First Cruise - Transaction Posting/Rewards?

[Anonymous]

Hey everybody.

I will be going on my first cruise soon, and had a few questions as to how the charge/charges, will post.

1) My understanding is that they will charge everything you do on the ship to your card on your "Cruise Profile". Do they charge these individually as you dspend? Or do they lump them throughout the week, and then charge one large lump-sum at the end? It does not affect me one way or the other, just curious what to expect afterwards.

2) Will they post as what they truly are, or will they all show as a travel expense? For instance, when buying food related items, will it code as food due to the merchant/type of product being purchased? Or will it bill as travel due to it being charged by the cruiseline?

This will help me decide which card to place on my "Profile" for the cruise.

Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous]

It’s billed all of the same way within about 48 hours (from my experience)of the cruise being over in one lump sum. I don’t remember what they code as, but they code all the same way. Travel I believe. Not individually like food travel gift shop etc.

[Anonymous]

We just got off a cruise at the end of Nov.  I attached my CSR to my onboard account and the balance owed was charged to the card approx 48 hrs after we disembarked. It coded as travel and I earned 3X UR points.

[Cred4All]

Coming from years of cruising, I've seen these hit my cards 1 of 2 ways. 

1.  A few years ago, every charge placed on my account each day was actually billed to the card on file and reflected as pending, which provided evidence to the cruise line there was still available credit.  The downside to this was that at the end of the cruise, those were not captured, but rather took days to expire because they ultimately put a large final charge on the card for the total due on disembarkation.

2.  I've also had it as explained already here where the card on file was only charged the single lump sum upon disembarkation and the card did not have a plethora of misc smaller charges...  this of course is the better of the two.

Have a good cruise . Out of curiosity what line and where are ya headed?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info.

I will go in and change it from my PenFed PCR to the AmEx Gold for the MRs, as I'd be expecting the charge(s) to all code as travel for the 4x MR. I initially put it as PenFed PCR as the safe bet as to cash back on miscellaneous, not knowing what it may charge as.

I will go see if I can change the card information. I don't see why it would "lock in", but again I just simply don't definitively know as this will be my first time. I'd assume they'd allow it to change prior to boarding, as I don't see a benefit in locking in the first-card-entered.

We are going on Carnival, and the ports will be Belize, Grand Caymen, and Cozumel.

[Cred4All]

You can definitely change the card at check-in no worries.  Have a good trip.

[Shadowfactor]

Amex Gold does NOT earn any kind of bonus multipler for travel expenses.

4X groceries and Restaurants
3X Airfare purchased directly from airline.

I’m not aware of a single Amex card that has a broad travel category. It’s either airfare or a particular hotel brand. That’s it.

I realize airfare is a type of travel and has a travel related MCC but Amex doesn’t offer a broad travel category like most banks

[Anonymous]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
Amex Gold does NOT earn any kind of bonus multipler for travel expenses.

4X groceries and Restaurants
3X Airfare purchased directly from airline.

I’m not aware of a single Amex card that has a broad travel category. It’s either airfare or a particular hotel brand. That’s it.

I realize airfare is a type of travel and has a travel related MCC but Amex doesn’t offer a broad travel category like most banks

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Thank you very much for the clarification. I totally fudged on that thought process. I can't even explain how/where I came up with that either. It was definitely a very absent-minded thought, as it was even "formulated", not just a quick mistake. Haha.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote: 

We are going on Carnival, and the ports will be Belize, Grand Caymen, and Cozumel.

Congrats, and have fun!

I took a cruise there this time last year, and it was really nice. Belize especially, and Cozumel. 

When I traveled, they put a Card on file with a hold for like $500 to my ship account that I could charge against. In the end they billed one charge to the CC, not individual charges.