New carnival fun points redemption calculator!

[extreme]

You can book with anyone as long as you charge it to your Carnival Mastercard. When your bill comes in the mail you can redeem your points and the amount will come off your balance. It may take a few days for processing......only 1 for me though.

ok so just so im very clear on this if i book a cruise for $1537.00 that will make me use 153700 in points? :confused: o wait a minute i just checked the website and it says for a cruise that cost $1537.00 i would only need 92036 points. is this right? and since thats 2 people in a room would i have to double the 92036 points to 184072 points?

[debster818]

ok so just so im very clear on this if i book a cruise for $1537.00 that will make me use 153700 in points? :confused: o wait a minute i just checked the website and it says for a cruise that cost $1537.00 i would only need 92036 points. is this right? and since thats 2 people in a room would i have to double the 92036 points to 184072 points?

 

Now I am confused.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

ok so just so im very clear on this if i book a cruise for $1537.00 that will make me use 153700 in points? :confused: o wait a minute i just checked the website and it says for a cruise that cost $1537.00 i would only need 92036 points. is this right? and since thats 2 people in a room would i have to double the 92036 points to 184072 points?

No the points are for what you charge on your Barclay mastercard. So if you found a deal thru travel agent xyz and it cost $1537.00 for two of you...you would be charged only 92036 points total...if you found that same cruise thru Carnival's website for $1537.00 you would still only have to redeem 92036 points for the cruise..you get a much better "rate of return"..ie points charged for a Carnival cruise but you can choose their sister lines as well...charge shows on your bill...I look online...then you just click the redeem points now button and it's taken off...if you charge at the beginning of your billing cycle then you can redeem right away (prior to the statement ending) and you see it on and off the same billing cycle..thus virtually no out of pocket expensse :D..worked smoothly for me to the tune of $1900..have fun spending those points

[StevieG]

I'm gunning for a $200 OBC for my cruise, which is an acceptable rate of return in my opinion. 20,000 points for $200 or 2% rate of return on your investment.

 

I'm with you, I had 60,000 points left over from the old seamiles card and I will convert it to $600 OBC. That couple with my other credits will cover most of my onboard epxennses.

[extreme]

No the points are for what you charge on your Barclay mastercard. So if you found a deal thru travel agent xyz and it cost $1537.00 for two of you...you would be charged only 92036 points total...if you found that same cruise thru Carnival's website for $1537.00 you would still only have to redeem 92036 points for the cruise..you get a much better "rate of return"..ie points charged for a Carnival cruise but you can choose their sister lines as well...charge shows on your bill...I look online...then you just click the redeem points now button and it's taken off...if you charge at the beginning of your billing cycle then you can redeem right away (prior to the statement ending) and you see it on and off the same billing cycle..thus virtually no out of pocket expensse :D..worked smoothly for me to the tune of $1900..have fun spending those points

ahh thank you ,thats the answer i was looking for! :D. time to book my "almost free" vacation lol

[willyguy]

Can anybody help me out I look at thecweb site but can see point total I have 55000 point how much do I get off a cruise? Thank you.

[vacruizer]

Can anybody help me out I look at thecweb site but can see point total I have 55000 point how much do I get off a cruise? Thank you.

 

Go to the redeem points section of the website. There is a calculator you can play with - plug in various $$ amounts and see what you get for points. I know it took 28,000 points for me to take $350 off a few weeks ago.

[scottcruises]

Go to the redeem points section of the website. There is a calculator you can play with - plug in various $$ amounts and see what you get for points. I know it took 28,000 points for me to take $350 off a few weeks ago.

 

I wanted to respond to this because people need to be warned the calculator is woefully misleading. You cannot rely on it for a redemption value and in the end if there is a problem you will get nothing but the runaround from Carnival and Barclays.

 

We just got hosed using the calculator and trusting that in 2011 the worlds second largest bank was capable of running a simple program. DO NOT RELY on it. If you go to the calculator today it will tell you 120-130k points is worth $1800-$1900 dollars but after you book your non-refundable cruise and after that non-refundable cruise hits your credit card bill you will find out the points are worth 50% of what Carnival/Barclay's quotes and at that point you are totally stuck.

 

Our 125,000 points converted to about $1200, not the $1800+ the calculator indicated. If you were using 300-400k points to book a cruise and the calculator is off by as much you may be spending thousands more. And trust me when I tell you, in two days of calling and emailing nobody cares at Carnival.

 

This seems like a simple thing. This should not have been difficult to get corrected but there is no economic incentive to do so. Carnival benefits because people book cruises, or book more expensive rooms on cruises thinking they are going to get a credit that doesn't come. Barclays' benefits because they make the money on the merchant fees for all of us thinking we're going to get xxxx dollars for a cruise and in the end they give half of what we are told to expect based on their calculator. In the end they both win and the customer loses.

[cruise_pirate]

Is there some kind of time frame you need to wait on to earn the points?

 

Lets say I use my card to buy 50 dollars in fuel, do I have to wait X number of days before I pay the 50 dollars back online? or could I do it hours after I purchase it and get the points??:confused:

 

Thanks!

[scottcruises]

Is there some kind of time frame you need to wait on to earn the points?

 

Lets say I use my card to buy 50 dollars in fuel, do I have to wait X number of days before I pay the 50 dollars back online? or could I do it hours after I purchase it and get the points??:confused:

 

Thanks!

 

When we booked the cruise the 11,000 points (2 points per dollar) showed up as soon as the transaction went from temporary to authorized...about 2 days. Typically it seems the points accrue immediately upon posting to the online activity. Very quick as most wait until the statement turns over or longer.

 

Like I said though, there is absoultely no way of knowing what the points are worth. Don't get caught relying on it or expecting it. Heck I thought by law card companies weren't allowed to do this nowadays, everything has to be in the agreement and spelled out clearly for the end user.

[Snowball]

Can anybody help me out I look at thecweb site but can see point total I have 55000 point how much do I get off a cruise? Thank you.

It is a straight 1% of however many points you have, so for 55000 points you will be able to get a $550 credit.

[scottcruises]

It is a straight 1% of however many points you have, so for 55000 points you will be able to get a $550 credit.

 

I believe at the higher point values it jumps to 1.5% based on everything the reps and the calculator indicates. The threshold where that happens is a mystery to everyone apparently.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

You get a better return if you use the points towards the cruise. I didn't have enough for a full cruise, but it was very easy to do. I booked like usual and put the charge on the card. Two days later I went in and redeemed by points for a $350 credit towards my bill. Two days later, the credit showed and I owed $350 less on the credit card statement. The same points were only going to get me $250 in OBC.

That is a good deal...

[scottcruises]

It is a straight 1% of however many points you have, so for 55000 points you will be able to get a $550 credit.

 

At the higher values that's not correct. The break point is somewhere around 125,000 points where the calculator does some magical changes and reverts to higher dollars per points for about a 10,000 point range. The normal percentage after that is higher, as you can see from the calculator. However as we found out it isn't always the case. Some say they get the higher rate, others like us don't.

 

What makes it tough is the calculator on everyones secure banking page...isn't accurate at all.

 

[vacruizer]

I've never seen the deal again that I got 18 months ago. Since then, it's been a straight 1,000 for every 100 points. I must have redeemed during a special promotion or something. Last time I used them, 25,000 was worth $250 in statement credit.

[geckog]

I wanted to respond to this because people need to be warned the calculator is woefully misleading. You cannot rely on it for a redemption value and in the end if there is a problem you will get nothing but the runaround from Carnival and Barclays.

 

We just got hosed using the calculator and trusting that in 2011 the worlds second largest bank was capable of running a simple program. DO NOT RELY on it. If you go to the calculator today it will tell you 120-130k points is worth $1800-$1900 dollars but after you book your non-refundable cruise and after that non-refundable cruise hits your credit card bill you will find out the points are worth 50% of what Carnival/Barclay's quotes and at that point you are totally stuck.

 

Our 125,000 points converted to about $1200, not the $1800+ the calculator indicated. If you were using 300-400k points to book a cruise and the calculator is off by as much you may be spending thousands more. And trust me when I tell you, in two days of calling and emailing nobody cares at Carnival.

 

This seems like a simple thing. This should not have been difficult to get corrected but there is no economic incentive to do so. Carnival benefits because people book cruises, or book more expensive rooms on cruises thinking they are going to get a credit that doesn't come. Barclays' benefits because they make the money on the merchant fees for all of us thinking we're going to get xxxx dollars for a cruise and in the end they give half of what we are told to expect based on their calculator. In the end they both win and the customer loses.

 

Just curious, were you paying for the entire cruise with points, or was it a partial credit? I have noticed that the calculator is accurate only if you are applying points to a full purchase, but if you are only paying say half of the cruise with points, it is basically 5000 points = $50 no matter how many points you are redeeming. I always make sure to divide payments up so that I can apply at the full purchase rate if I am paying more than $1251.00. The site could do a better job of explaining that.

 

If you did try to pay for your entire cruise with points and were only able to use the lower redemption rate, then I would be ticked too.

[scottcruises]

Just curious, were you paying for the entire cruise with points, or was it a partial credit? I have noticed that the calculator is accurate only if you are applying points to a full purchase, but if you are only paying say half of the cruise with points, it is basically 5000 points = $50 no matter how many points you are redeeming. I always make sure to divide payments up so that I can apply at the full purchase rate if I am paying more than $1251.00. The site could do a better job of explaining that.

 

If you did try to pay for your entire cruise with points and were only able to use the lower redemption rate, then I would be ticked too.

 

We'd called a couple of times randomly over the last month to get clarification on how points were allocated towards full or partial cruise payments. We were told repeatedly it did not matter, it was on a dollar amount and as long as we were going over $1250 dollars for the cruise it wouldn't matter. Nowhere in the "Terms and Conditions" or "terms of use" on the Carnival Funpoints site or in any of the documentation that I have does it state partial redemptions are worth less money. In this case 50% less.

 

Again this goes back to not telling people what is going on until AFTER they are already locked into a cruise they cannot cancel and AFTER it appears on a bill. It'd be like buying a refrigerator at Sears for a "discount" but not knowing what the discount was until after they delivered it, you put all your food in it, and it was paid for. If you don't like the discount you're stuck.

 

In this particular instance we picked a top of the line cruise figuring on a partial credit. We would certainly have just gone with a cruise in the neighborhood of 2 to 2500 dollars based on having enough points to fully pay for it....but again even that is not a given. Nobody at Carnival or Funpoints could tell me today whether or not any given cruise is redeemed at a set rate. It's all a mystery until after you've paid for it.

 

The calculator should come with a disclaimer that it's for kicks and giggles only. It may not be accurate.

 

I don't want to get into too many details but I also wonder if it's because of the $ value of this cruise being so high, beats me.

[geckog]

Keep bugging them. You might be able to get them to honor the redemption on the site. If you think you are losing something in the translation with the call center, keep escalating. I did that on a completely different matter that I couldn't seem to get anyone at the call center to understand, and I was eventually put through to an American who was able to solve my problem.

 

Good luck! And enjoy your cruise. :)

[scottcruises]

Keep bugging them. You might be able to get them to honor the redemption on the site. If you think you are losing something in the translation with the call center, keep escalating. I did that on a completely different matter that I couldn't seem to get anyone at the call center to understand, and I was eventually put through to an American who was able to solve my problem.

 

Good luck! And enjoy your cruise. :)

 

We're trying but obviously their plan is to exhaust people. Probably the last cruise we'll ever take with Carnival. I've even thought about contacting one of the big consumer reports here that I'm sure would run a story on it during sweeps week but that sounds like something that should be done after we get off the boat :)

 

This isn't us trying to get something for nothing, we acted in good faith. Have been in contact with someone from Carnival corporate via email who asked for the calculator screen grabs...but nothing back yet.

[kjls131]

I'm gunning for a $200 OBC for my cruise, which is an acceptable rate of return in my opinion. 20,000 points for $200 or 2% rate of return on your investment.

can obc be used to buy drinks at the bar?

[boatnick]

Scottcruises,

Wondering if you got any action from carnival or barclays, I'm goung through the same thing now except I can still cancel the cruise I booked last week. I got the runaround about the incorrect calculator, both barklay and carnival say it's the others web site and not correct.

I say take it off line or get sued for false advertising! Class action anyone?

Never happen.

I have 98,800 points = 980 dollars, it should be 1650 according to carnival calculator. Oh and the other thing is the points are only good for 5 years from the time the card is used for purchases.

Would be better off with an airline card and then shop for cruise deal and pay with that card.

John.

[debster818]

Scottcruises,

Wondering if you got any action from carnival or barclays, I'm goung through the same thing now except I can still cancel the cruise I booked last week. I got the runaround about the incorrect calculator, both barklay and carnival say it's the others web site and not correct.

I say take it off line or get sued for false advertising! Class action anyone?

Never happen.

I have 98,800 points = 980 dollars, it should be 1650 according to carnival calculator. Oh and the other thing is the points are only good for 5 years from the time the card is used for purchases.

Would be better off with an airline card and then shop for cruise deal and pay with that card.

John.

Are you saying that the calculator said it is $1650 and barclay says $980? I am confused?

[spiritfox]

I think the calculator is flawed. Seems there are some dollar amounts that show an incorrect redemption value. Should probably say it is only an estimate. Seems the only way to get a realistic value it to look at your transaction and see how many points are required to cover the cost.

 

From the Barclay Calculator:

 

$900=90,000 points

$1000=100,000 points

$1100=110,000 points

$1200=120,000 points

$1300=86,667 points

$1400=93,333 points

$1500=100,000 points

$2000=133,000 points

$2500=166,667 points

 

So I guess you can call me confused as well. Is it 100,000 points for $1000 or 100,000 for $1500--my guess is 100,000 points for $1000 but I'm clueless. :confused:

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I think the Cosco card is much better

[debster818]

That baraclay thing makes no sense.