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Royal Caribbean Credit Card
By Dave | June 13, 2008
I applied for a RCI credit card today. Currently, I have a basic credit card that gives me nothing. I have good credit and always pay off my balances each month. So I figured, why not get something back? I didn’t really see any cash-back cards that appealed to me, so I tried to think of what type of rewards I would want. Then it dawned on me, “why not a cruise reward card?” As I’m sure you have become aware, I am an avid Carnival fan. So why didn’t I go for a Carnival credit card? After all, I cruise with them enough, so getting some additional rewards from them would be nice. Yes, that’s true. But I’ve heard some bad things abotu their card. First and foremost, in order to redeem their points, you have to use their travel agency. For me, this won’t work because we already have a cruise agent who we’ve used for years. She’s very good and I’d like to stay with her when I start booking cruises on my own. Secondly, their travel agency, from what I hear, is grossly overpriced. That means you’d have to use a lot of your points in order to pay for your cruise.
The RCI credit card, on the other hand, is open to any travel agency. You just call Bank of America (who issues the card), they mail you however much in Rewards coupons you request, and you can give them to your own travel agent for redemption. This is the biggest plus for me. And besides, being a platinum member on Carnival, I will become used to the added benefits. So I’ll need some incentive to travel on another line. A discount or onboard credit is certainly a good incentive. From what I’ve read, NCL offers the best Rewards program, but I have no interest in cruising with them. The next most-likely line for me to travel on would be RCI. So that’s who I went with.
Has anyone ever used their credit card? Any experiences or comments?
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Topics: Cruising | 5 Comments »