Visa Points

[lauren0309]

How many points do you get for every dollar charged? Right now we have 20,000 which I know adds up to $200 onboard credit. How much more would I have to spend to get up to 30,000 points.

[attitudeda]

You would need to spend anthoer $10,000 dollars or book a cruise with RCI for $5,000 and get double points. 5000x2 =10,000.

[lauren0309]

Thanks for your reply. I guess I won't be spending $10,000 within the next 3 months!

[WECoyote]

How many points do you get for every dollar charged? Right now we have 20,000 which I know adds up to $200 onboard credit. How much more would I have to spend to get up to 30,000 points.

 

Here is the link to the RCI Visa rewards site....: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/dealsandmore/offer/visa.do;jsessionid=0000MENhFz3PxDR_dZ1PPKLSFSb:10ktdmkdk

 

Ever $5k spent equals a 1% payback in onboard credit. To try to get a 2% payback requires you saving you points and trading them in for a cabin upgrade or free cruise. If you check closely, I think the best you can hope for is 1.6% to 1.7% payback. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.:)

[BigDave]

If you redeem your points for cash they are worth a penny a point.

 

If you wait untill you can buy a cruise for one or more people they are worth up to 2 penny's a point.

 

After over 4 years (and points are only good for 5 years) of buying everything we could on the visa we have a free cruise in a couple of months.

 

It just makes sense to wait if you'll read a threshold for a full or partial free cruise, and if you're want to get a better room that you can upgrade to with the points.

[Hypo]

We just redeemed 2500 points for an upgrade from outside to balcony on the Rhapsody of the Seas. The difference between an OV and a D1 was 270 per person. So they applied the maximum $500.00 or a return of 2% on our points. We then paid the difference to upgrade to a JS.

 

This is on the Rhapsody of the Seas on 1/07/07.

 

YMMV.

 

Hypo

[WECoyote]

If you redeem your points for cash they are worth a penny a point.

 

If you wait untill you can buy a cruise for one or more people they are worth up to 2 penny's a point.

 

After over 4 years (and points are only good for 5 years) of buying everything we could on the visa we have a free cruise in a couple of months.

 

It just makes sense to wait if you'll read a threshold for a full or partial free cruise, and if you're want to get a better room that you can upgrade to with the points.

 

When you calculate the free cruise remember that it is based on the "Minimum Available Oceanview stateroom" (*Excludes Christmas and New Year's sailings and is subject to availability.) When these restrictions are applied, you will realize between 1.6 and 1.7 cents on the dollar. All upgrades come out of your pocket. The majority of the people who realize the 2% are those who use their points for upgrades. Not only have I been following the posts concerning this subject, but I have cashed in 375,000 points for free cruises, so I am comfortable in saying that I know what I am talking about. We will cash in our fourth cruise early next year.

[Lightsluvr]

I just printed out the program rules - it looks like they made a change in the language on July 28, 2006. They added the "minimum available outside cabin" language to the free cruise options. Does that mean we can book a OV with our points, and still pay to upgarde to a JS? We are above 50,000 points now, and think we'll make a move soon...We'll either use a 50K or a 75K voucher for a free cruise or a free companion fare. Have you booked one recently?

Thanks.

 

LL

[prc]

I just printed out the program rules - it looks like they made a change in the language on July 28, 2006. They added the "minimum available outside cabin" language to the free cruise options. Does that mean we can book a OV with our points, and still pay to upgarde to a JS? We are above 50,000 points now, and think we'll make a move soon...We'll either use a 50K or a 75K voucher for a free cruise or a free companion fare. Have you booked one recently?

Thanks.

 

LL

 

We booked a free 4 night for 2 last May for 50k points. They let us choose any cabin we wanted and they deducted $1000.

[debshomespun]

"minimum outside available cabin" means you can only get credit for an oceanview cabin on deck 2 for the free cruise sailing? So we only get credit for that, and if we want to upgrade to a higher level oceanview cabin, on say deck 4, we pay the difference, and to upgrade to a balcony, we only get the credit for the lowest available oceanview cabin then? Boy, what a rip off. Makes you wonder if it really is worth saving all the points for the "free cruise"

[BigDave]

You get a value of double the points, and you can upgrade to a better room.

 

We turned in 125k points, with a allowed value of $1250 per person a OV would have wasted a fair amount of the value. so we upgraded to JS which costs 1499 per person, and we ended up paying $249 per person plus some taxes.

 

My wife has learned to like balcony's so we wouldn't have went with OV anyway.

[Lightsluvr]

That's what I wanted to hear.

Did you book through C&A? Do you have the name/phone number for the person who booked your cruise?

Thanks.

 

LL