Celebrity MBNA American Express Card

[stefhef]

Good info, but could someone tell us how many points are needed for an outside cabin/verandah cabin for two on a 7 day Caribbean cruise?

[AFT_LOVER]

in March 2005 with MBNA. At the time, I got instant $20,000 credit line & cards within the week. The gal who processed my request asked me which of the cards I wanted: silver, sunrise, captains club silver or captains club sunrise. I asked her if I should get captain club since we are Select soon to be Elite members. She put me on hold & returned telling me she chose for me SUNRISE VISA. Turns out after a call to C/S when I got hte cards for me & DH I learned the Visa is Silver or Sunrise & Captains Club Silver & Sunrise are AMEX cards. I already have Delta Skymiles AMEX so I don't need 2.

 

Then I was taught about NetAccess area, where you pay your card off weekly or monthly or even daily if you want. So on my billing date I pay off my account so I instantly have $20,000 to spend again. I also learned another great feature of Visa that AMEX doesn't have. When you rent a car, even foreign rentals, isa caovers the rental if you have an accident 100% including loss of service charges. AMEX just covers your insurance deductible. So now my Celebrity Visa is used for all car rentals........

[Cruise-neophyte]

I plan to sail on the Millenium in July 2006. Can I use points I earn now to pay off part of this cruise? What if I use the card to pay for some of it and then use those points I earn for the same cruise?

 

Thanks for all the great inof on these boards.:)

[hermang]

I get probably 5-10 offers a week for credit cards one of them (and probably most of them by now) states that if you are late paying some other creditor they can jack up your rate even if you have a perfect rating with them. If you think congress is going to make them change - fuggedabout it - they are in congress's pocket as lobbiests

We will periodiacally pay off high interest credit cards and save a buck that way. As someone said - dealing with Providian is like dealing with louie the loan shark - but then again they go after high risk people to start with. We did the RCCL credit card just to be able to earn cruises.

[debjac]

I am currently looking at switching to the mbna celebrity amex card to use for both cruise and airfare. I cannot seem to find if there are any redemption or "administrative" fees attached to specifically airfare redemption. I see 25,000 gets you a ticket on any airline at any time, but does anyone know if it has to be a particular class ticket or any other hidden terms/fees?

 

thanks!!

[cruise junky joan]

I have never had a credit card that offered some type of redemption points. I do like Celebrity and would be willing to sail on the often if I can get a discout using their card. Can someone explain to me in plain english how the redemption system works? I realize it's not dollar for dollar and am not really interested in redeeming for onboard credit just the cost of the cruise itself. How much do I need to charge on the card to get one dollar towards the cost of the cruise? Joan

[TechKnowBabble]

Just an FYI, Bank of America is in the process of buying out MBNA. You may want to wait and make sure what they are going to offer.

[starsjohn]

MBNA should be in court as hardened criminals that they are. Do not fall for this Celebrity offer. They changed mailing address while we were on an extended trip so our electronic payment was not excepted, subjecting us to high interest rates on the balance. These special deals are just the bait used by banking thugs.

[reggierail]

I have never had a credit card that offered some type of redemption points. I do like Celebrity and would be willing to sail on the often if I can get a discout using their card. Can someone explain to me in plain english how the redemption system works? I realize it's not dollar for dollar and am not really interested in redeeming for onboard credit just the cost of the cruise itself. How much do I need to charge on the card to get one dollar towards the cost of the cruise? Joan

 

25,000 points = $250 cruise discount on any ship or itinerary

 

5,000 points = $50 on board credit

 

75,000 points = free companion fare on 7-10 night Caribbean or Mexican Riviera cruise (oceanview cabin) up to $1,500 value of companion fare.

 

125,000 points = free 7-10 night Caribbean or Mexican Riviera cruise (oceanview cabin) value may not exceed $2,500

 

I just got my Celebrity AMEX card and get a 5,000 point bonus first time I use the card. That's $50 off my bar tab on my December cruise on Infinity.:rolleyes:

 

Reggie:D

[cruise junky joan]

Thanks for the info. So if I charge $30,000.00 on this card in a year how many points will I earn? It looks like you get about 1% onboard credit from the points earned but I don't know how you accrue the points. Joan

[debjac]

I just enrolled so haven't gotten the fine print but from what the rep told me on the phone you earn 1 point for every dollar charged. If you charge $30,000 per year you will earn 30,000 points per year. If I remember correctly I do not think there is a cap (maximum) on how many points you can earn a year.

I have Chase right now. I have redeemed miles for airline tickets 3 times in the past 2 years and each time I call with my flight info and even my seats picked out. It takes approx 15 minutes to get a rep on the phone, they feed my info into their computer, give me a confirmation number all within 5 minutes and have the nerve to charge me $25.50 PER TICKET. I do all the work and spend my time on hold waiting for them to get my "free" tickets :(

The Celebrity MBNA Amex charges ZERO for redemption :)

[reggierail]

Thanks for the info. So if I charge $30,000.00 on this card in a year how many points will I earn? It looks like you get about 1% onboard credit from the points earned but I don't know how you accrue the points. Joan

 

$30,000 = 30,000 points

 

You get one point for every dollar you spend on the card. You get 2 points for Celebrity purchases and for 6 months you also get 2 points per dollar for any travel or dining charges.

 

I put the minimum points required for redemption, but as I understand it you can use more than one at a time. For instance, if you have 10,000 points you could redeem for 2 $50 onboard credits

[flashdog_1]

Until January 06 you earn double points on any Celebrity purchase, whether that is buying a cruise, or a tee shirt on board, or your bar tab, excursions, gratuities etc. As long as it is billed to Celebrity, it is supposed to be double points.

 

Also there is supposed to be a double point earning when going to a restaurant and for travel during the same period.

 

No annual fee, either.

[AFT_LOVER]

But if you are booking a $5000 cruise, then that is 500,000 points. $100 onboard credit is 10,000 points & all redemptions are in $50 incredments. So 15,000 points is $150 onboard credit. Easy to remember, put the cent sign after 2 0's to the left. ei: 10,000 - $100.00

 

Problem with booking air is that a plane has 5 seats for FF selections. All others are paying customers. My DL SM has me booking my February Hawai'i trip in March the year before. 330 days in advance to get a seat especially when you are phoning at 12:01AM to get any seats on the plane. Many airlines have live people taking airmiles calls & that is $30 a couple to do it plus your points or miles.

 

DL SM gets me double miles on all grocery, gas stations, post office, home improvements, & drug stores. Celebrty AMEX doesn't. At least 4 times a year they run Double on all purchases, so I charge my property taxes, insurance for the year, etc to gain double miles.

 

I have never had a credit card that offered some type of redemption points. I do like Celebrity and would be willing to sail on the often if I can get a discout using their card. Can someone explain to me in plain english how the redemption system works? I realize it's not dollar for dollar and am not really interested in redeeming for onboard credit just the cost of the cruise itself. How much do I need to charge on the card to get one dollar towards the cost of the cruise? Joan

[reggierail]

Until January 06 you earn double points on any Celebrity purchase, whether that is buying a cruise, or a tee shirt on board, or your bar tab, excursions, gratuities etc. As long as it is billed to Celebrity, it is supposed to be double points.

 

Also there is supposed to be a double point earning when going to a restaurant and for travel during the same period.

 

No annual fee, either.

 

It's my understanding that the double points for Celebrity purchases have no time limit. The dining and travel double points end at the first billing period in 2006.

 

Reggie:D

[Cruisin-Family]

Last year I enrolled for this credit card because it sounded like a good deal for a frequent RCI cruise family. Aside from the inconsistent MBNA customer service experience, I have had two unfortunate experiences of it taking over an hour of phone calls to successfully request the RCI points voucher. Recently, MBNA sent me to the RCI Crown and Anchor phone number where they of course sent me back to MBNA who tried to send me back to RCI...again! When I told them that I would wait on hold no longer and requested them to call me back with a representative that understood their procedures for redeeming the voucher. They did, apologized, and told me that the request should take no more than two minutes.

 

Am I the only unfortunate one or are you having challenges as well with MBNA.

 

Gluten for punishment, I just enrolled for the MBNA Celebrity AMEX. Doesn't sound like you are have the same challenges as I have with the MBNA Royal Caribbean Visa.

[pboedeker]

I have 25000 points I'd like to cash in as $250 onboard credit for upcoming Galaxy cruise.

 

When I go to mbnarewards.com and log in, it tells me that after I complete my order I will receive a # that I can give to my TA when I book my next cruise (which will apply the onboard credit).

 

Question is: I want to apply this credit to the Galaxy cruise which is already booked and paid for? Can I do this?

[Reese1717]

My husband bought my diamond from BlueNile.com on the their financing (which happens to be MNBA) because it was interest free if you payed it off within 3 months. He payed off the balance w/in the first 2 months but kept getting excessive phone calls from MNBA to sign up for the insurance plan. He kept declining and they wouldn't take no for an answer. It was ridiculous.

 

We use one of those credit monitoring sevices and thank goodness because we got a call saying there was a bad mark on our credit. We looked it up and MNBA reported us to the credit agency for being overdue. We didn't even recieve anything from them AND the whole bill was already payed. We called customer service and after playing the typial hold game the person said they would research it and put us on hold.

 

We found out that "insurance" we declined was charged onto our card and an extra fee was added for being late on the insurance (On a card with a 0 balance). I'm so happy for recorded phone calls because they researched it, heard hubby say NO over and over so we were credited but are still dealing with trying to fix the credit report.

 

We tried cancelling the card numerous times. In fact some of those insurance phone calls were after he had already cancelled the card. We finally received a cancellation letter after a year of dealing w/them.

 

We still get over 20 credit card apps. a week, over half from MNBA. If I wanted a credit card I would seek one out.

 

I will never "purposely" give them any business again.

[AFT_LOVER]

I called for Celebrity VISA, they did the app on the phone & then sent it NDA Saturday delivery via UPS. So next day service........... Already have DL SM AMEX so another wasn't needed & we needed a VISA. But now we have 2 one for Celebrity & one for RCCL.

 

Can we get instant credit with this card?

 

-Chris

[AFT_LOVER]

I pay bills online via MBNAnetaccess.com. I get points for Cell phone, Direct TV & AT&T but not for Dominion East Ohio Gas, or my electric, water & sewer bills. If you use the checks they love to mail, which I had them stop, you also get no points.

 

Do I understand correctly that you don't get points for cash advances or for MBNA checks that come inthe mail?

[woody14h]

There is a new credit card optout program from the major credit companies. Go to http://www.optoutprescreen.com Easy to set up. We aso are inundated with these offers and set up this recently. Hope this help.

[Pegleg1]

I have 25000 points I'd like to cash in as $250 onboard credit for upcoming Galaxy cruise.

 

When I go to mbnarewards.com and log in, it tells me that after I complete my order I will receive a # that I can give to my TA when I book my next cruise (which will apply the onboard credit).

 

Question is: I want to apply this credit to the Galaxy cruise which is already booked and paid for? Can I do this?

 

About a week after I booked our cruise, I found out about the Visa Worldpoints with our MBNA visa card. We had enough for a $750 discount (75,000 points) off any Celebrity cruise. After about two hours worth of phone calls between Visa/Celebrity/Travel agent, I was finally able to get them to apply the discount retro-actively.

The bottom line was that I had to get that order# from MBNA and get it to Celebrity (I called the Captains Club Customer Service) who then sent an e-mail to my TA authorizing the discount.

[teajak]

I am totally confused. I would like to have the Celebrity card but don't want anything to do with MBNA. I don't understand the difference with the Amex card. Is it totally with Amex or is it tied in with MBNA? Sorry to seem stupid but I will take less perks from Amex rather than deal with MBNA. We do all of our banking with Bank of America, any idea when they are taking over? Thanks for any help.teajak

[Reese1717]

I would like to opt-out but I am wary of giving my ss#. I know it has to be done to opt out but has anyone else done it and does it actually work?

[pboedeker]

About a week after I booked our cruise, I found out about the Visa Worldpoints with our MBNA visa card. We had enough for a $750 discount (75,000 points) off any Celebrity cruise. After about two hours worth of phone calls between Visa/Celebrity/Travel agent, I was finally able to get them to apply the discount retro-actively.

The bottom line was that I had to get that order# from MBNA and get it to Celebrity (I called the Captains Club Customer Service) who then sent an e-mail to my TA authorizing the discount.

 

Thanks for that information, but what if you don't want the discount off the cruise option, but the shipboard credit option. Does anyone know if you can get that credit applied to your sailing after you've already paid for the cruise?