00:00:00:03 - 00:00:06:14
Chris
You asked. We listened. Today's episode is all about cruises and how you can maximize every point you weren't on them.
00:00:06:15 - 00:00:16:01
Katie
Today we're covering the best cards for cruise spend, how to stack points through airline and hotel portals, and the honest truth about whether booking a cruise with coins actually makes sense.
00:00:16:07 - 00:00:23:17
Chris
Spoiler in most cases is not a great use of your points, but there are a few where it actually works and we'll cover them all.
00:00:23:18 - 00:00:37:03
Katie
And before that, Chris has a car rental story that is a reminder to always film your rental before you drive off the lot. Always.
00:00:37:05 - 00:00:40:06
Chris
Hey, I'm Chris. Welcome to the Upgraded Points podcast.
00:00:40:06 - 00:00:58:22
Katie
And I'm Katie. Today we are talking about how to earn and use points for cruises. But first, Chris has a car rental story that you will want to hear. And before we jump into all of that, don't forget a free way to support the show is by leaving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, and be sure to subscribe on YouTube.
00:00:58:23 - 00:01:07:01
Katie
We really do appreciate all of it. So let's jump right in. Chris, what's going on with this car rental drama?
00:01:07:03 - 00:01:25:09
Chris
Well, last month I rented a one way rental from Burlington to Boston. And as always, I did a big walk around and filmed because there was some damage on the car. And Hertz uses those new AI scanners in Boston, so it's just a way of protecting yourself against any, you know, damage claims. And I posted a video of that and I was like, oh yeah, this.
00:01:25:09 - 00:01:42:07
Chris
I'm very savvy. You guys should be like me. Well, when I got back to Brazil. I also had rented a car and I did the same thing. I walked around very detailed. I took pictures of the tire brand because I was already off on the report. There were a lot of scuffs in the car and I was like, okay, I'm really going to protect myself.
00:01:42:07 - 00:02:05:16
Chris
Or so I thought. Well, I go to return the car a few days later, and the guy takes one picture of the front of the car and then immediately runs to the back. Left door opens it, looks inside, points the handle and ask if anyone in sat back there and I said, yeah, my son. He goes, well, they broke the handle and I was like, what?
00:02:05:18 - 00:02:28:11
Chris
So he showed me the handle and it was kind of like kind of like open. And I had seen that and I was just, oh, that must be what happens when the door is open. I had never been in the back seat and notice that it actually stays open. The door worked fine, but this little lever was open and thought it was very weird, very sketchy that he immediately went to that door, no other doors and found that damage immediately.
00:02:28:13 - 00:02:43:11
Chris
Yeah. Very suss. So I started getting a little angry. I was like, I want to talk to your manager, blah blah blah. And they're like, okay, well, they call the manager out. I'm like, listen, this was like that. And they said, okay, do you have a picture? I said, no.
00:02:43:13 - 00:02:45:12
Katie
But everything else.
00:02:45:14 - 00:03:00:13
Chris
I almost did because I have the video going around the car and I can almost see in through the window, and I would have shown it, but I didn't. So they wanted me to sign a thing. They're going to take the car out of commission, the send back to the dealership for repairs. And I was like, I'm not signing anything.
00:03:00:13 - 00:03:15:11
Chris
I want every report printed off right there. And I put up a big stink online, I did them, I sent an email to corporate and I filed a complaint in Brazil. They have a site called Mickey. It's like complain here. And within two days they dropped everything they like. Yeah, sorry.
00:03:15:14 - 00:03:16:16
Katie
But just kidding.
00:03:16:17 - 00:03:34:17
Chris
Yeah. If you don't have the time and energy to complain like I did, that could be an easy way for you to pay for some damages that were already in a car here in Brazil. So now I'm going to update my my rental car tip. Not only do you need to fill in the outside of the car, film the inside, take as many pictures as you can.
00:03:34:18 - 00:03:57:00
Chris
I don't film the spare tire. Open the hood, I don't know, but I mean, it takes it costs nothing to take the pictures in the videos and it would have saved me a lot of hassle had I just taken a picture of the door open. Apparently. So that was my little story, fortunately at a happy ending, but it did add a few days or took a few days off my life because I was very stressed.
00:03:57:01 - 00:04:19:00
Katie
Yeah, that's that's no fun. It sounds it's super sketchy that they went right there. It sounded like they were just trying to find someone not as savvy as Eucharist nicely. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, that was a good lesson. Good reminder. I, I tend to forget to do that. So. Yeah, I'm not good with that. But yeah. Always always a good tip.
00:04:19:03 - 00:04:22:09
Katie
Okay. Let's let's jump into it. Let's talk about cruises.
00:04:22:11 - 00:04:47:00
Chris
All right. So cruises we talk a lot about travel over here. But cruises they represent one of the most underutilized opportunities in the points of mild world. This episode covers every way to earn more points on cruise bookings. Which cards to use, how to stack points through airline and hotel portals, and the honest truth about whether booking a cruise with points actually makes sense.
00:04:47:00 - 00:04:51:06
Chris
So I'm going to kick this to you, Katie. What have we got for earning on cruises?
00:04:51:12 - 00:05:14:08
Katie
Yeah, let's start with the best cards and then we'll give you some some secondary options as well. First one I'm going to mention is the Ink Business Preferred card, because this card still earns three points per dollar on all travel up to $150,000 in spend per year. So it fills in that gap that we lost with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, losing that three x travel category.
00:05:14:08 - 00:05:35:08
Katie
And this is the card that I keep around to put my cruise spend on. Talked about it in a previous episode. This is the only reason I still have this card. I like the card, but there's know other ways to get the other categories. But man, I spend a good amount on cruises at least the last year and a half, so that's a great one to earn three Chase points per dollar on everything.
00:05:35:12 - 00:06:01:05
Katie
Another three x option is the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card, three points per dollar on all travel, and then the Amex Green card, which is not currently available to new applicants. But if you do have one of these cards in your wallet, it still earns three points per dollar on travel. So those would be your best, most simple, straightforward options to earn a solid chunk of points on.
00:06:01:06 - 00:06:24:15
Katie
You know, even if it's an inexpensive cruise, it can still be, you know, a big payment. There's also a ton of cards that earn two points per dollar, either on everything or on travel. So there's, you know, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is two points per dollar on travel. The built obsidian card is two x. On travel, the Palladium card is two x and everything you've got the Capital One venture and venture X for two x everywhere.
00:06:24:16 - 00:06:47:19
Katie
You've got the Amex Blue Business plus two Membership Rewards points everywhere up to $50,000 in spend. So that's a great option, something maybe that you don't know about. If you have the Amex Business Platinum Card, any purchase over $5,000 earns two points per dollar. So if you're paying for an expensive cruise and you have a big chunk, you put it on that card and you're going to get two points per dollar.
00:06:47:21 - 00:07:05:10
Katie
There's the city, double cash. It's two X points. Now, keep in mind with that, you do have to have a premium card like the city, Strata Premier or Strata Elite to unlock the full transfer ratio on that. But it's always a good option if you, you know, if you're just looking for cash back to that could be a good option.
00:07:05:11 - 00:07:11:10
Katie
So there's lots to earn at least two points per dollar on cruises. But if you can get three, even better.
00:07:11:11 - 00:07:31:08
Chris
And if you want to get really savvy, you could actually buy some gift cards, because a lot of these cruises sell gift cards. And you can buy these at grocery stores or office supply stores. So if you have a credit card in your wallet that earns bonus points at one of those locations, you could really kind of get even more value.
00:07:31:08 - 00:07:53:13
Chris
So like the ink business, cash gets five x at office supply stores, that's five x and cruise spending. The Amex Gold gets forex at US supermarkets up to $25,000 per year. If you find some Royal Caribbean gift cards or carnival gift cards, you could buy them at the grocery store and then earn that forex similar angle. There you get the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card.
00:07:53:14 - 00:08:00:07
Chris
They get 6% cash back at grocery stores up to $6,000. So that's pretty good.
00:08:00:09 - 00:08:01:04
Katie
That's really nice.
00:08:01:09 - 00:08:22:16
Chris
Yeah, that one also comes with a $300 cash back with a no annual fee on the first year. So if you spent $6,000 on cruise gift cards, you would earn, what, $360 back? That's not bad. And then the Chase Freedom Flex, when the quarterly category is the place itself, is just gift cards. That's a nice little bonus there.
00:08:22:16 - 00:08:35:00
Chris
And and as always, keep an eye out for your Amex offers, your Chase offers. These offers some great value, even if they're on a card that will only earn one point per dollar. If you can get some extra cash back or bonus points, that could really make a big difference.
00:08:35:01 - 00:08:58:10
Katie
Yeah, and actually, one thing that just popped into my head while you were talking is Capital One shopping. I had some Capital One shopping money, and if you're not familiar, it's a shopping portal. You don't have to have a Capital One card, but your cash back comes as gift cards. And I had, I don't know, like $200. And I got a princess gift card because I was going on a Princess cruise.
00:08:58:10 - 00:09:09:23
Katie
I took that gift card and just applied it to my room, and it just took took money right off. So that's a really nice way. If you're earning a lot of like the Capital One shopping dollars, they have cruise gift cards on there as well.
00:09:10:00 - 00:09:17:07
Chris
We've been sending out a ton of those. So yeah, sign up for the newsletter because we dropped those. These deals are coming out left and right. It's crazy.
00:09:17:08 - 00:09:38:13
Katie
Yeah, I actually went and checked it again after you talked about it on a previous episode, and I got a couple of good offers. So that's always a good one to to keep an eye on. Okay, so what about cruise credit cards? We haven't talked about that. And this episode is all about cruising. So you know in most cases these cards do not offer enough to make them worth it.
00:09:38:14 - 00:10:11:12
Katie
Most cruise credit cards will earn 2 to 3 points per dollar on your cruise purchases. They might earn some points on other spend categories as well, and then the points are worth $0.01 each toward cruise costs, so that's effectively a 2 to 3% return. It's not terrible, but but you can do better. And one exception that I wanted to mention, and this is by no means necessarily better than what we just talked about getting the, you know, two, three, four, 6% cash back on some other cards.
00:10:11:12 - 00:10:22:06
Katie
But I thought we should mention it. It's the Royal Caribbean Royal one plus card. It's it's borderline interesting for a cruise card, which isn't saying much.
00:10:22:07 - 00:10:23:04
Katie
Go on.
00:10:23:10 - 00:10:54:14
Katie
Yeah, I'm really solid here on interns. Four points per dollar on Royal Caribbean Celebrity and Silversea purchases. It has a welcome offer worth $600. You get an annual $200 cruise discount after you spend 20,000 on purchases within the prior anniversary year, so it could make sense if you're spending a lot on Royal Caribbean Celebrity or Silversea Cruises. You know, it's not it's it's not for everyone card.
00:10:54:14 - 00:11:13:09
Katie
But in some circumstances, like I wouldn't be mad at you if you got that card. But yeah, for for most people, unless you are a diehard cruise fan and that's all you're into, you're going to be better off with a card that earns transferable points than a cruise credit card.
00:11:13:11 - 00:11:17:06
Chris
So I'm not really familiar with that card. But yeah, I could see how if.
00:11:17:06 - 00:11:42:15
Katie
You know, I think it's relatively ish new. I had heard about it somewhat recently, and it's one of those. It's borderline. So I just wanted to mention it. Okay. So let's take a quick break. And then when we come back we're going to talk about more ways to earn and use points on cruises.
00:11:42:17 - 00:11:49:02
Chris
Real quick before we jump back in. If you're listening to this podcast, you're exactly the kind of person we built our free newsletter for.
00:11:49:03 - 00:11:55:11
Katie
We break down the best credit card offers, transfer bonuses, travel news and award alerts so you stay ahead of the game.
00:11:55:12 - 00:12:00:15
Chris
A lot of the deals we talk about on the show don't last long. The newsletter is where we fly those fast.
00:12:00:15 - 00:12:13:04
Katie
It's totally free and you can sign up at upgraded points.
00:12:13:06 - 00:12:41:10
Chris
Okay. Welcome back. Let's dive into some other ways to earn points on cruises. Let's talk about booking through an airline or a hotel portal or travel portal. So for example Amex Travel. Com you can earn two points when you're using your platinum card. The card privileges program that comes with extra perks, including $100 to $300 of onboard credit per stateroom and a unique amenity.
00:12:41:10 - 00:13:01:11
Chris
That's nice. If you were to book through Chase travel, you could get eight points when book of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, or five with the Chase Sapphire Preferred heading to airline portals, the American Airline Cruises website, that'll give you only one mile per dollar. But you'll also get loyalty points, which could be interesting if you're chasing status.
00:13:01:13 - 00:13:27:07
Chris
You get double that two points an AA card. Sometimes there are specials. So like right now you can get 200,000 bonus miles on luxury cruises. So that could really make a lot of sense for some people. For example, you could earn up to $20,000 on Princess Cruises based on the length of your sailing and cabin type. It would need to be a 20 night cruise to get or a suite or something to get the full 20,000, but if you're already going to book it, that's a pretty solid bonus.
00:13:27:08 - 00:13:53:00
Chris
United cruises You can earn 2 to 4 miles. That's up to 25,000 per per member, or 4 to 7 X for United cardholders. That's capped at 45,000 per cruise. But there are some really good deals. And Delta cruise the same thing two x miles. There's some bonuses and right now you get 200,000 on luxury cruises as well. And cruise with points by Marriott Bonvoy, three points with the occasional bonus.
00:13:53:00 - 00:14:14:07
Chris
And I know this one is very exciting for Katie. This came out this year. Blogger journeys. When you book through Hilton Honors, you'll earn ten points. You'll get a 5% discount and you'll get your perks based on your Hilton Elite status. So that's a pretty it's a pretty interesting one. Those those explorer journeys start popping up.
00:14:14:08 - 00:14:30:21
Katie
Yeah. And the nice thing about those two is all of those points that you can earn through these portals is in addition to what you're earning on your credit card. So, you know, if you were booking one of those explorer journeys, you're earning ten Hilton points on the cost, but you're also earning whatever you're using on your credit card.
00:14:30:21 - 00:14:49:17
Katie
So another two, three, four points per dollar. So that can really add up, especially on those really expensive cruises. I mean, you're spending a lot of money, but you can earn a lot of points on the way. So there are a ton of ways to earn points on cruises, which is fantastic. But the big question is can you book cruises with points and miles?
00:14:49:22 - 00:15:13:22
Katie
And the short answer is is yes. But in most circumstances it's just not a great way to use your points. So let's look at some of the details. Let's start with Virgin Voyages. This is a pretty exciting one. They kind of burst onto the scene a few years ago with some amazing points, deals on their cruises. I think it was as low as like 80,000 points if I remember right.
00:15:14:00 - 00:15:14:10
Katie
Good ones.
00:15:14:11 - 00:15:21:07
Katie
Yeah, yeah. And I think Stella, who's on our team, took advantage of one of those. So we do have a couple of reviews on the site.
00:15:21:08 - 00:15:21:16
Katie
But.
00:15:21:16 - 00:15:48:17
Katie
You can look through the Virgin Red website for these deals. They're not as plentiful and as amazing as they were a few years ago, but they can be, you know, decent. So right now you can get a four night cruise as low as 160,000 points. And that is the lowest point price I saw as of yesterday. When I was looking all of this up, I looked up that exact same cruise and it would cost $1,640.
00:15:48:19 - 00:16:12:18
Katie
Another example, there was a 12 night cruise that was available for 270,000 points. That cruise would have cost $3,000. So you're getting just a hair over a cent per point, which is actually solid when it comes to book and cruises, although keep in mind, that's still lower than what we value Virgin Points at, so it might not be a complete slam dunk.
00:16:12:18 - 00:16:36:02
Katie
And these lowest prices are only available on very select itineraries, very few dates, but if it works for you, it's a reasonable way to use points at a decent value for cruises, especially in this case. If you can take advantage of a transfer bonus to version, that's going to give you some more bang for your buck. So a decent option.
00:16:36:04 - 00:16:57:05
Katie
Another one that's actually not too bad is you can charge your cruise to a Capital One card like the Venture Venture Ex. If you'll remember, you'll you will earn two points per dollar, and then you can use your points to pay yourself back at $0.01 per point, just like you can with all travel solid value. It's not outsized, but it's simple and it's a solid value, and that's what a lot of people are looking for.
00:16:57:05 - 00:17:24:07
Katie
So that's a great option. Now when we get into some of the other portals and ways to use points, the news isn't quite as good. So like there's and I'm not going to go through all of them because there's a lot. But like example United Cruises, it's great that you can use miles or miles and money to book your cruise, but you're going to get 7/10 of a point per mile or 7/10 of a point per what?
00:17:24:09 - 00:17:25:01
Katie
I can't even.
00:17:25:02 - 00:17:26:01
Katie
Stop per.
00:17:26:03 - 00:17:27:17
Katie
Cent per point.
00:17:27:19 - 00:17:28:22
Katie
Yeah.
00:17:29:00 - 00:17:29:19
Katie
Oh my gosh.
00:17:29:22 - 00:17:30:07
Katie
Just.
00:17:30:09 - 00:17:31:18
Katie
A per point. Don't do it.
00:17:31:19 - 00:17:33:01
Katie
Don't do it.
00:17:33:03 - 00:17:52:00
Katie
When booking a cruise, annex travel is only going to give you that same 7/10 of a cent in value, which is not good. There's cruise with points by Marriott. You're going to get 4/10 of a cent per point when you're booking a cruise. And then I hate to say it, but this this one is.
00:17:52:00 - 00:17:53:07
Katie
Pretty bad.
00:17:53:09 - 00:18:16:16
Katie
Explore journeys through Hilton, which I was very excited about. It came out very this year at the beginning of the year. It's a great opportunity to earn points, and I love that you can use your points to book these cruises and you can use it has that nice points of money slider that you see on a lot of Hilton redemptions, so you can choose exactly how many points you want to use.
00:18:16:17 - 00:18:21:01
Katie
The bad news is that they're worth 2/10 of a cent.
00:18:21:01 - 00:18:23:02
Katie
Each, which is.
00:18:23:02 - 00:18:33:04
Katie
Rough even for Hilton points. So if you used 100,000 Hilton points, it would take a whopping $200 off your cruise fare.
00:18:33:08 - 00:18:34:23
Katie
And I'm.
00:18:35:00 - 00:18:36:22
Chris
Guessing those those explorer journeys.
00:18:36:22 - 00:18:37:09
Katie
Aren't cheap.
00:18:37:10 - 00:18:50:14
Katie
Oh yeah. Yeah, that's that's putting a tiny little peck into the price of those things. So and if you think about it, you can use 100,000 Hilton points for a hotel that costs double or triple that.
00:18:50:18 - 00:18:51:01
Katie
Yeah.
00:18:51:02 - 00:19:04:18
Katie
So, you know, it's just it's not I was really hoping it would be a little bit better than that. But you know, maybe if you have just a handful of points and you're already booking one of these, it is good to have the option.
00:19:04:19 - 00:19:06:06
Chris
Yeah, we love options.
00:19:06:09 - 00:19:36:08
Katie
Yeah, we love options. But I think the big takeaway here is that cruises can be a great opportunity to earn lots of points, because it's a big chunk of points where you can get some nice category bonuses and stack that with a shopping portal or, you know, a Chase offer or an Amex offer or something like that. But unless you are a die hard fan who has no interest in maximizing points and miles for booking flights and hotels, using points to book cruises is really generally not a great idea.
00:19:36:09 - 00:19:50:05
Katie
I you know, it's something there are probably a few people out there where it makes sense, but for the vast majority of people use cruises as an opportunity to earn a ton of points and then use those points for better value for flights and hotels.
00:19:50:10 - 00:20:13:18
Chris
Yep, I agree. All right, well, let's move on. We have one question here. This came in in response to episode 71, where Katie and I talked about what's in our wallets. And the question is from Jim. And he says, I'm curious why you didn't use the Wyndham Earner business card for eight X on gasoline and five X on utilities.
00:20:13:19 - 00:20:33:11
Chris
That card gives the best return on both of those categories, and it was only a $95 a year card. I'm grandfathered in, having had the card for many years. Just like to hear comments on that, since I'm sure you've had several of your cards for multiple years and wonder why you never had the win in business earnest card for those categories.
00:20:33:16 - 00:20:36:16
Chris
Katie, you tackle this first before I jump in.
00:20:36:17 - 00:20:56:00
Katie
Yeah, just so everyone is on the same page, the Wyndham Earner business card used to offer eight points per dollar on gas and five points per dollar on utilities. So it was it was one that a lot of people really liked. It has since changed. But for those who had the card before, whatever date it was, it changed.
00:20:56:01 - 00:21:22:13
Katie
They still have access to those categories. Now it only earns five X on gas and office supply stores. Nothing on utilities. So simply, I didn't mention it on that episode because it was about what's in our wallets and I don't have that card. I've never had it. I have almost zero interest in Wyndham Points. So while, you know, attacks on gas and five on utilities was very strong, I don't value those points much, so it wasn't worth it for me to get that card.
00:21:22:19 - 00:21:27:07
Katie
Chris, what about you? Do you have this card? Have you ever had it? Have you considered it?
00:21:27:08 - 00:21:52:03
Chris
No, I don't have. I did consider or I was thinking about it back when Wyndham had some really nice status matches into Vegas, and there was some really funky ways to to status match to a bunch of different programs that crossed my mind. But no, I'm the same as you. Wyndham just doesn't make a big part of my strategy right now, but that's kind of like a common theme about the episode or what was in our wallets.
00:21:52:04 - 00:22:12:05
Chris
We got some other questions like why we don't use the build card. I think built rewards are super valuable. I love their points, but Katie and I, Katie doesn't have a mortgage, I don't pay rent in Brazil and I couldn't even use my built card here to do that anyways. So having a built card in our in our wallet just just doesn't make sense.
00:22:12:07 - 00:22:35:22
Chris
So I mean, it's not necessarily the episode wasn't necessarily about what the best of every category was. It was just, you know, what we were using because that's what's in our wallet. But that's just another example of why you should focus on cards that reward your spending and not necessarily what you see online. And I know some people got upset at me for showing that I had the City Prestige card.
00:22:35:23 - 00:22:37:10
Chris
I'm sorry. That's what I.
00:22:37:10 - 00:22:38:23
Katie
Use my wallet.
00:22:39:00 - 00:22:40:07
Katie
It's all jealousy.
00:22:40:09 - 00:22:43:17
Katie
It's all jealousy.
00:22:43:19 - 00:22:44:15
Katie
Well, thank you so.
00:22:44:15 - 00:22:59:20
Katie
Much, Jim, for that question. We do appreciate it. If you have questions or comments for us that you would like to submit to, have your question or comment answered on air, you can reach us at podcast at Upgraded points. And that is going to do it for us this week. We will see you next week.
