NCL Mastercard FAQ

[jwp1963]

Hi does anyone know if TI cat (solo cabins) on the Epic can be upgraded to Inside or Balcony using Single or Double META?

[mscdivina2016]

21 hours ago, jwp1963 said:

Hi does anyone know if TI cat (solo cabins) on the Epic can be upgraded to Inside or Balcony using Single or Double META?

No,

 You cannot META across as there are no solo ocean view or Balcony cabins to do so.

Steve

[beanpolethefirst]

It looks like the points are now 100% less upon redemption from the first pinned post.  10000 points is worth $100.

 

if I have a balcony room, what is considering a room category upgrade?

 

what would you do with 40,000 points?

 

Thank you!

[nhtravels]

I'd also like some help with what is the best use of my points.  

 

I have 120,964 points.  I'm currently booked in an HB on my January cruise and an H5 on my February cruise.    We are CAS guest and usually upgrade our comped Mini-suite to a Haven booking (so an upgrade wouldn't apply to us).   We do often take one or all of our grown children and their families on a cruise (not in the Haven, but hey they aren't paying are they?) - can I use the upgrade for them?  

 

Otherwise, what is the best use of these points (some that expire in the fall of 2022!)

[mscdivina2016]

15 hours ago, beanpolethefirst said:

It looks like the points are now 100% less upon redemption from the first pinned post.  10000 points is worth $100.

 

if I have a balcony room, what is considering a room category upgrade?

 

what would you do with 40,000 points?

 

Thank you!

You are at the top already. No where to really go.

 

I would do one of 2 things

Save the points for another cruise and only book an ocean view and then use 30,000 points to get a free balcony. Always book at least an OB or higher.

If you are not in final payment yet on a booked cruise, call and get them to reprice you into an ocean view and then redeem 30,000 points and keep your current room at a much cheaper price.

Steve

[mscdivina2016]

13 hours ago, nhtravels said:

I'd also like some help with what is the best use of my points.  

 

I have 120,964 points.  I'm currently booked in an HB on my January cruise and an H5 on my February cruise.    We are CAS guest and usually upgrade our comped Mini-suite to a Haven booking (so an upgrade wouldn't apply to us).   We do often take one or all of our grown children and their families on a cruise (not in the Haven, but hey they aren't paying are they?) - can I use the upgrade for them?  

 

Otherwise, what is the best use of these points (some that expire in the fall of 2022!)

You are not upgrading as your room category is too high. Highest is a regular balcony, not even an aft is included anymore.

I would suggest you use the points for meta upgrades.  Inside to outside or outside to balcony. Each of those is 30,000 points.

 If you want to splurge, then inside to Balcony for 60,000 points.

I highly suggest you look at pricing. You don't want to use 30,000 points if the cost difference is small. 30,000 points is worth $300.  

Steve

 

[nhtravels]

27 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You are not upgrading as your room category is too high. Highest is a regular balcony, not even an aft is included anymore.

I would suggest you use the points for meta upgrades.  Inside to outside or outside to balcony. Each of those is 30,000 points.

 

 

Thank you Steve!  Would you know if the upgrade can be used for someone else (other than myself or DH?) or do I need to call WorldPoints?   We've been spoiled in the Haven now and once that happens, it's hard to go back!

[mscdivina2016]

Just now, nhtravels said:

Thank you Steve!  Would you know if the upgrade can be used for someone else (other than myself or DH?) or do I need to call WorldPoints?   We've been spoiled in the Haven now and once that happens, it's hard to go back!

Yes you can use it for anyone as long as you have their booking number then call world points and do it.

 Steve

[nhtravels]

Oh Wow!  That changes everything!  Is limit on how many days on the cruise?  (7 or under, or would a 16 day Panama Canal be a good one? )

 

Thank you for the help!  You have given me so much to think about today! :(I thought I was just going to use it to pay down on a cruise, which seemed such a waste!)

[julig22]

5 minutes ago, nhtravels said:

Oh Wow!  That changes everything!  Is limit on how many days on the cruise?  (7 or under, or would a 16 day Panama Canal be a good one? )

 

Thank you for the help!  You have given me so much to think about today! :(I thought I was just going to use it to pay down on a cruise, which seemed such a waste!)

Obviously the longer the cruise, the more potential bang for your buck.

 

Just a thought, might not work but no harm in asking.  Can you use your points to upgrade to balcony, then pay the difference for a Haven?  Probably not but it would depend on if NCL would charge the difference between the value of your cabin rather than what you paid.

[mscdivina2016]

25 minutes ago, nhtravels said:

Oh Wow!  That changes everything!  Is limit on how many days on the cruise?  (7 or under, or would a 16 day Panama Canal be a good one? )

 

Thank you for the help!  You have given me so much to think about today! :(I thought I was just going to use it to pay down on a cruise, which seemed such a waste!)

No limit, I have used it on 40 day cruises. Yes...40 days.(b2b2b2b)  But.... things have changed a few months ago now as they no longer allow that.  1 cruise only.  I am on the 23 day panama cruise next year and I used 60,000 points for inside to Balcony.

 I currently have it on a 36 day b2b coming up and another 30+ day b2b2b2b in 2023

Steve

[mscdivina2016]

17 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Obviously the longer the cruise, the more potential bang for your buck.

 

Just a thought, might not work but no harm in asking.  Can you use your points to upgrade to balcony, then pay the difference for a Haven?  Probably not but it would depend on if NCL would charge the difference between the value of your cabin rather than what you paid.

That is a definite no!

Wont even allow Balcony BA to aft balcony anymore.  I have tried almost everything as I have had over 1,000,000+ points.  I used to convert points to cash, use cash to book cruise, then points to double meta upgrade then more points for OBC.

 Keep in mind this is technically not NCL. This is BOA. BOA sets some of the parameters.

 

I have gotten over $10,000 value from 60,000 points on an inside versus balcony. Someone somewhere is absorbing that.

Steve

[nhtravels]

This board has been so helpful!  I have two last questions... (Famous last words!)

Can the initial cruise be booked with any travel agent and then upgraded by World Points or should it be booked direct through NCL?  And would an upgraded cruise be eligible for the Upgrade Advantage Program (provided the travel agent participates) or does using the World points upgrade take away the bid option?

 

We have friends who are planning to book an inside stateroom on our Panama Canal cruise and then we'll use our points to upgrade them to a balcony. I think it's a savings of roughly $3,000 - better than the $600 in OBC, if it works right!

 

Thanks again!!

[mscdivina2016]

5 hours ago, nhtravels said:

This board has been so helpful!  I have two last questions... (Famous last words!)

Can the initial cruise be booked with any travel agent and then upgraded by World Points or should it be booked direct through NCL?  And would an upgraded cruise be eligible for the Upgrade Advantage Program (provided the travel agent participates) or does using the World points upgrade take away the bid option?

 

We have friends who are planning to book an inside stateroom on our Panama Canal cruise and then we'll use our points to upgrade them to a balcony. I think it's a savings of roughly $3,000 - better than the $600 in OBC, if it works right!

 

Thanks again!!

Yes book with who ever you want then call world points.

 Yes you can bid.

 I have bid.max.several times and.never won so I think it may be a factor.

Steve

[hawk1972]

Just thought I'd post that we recently booked a 9-day cruise to Alaska on the Sun for September 2022. We have used world points before for upgrading from an interior to a balcony and that's what we did for this one. I haven't been using the card much lately since Covid and all the cancellations but I held on to 60,000 points from a cancelled August 2020 cruise to use this time. The process was smooth. I called my PCC to make the reservation and then called world points to make the upgrade.  Looking forward to cruising again.

Edited September 4, 2021 by hawk1972

[CruisingNCLHokie]

Hi everyone, sorry if this has been asked before, I couldn't find it by searching. Does anyone know if we are able to use points to upgrade from an inside (IB) to a balcony on the Epic?  And if we can, would that be considered a single meta upgrade, or double since the Epic doesn't have Oceanview cabins?  Thank you!

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, CruisingNCLHokie said:

Hi everyone, sorry if this has been asked before, I couldn't find it by searching. Does anyone know if we are able to use points to upgrade from an inside (IB) to a balcony on the Epic?  And if we can, would that be considered a single meta upgrade, or double since the Epic doesn't have Oceanview cabins?  Thank you!

Double meta. They spell it out.

Would be nice though.

Steve

[julig22]

Does it matter when you upgrade?  I'm not to final payment but with price fluctuations I'd rather get the best price I can.  

[mscdivina2016]

6 hours ago, julig22 said:

Does it matter when you upgrade?  I'm not to final payment but with price fluctuations I'd rather get the best price I can.  

Yes sort of

It's based on availability.

 

I always book IA or IB and double meta to a Balcony.

This was I can get  BA,BB,BC, or BD if inventory is low.

Want to be safe?

Book inside IA, and book balcony BB.

When you call at least a few days before final. Use points for a BA. If you get one cancel other BB.

If not then tell rep you have a BB for your.....mom, yeah and she's not going, so cancel it and give it to you.

Steve

 

 

[FirsttimecruiserMac]

Any Canadians have the NCL credit card?  Experience? Is it worth it taking into consideration the exchange rate charged? 

[Jana60]

On 8/11/2021 at 6:09 PM, nhtravels said:

This board has been so helpful!  I have two last questions... (Famous last words!)

Can the initial cruise be booked with any travel agent and then upgraded by World Points or should it be booked direct through NCL?  And would an upgraded cruise be eligible for the Upgrade Advantage Program (provided the travel agent participates) or does using the World points upgrade take away the bid option?

 

We have friends who are planning to book an inside stateroom on our Panama Canal cruise and then we'll use our points to upgrade them to a balcony. I think it's a savings of roughly $3,000 - better than the $600 in OBC, if it works right!

 

Thanks again!!

having enough points for a mirror or Double Meta upgrade does not necessarily guarantee that they will have rooms available in that category qualifying for upgrade. If I were you I would call the Cruise Line and ask to be connected to the department that does these so that you can book a room category in which there are meta Upgrade‘s possible.  I always thought that if I booked the highest category in an inner room and had 60,000 points to spend that I could upgrade to a balcony but I found that this is not the case because they have to have the highest category of balcony available to use the points. This is why it’s important to call.  For a long time I have been saving points hoping to use them for a Double Meta Upgrade but I have become handicapped and require a wheelchair accessible room. It is almost impossible to book a wheelchair accessible room and use a Double Meta upgrade. I haven’t really found a cruise that I want to use the points for so I will investigate this further with the Cruise Line when I see a cruise that I want to go on that would be good use of the points. The points by themselves are worth $600 as a balance adjustment on my credit card so I don’t want to use 60,000 points to book a cruise in which the balcony cabin only cost $400 more than the inner cabin.

[mscdivina2016]

2 hours ago, Jana60 said:

having enough points for a mirror or Double Meta upgrade does not necessarily guarantee that they will have rooms available in that category qualifying for upgrade. If I were you I would call the Cruise Line and ask to be connected to the department that does these so that you can book a room category in which there are meta Upgrade‘s possible.  I always thought that if I booked the highest category in an inner room and had 60,000 points to spend that I could upgrade to a balcony but I found that this is not the case because they have to have the highest category of balcony available to use the points. 

That is true to a point.....

Always book the highest interior cabin especially because the cost is so little between all inside categories.

This way when you double meta, you are not just limited to a BA, but any "B" category so you might have to choose a BD or even lower on a popular sailing or closer to sailing,but who cares really as long as you get a balcony.

Steve

[nhtravels]

Are there any restrictions as to what the OBC can be used for?   (*I know the stockholder OBC has a few restrictions, like DSC, cruise next)

 

Now we have over 150k in points (with 50k expiring in 2022),   So I'm either going to use a bit for OBC or to put towards the balance of PC cruise in February.  Either way, I know it's not the best use of points.  But we are in the Haven for both cruises and so a meta upgrade won't do us any good.

 

TIA-

[mscdivina2016]

3 hours ago, nhtravels said:

Are there any restrictions as to what the OBC can be used for?   (*I know the stockholder OBC has a few restrictions, like DSC, cruise next)

 

Now we have over 150k in points (with 50k expiring in 2022),   So I'm either going to use a bit for OBC or to put towards the balance of PC cruise in February.  Either way, I know it's not the best use of points.  But we are in the Haven for both cruises and so a meta upgrade won't do us any good.

 

TIA-

No, and you also can get a statement credit.

It's basically cash.

[jetact]

Being new to the card (just got it last month) after reading the comments which are all great and I appreciate people helping others with these questions. To me it looks like you can't upgrade with points to Haven and your best best is an inner cabin to a balcony. I believe I read that you can still bid on an upgrade but not likely to get it. OBC isnt a good use of the card. I hope I have gotten this all correct. We are headed to NOLA and to the Western Caribbean our of there in January. I am currently looking for Panama canal as our next cruise but might mix in Alaska before that. I hope to use my points as I will be at 50,000 by the end of the year. Thanks for all of the great info.