In case you’re desirous to embark on a cruise and have accrued factors or miles over time, you won’t should pay to your subsequent journey.
Learn on to discover methods to optimize your points and miles, leverage loyalty applications and unlock savings on your cruise fare to cut back the price of your cruise trip.
Listed below are the highest methods to make use of your factors and miles to guide a cruise.
Associated: A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
Do you have to guide a cruise with factors and miles?
Whereas numerous choices can be found for redeeming your factors and miles towards a cruise, it is very important word that the worth you obtain won’t all the time be optimum (i.e., lower than TPG’s monthly valuations). Within the realm of journey rewards, there are sometimes extra profitable alternatives to leverage your factors and miles for flights or lodge stays the place the worth and adaptability are typically increased.
In case you have American Express Membership Rewards factors, Capital One miles or Chase Ultimate Rewards factors, it’s possible you’ll obtain a redemption worth of 1 to 1.5 cents per level or mile for cruises. On this case, you’d get $100 or $150 off your cruise fare by redeeming 10,000 factors or miles. Whereas this might sound excessive, it falls brief in comparison with the worth some vacationers get when redeeming factors and miles for luxurious inns or business-class flights.
Some cruise traces provide their very own bank cards, whereas others have fashioned partnerships with established manufacturers. For instance, Marriott Bonvoy members can redeem points on Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises at 180,000 factors, leading to a $1,000 financial savings. Nevertheless, these associate choices are sometimes restricted and would possibly require loyalty to a selected journey model.
You possibly can all the time use factors or miles to cut back journey bills for any cruise trip. For instance, you need to use Amex Membership Rewards factors, Bilt Rewards Factors, Capital One miles, Chase Final Rewards factors, Citi ThankYou Rewards factors and Wells Fargo Rewards factors to cowl prices related to airfare, inns or rental automobiles to your cruise. This usually proves to be a greater use of your rewards.
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Nevertheless, if you wish to use your accrued factors or miles to cut back your cruise prices, under are numerous methods to guide a cruise with factors and miles.
Guide a cruise with bank card factors and miles
You should utilize sure bank card factors and miles to guide a cruise. Sometimes, you can be required to make the reservation by means of the portal offered by your bank card issuer; nevertheless, some issuers might require you to name a reserving middle. You may additionally have the ability to cost the cruise to your card after which redeem your rewards for a press release credit score towards some (or all) of that buy.
Right here’s how you can guide a cruise on factors and miles with a number of main bank card firms.
American Categorical Membership Rewards
In case you have an eligible American Express card that earns Membership Rewards factors, you need to use these factors to cowl the price of your cruise by means of the Pay with Points program. With this program, you possibly can redeem Membership Rewards factors at a price of 0.5 to 0.7 cents per level for many journey purchases.
Nevertheless, TPG values Membership Rewards factors at 2 cents every (per our January 2026 valuations) whenever you maximize the program’s transfer partners. So, you’d use them at a decrease worth when you use Pay with Factors.
The American Express Travel® portal has a user-friendly search characteristic that permits you to discover totally different cruises primarily based on particular filters reminiscent of date, vacation spot, cruise line and journey period, even earlier than you log in.
To guide a cruise utilizing Pay with Factors, log into the journey portal and do the next:
- Choose your most popular cruise itinerary and cabin.
- Enter your passenger data.
- When it’s time to take a look at, enter your Membership Rewards-enrolled American Categorical card data and choose “Sure” to find out what number of Membership Rewards factors your account has.
- Pay for the whole cruise utilizing Pay with Factors, or pay a portion of the fee with factors and the remainder with money.
Alternatively, you possibly can search for the cruise you need and name 800-297-5627 to guide instantly with the Amex Journey crew over the telephone.
Associated: The best credit cards for booking cruises
Chase Final Rewards
The Chase Travel℠ portal is just like Amex Journey, however the redemption worth could also be increased, relying on which card you earned the Final Rewards factors from:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) and Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (see rates and fees): For cardholders who utilized earlier than June 23, 2025, redeem for 1.5 cents on all non-Points-Boost Chase Journey purchases (on factors earned previous to Oct. 26, 2025, and redeemed till Oct. 26, 2027, then 1 cent thereafter). For cardholders who utilized on or after June 23, 2025, redeem for 1 cent apiece on all non-Factors-Enhance Chase Journey purchases.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (see rates and fees): For cardholders who utilized earlier than June 23, 2025, redeem for 1.25 cents on all non-Factors-Enhance Chase Journey purchases (on factors earned previous to Oct. 26, 2025, and redeemed till Oct. 26, 2027, then 1 cent apiece thereafter). For cardholders who utilized on or after June 23, 2025, redeem for 1 cent per level on all non-Factors-Enhance Chase Journey purchases.
Sadly, Chase’s reserving system doesn’t allow you to guide cruises by means of Chase’s on-line journey portal. You’ll must name the reserving hotline and communicate with somebody within the cruise reservations division as a substitute.
To guide a cruise and pay with Chase Final Rewards factors:
- Discover the cruise itinerary and availability you need by means of the cruise line’s website. In case you have a selected cabin in thoughts, be sure that data is useful. Sadly, reviews point out that you simply can’t guide Disney Cruise Line sailings with Chase Final Rewards factors.
- Name a Chase journey specialist instantly at 855-234-2542, and be ready to stroll the adviser by means of the cruise line reserving web page on their finish to allow them to discover and guide the cabin and choices you need. Cruise advisers can be found Monday by means of Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST and Saturday from 9 a.m. to five p.m. EST.
- Your cruise adviser will arrange the itinerary for you, and, upon checkout, they may ask you what number of factors you wish to apply towards your last steadiness.
Citi ThankYou Rewards
When you can’t redeem your Citi ThankYou Rewards factors by means of the Citi Journey portal to guide a cruise, you possibly can redeem your factors to buy present playing cards with choose cruise traces reminiscent of Carnival, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Virgin Experiences. Notice that redemption charges might range by model, however you could find as much as 1 cent per level for some present card redemptions, reminiscent of Carnival.
Capital One miles
Capital One presents extra flexibility and a extra easy redemption course of than Amex and Chase. Except you switch your miles to an airline or lodge associate, every mile is price a flat 1 cent towards journey.
Redeeming miles doesn’t require booking through a portal, which frees you as much as guide your cruise instantly with the corporate or through a journey agent to get further perks. This selection additionally permits you to pursue promotional bundle charges or reductions that will not be out there by means of the Amex or Chase portals.
The award redemption course of is simple: Use the cardboard when paying to your cruise bundle, then log into your account and choose the “Cowl your journey purchases” choice to use your mileage steadiness as a credit score towards the full quantity due in your bank card assertion.
You possibly can earn Capital One miles with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Every has various options, so perform a little research to resolve which card is finest for you.
Associated: Capital One Venture Rewards vs. Capital One Venture X: Worth the extra $300 in annual fees?
Guide a cruise with airline miles
It’s also possible to guide cruises utilizing some airline loyalty applications, reminiscent of United MileagePlus and American Airways AAdvantage. Nevertheless, you are solely prone to obtain round 0.7 cents per mile or 1 cent per mile, respectively, in worth this fashion — effectively under our valuation of those airline miles.
Use factors from cruise line cobranded bank cards to guide
With cruise line cobranded credit cards, you possibly can earn factors for purchases you could then use to offset the price of your cruise reserving. Nevertheless, this won’t be your only option for incomes and redeeming factors.
Right here, you’ll wish to ensure you need to use your factors towards the cruise fare as a substitute of just for onboard purchases. For instance, the Royal Caribbean Visa Signature® Credit Card presents a welcome bonus of 35,000 factors after you spend $1,500 or extra on purchases inside 90 days of opening your account. Your redemption decisions range.
As an illustration, you possibly can redeem 25,000 factors towards your companion’s cruise fare on a three- or four-night Royal Caribbean cruise, topic to sure situations (like, for instance, that the worth doesn’t exceed $500). Be taught extra about how you can redeem MyCruise rewards factors here.
The data for the Royal Caribbean Visa Signature card has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.
Redeem Marriott Bonvoy factors
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Assortment participates within the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program. Members can redeem factors on Ritz-Carlton cruises and luxuriate in elite status perks on voyages.
You possibly can redeem a minimum of 180,000 factors towards a flat $1,000 financial savings on the cruise fare. After that, you possibly can redeem increments of 90,000 factors towards $500 in financial savings, as much as the whole cruise fare. This redemption fee is roughly 0.56 cents per Marriott level, which is under TPG’s January 2026 valuation of 0.7 cents per level.
Associated: Best ways to earn Marriott Bonvoy points: From hotel stays and credit card spending to travel partners
Moreover, Marriott Bonvoy’s Cruise with Points program permits you to money in Marriott factors for credit score towards any cruise that’s bookable on the Cruise with Factors web site.
You possibly can redeem factors within the following denominations, all valued at 0.4 cents per level:
- 63,000 factors for $250 off your cruise fare
- 125,000 factors for $500 off
- 250,000 factors for $1,000 off
- 625,000 factors for $2,500 off
- 1,250,000 factors for $5,000 off
To redeem Marriott factors for a cruise, name 800-596-0452.
Redeem Hilton Honors factors
Hilton and Explora Journeys just unveiled a luxury ocean‑travel partnership with the launch of Hilton Honors Adventures. Vacationers must wait till summer time 2026 to start out incomes and redeeming their Hilton Honors factors on Explora journeys. However, efficient instantly and thru June 7, Hilton Honors loyalty program members get a restricted‑time preview of the partnership with a curated set of 16 Explora Journeys itineraries. These embrace as much as $400 in Journey Expertise Credit (and $200 on different voyages), an in‑suite welcome present and 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus factors per suite.
By summer time 2026, members will have the ability to earn and redeem Hilton factors on Explora Journeys throughout areas, from the Mediterranean to Alaska, though the redemption charges haven’t but been introduced.
Associated: Explora Journeys cruise ship review: Setting a new bar for luxury at sea
Backside line
It isn’t all the time simple to get nice worth to your factors and miles whenever you use them towards cruise redemptions — a minimum of, not the way in which you possibly can with premium cabin flights. Nevertheless, redeeming your factors and miles without spending a dime or discounted cruise journey is doable.
That mentioned, if you wish to redeem your rewards for max worth, it’s best to keep away from utilizing airline miles or lodge factors for cruises. These are higher used on flights and in a single day stays.
It’s the same story for bank card currencies. Capital One presents essentially the most flexibility of all the foremost issuers as a result of you possibly can book your cruise directly or through a travel agent. With a number of reserving choices, you possibly can reap the benefits of further perks and entry promotional charges from journey brokers and on-line retailers that aren’t out there by means of bank card portals. You can even stack these offers for extra financial savings by booking via an airline portal to earn miles.
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