Question on RC Visa points?

[irish2005]

My boyfriend and I will be going on Oasis in February. We both applies for a RC Visa and were told we would get 10,000 points after our first purchase. We plan to put our cruise on the Visa card. My question is Can we apply my points as well as his points onto one sea pass card? We would like to use them just as obc for our drinks and such. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[bibbysnow]

Several weeks before your cruise you will have to call the credit card company to redeem your points. Once you get the voucher you have to mail it off with your reservation number to have those shipboard credits applies to your cruise.

[foxgoodrich]

Hi Irish,

Since we've used the royal points for OBC several times, I'll try to answer your question! First, each of you can use your points for OBC. As to how they are applied to the sea passes, that will depend on how you handle your onboard account. Will you have one account for the cabin? Or are you wanting each sea pass to have it's own account?

 

If you are each setting up your own account, then your OBC will apply to your account and his will apply to his account. If you are combining, both OBC's will apply to your "joint" account. But even if the OBCs are separated, you will have no trouble using them. You can take turns buying the drinks on your individual sea passes. Once you are on board, you might be able to request that one of your OBC's be moved to the other Sea Pass account, but I'm not sure of that. You would need to go to Guest Services after you board to see if that can be done.

 

One thing to be aware of...the OBC usually doesn't show up until the 2nd or 3rd day of your cruise, so don't panic when it's not there the first day. Check with Guest Services on Day 3 and they should be there.

 

Also, you will have to jump through a few hoops BEFORE your cruise to use your points. Your VISA statement will show the number of Royal Points you have each month. When you have more than 5,000 points showing up on your statement, you can call to request a "coupon" for the number of points you want to use. (5000 will get you $50 OBC, 10,000 will get you $100, etc.) You will have to fill out the the coupons to show that you want OBC, fill in your cruise reservation info, and then send them back to RCCL. ALLOW ENOUGH TIME FOR THIS! It can take 2-3 weeks to get the coupon after you call, and then you have to allow time to mail it back and have it processed. So call them about 6 weeks (or more) ahead of time to be sure you have enough time to get the credit applied.

 

Here's a link to the RC page that shows what you can get with your points:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/dealsandmore/offer/visa.do;jsessionid=0000WwOcpG21blenw_W-eux1BO3:13hldcill?cS=NAVBAR

 

Just click on the "Follow these simple steps" link on this page for the instructions on how to get the coupons.

 

Use the credit cards NOW so you'll have enough points posted by the time you need to get the coupons. I've heard that sometimes it takes 2 billing cycles to get the whole 10,000 point bonus posted to the statements. We've had our card so long that I don't remember if that was the case for us. One other bit of advice - keep copies! Make a copy of your coupons before you mail them back. And I always call before the cruise to be sure the coupon has been received and will be posted properly.

 

Good luck and enjoy your OBCs!

Judy

[wheatenbrat]

Just to be clear, can you use the card to pay for the rest of the trip and earn points for that? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth going through the trouble of opening one. I probably should have done it before booking so that the deposit could have been put on it!

[foxgoodrich]

Yes, you can put your Royal Caribbean charges on the card and you will earn double points for anything RC. That would include the balance of the cruise, any excursions you order and prepay using the card, wine package, etc. We use it for deposits, cruise balances, and also use ours for the onboard account and get double points for all of that. Non RC charges are just one point per dollar spent.

 

The interest rate on the card is not the best, so we pay ours off every month, but if you use it a lot, it's surprising how fast the points add up.

 

(For example....we recently had a major expense for a new roof and planned to pay for it from a savings account and home equity loan. Decided to put it on the RC Visa instead and got the points, then paid the Visa bill with the other funding sources. It was an easy way to get 12,000 points!)

Judy

[wheatenbrat]

Thank you so much for the quick response! Sounds like it's worth it to me!

[suezyq50]

We use ours all the time, utility bills, doctor bills, gas, groceries. Very rarely do we use cash. We pay it off each month and never carry a balance.

[irish2005]

Thank you soooo much for the detailed answer you gave me. I really appreciate it. Irish

[foxgoodrich]

You're welcome, Wheatenbrat & Irish - go for it. My theory is get and use all the points you can. We're cruising at the end of August (cheapie 4 nighter on the Monarch) with a $100 OBC from the Visa royal points. Our last cruise was in Feb and we managed $250 in OBC for that one with royal points.

 

I'm kind of jazzed about the August cruise because we got flights with AA frequent flyer points (cost us $10 each for a processing fee) and our hotel in Florida the night before we cruise is gratis due to Hilton points. Now that makes a low cruise fare REALLY a great little cheap vacation option.

 

The trick to this is to be disciplined enough not to leave balances on high interest cards. Get the points, but pay the balance. We use the RC Visa kind of like the old AmEx card where you had to pay the balance each month. I even put gas and groceries on it. We have only used our points for OBCs - helps with the bar bill and gratuities!

Judy

[foxgoodrich]

I forgot to tell you that you can combine coupons. The OBC denominations listed when you look at the link are $50, $150, $250, and $500. You can combine them.

 

For example, if you have over 20,000 royal points and want $200 OBC, you can get a coupon for a $150 OBC plus another one for a $50 OBC. If you have 35,000 points and want $350 OBC, you would get a $250 and two $50s.

Judy