Bank of America Celebrity Credit Card

[jwlane]

On 9/13/2024 at 2:46 PM, HotinHavasu said:

Following 

 

I wouldn't expect an update, given this post is 2+years years old and already resolved.

[Iamcruzin]

On 7/4/2022 at 3:12 PM, ChucktownSteve said:

I'm curious. Has anyone calculated what percentage credit equals?  I receive 3% cash back on one of my credit cards for booking travel without jumping through these hoops for OBC.  Is the BoA credit more than 3% spent equivalent?

It's one and done for me. I opened the card for the introductory offer of $300 OBC on the first $1000 spent. Now I will just use my cash back credit cards. I did the same with the Princess card.

[NutsAboutGolf]

Some people just like slapping down their X credit card in the restaurant bi-fold, nothing wrong with that but there are much better deals out there like the Costco card which has no annual fee and 3% cash back on travel

[Volk9048]

2 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

It's one and done for me. I opened the card for the introductory offer of $300 OBC on the first $1000 spent. Now I will just use my cash back credit cards. I did the same with the Princess card.

You need to go online with Bank of American get your card acct info entered and login .  After that you go to rewards and you will see how many points you have and can take that in cabin credit which is what we do or out toward a new cruise.  

[Iamcruzin]

57 minutes ago, Volk9048 said:

You need to go online with Bank of American get your card acct info entered and login .  After that you go to rewards and you will see how many points you have and can take that in cabin credit which is what we do or out toward a new cruise.  

If I don't use the on board credit up it will be refunded to the card in which case I will work off of that credit at home. I don't sail that much with Celebrity. My next cruise after this is booked on Princess. I have cards with better cash back benefits than what the cruise lines offer for OBC.

 

[Iamcruzin]

On 7/4/2022 at 9:49 AM, kearney said:

How soon before your cruise do you need to request OBC from BofA? We are sailing in late August.. and this would be a nice touch... Thanks in advance

I opened the account 30 days before final payment. Got the card and paid off the cruise balance. The next months statement had my points which I called and had converted to the $300 OBC which went on immediately. Since the cruise was paid in full I was told that I couldn't apply it for that cruise as payment. Had I left an open balance I could have done it. I just used some to up grade the drink package and the rest I'll use on board. I have $213 left of the $300 I received. I'm sure it won't be a problem spending it.

Edited Sunday at 08:15 PM by Iamcruzin

[cruisestitch]

1 hour ago, Iamcruzin said:

If I don't use the on board credit up it will be refunded to the card in which case I will work off of that credit at home. I don't sail that much with Celebrity. My next cruise after this is booked on Princess. I have cards with better cash back benefits than what the cruise lines offer for OBC.

 

You are probably better off cashing in the points for reduction fair rather than onboard credit. Choose that option and you’ll get a credit on your next statement.

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, Iamcruzin said:

If I don't use the on board credit up it will be refunded to the card

Really?  "There are no exchanges or refunds for no-shows or unused portions of cruise arrangements obtained with the use of a reward redemption."  This sounds like it's NR OBC.

[Iamcruzin]

11 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Really?  "There are no exchanges or refunds for no-shows or unused portions of cruise arrangements obtained with the use of a reward redemption."  This sounds like it's NR OBC.

 I didn't use it towards the purchase of the cruise which would apply to the above statement. I was also told when I asked here on CC and Celebrity that it is refundable. 

[EllieinNJ]

I just booked my first Celebrity cruise but didn't realize there was a hefty down payment of $900.  That brought my total final payment to $750.  I planned on getting a Celebrity credit card for the $300 OBC but with my balance being less than the $1000 required can I pay the $1000 for final payment and get the $250 as refundable or non-refundable OBC? 

[cruisestitch]

16 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

 I didn't use it towards the purchase of the cruise which would apply to the above statement. I was also told when I asked here on CC and Celebrity that it is refundable. 

You don’t need to have use the card to pay for that cruise in order to use the points for a fare reduction.  When you go to redeem the points, just choose the fare reduction option instead of the OBC option.  Put in your booking number and the date of the cruise. You will then see the redemption as a credit on your next credit card statement.

[Iamcruzin]

20 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

You don’t need to have use the card to pay for that cruise in order to use the points for a fare reduction.  When you go to redeem the points, just choose the fare reduction option instead of the OBC option.  Put in your booking number and the date of the cruise. You will then see the redemption as a credit on your next credit card statement.

It was a new card. I needed to use the card to pay for the cruise in order to spend $1000 to get the OBC. Since I booked close to final payment  I needed to act fast in order for the billing cycle and the points to be accumulated in time for me to redeem them. I only signed up for the card because I booked the cruise. My credit card statement was zero since I paid the balance off as soon as it posted.  

Edited Monday at 03:04 PM by Iamcruzin

[bbappel]

Can you use the points to pay your bill, not just OBC?

-- I'd say "asking for a friend" so I don't get greedy, but in all honesty, it would simplify our lives if we could do it that way since we would need to do fewer gazintas (my father-in-law's term for arithmetic, meaning goes into).  As it stands, we have to calculate how much we have in the credit card pot, and how much we expect to spend. And so on and so forth.

Our cruise isn't until September 2025, so there is plenty of time to figure it out.

[cruisestitch]

Here is a strategy you could consider when thinking about acquiring points and using them
 

first, because there are cards that have much better returns, you should only use this card when booking cruises and paying the end of cruise bill that you get on the ship. Use other cards for all other purchases.

 

use your points for paying down your credit card bill rather than getting OBC. Build up your onboard spending so that you can pay it off with the card and get the bonus points, accruing them to use for the next cruise.

 

This is the most efficient way of using the Celebrity card and acquiring points on it

[bbappel]

42 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

Here is a strategy you could consider when thinking about acquiring points and using them
...

first, because there are cards that have much better returns, you should only use this card when booking cruises and paying the end of cruise bill that you get on the ship. Use other cards for all other purchases.

 

use your points for paying down your credit card bill rather than getting OBC. Build up your onboard spending so that you can pay it off with the card and get the bonus points, accruing them to use for the next cruise.

?????

This is the most efficient way of using the Celebrity card and acquiring points on it

Thanks for the recommendations.

However, this is our first cruise in 7 years, so there is no certainty we will be on another cruise in  a reasonable time after this one.  

Also, i'm not sure how to pay the credit card with points.  I'll have to dig deeper.  I use my Hilton Honors free card most of the time because I can book hotels with points + cash and make hotels affordable while still getting some credit for traveling.

 

 

[jwlane]

5 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

 can I pay the $1000 for final payment and get the $250 as refundable or non-refundable OBC? 

No. Payments & OBC are separate pools.

Edited Monday at 08:29 PM by jwlane

[EllieinNJ]

Okay.  How about this scenario?  Can I pay my RCI final payment with the Celebrity credit card?  Then use the $300 toward the $750 balance of my Celebrity cruise?

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

Okay.  How about this scenario?  Can I pay my RCI final payment with the Celebrity credit card?  Then use the $300 toward the $750 balance of my Celebrity cruise?

Yes.