What a Waste of 5000 points

[AFT_LOVER]

made a call today to MBNA about the 5000 point gift mailed to your home by RCCL that is 2 RCCL baseballs hats & 2 RCCL polo shirts. I was going to get it for my DH as a surprise. The only info they had is what is onthe web site, so I was tranferred to Wichita KS office & the gal tells me both polos are only in XL and they are identical as are the caps. What a waste of $50 for a too big shirt that they give you 2 of.

 

I told her they better rethink this again. What if DH & DW wanted them. A size 8 wife isn't a XL and majority of men aren't either.

 

So cross that one off the gift list. The other 5000 gift sent to the home is a towel & a throw away camera not a good one. Another one that isn't worth $50.

 

$50 onboard credit is the winner here..........

[Max Circus]

We did the onboard credit with all of our certificates. The other options didn't appeal. We figure that our bar bill will be paid for the week.

[kahneinny]

When I first got my card I planned to get the bathrobes, but now I am leaning toward the $50.00 credit. Probably wouldn't use the bathrobes much anyway.

[cpa2be]

Here's another vote for the onboard credit. We just redeemed 20,000 pts for a $200.00 onboard credit. Add that to a $100 booking credit and we're all set for a good time!:D

 

We plan to save our points for the next 12 months and see how much we can earn for the next cruise.

[bplazo]

I always get the 50.00 on board credits. Nothing else appealed to me especially that romance package.

[AFT_LOVER]

as the $50 credit isn't bad since the upgrade is inside to inside (not us!) teamed with the stockholder perk of $100 for a week $200-$250 for 2 weeks with it added in can make a $300 party! So next we purchase onboard & let the cash roll in...........

[BonnieNYTX]

I have a no fee bank master card (not sure I can give the name of the bank in here) that gives me 5% cashback on all supermarket, drug stores and gas stations. Everything else is 1%. Sooooooooo for $6,000 charged I got $300 back. There is a limit per year how much cash back you can get. I think it's $400. Good enough for me. A nice little cruise fund can be built up that way.

[ncamy]

My husband read this and he wants to know what bank your card is from. Can you at least give us some hints? 5% back on groceries and gas is great! Especially with rising gas prices. Do you have to shop at specific stores?

[Ladylouwho]

Hi all,

Anyone out there used their points for a free 7 night cruise yet? We have 135,000 points racked up so far and wonder if we should go for the free cruise (they are only available for Caribbean, I think) or just cash that in for onboard credit on our next cruise, Radiance to Alaska in August 2006. Would appreciate input from anyone with knowledge regarding the free cruises. Thanks,

Colleen

[rsinj]

My husband read this and he wants to know what bank your card is from. Can you at least give us some hints? 5% back on groceries and gas is great! Especially with rising gas prices. Do you have to shop at specific stores?

 

Citibank - https://www.accountonline.com/ACQ/Chooser/LearnMore?siteId=CB&CARD_KEYS=4T4Z5F04-M

 

If that link doesn't work go to www.citicards.com, then on the left pick Cards with Rewards, and then the Learn More link next to Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® MasterCard®

Howard

[BonnieNYTX]

Citibank - https://www.accountonline.com/ACQ/Chooser/LearnMore?siteId=CB&CARD_KEYS=4T4Z5F04-M

 

If that link doesn't work go to www.citicards.com, then on the left pick Cards with Rewards, and then the Learn More link next to Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® MasterCard®

 

Howard

 

Thanks Howard, you beat me to it.

[BonnieNYTX]

I just checked the credit card website and there is a $300 maximum cash back, not $400 as I previously listed.

[banderboo]

how long did it take for you to get the certificates to mail to RCI for the $50 on board credit? We are leaving at the end of Oct and was wondering if I had enough time to do the request and get them submitted.

[kenandlaura06]

You should have enough time.

[lori450]

Just an FYI - I already redeemed a $50 credit and to my surprise accumulated another 5000 points. My cruise is on 10/9, so I called MBNA to redeem the 2nd 5000 points. I was told that they weren't available until the end of my billing cycle (too late to have the certificate mailed to me and then to RCI). I called RCI and they were so nice. They told me to call as soon as the points are available and ask for the certificate number. I can then call RCI with the certificate number and they will issue the on board credit. I can mail in the certificate at my convenience later.

[logan1_2000]

The $500 shipboard credit for 50,000 points is 100 points per dollar of value. I believe the fine print says that the maximum value for the 7 day free cruise for 2 is $2,500 for 125,000 points. That works out to 50 points per dollar of value--in other words, twice the value for your points.

 

I got the card back in the spring and have 29,000 or so points--

[ncamy]

Thanks Bonnie and Howard. I might need to look into that.

[MiniMom57]

Laylouwho -- we haven't used our points for a 7 day free cruise yet, but we're working on the points. We have a daughter in college, and have been doing a lot of home repairs, redecorating, and remodeling so the points are adding up quickly! Since you have 5 years to accumulate them, I'd rather use them toward a cruise than toward on-board credit.

[banderboo]

thanks everyone. I was afraid it was to late

[gracecarmo]

to use for charging a family cruise next July. We will be on RCI. What credit card would be best for getting on-board credit with RCI/Celebrity? We also have a Celebrity cruise for 9-06, and I would like to use a card with dual points.

I am new at the credit card point game so forgive me if I ask this crazy question? I know that some credit cards charge a hefty yearly fee, and wonder if the point system offsets this fee?

 

Grace

[Cruisechick82]

We just signed up for the CITI card, but we got the Diamond rewards instead. It is similar to the cash back card, except with the points system.

 

You get 5 points for every dollar spent at gas, supermarket, or drugstore and 1 point for every other dollar spent. You also get bonus points from retail stores(not much choice) but tons of online merchants give bonus points(best buy, old navy, target. etc.) where you get an additional 1-10 points per dollar spent.

 

There is a huge list of things you can redeem the points for including travel. 25,000 points get you a roundtrip ticket to US and Canada, 10,000 points=$100 Royal Caribbean gift certificate. There are tons of other gift certificates and travel packages available to. We figure we should easily get 25,000 points a year. (We both drive far for work, so lots of gas points.) So we should at least have one roundtrip to Vancouver for the Alaska cruise we are planning for 2007.

[Ladylouwho]

MiniMom57,

Our daughter just started college and we have been redecorating too! Our points have really been racking up! We also put our entire 12 night Jewel cruise in June on the card and we got extra points for that. We will probably end up doing the free cruise, sounds like a better deal.

[BonnieNYTX]

Just remember that with any bank rewards program there is an annual limit on the amount of rewards you can get. For citi, as I stated, the maximum rewards you can receive is $300 each year.

[ilionite65]

Ladylouwho, How long did it take you to get 135, 000 points? We got our card last May and have only about 8,000 points so far!

[Ladylouwho]

We have had the card for about a year. Yeah, I know, it makes me realize how much money we spent this past year. But we put everything on it and pay it up in full each month. We have been putting a lot of money into our house this past year and put it all on the card. On our cruise on the Jewel for 12 nights in June to the British Isles/Norwegian Fiords we not only paid for the cruise with it (Royal Family Suite - five people) but used it for our seapass account and put all our excursions on it. We took a lot of excursions as European cruises are port intensive. We got double points for everything we purchased from RCCL.

Now that I think of it, if I only hadn't spent that much money this past year I wouldn't have to worry about a free cruise, I would have been able to take plenty of cruises for that amount! LOL!