Best Cards For Cruises

You can use Ultimate Rewards points to book a cruise by calling the Chase travel specialist directly. Unfortunately, it’s not something you can do yourself through the portal at this time. But the value is still 50% more for your points with the Reserve Card. It's best to look at the cruise line’s website directly to find the cruise and cabin you want, then call Chase at (855) 234-2542 and book with the travel specialist. When your itinerary is all set and you're ready to check out, they’ll ask you how many Ultimate Rewards you want to apply. At that point, you can use points at a value of 1.5 cents per point. If you use points and money, you'll earn 3x points per $1. If you're working with a spouse, the Sapphire Preferred could be a better > choice for point accrual.

The high bonus makes this card the gold standard for business cards. It's second on our list because (1) not all people will qualify for this particular business card, and (2) it doesn’t get you 1.5 cents per point like the Sapphire Reserve, so you'll want that first. This particular card does, however, give you 1.25 cents per point. Other "Ink" cards would be great for points if you already have the Preferred, or won’t qualify. They just have slightly lower bonuses.

American Express Platinum, whether it’s Personal or Business, is another great way to pay with points. One of the nifty things about these cards is that when you use the pay-with-points method, it will still count as a paid booking, so you will be able to take advantage of American Express Cruise Privileges Program. What is the Amex Cruise Privileges Program? When you book an eligible cruise you can get an assortment of extra amenities like shipboard credits, spa vouchers, champagne, wine, special tours ... you get the idea. Make sure to book by calling 800-525-3355 or go through americanexpress.com/cruise, pay with your platinum card, which gets you 2x rewards per $1, and then use your points toward your statement credit to offset some, if not the entire price of the package.

The main reason Amex ranks below Chase on this list is that Amex points are generally harder to collect in mass. The Amex Gold, both Personal and Business, have great options for collecting points for cruising, not only on the bonus, but on the everyday spend categories.

The Capital One Venture card can be used to book directly through the cruise line you prefer. Or if you find one of those amazing sailing deals, use this card to purchase your cabin and then use your rewards to cover your travel costs as a credit toward your statement balance. This makes cruising really simple. You don’t have to go through any specific portal or call any specific reservation lines. And because the Venture card earns 2x miles on all purchases (in addition to the sign-up bonus), when it’s time to book, you may find that you have plenty of rewards to offset your cruise package. Spark Miles Business is another great option for accruing Capital One Miles to offset cruise costs

Citi Premier card is a runner-up in using your points toward the cost of a cruise. Citi ThankYou Points are special in that you can actually use them toward the most magical place on the water, a Disney cruise. And when used toward travel and booked through the Citi portal, they’re worth 1.25 cents each. While it’s always super fun to book a vacation with points, using the Citi portal to book a cruise isn’t as enjoyable. You have to actually search the cruise line you like because travel dates won’t be available from the initial search page. Then when you find the one you want to book, you can call a travel specialist at Citi (800-842-6596) and they’ll apply your Citi ThankYou points toward your cruise.

This is a super fun way to get cruising perks while making everyday purchases. Get 2x points per $1 spent on your cell phone, charitable donations and either airlines, gas or groceries (the 2x points will be automatically applied to whichever category you spent the most on at the end of the billing cycle). Once you’ve collected all of your points, you can use the real-time rewards on your phone while booking your cruise to get instant redemption. Or, of course, you can log into your account under “my rewards” and use your points toward the cruise, excursions, taxis and whatever else you may have spent or plan to spend on your sea voyage.

Nothing fancy here: points can simply be used as statement credit when you purchase your cruise with the cruise line and pay with the card. Getting this card and meeting the minimum spend will net you $500 off your cruise, still $400 better than most of cruise line cards out there. You can use that for the flight, luggage, drink on the plane, uber to your hotel room, hotel room, lyft to your cruise ship, cruise, taxi to your excursions, your actual excursions, drinks on the ship, etc. And these points are as good as the Visa that carries them. They are super flexible to redeem as an instant statement credit, extremely easy to earn with generous flat reward rates on all purchases and even have some extra perks you may not have expected from such low-profile cards.