Discover card promotion

[Robo1098]

Has anyone received this 10% cash back promotion from Discover? You have to book through them. I don't think they offer any OBC or anything else. Trying to figure out if this is a good deal.

[paulh84]

There are several old posts dating back to probably 2005 that mention it. I think those deals have been around a long time. I priced out a few cruises but I think the cash back is limited to the first $1500 so the max you would get back is $150 or $300 if you're a new cardholder. Pricing was identical to booking directly on the RCL trips I looked at. You could probably find a better deal from a TA.

[Clarea]

Has anyone received this 10% cash back promotion from Discover? You have to book through them. I don't think they offer any OBC or anything else. Trying to figure out if this is a good deal.

I've seen offers from them too, but as mentioned above, there was always some sort of limit that made it less appealing.

[Robo1098]

There are several old posts dating back to probably 2005 that mention it. I think those deals have been around a long time. I priced out a few cruises but I think the cash back is limited to the first $1500 so the max you would get back is $150 or $300 if you're a new cardholder. Pricing was identical to booking directly on the RCL trips I looked at. You could probably find a better deal from a TA.

 

This promo doesn't seem to have a $1500 max but even without that I think you may be right about getting a better deal. Thanks

[paulh84]

This promo doesn't seem to have a $1500 max but even without that I think you may be right about getting a better deal. Thanks

 

I just called to ask out of curiosity but didn't get a straight answer. The regular 5% deals have the $1500 stipulation so I would assume the bonus deals do as well. But the fine print also states Offer is based on the cruise fare at the time of departure; lowest available fare guaranteed at the time of booking so there's really no way to know how much you're actually going to get back either.

[YadaYadaJodi]

So my experience with DiscoverCard's offers:

 

#1 - You have to use their specified TA. That said, I have booked several cruises with them and been happy. I always compare prices and haven't found a better offer. You have to know though that a balcony is the most expensive stateroom we've ever booked and sometimes I book an inside. So I'm not looking at being offered a ton of TA perks in the first place.

 

Right off the bat, you need to know that this discount is not off you're entire cruise fare. Not only does it exclude the "taxes & fees" and, of course, gratuities, the TA further breaks down the cruise fare into 2 parts. I have received this discount and had trouble with the math after I got it & had to call to get it explained. So be sure you ask upfront how much of the fare will receive the discount.

 

Discover does offer gift certificates that you can buy with your cashback bonus balance for half off depending on your cabin. For example if you have $80 in cashback bonus accumulated you could get a $160 certificate. Since you could have used that $80 to make a payment on your account, I consider that $80 off the cruise. This certificate might be combinable with the 10% off offer.

[YadaYadaJodi]

Has anyone received this 10% cash back promotion from Discover? You have to book through them. I don't think they offer any OBC or anything else. Trying to figure out if this is a good deal.

 

Just to clarify/simplify - my short answer is Yes! But just be aware that how they calculate the "cruise fare" is not the same as Royal. See my post above.

[Clarea]

Just to clarify/simplify - my short answer is Yes! But just be aware that how they calculate the "cruise fare" is not the same as Royal. See my post above.

It sounds like they are removing non-commisionable fees and taxes from the cruise fare before they apply the percentage.

[YadaYadaJodi]

I should also mention that when purchasing the e-certificate offers on cruises that Discover Card offers, I wait until I'm on the phone with the TA & decide to book with them before purchasing. Buying them is instantaneous so I'm able to buy it and email them a PDF of it while we're still on the phone discussing other details.

 

I would ask about the refundabilty of these. If I'm not mistaken the best you would get is the ability to use them on another cruise thru the same TA.

[YadaYadaJodi]

It sounds like they are removing non-commisionable fees and taxes from the cruise fare before they apply the percentage.

 

I knew you would know the wording! Yes, I believe it is exactly that.

[kbowen7872]

I just booked my cruise thru cruise and vacation desk the TA that discover card requires to get the 10% cash back, I booked a balcony and chose to use my cash back money and purchased the $80 that makes it 160. Very easy and just email or fax the certificate. I booked las Thursday for freedom of the seas in May and she told me about the WOW sail and to call back, she got me another $100 onboard credit on top of the $25 her company gave me for booking with them. She also said If the cruise price drops after final payment she will call RC and get me the difference in onboard credit. I was a bit worried about using a travel agent I did not know but you know if discover card is partnering with them it should all be good..

 

 

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[cmstl97]

I couldn't get enough concrete info about this offer to actually use it. Pricing was the same as booking directly. The new member bonus of 2x the cash back within the first 12 months was appealing, but...

 

I just opened an account and couldn't get an answer on two issues. Say I book my cruise today for Feb 2017. I know the cash back isn't applied until after you cruise, but do they consider the cash back transaction based on today's date of purchase or based on the date you actually receive the cash back? My card will get 2x the cash back through Feb 2017 so will my cruise fare qualify for the double cash or not since I wouldn't actually receive the cash back until after the 12 month window expired. Then I too couldn't get a straight answer if the $1500 cap applied.

 

There was potentially about $600 in cash back on the line, or depending on how and what qualified, maybe as little as $150.

 

If I could have been sure I was getting $500+ cash back we would have booked with Royal again. But Discover's TA offers no perks or OBC and other TA's for Celebrity were offering very generous amounts of OBC. So in the end for me it just made more sense to take the large OBC on Celebrity and not attempt the cash back deal.

[Robo1098]

Here is the fine print. Hopefully it's large enough to see.