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As a mega points enthusiast I have always looked for ways to make every vacation as close to free as possible including stacking promotions and discounts to get maximum benefits. I have applied this strategy to every aspect of cruise vacations for many years and it has saved me massive amounts compared to paying cash out of pocket for trip after trip. Let me explain one of these ways I have utilized that now is sadly sunk!
Most regular Frequent Floaters readers know NCL is my favorite cruise line and I have used a mega stack to save me tons of cash. Here is how it used to work – until just recently that is. By achieving Caesars Diamond status (for me from my Wyndham hotels diamond status matched to Caesars) we have been able to lock in 20% savings on a huge number of class of cabins booked. You can not only lock in the Caesars perks but also, once you have it on hold or held with something like a cruise next certificate, you could then request that Chase Ultimate Rewards cruise department take over the reservation as-is including all the discounts.
On top of this there were times where, once over at Chase travel, they could add whatever promotions they had going on top of the other locked in discounts to sweeten the deal even more. All of this has now sadly come to an end.
The first thing NCL has done is HIGHLY restrict your ability, not just to send a booking to Chase but to anyone else, to transfer a reservation as the language now states:
“Bookings may be transferred to a Travel Agent up to 14 days from creation, if the request is made outside of Final Payment period. For new reservations booked within final payment period, that are paid in full, transfer requests can be processed if the request is received within 7 or less days of final payment application.” – NCL.com
This updated wording impacts us in a number of ways. First is that you have to be quick, once you have booked, to start any transfer to another agent. Next, like what happened to me last spring with my Alaska cruise, you simply do not have the opportunity to send close in booked cruises anywhere because you can not get it done in time.
I have now personally tested this with a reservation I have for 2025 on NCL. I had put the reservation on hold with simply a $250 Cruise Next certificate and filled out the form to send my reservation over to Chase and when it arrived NCL had stripped out all of the perks and discounts from my Casinos at Sea reservation.
For me the only really valuable part of this way of booking was the 20% discount off the base cruise price. On cheaper cabins it does not mean that much but on suites it can be HUGE and not being able to use Chase points to pay for the cabin at 1.5 cents per point just stinks. The other part that may stink for others is the loss of free drinks in the casino when you book with Casinos at Sea – this does not really impact me personally because I always use the “Free at Sea” promo and just pay the 18% drink package gratuity per day (as of this post about $22) to get free drinks included. But for others who want to skip this additional cost and only get free drinks in the casino this can be a big disappointment.
The other perk that is lost by stripping out the Casinos at Sea, for those who do not have high NCL status already, is the ability to check-in at the most times much shorter priority line for Casinos at Sea booked guests. Depending on just what time you arrive at port this could save you time and effort to get onboard and some guests even pay for priority boarding so there is value here that is now lost.
Where this leaves me is stuck with choices and none of them are great for my bottom line. The first is give up the 20% discount when booking and just use Chase Travel℠ to book my cruise and thus I am able to score the full 1.5 cent value from my Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. But I hate missing the discount so the other option is to use my card at locations where I can get at least 1.25 cents value buying things and then use points to pay myself back and use those funds to pay for the Casinos at Sea reservation. On cheaper cabins I will likely go with plan A but on suites or Haven I will go for plan B.
As we say in the points game “there is always another way” and greatly discounted travel with points is still the best way to sail in my book! – René
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Can you redeem Chase UR points as cash? If Yes, does the Chase points redeem at 1.5 cents per point? I ask because I have always transferred my Chase UR points to travel partners. Sometime I can use my Chase points for a “free” hotel room pre and post cruise and for flights to and from the cruise port.
@CJH – You can use the “Pay Yourself Back” for some charges but you do not get 1.5 cents only 1.25 cents thus greatly lowering the value. If you book a cruise via Chase Travel you do get the full 1.5 cents value. You can add pre-paid onboard credits (refundable with NCL up to $1000) and get 1.5 cents value as well as pre-pay daily graduates and more and also get 1.5 cents value.