miztressuz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2011
Hi lurker here. I'm hoping someone can help me with the best use of points on an up coming trip. I want to start off by saying I haven't been on a plane since 1996. I live in New England so our family vacations have mostly been local or cruises out of Boston and NY. But my DH wants to go to Alaska really bad so we booked an Alaskan Cruise on NCL Bliss in 2019 from Seattle. We would like to fly out of Boston on Jet Blue. We will need hotel rooms. One night in Boston and two nights in Seattle. This is what I have for points so far. UR points 80,000 and SPG 30,000.
DH has the following cards opened within the last 24 months. CSP, Freedom Unlimited, BOA Cash Rewards, AmEx Pers SPG. I have CSP (1 yr anniversary June), CIC, CIP, and Home Depot opened in the past 24 months. We also have a Chase Disney opened a few years ago. He is primary and I'm a card holder. So I am wondering how should I go about getting more points and what's the best use? From what I understand the cruise itself is difficult to use points on. Should I focus primarily on the flights and hotels? Can my UR points be transferred to JetBlue?
Flying Southwest is also an option out of Manchester. But I would prefer a direct flight.
Edited to add: I forgot about the Barclays (He has Ring and I have Arrival Plus) opened within the past year.
I'm in the same boat, figuratively speaking, we're going to book the Jewel for next fall. I agree discounts on NCL are limited, but there are some ways to use points on it. But my master plan had us using our vaca budget to pay for the cruise and then points/cashback and other discounts for everything else (the hotels, flights, taxis, meals, excursions, etc) That might be easiest.
Ways I know to discount NCL cruise (not exhaustive, and not in any particular order):
1. Find a good TA, they sometimes have discounts on the cruise fare or at least give OBC.
2. Norwegian credit card gives 10k point sign on bonus, worth $100. Earns 3x points on Norwegian charges.
3. Book through the Chase TA (Cruise and Tours department) and use UR points
4. Charge the cruise to a CC with travel credits or points that can be used for statement credits.
Not recommending any of them, but something to consider as you formulate your plan. If you booked with a TA already it can be harder to switch to another TA because the first one has to agree to release the booking (and forfeit commissions etc). Which is also why some cruise lines have limitations on transfers to a TA, like Disney, if you want to transfer a booking made with Disney it has to be within 30 days of booking else they won't release it. Not sure what NCL's policy is, I haven't actually booked direct with them so I didn't look it up. If you're not set on the cabin you picked and there's still availability in your category then you could cancel and rebook with someone else, most likely with no penalties (suites have different rules, I haven't looked at the latest cancellation chart since we're not doing a suite this time) if you come up with a better deal.
Discover has a travel agency partner that gives cashback, but if you don't already have a Discover card it's not worth going down that road (IMO) as the cashback is deposited after the cruise so that's not very helpful right now. Like Costco, if you were already a Costco member or wanted to be one then their cashback on Costco gift card is good but I think you also only get that after the cruise.
So you could look at using your UR to discount the cruise and the would leave you with cash to pick the flight of your choice, or look at what airlines you can move your UR to or book with to see if any of that works. Then once you decide a direction for what you want to do with the points, since you are at 3/24, you can decide what other CC might be worthwhile to focus on. And also decide if you want to keep DH open for Chase cards or just screw it and start trucking towards LOL/24 for him. (but I don't think you'll need to do that )
ETA: Totally forgot my last thought
Not sure where you are with your Chase cards in terms of timing, but if you're not looking at a shutdown scenario, the Marriott card has the 100k sign up bonus for a little while longer. After Aug 1 when the SPG and Marriott programs merge that would give you 190k points when they combine your accounts. With Marriott you can book hotels on points without having the points available until closer to your trip (I think it was as little as 8 days before at one point, not sure if it still is) so you can scout and reserve now for Boston and Seattle.
But you guys are Chase heavy so look into the risk factors before looking at another Chase card.
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