NCL Mastercard FAQ

[Preds]

Ok - All kinds of ?'s I'm hoping someone can help with. BOA states that miles will expire after 3 years & that you must use certs within a year after receiving them. Does this actually give you 4 years?

Depending on when you request the certificates, you could potentially have up to 4 years to sail from when the 1st points were earned. That said it's unlikely you'd have a full 4 years.

 

Basically, it's as you think, you have 3 years to redeem the points before they start expiring. Once you redeem them into certificate form, you have one year to SAIL (not to book). It's also my understanding that you must complete the sailing prior to the expiration of the certificate.

 

Do the certs need to be redeemed within a year, or must you sail within a year. I have some poisnt that will expire this year, but we're not planning on cruising until fall 2009.

Answered above. You must complete your sailing within one year from the date the certificates are issued.

 

Being that I can book more than a year out, if I request 1 or 2 $500 certs will BOA/NCL use the oldest points (closest to expiration) first and use as a partial payment at time of booking?

I do believe they will go oldest to newest, though I've never had it happen personally. Basically look at your points as a 36 month rolling window. As you hit month 37, points earned in month 1 expire.

[Planer's Edge]

 

Basically, it's as you think, you have 3 years to redeem the points before they start expiring. Once you redeem them into certificate form, you have one year to SAIL (not to book). It's also my understanding that you must complete the sailing prior to the expiration of the certificate.

 

 

This is correct, your cruise must be completed before the expiration date on the certificates.

 

PE

[Warbird]

I had one of those $250 deposit certificates I purchased on our cruise last year and when I booked online it would not accept that as my deposit so I had to pay my deposit and have the $250 applied to the balance.

 

I'm going to jump in here because I have something similar. I purchased a cruise with an online TA about six weeks ago for the NCL Spirit sailing 03-30-08. I noted that I had the $250 deposit certificate and three $500.00 certificates from NCL Bank of America. I had to pay the cruise in full with my NCL card.

 

I then contacted NCL B of A to have my certificates mailed to me and I in turn sent them to NCL with Return Receipt. After getting the green card from the Post Office I contacted the Online TA asking them to contact NCL and have my monies credited back to me. The cost of the cruise was $1800.00 or so.

 

NCL credited me $1440.00 and $71.00. I then contacted my TA again and asked to inquire about the status of my credits. The TA got back to me and stated it will take about 4 to 6 weeks for the trace to happen.

 

I figure once I go on the cruise neither the TA and NCL are going to care and I'm screwed. I'm going to call on Monday and tell the TA that isn't acceptable.:(

 

John

[kdg51]

Story almost over...still have a small credit I have not received from the 1st part of my cruise but nothing to get too upset over. Thanks to people on the board I felt confident leaving the girl in the revenue dept a message stating that since my cruise was more than the $500 amount of my certificate I was entitled to receive the difference back as a credit on my account. What I didn't realize was that the charge for the last payment that I saw pending one day and gone the next had really not disappeared, I paid for it on last month's bill. :eek: Luckily I realized this before I called to tell them they had given me too much $$$ back. :o I thought they had received my certificate and cancelled the charge but the billing period ended.

 

The TA had originally told me I had to request the credit from NCL and when I called they said my TA had to request the refund. We could do a conference call but request had to come from them. I left TA a message and even forwarded my home phone to work just in case they tried to reach me at the wrong number...been a few days, maybe I should cancel the call forwarding? :o I thought NCL was indicating that I still had a balance unpaid but maybe her reaction was because I was $500 overpaid. They still haven't made my eDocs available for that part of the cruise so I guess I should call again to see if everything is OK and mention my other $38?

 

I wonder what happens to the extra amount on the certificate if we don't get credit for it? Does the TA or NCL end up collecting the difference? :D

[jennajack]

If you have 1000 points, it would be $1000. I just cashed in 1500 points for $1500. Does your statement say 1000 points? If so, that is $1000.

[kdg51]

Warbird...I was just reading about the requirements on the Cruise Rewards they offer onboard to use as a deposit on your next cruise and am wondering about the taxes (and possibly the port charges). It says that these certificates cannot be used for Government taxes and fees. I wonder if that applies to the Compass rewards also and if you play with the numbers if that is the difference on your bill?

[smeyer418]

Warbird...I was just reading about the requirements on the Cruise Rewards they offer onboard to use as a deposit on your next cruise and am wondering about the taxes (and possibly the port charges). It says that these certificates cannot be used for Government taxes and fees. I wonder if that applies to the Compass rewards also and if you play with the numbers if that is the difference on your bill?

 

Compass awards can be used to pay taxes etc....they are basically considered cash and can be used for the entire cruise fare taxes and FUEL surcharge. they can't be used to prepay tips...or pay for anything on board.

 

I know I have done it for everything but the fuel surcharge.

[logjordan]

Compass awards can be used to pay taxes etc....they are basically considered cash and can be used for the entire cruise fare taxes and FUEL surcharge. they can't be used to prepay tips...or pay for anything on board.

 

I know I have done it for everything but the fuel surcharge.

 

 

Agreed. We have done this twice with NCL and it covered everything you are billed for prior to sailing. The certificates are redeemable in 500 increments so, for example, if your cruise was $1850.00, you could use $1500.00 in certificates and pay $350.00 in cash.

[Planer's Edge]

Warbird...I was just reading about the requirements on the Cruise Rewards they offer onboard to use as a deposit on your next cruise and am wondering about the taxes (and possibly the port charges). It says that these certificates cannot be used for Government taxes and fees. I wonder if that applies to the Compass rewards also and if you play with the numbers if that is the difference on your bill?

 

The program offered onboard is actually called Latitudes Rewards. It is strictly used for deposits on new bookings only. It cannot be applied to an existing booking.

 

PE

[crdtrnr]

I just booked a cruise for January...Total price of cruise is $1145,

paid $250 deposit, with credit card...I have $1000 in Compass Rewards from credit card...

My question is, the $105 difference...can I just have them apply as ship board credit, or do they refund it back on my credit card....I'd rather have the OBC.

 

Thank you.

[smeyer418]

I just booked a cruise for January...Total price of cruise is $1145,

paid $250 deposit, with credit card...I have $1000 in Compass Rewards from credit card...

My question is, the $105 difference...can I just have them apply as ship board credit, or do they refund it back on my credit card....I'd rather have the OBC.

 

Thank you.

 

As long as the $250.00 deposit was directly from your credit card and not from an on board prepayment you will get a credit back on your CC, never an OBC.

[roboref]

The first time we used the rewards certificates I was told I would not get OBC,but I wanted to book a balcony whcih was $1800 Total. I sent in $2000 in Certfiates expecting to lose the $200, however when I got onboard and checked there was a $200 OBC, listed as Compass Rewards Credit. This was in Jan. 2005 but it did work.

 

Maybe not always but in this instance.

[elephant98]

We have 2 cards and are considering letting our rewards build up the next couple of years so that we can do a European cruise. Assuming that we will have something left over after applying our certificates to cover the cost of our stateroom, does anyone know if the remaining portion of our rewards certificate can be applied to cover the cost of airfare purchased through NCL? Right now, the cost of airfare to Europe from the states is almost equal to the price of the cruise. Yikes!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Yes, certificates can be used toward airfare and/or hotel packages booked through NCL. They cannot be used for insurance, excursions or on board acct.

[Warbird]

I figure once I go on the cruise neither the TA and NCL are going to care and I'm screwed. I'm going to call on Monday and tell the TA that isn't acceptable.:( John

 

Well, I'll give a brief update. I did call the TA back and got her voice mail and left a message. I figured that would happen. She never did call back.:(

 

Today I call NCL and explained my situation and was told that I had to call my TA. I knew that would happen, but I thought I would try anyway. At any rate I called the TA and spoke with the Internet Sales department and didn't get any satisfaction. I was told NCL gets thousands of award transactions daily and it would take time to follow up, Bha, Bha, Bha.

 

It then occurred to me that maybe the two credits equaled the total of the $1500.00 certificates, but that wasn't the case. I reviewed the online receipt and here I had been charged more money then it should have been. My trip insurance was added in twice. Oh Great! I then checked online the charge on my credit card and it was less then what it was suppose to be. It didn't have the trip insurance on it. At that point I ran out of gas and said pixx on it and went to lunch. I did ask the NCL CSR if I could move my reservation to NCL at no cost and she said yes. The TA might not agree with that though, but I'll see what happens and play that card after some thought.

 

John

[Tom O.]

I can't find this answer here after looking through more than a 100 of these posts. My question is this:

I know that I can earn no more than 1,000 points per year, but do I have to get certificates for $1000 before I start earning more? Or, if I don't redeem my 1,000 points, will my account start accruing more points after my aniversary date?

[Preds]

I can't find this answer here after looking through more than a 100 of these posts. My question is this:

I know that I can earn no more than 1,000 points per year, but do I have to get certificates for $1000 before I start earning more? Or, if I don't redeem my 1,000 points, will my account start accruing more points after my aniversary date?

You can earn up to 1000 points per year. The points are good for a max of 3 years, thus you can accumulate up to 3000 points before they start expiring.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Tom O. , no you don't have to redeem your certificate. As a matter of fact you DON"T want to redeem it if you are planning to let points build up. The points are good for 3 years but the certificate expires one year from the date of issue. And sailing must take place by the expiration date.

[CarRex]

If you consistantly build up the max 1000 points before the year is over, get a second card. That way you can just switch cards when one is about to over the 1000 point limit. Just make sure you pay them all off in full to avoid intrest.

 

We just returned yesterday from a 14 day Jewel cruise in a balcony. Cost of the ticket $3800. We paid $300 + 3500 points. Of couse we paid separate airfare, cabs, hotel in Miami & onboard charges were another $1500.

 

Two weeks vacation for two for under $1800 and two weeks of not buying food, gas, home heat. What a value.

[Tom O.]

Thank you everybody. I think we will accumulate enough points to take a free cruise. NCL is not my favorite cruise line, but this credit card thing makes it the best deal in the cruise industry. How can I resist a free cruise?

[packercruising]

We sailed RCI this year (last week!) and signed up for their card. We got $300 in OBC just for using the cards. What deals do NCL offer?

[Planer's Edge]

We sailed RCI this year (last week!) and signed up for their card. We got $300 in OBC just for using the cards. What deals do NCL offer?

 

If you read the first page or two of this thread you will get a good summary of the benefits of having a Latitudes Mastercard. In essence you earn points depending on your spending. These points turn into cash off certificates for NCL cruises. I've had a card (or 2) since 1996 and have saved over $25,000 on NCL cruises.

 

PE

[Theresa522]

why do people get two cards??

[Planer's Edge]

why do people get two cards??

 

Because the maximum points you can earn in a year are 1000. That is approximately $33,300 in charges or about $2,800 per month. I myself put much more than that through my card each month. Which means I max out my points for the year in less than a year. So when I reach the limit I switch over to the other card for the remainder of the year.

 

PE

[Coloradodude]

Do you have to be a latitude member to apply for the NCL MasterCard? I see it asks for the latitude number on the application. I was hoping my parents, who have never cruised with NCL could apply and get the NCL MasterCard. Does anyone know?

 

Thanks Wayne