Credit cards-who has the best rewards?

[RxDawg]

I was just notified icruise.com, thru MBNA, was changing the rewards values on thier card. Used to, I would get $400 credit on charges of 17,000 per year. This was good on ANY cruise, providing you booked thru icruise. Now they have dropped it to $100 credit.

 

Does anyone else use credit cards to build up discounts? I have looked at Carnival and RC, but these mostly offer upgrades and/or discounts only on "specified" cruises. Any other better offers out there?

 

Thanks, Bryan

[darrencantwait]

I just signed up for Celebrity Rewards about a month ago (also MBNA). Not as good as your old card, but seems a bit better than the new restrictions. I'd love to hear other people's opinions.

[US2INNJ]

NCL (MBNA) offers $3 for every $100 charged, $4 for every $100 charged for an NCL expense.

 

We tend to use about $1500 in credit dollars for a cruise.

 

Needless to say, you have to enjoy traveling with NCL, which we do.

[cpayne]

We prefer cr cards that award frequent flier miles. When using the cards that award criuse discounts have found you are restricted to using their travel agents and have been able to find lower prices on my own or through other agents. We use the ff miles to travel to our departure city for the cruise. Check out http://www.aa.com or http://www.nwa.com. Both have a pretty good card offering 1 mile/$1 spent and either 10,000 or 15,000 bonus miles just for signing up. That's almost 1/2 a ticket already!

 

The annual fee is also low....typically $50 - $75. I've also been able to call them each year and negotiate our annual fee. Typically about 50% off since we pay our card in full each month. Don't hesitate to call them and ask! What's the worst they can say....no?

 

They also have a program you can sign up for and every time you eat at one of their participating restaurants you get your ff miles for the dollars spent in addition to bonus miles.

 

Worth looking in to in my opinion.

[candydane]

With the NCL credit card (through MNBA), you can book your cruise any way you want -- TA, online TA, or NCL. Get the best fare you can find. Then just submit the credit card coupons with your final payment to your TA or mail them directly to NCL for credit on your credit card. You're not limited at all on booking your cruise.

 

There is no annual charge for the NCL credit card. :D

[RxDawg]

Hey, thanks for the advice. I am going check into both celebrity and ncl cards, both sound better than what I have now.

 

Also thanks to Cheri for the ff miles. Both me and my wife have roughly 40k miles each with aa (mostly by getting amex cards, particpating restaurants, and sending flowers). But I have tried twice UNSUCCESSFULLY to use with a cruise. Its either not enough for round trip (even to Miami?) or terrible flight times (redeye, 1 or 2 days before or after). Is there a trick to this? Do I need to wait till we both accrue 100k miles?

 

Bryan