candydane

I bid for a 3* Downtown hotel on Priceline and won Hyatt Place for $70 in March. Hyatt Place is only a couple miles to the pier and includes free airport & pier shuttles. Hyatt Place seems to be the primary 3* hotel in the Downtown zone that you'd win on Priceline. Overall has good reviews.

Thanks.

Glad you had a good day. We're looking forward to this on our upcoming cruise.

Which bungalow did you have?

Why couldn't you swim in the water in front of your bungalow?

How far away did you have to go to swim?

Last week we took an Island Tour for $25 pp from the pier in an air-conditioned van (12-15 passengers) for about 2 hrs. We stopped at the beach for a short photo stop, but at the end of the tour the driver dropped off passengers at the beach near the resorts. (I forgot the name). :)

This sounds like just what we want to do. What things were you able to see in 2 hours?

The Costco Amex card does NOT earn travel credit. It is strictly a rebate card - rebates which must be spent at Costco. You earn 2% on any travel booked. This is only a good card if you shop at and live near a Coscto.

No, the Costco rebate is fine since we shop there regularly. $ is $ as long as it can be spent!

So how do you earn the 2% travel Costco rebate? Do I have to book through Costco or AMEX travel? If I can buy directly from a TA, airline or hotel, do I have to call the representative once the travel charge hits my acctount to let them know it was for travel?

. . . At present the best cash back and gas credit card in today's market is the TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express. It is the only credit card today that pays 5% rebates on gasoline (with no spending tier requirements or limits), 3% on restaurants and 2% on any travel items. . .

Does anyone know how the 2% travel credit works? Do you have to book through Costco Travel? Or can you book directly with hotels and airlines and cruise lines? How about with a TA?

I tried calling but the rep didn't know the answer.

Blue Cash Business is tiered. You only earn 2.5% on purchases $7500-$15,000. Then it drops to 1% after $15,000 spent. Good card if you regularly purchase from an Open Savings Participant.

 

Earn 1% on OPEN Savings Participants or 0.5% on all other purchases

when your year–to–date spend is $0–$7,500

Earn 5% on OPEN Savings Participants or 2.5% on all other purchases

when your year–to–date spend is $7,500.01–$15,000

Earn 2% on OPEN Savings Participants or 1% on all other purchases

when your year–to–date spend is more than $15,000

 

 

For high spenders the Blue Cash Personal looks better to me.

 

Earn 1% on gas/grocery/drug store and 0.5% on all other purchases

when your year–to–date spend is $0–$6,500

Earn 5% on gas/grocery/drug store or 1.5% on all other purchases

when your year–to–date spend is $6,500.01–unlimited

Wow!!! That low-spending tier restriction was SO buried!!! It took a lot of time & digging to find that on the Amex website even knowing it was there from your posting!!

What a restriction -- not many businesses spend less than $15M a year!

Thanks for letting me know BEFORE I ordered the card! You're right that the Amex Blue personal card is so far the best cash back.

The best replacement credit card I've found is American Express Blue Cash Business Card which pays 2.5% cash reward on all purchases.

Does anyone have any experience with this card?

In the past I have usually submitted at least one $500 certificate after final payment. It takes a little while, but have always had the certificate(s) applied to my credit card. The only gamble was that NCL had to receive AND process the certificate(s) BEFORE my cruise started.

However, there's no way of knowing if that will be true for these final certificates being mailed out if they still state that they must be presented with final payment. NCL could decide to enforce that certificate requirement or they could continue to apply the $$ to your credit card like they've done in the past.

We really won't know until someone after January 1st. All we can do is speculate until we see the final batch of certificates and/or someone sends one in after final payment. Bummer! :confused:

yes you can...as long as they get there reasonable close to final payment and before the cruise...

Great! Thanks.

Can I make more than one "certificate" payment toward the same cruise?

In other words, can I submit $1500 in certificates now to reduce my final payment and then another $500 certificate in a couple months when I've accumulated the needed points? All $2000 certificates toward the same cruise?

I apologize since I'm sure my question has been answered already. I tried to read through all these posts but couldn't find an answer. I tried searching too, but didn't know what words to use in a search??? :o

It's my understanding that the points expire 3 years from the MONTH they were earned. So all of your 700+ points will not expire at the same time.

The first thing I'd do is check your monthly credit card statements for all of the 700+ points & prepare a month-by-month chart showing how many points were accumlated in which month. For example:

50 points in 2/05

21 points in 3/05

11 points in 4/05 etc.

Make a subtotal when you earned your $500 certificate, which you've already requested. Those first 500 points earned are now "safe".

Then check to see how many months you really have left for each of the individual 200+ points. Worst case you'd lose some points month-by-month, depending on which month you actually earned the individual points that will "drop off" at the end of 3 years.

Like a previous post, try to earn enough points to finish out a 2nd $500 certificate before you lose any (or very many) of the 200+ points difference. Use your points for cash back instead of the upgrades if you're in suites. I've always found that the cash value far exceeds any upgrade.

I'd also contact NCL (not BofA) to get information on what you can get for the upgrade certificates since NCL will be doing any crediting and/or upgrading, not BofA. BofA only sends you the cash/upgrade certificates but it's up to NCL to honor them according to NCL's rules.

Good luck.