Who has used 100,00 Barclays Carnival Credit Card Fun Points for $1,500 statement credit?

[Linsuesue]

Is it just me, or is the Barclay’s Carnival Fun Points site the least user friendly ever? I am trying to redeem the 100,000 Fun Points I have for the maximum value of a $1,500 statement credit. I have 4 different Carnival cruises booked, and only one of those is paid off. I am presuming, dangerous I know, that I can use that statement credit for any of the remaining 3 cruises that I have booked. Do I need to pay off $1,500, using the Carnival card, on one of my cruises to turn around and redeem points for that one transaction to show up up as a statement credit? The “experts” at Barclays kept me on hold for a couple of hours to then transfer the call to Carnival. Of course, Carnival said that they weren’t in charge of points so this was a Barclays issue.  The next phone call to Barclays Travel Department was a waste of time, because that department only does hotels, flights, and car rentals. “John” and “ Josh” , and their supervisor from Barclay’s Specialist’s Department today told me I would just have to redeem separate transactions to get to 100,000 cruise points- doing that would give me $1,000 off for 100,000 points. The “experts” were only able to read off scripted pages and couldn’t do the math. This exemplifies why many cruisers do not bother with a credit card with such specific criteria for redemption!  I would appreciate any input from anyone who got the $1,500 statement credit with 100,000 Fun Points. Thanks!

[cruisingguy007]

I think they set it up so that you need to pay first, most do anyway. It's usually some jargon about how/when it will be available in the fine print. You should refer to your contract for specifics. Funny this came up, I was just considering an IHG Premier to snag a bunch of points too. It's my least favorite bank but the 150K bonus perk is pretty sweet. 

[Saint Greg]

You charge it first then use the statement credit to pay it off. I was careful to make sure I had a $1,500 charge to use it on. I’ve done it once and I have another ready to redeem after I use my FCCs.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Saint Greg

[BlerkOne]

I've done it before but don't wait that long these days. If you have a $1500 Carnival charge on your account, you get a 1.5 multiplier for whatever points you have. 50,000 points become a $750 statement credit against that charge, if you choose 

[Wanna_Cruize]

I've done it before and am getting ready to do it again. You just need to have a specific Carnival charge high enough to apply it to; not just the general balance. So if you don't have a specific 1500 charge that you can apply it to, wait until you do, and then do it. 

 

Also, if you have more that 100,000 points, and have any specific Carnival transcations higher than 1500 to apply it to, you can redeem higher amounts and still get the 1.5 point conversion. 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Wanna_Cruize

[Linsuesue]

Thanks to all of you for the prompt replies! Having never redeemed these points before, I wanted to get it right and not screw myself out of the maximum benefit. Good luck to all of you in your accrual of points!

[Lee Cruiser]

I did the $1,500 once and like the others said, you have to charge the amount on your card first.  But, after I examined all my expenditures I realized that my Citi card provided much better rewards at 2% cash back on everything. I don't have to wait until I've built up 100,000 points to redeem and it's direct cash back that can be used for anything. That $1,500 would be $2,000 with the Citi. The main thing I use the Carnival card for now is the 10% refund on shore excursions. 

[KKB]

9 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

I think they set it up so that you need to pay first, most do anyway. It's usually some jargon about how/when it will be available in the fine print. You should refer to your contract for specifics. Funny this came up, I was just considering an IHG Premier to snag a bunch of points too. It's my least favorite bank but the 150K bonus perk is pretty sweet. 

Plus you get a free room every year. We used it at the NYC Times Square Intercontinental before our Anthem cruise. I have both IHG cards.

[PittsburghGirlee]

I always have to call for the statement as I can NEVER find the place on Barclay website to apply it.  Any direction on this would be appreciated.

 

Arrrggg,  After my Aug, Mardi Gras cruise, I will be using another cc for better perks as others have stated and only use my Carnival MC for everything Carnival.

[Linsuesue]

5 hours ago, Lee Cruiser said:

I did the $1,500 once and like the others said, you have to charge the amount on your card first.  But, after I examined all my expenditures I realized that my Citi card provided much better rewards at 2% cash back on everything. I don't have to wait until I've built up 100,000 points to redeem and it's direct cash back that can be used for anything. That $1,500 would be $2,000 with the Citi. The main thing I use the Carnival card for now is the 10% refund on shore excursions. 

Does the Citi card have a yearly fee?

[Lee Cruiser]

2 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

Does the Citi card have a yearly fee?

No

[Saint Greg]

15 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

Thanks to all of you for the prompt replies! Having never redeemed these points before, I wanted to get it right and not screw myself out of the maximum benefit. Good luck to all of you in your accrual of points!

 

Just make sure you have a 1,500+ charge. If it's 1,499 you wont get the 1.5% redemption rate. If you need to you can add gratuities to put you over the top.

[Saint Greg]

8 hours ago, Lee Cruiser said:

I did the $1,500 once and like the others said, you have to charge the amount on your card first.  But, after I examined all my expenditures I realized that my Citi card provided much better rewards at 2% cash back on everything. I don't have to wait until I've built up 100,000 points to redeem and it's direct cash back that can be used for anything. That $1,500 would be $2,000 with the Citi. The main thing I use the Carnival card for now is the 10% refund on shore excursions. 

 

Citi double cash is what I use now. But I do have another 100k points on the Carnival card waiting to be redeemed. Once I got back up to 100k I switched to Citi. I'll still use the carnival card for 10% off excursions though.

[ninjacat123]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Citi double cash is what I use now. But I do have another 100k points on the Carnival card waiting to be redeemed. Once I got back up to 100k I switched to Citi. I'll still use the carnival card for 10% off excursions though.

Does the Carnival card take 10% off of Cheers?

[Saint Greg]

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Does the Carnival card take 10% off of Cheers?

 

No. You do get 2 points for every dollar spent onboard. I've opted for buying the 10% discounted carnival gift cards and using those to pay for cheers and other onboard expenses.

[ninjacat123]

17 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

No. You do get 2 points for every dollar spent onboard. I've opted for buying the 10% discounted carnival gift cards and using those to pay for cheers and other onboard expenses.

Are there any discounted Carnival gift cards available to buy currently?  Besides AAA, are there other places to look?  

[Joe817]

1 minute ago, ninjacat123 said:

Are there any discounted Carnival gift cards available to buy currently?  Besides AAA, are there other places to look?  

Here in my area, Kroger, sometimes Home Depot, and Walgreens has them. But Kroger is my go to place to get gift cards. But they don't offer the 10% discount like AARP or, my favorite, Allstate Drive Wise cards. And you don't have to be an Allstate customer to buy them. 

[BlerkOne]

8 hours ago, Lee Cruiser said:

I did the $1,500 once and like the others said, you have to charge the amount on your card first.  But, after I examined all my expenditures I realized that my Citi card provided much better rewards at 2% cash back on everything. I don't have to wait until I've built up 100,000 points to redeem and it's direct cash back that can be used for anything. That $1,500 would be $2,000 with the Citi. The main thing I use the Carnival card for now is the 10% refund on shore excursions. 

I'm not so sure - with the Carnival card you get double points for Carnival purchases and then can get a 1.5 multiplier when redeemed against a $1500 charge. Plus you don't have to wait until you have 100,000 points.

[cruisingguy007]

5 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Are there any discounted Carnival gift cards available to buy currently?  Besides AAA, are there other places to look?  

 

Look at the Allstate thread. Sign up and then go back through the last 6 pages or so and load those codes at the top. Should be good for like 26K points. You can buy gift cards for 12% off. I don't even use app on my phone or anything. Just sign in on chromebook and put codes in every so often.  

Edited July 2, 2021 by cruisingguy007

[ninjacat123]

21 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Here in my area, Kroger, sometimes Home Depot, and Walgreens has them. But Kroger is my go to place to get gift cards. But they don't offer the 10% discount like AARP or, my favorite, Allstate Drive Wise cards. And you don't have to be an Allstate customer to buy them. 

Thx!! I got $1000 for $900 through Allstate 😃

 

[ninjacat123]

21 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Look at the Allstate thread. Sign up and then go back through the last 6 pages or so and load those codes at the top. Should be good for like 26K points. You can buy gift cards for 12% off. I don't even use app on my phone or anything. Just sign in on chromebook and put codes in every so often.  

Thx!! I got $1000 for $900 at Allstate.  Yay!!

[Joe817]

11 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Thx!! I got $1000 for $900 through Allstate 😃

 

That's how we paid for our entire cruise, except for our down payment. Using those cards. Good job! 👍

[ninjacat123]

30 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

That's how we paid for our entire cruise, except for our down payment. Using those cards. Good job! 👍

So if I owe $232 on a cruise, can I pay it off using my discounted  $500 Carnival gift card and have the remaining $268 on the card?

[Joe817]

21 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

So if I owe $232 on a cruise, can I pay it off using my discounted  $500 Carnival gift card and have the remaining $268 on the card?

Absolutely! Just write down the unused balance on the card, so you can keep track of it. 👍

 

Edit to add: We use a TA and we have to go thru them and have them apply the gift card to the balance. 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Joe817

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Are there any discounted Carnival gift cards available to buy currently?  Besides AAA, are there other places to look?  

 

Allstate is what I use and they are available. They have been up to a 12% discount for over a year but I think I read they just recently went back down to 10%. You don't have to be an all-state customer to purchase them. some people buy them at kroger and get fuel points. I'm not sure how all of that works so I've never messed with it.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Saint Greg