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Unlike so many other parts of the travel world, such as airlines or hotels, cruise ship offers are much like negotiating for a new car. The price is always subject to change depending on the promotion, your status, if you are of a certain age, or how close to sailing you are, and on and on. But another part of this package puzzle is getting “free” cash to spend onboard, that is, nonrefundable cruise cash.
Before we get too deep into this post, there is one important thing to consider when it comes to jumping on a free onboard cash offer and that is the offer, while it may look good at first, may cost you more over all than not going for the offer. For example, if you have one offer that, say, gives you $200 onboard cash but you have another offer that has zero cash but, say, 10 or 20% off the cruise – clearly, you are better off passing up the credit offer. With this firmly in mind, let’s explore some of the many chances to get some credits.
The most obvious choice to get onboard credits is using some kind of online booking portal to accomplish your booking. If you have a or , you can use Amex Travel to book your cruise. Prices and public offers on the cruise sites should align, plus you get the Amex Offer on top of those deals. Unfortunately, simply holding the card does not give you these perks if you book outside Amex Travel.
One of the most popular sites readers comment about is Costco’s travel site. You must be a Costco member to access their cruise portal. Not only are their prices very competitive but also you can sometimes get onboard credits and a bonus Costco shopping card as a reward.
Many of the airlines have some kind of sweetened offer if you use their partners to book your cruise. Take, for example, Delta’s SkyMiles Vacations. You may be able to not just harvest onboard credits but also score a cabin upgrade as well as some frequent flyer points to help offset the burn in points you may have used to fly to the port city. Once again, it is up to you to do the leg, err finger work, online to compare every offer you can find.
Next up, and in this case I just chose Carnival because their latest free cruise offer sucked me back in to try them one more time, is looking for targeted offers from the cruise lines in your account. These are often even better than that main page published offer, that is, they will stack on top of those and give you a little bit more to book now.
The above is a shot of an upcoming cruise on NCL I have booked and I have $100 onboard credit waiting for me. I always get this due to the shareholder benefit I get from holding at least 100 shares of NCLH stock. A number of lines offer some kind of cash for being a holder of the parent company’s stock so take a look but keep in mind investing in any stock can mean more loss than the value of the credits gained (you have been warned)!
Another way to get cash is to bring lots of your best friends onboard with you, that is, doing a group booking. Either booking your group directly with a cruise line representative or having your travel against sweeten the pot by bringing lots of cabins into the equation. Even without a large group, sometimes, a travel agent can get you some cash onboard so that is worth considering as well.
Lastly, offers only available while onboard. Personally, I am not a fan of this. When onboard I am there to play, relax, and enjoy the adventure – spending time booking the next adventure is for when I am home and take the time to compare all of the above not just be locked in to what the cruise line is selling me.
To wrap up, I again want to focus on the fact that getting onboard credits are nice but should not be the driving goal of the booking. There are so many other factors to consider that can far outweigh the value of any onboard credits that should always be considered. For example, as a Caesars Diamond (matched from Wyhndam Diamond) I can get up to 20% off my NCL cruises booked via the casinos at sea department – that is normally way better than any onboard credit offer I have ever seen! – René
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Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Sort of not true on the amex travel portal only gets you the cruise privileges obc. Most TAs can do it (they don’t like it because they have to call and get it added). Just ask and most will say yes. Only caveat is all of your cruise must be put on your Amex platinum.