If you happen to’re desirous to embark on a cruise and have accrued factors or miles over time, you may not must pay in 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 here are the highest methods to make use of your factors and miles to ebook a cruise.
Associated: A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
Do you have to ebook a cruise with factors and miles?
Whereas numerous choices can be found for redeeming your factors and miles towards a cruise, you will need to notice that the worth you obtain may not 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 suppleness are usually greater.
When you’ve got 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 motels 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. Nonetheless, these companion choices are sometimes restricted and would possibly require loyalty to a selected journey model.
You’ll be able to all the time use factors or miles to cut back journey bills for any cruise trip. For instance, you should 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, motels or rental automobiles in your cruise. This usually proves to be a greater use of your rewards.
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Nonetheless, if you wish to use your accrued factors or miles to cut back your cruise prices, under are numerous methods to ebook a cruise with factors and miles.
E book a cruise with bank card factors and miles
You should use sure bank card factors and miles to ebook a cruise. Sometimes, you can be required to make the reservation by the portal offered by your bank card issuer; nevertheless, some issuers might require you to name a reserving heart. You may also have the ability to cost the cruise to your card after which redeem your rewards for an announcement credit score in opposition to some (or all) of that buy.
Right here’s how you can ebook a cruise on factors and miles with a number of main bank card firms.
American Categorical Membership Rewards
When you’ve got an eligible American Express card that earns Membership Rewards factors, you should use these factors to cowl the price of your cruise by the Pay with Points program. With this program, you may redeem Membership Rewards factors at a worth of 0.5 to 0.7 cents per level for many journey purchases.
Nonetheless, TPG values Membership Rewards factors at 2 cents every (per our January 2026 valuations) once you maximize the program’s transfer partners. So, you’ll use them at a decrease worth should 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 similar to date, vacation spot, cruise line and journey period, even earlier than you log in.
To ebook 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 info.
- When it’s time to take a look at, enter your Membership Rewards-enrolled American Categorical card info 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 price with factors and the remaining with money.
Alternatively, you may lookup the cruise you need and name 800-297-5627 to ebook immediately with the Amex Journey crew over the telephone.
Associated: The best credit cards for booking cruises
Chase Final Rewards
The Chase Travel℠ portal is much like Amex Journey, however the redemption worth could also be greater, 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-Increase 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-Increase 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-Increase Chase Journey purchases.
Sadly, Chase’s reserving system doesn’t allow you to ebook cruises by Chase’s on-line journey portal. You’ll have to name the reserving hotline and communicate with somebody within the cruise reservations division as an alternative.
To ebook a cruise and pay with Chase Final Rewards factors:
- Discover the cruise itinerary and availability you need by the cruise line’s website. When you’ve got a selected cabin in thoughts, guarantee that info is useful. Sadly, studies point out that you simply can not ebook Disney Cruise Line sailings with Chase Final Rewards factors.
- Name a Chase journey specialist immediately at 855-234-2542, and be ready to stroll the adviser by the cruise line reserving web page on their finish to allow them to discover and ebook the cabin and choices you need. Cruise advisers can be found Monday by 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 are going to ask you what number of factors you need to apply in opposition to your closing steadiness.
Citi ThankYou Rewards
When you can not redeem your Citi ThankYou Rewards factors by the Citi Journey portal to ebook a cruise, you may redeem your factors to buy reward playing cards with choose cruise traces similar to Carnival, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Virgin Experiences. Word that redemption charges might fluctuate by model, however yow will discover as much as 1 cent per level for some reward card redemptions, similar to 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 companion, 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 ebook your cruise immediately with the corporate or through a journey agent to get further perks. This feature additionally permits you to pursue promotional package deal charges or reductions that is probably not obtainable by the Amex or Chase portals.
The award redemption course of is easy: Use the cardboard when paying in your cruise package deal, 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’ll be able to 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 some 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?
E book a cruise with airline miles
It’s also possible to ebook cruises utilizing some airline loyalty applications, similar to United MileagePlus and American Airways AAdvantage. Nonetheless, you are solely more likely to obtain round 0.7 cents per mile or 1 cent per mile, respectively, in worth this manner — properly under our valuation of those airline miles.
Use factors from cruise line cobranded bank cards to ebook
With cruise line cobranded credit cards, you may earn factors for purchases you could then use to offset the price of your cruise reserving. Nonetheless, this may not be your only option for incomes and redeeming factors.
Right here, you’ll need to make certain you should use your factors towards the cruise fare as an alternative 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 selections fluctuate.
As an illustration, you may 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 knowledge 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’ll be able to redeem at the least 180,000 factors towards a flat $1,000 financial savings on the cruise fare. After that, you may 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’ll be able to 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 season 2026 to begin 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 reward and 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus factors per suite.
By summer season 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 straightforward to get nice worth in your factors and miles once you use them towards cruise redemptions — at the least, not the best way you may with premium cabin flights. Nonetheless, redeeming your factors and miles totally free or discounted cruise journey is doable.
That mentioned, if you wish to redeem your rewards for optimum 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 an analogous story for bank card currencies. Capital One presents essentially the most flexibility of all the foremost issuers as a result of you may book your cruise directly or through a travel agent. With a number of reserving choices, you may benefit from extra perks and entry promotional charges from journey brokers and on-line retailers that aren’t obtainable by bank card portals. You might even stack these offers for added financial savings by booking via an airline portal to earn miles.
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