or not to go through a travel agent. Some travel agents (such as myself) can provide you with a great discount on some cruises. The money saved alone could outweigh any other benefits you’d get from booking elsewhere. For others, it’s more about convenience and not trying to save a few bucks. Some people find a lot of value in having an expert handle all of the planning even if there’s little to no costs savings. If this is the way you want to go, just use your Chase Sapphire card for the deposit and then decide how to pay the balance. (we’ll discuss this a little further down).
-Expedia + Rakuten
I really love the Expedia + Rakuten combo. If you’re not familiar with Rakuten, you can read our article here. Since Expedia will code as travel, you’ll get 3x back, you’ll get Expedia OneKey points plus cash back from Rakuten. That’s a pretty nice combo.
You could of course use any online travel agency but only Expedia and Priceline are on Rakuten so you’ll be losing out on the cash back. Priceline also doesn’t have a points program and I’ve personally never seem them to have a better cruise deal than Expedia but you’re welcome to check there as well if you’d like.
-Costco
Some people swear by Costco travel but I’ve priced checked them multiple times because people keep telling me to check it out. I’ve never found them to be cheaper or even close to an Expedia price. It seems like people think they are cheap. I’ve yet to see any actual data that they are providing a better price than travel agents, Expedia, etc.
-Booking direct
Some people swear by direct bookings but I’ve never seen a reason to do that. A travel agent can usually beat the published price plus get you some added benefits. You’re not gaining anything by booking direct. I’ve priced this out several times and I’ve yet to see it be the cheapest option.
-Credit card travel portals
These travel portals are not favored by travel hackers as they are prone to all sorts of issues but I really don’t see this being the case with cruises. As soon as you book a cruise, the cruise line will provide you with all of the information for your cruise. You can manage your cruise right on their website. You’ll have to fill out your cruise docs well ahead of time and provide all of your info. In other words, you don’t have to worry about showing up to the ship and them not knowing who you are.
I don’t think this is usually going to be the best option but if you’re focus is on points, it might be worth considering as you’ll gain much more for going through the portal. Once again, the Sapphire cards are the way to go with the following earning rates:
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 10x
Chase Sapphire Preferred: 5x
-Booking through airlines
Airlines are slowly moving to becoming their own travel agencies. This was shown by Delta’s overhaul of their loyalty program in 2023 which emphasized booking more than just airfare through Delta. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that they all have their own cruise booking platform. I don’t think most of these deals are that great, but some people do find value in them. Be sure to read the details and don’t fall for slick marketing. For example, you’ll see “up to 25,000 bonus miles” but as always, the key words here are “up to”. Don’t expect to get 25,000 bonus miles for booking a cruise unless it specifically says that you’ll be getting that. I’ll cover the three major airlines.
United Cruises
The bonuses are generally 2 miles for interior and ocean view cabins and 4 miles for balconies and above. However, there are some cruises that are eligible for 7 miles for interior and ocean view cabins and 7 miles for balconies and above when you use your United MileagePlus credit card. These are in addition to the miles earned on your credit card. I value United miles at 1.2 cpp, so if you were to get 7 miles for a $1000 cabin, you’d get 7000 bonus miles valued at $84.
There are some luxury deals where you can earn up to 100,000 miles on cruises that are 65 nights or longer. If you’re going to be booking a cruise like that, I doubt United Cruises is the best way to go.
If you have at least Silver status with United, you may be entitled to other perks by booking through United. These could include a complimentary bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries in your stateroom along with a $100 spa credit. Meh. These offers may change so you can see the details of the current offers here: https://cruises.united.com/promotion/premier-partnerships.do
American Airlines
https://www.bookaacruises.com/
In general, you’ll get at least 2x for using your AAdvantage Credit card. There are other bonuses that vary. For example, on the day I’m writing this, AA has a special on Carnival where you’ll get 5,000 bonus miles for a balcony stateroom on some sailings and 10,000 bonus miles on suites. For NCl, the bonus is 10,000 for balcony staterooms and 25,000 for suites.
They also have a promotionfor NCL where they’ll pre-pay your gratuities which is nice since those can really add up. I priced out one cruise where using that promotion was much cheaper than Expedia. That could change in a few days if Expedia releases a new promotion but for today anyway, AA has a pretty good deal at least for this one specific cruise.
Delta
https://cruises.delta.com/
Delta offers 2x bonus miles on cruises. I didn’t see any other bonus miles offers. They seem to have the same promo that AA has with that NCL cruise but there’s no extra bonus miles. This seems like the least exciting program.
Other airlines.
Southwest doesn’t appear to offer cruises. It looks like they had some deals many years ago but I didn’t find anything recent. I couldn’t find anything with Alaska Airlines either. JetBlue’s cruise information can be found here: https://www.jetbluevacations.com/book/flights-cruise
Using gift cards to maximize miles
Unless you are booking a cruise close to the sail date, you can usually put down a deposit and pay off the balance by a certain date. In those situations, you can pay by with your favorite credit card for the deposit and then use gift cards to pay the balance. The problem will be finding these gift cards as not every cruise line issues them and not every store carries them. But assuming you can find what you need, here are your options.
Chase Ink Business Cash – this is the easiest because you don’t have to worry about the store having the card you need for your cruise line. You can just take advantage of the many sales Staples and Office Depot/Max run to buy fee free Visa or Mastercard gift cards. You’ll earn 5x.
Chase Freedom Unlimited – if you can find the gift card you need at a pharmacy, you’ll get 3x.
Chase Freedom Flex – this will be more difficult since the bonus categories change but if things line up the right way, you’ll earn 5x up to $1500 per quarter.
American Express Blue Cash Preferred – This card earns 6x on grocery stores but you don’t earn any points so that won’t be attractive to some. Some grocery stores have better gift cards than others. A
American Express Gold Card – This card earns 4x on grocery stores but you’ll earn Membership Rewards so this card will likely be more valuable for travel hackers compared to Blue Cash.
Using gift cards to purchase on board credit
It’s hard to go on a cruise and not buy anything especially since most you will have to pay for gratuities unless you get a deal where they are included. If you think that you’ll at least pay something, you should be able to purchase on board credit before you get on the cruise. This is usually pointless for the average person but if you want to use a gift card, this is another great way to do it. Just be sure that you don’t buy too much because you won’t get a refund for any credit that you don’t use.
Manufactured Spending in the Casino
Manufactured spending (or MS) refers to turning credit card spending into cash which you use to pay off the card. In other words, imagine spending $3,000 on your credit card to get something that you can easily turn into $3,000 worth of cash. You’ll earn point on your credit card (or meet a SUB) for nothing. Years ago, there were many opportunities to MS but the vast majority of them have dried up due to overuse. MS is a bit of a gray area so while it’s not exactly illegal, it’s not exactly authorized by your credit card company. MS could lead to negative consequences like getting your account shut down.
But I’m not the morality police so I’ll just provide the information without advocating what you do or don’t do. Unlike land-based casinos, cruise casinos allow you to charge casino credits to your room. Different cruise lines have different policies. Some seem to have caught on. You cannot charge tens of thousands of dollars to your cabin and then walk out of the casino with a suitcase full of cash. You’ll likely be limited to the amount that you can charge. For example on Carnival, you are supposed to be able to charge up to $5,000 a day but if you try to charge more than $3,000, you’ll be shut out until you talk to casino staff. They’ll likely want to see that you did some gambling before they life the freeze on your account. Note that you can still cash out. Royal Caribbean has a similar restriction in place. There is usually no charge for this and since this gets charged to your cabin, it’ll look no different than if you bought a drink or an excursion. That means this will still be coded as travel. Nevertheless, I still suggest that you set your cash advance to zero to avoid any problems now or in the future.
In terms of going to the tables, some cruises will charge you a fee for getting chips to avoid you getting $10,000 worth of chips and then cashing them right back out. This fee is waived if you have a certain amount of points or status as that will show that you’re an actual gambler. Although I did read that someone did just this probably on a cruise that didn’t charge a fee. She walked right up to the table, charged $10,000 worth of chips and then cashed them out. I think that’s too obvious and the cruise line could always put you on a no sail list for doing this. I haven’t heard of this happening but I can’t imagine that they are going to sit by and allow people to keep doing that.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you will now be going home with a lot of cash. Are you comfortable walking around with all of that? That’s a personal decision of course but it’s something to consider.
Redeeming points for cruises
This is the topic everyone has probably been waiting for. Unfortunately, this is where the good news stops. No cruise line is a partner with a major credit card. So you can’t transfer your Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards or other points currency to a cruise line to book a cruise. However, you can technically book a cruise (and just about all other travel) through a travel portal like Chase Travel. The problem is that the redemption rate is fixed. If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you’re redemption rate is 0.015 cpp. That’s pretty lame but if you have absolutely no use for hotels and you don’t foresee any good airline redemptions in your future, than I suppose this is OK.
The problem is that most people value Ultimate Rewards at 0.02 cpp at the least so you are losing 25% of the value of your points. The vast majority of people will want to get full value or better by going on an awesome dream vacation made possible by Hyatt. Thus, I don’t think too many people will really see the value here but like I said, perhaps there’s someone that has no interest in ever setting foot in a Hyatt hotel and their dream vacation is a cruise. If that’s the case, then this is how you would do it.
The only other option is Virgin Voyages. Virgin Voyages is an adult only cruise line that has gotten rave reviews from many passengers. For being a new cruise line, they seem to be doing a lot of things right. You could book a cruise for about 80,000 points which comes out to 3 to 6 cpp depending on the cash price so it’s a solid redemption. Sounds awesome right? Well there’s a catch of course.
Unfortunately, they only do this to fill the ships and with cruises being so popular lately, most ships are sailing above 100% capacity. This means that there’s going to be very limited availability. On the day I’m writing this, there’s no cruises available at all. When they are available, it may not be the dates or location you want. Any available cruises will be displayed on this website: https://www.virgin.com/en-us/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points
Remember how I said that no cruise lines are transfer partners? Well that was true…from a certain point of view. This is a little confusing but Virgin Red is Virgin group’s overall points program which is used by Virgin Voyages. However, Virgin Atlantic has their own reward system which you can link directly with Virgin Red. Therefore, you can earn Virgin Atlantic points and then link your account to Virgin Red to take advantage of everything Virgin has to offer. Hopefully they just merge all of this at some point.
What’s nice about Virgin points is that you can transfer them from all major programs. Specifically:
American Express Membership Rewards — 1:1 ratio
Bilt Rewards — 1:1 ratio
Capital One Miles: 1:1 ratio
Chase Ultimate Rewards — 1:1 ratio
Citi ThankYou Rewards — 1:1 ratio
Marriott Bonvoy — 3:1 ratio (5,000 point bonus for every 60,000 points transferred)
Conclusion
Wow, that’s a lot of information but I wanted it to be the most complete guide on the internet. If you think I left anything out, please let me know and I’ll be happy to update this. Unfortunately cruises are more of a points earning opportunity than they are a redemption opportunity unless you can find a Virgin Voyages deal. Thankfully, you have plenty of ways to maximize your points with the methods described above. Just make sure that you don’t pay more money for your cruise just to earn some airline miles.
Need more help?
For help booking a cruise or to discuss anything and everything related to cruising, join our Facebook group Travel Better, Travel More. If you want to discuss travel hacking and all things points and miles, we have a different Facebook group called Simple Travel Hacks. Feel free to join both!