Using CHASE UR points for a cruise ?

[Anonymous]

I have decided to app for a Chase Freedom and a CSP combo to get into travel rewards.

Of course we will only be spending what we already spend on everyday purchases such

as bills, gas and groceries.

We would like to see more return on our spending and I think that those two cards would

work good for us !

Myself and my wife dont travel very often, but would like to take more vacations

in the next year.

I would like to know if we can use the points for both airline flights and cruises ?

And which would be the smarter spend of points ?

Also, do the UR points expire ?

You guys have always been great with all of your support and wisdom   

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have decided to app for a Chase Freedom and a CSP combo to get into travel rewards.

Of course we will only be spending what we already spend on everyday purchases such

as bills, gas and groceries.

We would like to see more return on our spending and I think that those two cards would

work good for us !

Myself and my wife dont travel very often, but would like to take more vacations

in the next year.

I would like to know if we can use the points for both airline flights and cruises ?

And which would be the smarter spend of points ?

Also, do the UR points expire ?

You guys have always been great with all of your support and wisdom   

---

UR points don't expire. There is no way to transfer points directly to cruise lines but there are couple ways to do it though redemption rates aren't the greatest. 1) use the points to book cruises thru Chase travel portal at a value of 1.25 cpp (1.5 cpp if you have CSR).  2) buy Carnival gift cards at cpp or 3) transfer points to airline partner like United and book vacation package (no idea of redemption rate but probably fairly low).

Transferring points to their airline partners and redeeming the miles for flights, especially business or first class on international flights, will always give you the best redemption rate.  Actual value will vary by flight, class, carrier, etc.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have decided to app for a Chase Freedom and a CSP combo to get into travel rewards.

Of course we will only be spending what we already spend on everyday purchases such

as bills, gas and groceries.

We would like to see more return on our spending and I think that those two cards would

work good for us !

Myself and my wife dont travel very often, but would like to take more vacations

in the next year.

I would like to know if we can use the points for both airline flights and cruises ?

And which would be the smarter spend of points ?

Also, do the UR points expire ?

You guys have always been great with all of your support and wisdom   

---

UR points don't expire. There is no way to transfer points directly to cruise lines but there are couple ways to do it though redemption rates aren't the greatest. 1) use the points to book cruises thru Chase travel portal at a value of 1.25 cpp (1.5 cpp if you have CSR).  2) buy Carnival gift cards at cpp or 3) transfer points to airline partner like United and book vacation package (no idea of redemption rate but probably fairly low).

Transferring points to their airline partners and redeeming the miles for flights, especially business or first class on international flights, will always give you the best redemption rate.  Actual value will vary by flight, class, carrier, etc.

Hope this helps.

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Thank you for the information.

I truly appreciate your help !

[Anonymous]

Agreed with the above post -- at 1.25x point value, it's not a great deal, but if you're earning 1.5-5 points per dollar, I guess it isn't horrible.  That's 1.875 on the FU and 6.25 on the Freedom if booked through the portal.

The problem I have with that is that you can regularly get 10% back on many cruises through common mega travel agents online along with many "cash back" affiliate rewards website programs.  I book a lot of cruises every year and regularly get 10% back post-cruise through these affiliate programs -- which is way better than any Chase deal.

Maybe use the Chase deal for airfare to the cruise port and a hotel stay the night before the cruise?

[-Cal-]

Good thread, I'd love to see some tips on more sophisticated ways of cruise redemptions. 

I don't know what your situation is, but the best strategy I could figure out was what I call a form of brute forcing my UR redemption. I basically just banked a ton of UR via signup bonuses and spending, then redeemed it via Chase for a 7-day cruise a few years back. I'm preparing to do this with a good chunk of MR next year.

[jamesdwi]

I found that using  Chase UR points for a cruise and related travel had challenges to say the least,  Their website says to call them to book a cruise,  Since I didn't walk to talk to anyone as I planned my upcoming cruise, I decided against calling them.

The next hassle was, that there car rental program has limits as well, seem pretty much just limited to pickup and drop off at the same location. Since the ideal situation if you are going on a cruise would be to pick-up the car at the airport,  do any pre-cruise errands and stay over night in a hotel, etc and then drop off the car near the port where the cruise begins.  Then rent another car for transportation back to the air port.  In the end I decided  to just use the airport shuttle to my hotel and then found a ground transport company for the trip to the ship, and another ride back to the airport grond transport from Orlando to Port Canaveral was $20 each way per person.  

For my cruise the only usage of points were for hotel room and my flight.