Should you’re desperate to embark on a cruise and have gathered factors or miles over time, you won’t must pay on your subsequent journey.
Learn on to discover methods to optimize your factors and miles, leverage loyalty packages and unlock financial savings in 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 rookies information to choosing a cruise line
Do you have to ebook a cruise with factors and miles?
Whereas varied choices can be found for redeeming your factors and miles towards a cruise, it is very important word that the worth you obtain won’t all the time be optimum (i.e., lower than TPG’s month-to-month valuations). Within the realm of journey rewards, there are sometimes extra profitable alternatives to leverage your factors and miles for flights or resort stays the place the worth and adaptability are typically larger.
If in case you have American Specific Membership Rewards factors, Capital One miles or Chase Final Rewards factors, you might 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 inns 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 factors on Ritz-Carlton Yacht Assortment cruises at 180,000 factors, leading to a $1,000 financial savings. Nevertheless, these associate choices are sometimes restricted and would possibly require loyalty to a selected journey model.
You may 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, inns or rental vehicles on your cruise. This usually proves to be a greater use of your rewards.
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Nevertheless, if you wish to use your gathered factors or miles to cut back your cruise prices, under are varied 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. Usually, you may be required to make the reservation by means of the portal supplied by your bank card issuer; nonetheless, some issuers might require you to name a reserving heart. You may also be capable of cost the cruise to your card after which redeem your rewards for an announcement credit score towards some (or all) of that buy.
Right here’s easy methods to ebook a cruise on factors and miles with a number of main bank card corporations.
American Specific Membership Rewards
If in case you have an eligible American Specific card that earns Membership Rewards factors, you should use these factors to cowl the price of your cruise by means of the Pay with Factors program. With this program, you’ll be able to redeem Membership Rewards factors at a worth of 0.5 to 0.7 cents per level for many journey purchases.
Nevertheless, TPG values Membership Rewards factors at 2 cents every (per our January 2026 valuations) once you maximize this system’s switch companions. So, you’d use them at a decrease worth when you use Pay with Factors.
The American Specific Journey® portal has a user-friendly search function that lets you discover totally different cruises based mostly on particular filters similar to date, vacation spot, cruise line and journey length, 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 well-liked cruise itinerary and cabin.
- Enter your passenger info.
- When it’s time to take a look at, enter your Membership Rewards-enrolled American Specific card info and choose “Sure” to find out what number of Membership Rewards factors your account has.
- Pay for your entire cruise utilizing Pay with Factors, or pay a portion of the associated fee with factors and the remainder with money.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to search for the cruise you need and name 800-297-5627 to ebook straight with the Amex Journey workforce over the telephone.
Associated: The perfect bank cards for reserving cruises
Chase Final Rewards
The Chase Journey℠ portal is much like Amex Journey, however the redemption worth could also be larger, relying on which card you earned the Final Rewards factors from:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see charges and charges) and Chase Sapphire Reserve for Enterprise℠ (see charges and charges): For cardholders who utilized earlier than June 23, 2025, redeem for 1.5 cents on all non-Factors-Enhance 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-Enhance Chase Journey purchases.
- Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card (see charges and charges) and Ink Enterprise Most well-liked® Credit score Card (see charges and charges): For cardholders who utilized earlier than June 23, 2025, redeem for 1.25 cents on all non-Factors-Enhance 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-Enhance Chase Journey purchases.
Sadly, Chase’s reserving system doesn’t allow you to ebook cruises by means of Chase’s on-line journey portal. You’ll have to name the reserving hotline and converse with somebody within the cruise reservations division as a substitute.
To ebook a cruise and pay with Chase Final Rewards factors:
- Discover the cruise itinerary and availability you need by means of the cruise line’s web site. If in case you have a selected cabin in thoughts, be sure that info is useful. Sadly, experiences point out that you simply can not ebook Disney Cruise Line sailings with Chase Final Rewards factors.
- Name a Chase journey specialist straight at 855-234-2542, and be ready to stroll the adviser by means of 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 means of 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’ll ask you what number of factors you wish to apply towards your closing stability.
Citi ThankYou Rewards
Whilst you can not redeem your Citi ThankYou Rewards factors by means of the Citi Journey portal to ebook a cruise, you’ll be able to redeem your factors to buy present playing cards with choose cruise traces similar to Carnival, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Virgin Experiences. Be aware that redemption charges might range by model, however you could find as much as 1 cent per level for some present card redemptions, similar to Carnival.
Capital One miles
Capital One gives extra flexibility and a extra easy redemption course of than Amex and Chase. Until you switch your miles to an airline or resort associate, every mile is price a flat 1 cent towards journey.
Redeeming miles doesn’t require reserving by means of a portal, which frees you as much as ebook your cruise straight with the corporate or through a journey agent to get further perks. This feature additionally lets you pursue promotional bundle charges or reductions that will not be accessible by means of the Amex or Chase portals.
The award redemption course of is simple: Use the cardboard when paying on your cruise bundle, then log into your account and choose the “Cowl your journey purchases” possibility to use your mileage stability as a credit score towards the overall quantity due in your bank card assertion.
You may earn Capital One miles with the Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card and the Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card. Every has various options, so perform a little research to resolve which card is finest for you.
Associated: Capital One Enterprise Rewards vs. Capital One Enterprise X: Value the additional $300 in annual charges?
E-book a cruise with airline miles
It’s also possible to ebook cruises utilizing some airline loyalty packages, similar to United MileagePlus and American Airways AAdvantage. Nevertheless, you are solely more likely to obtain round 0.7 cents per mile or 1 cent per mile, respectively, in worth this fashion — properly under our valuation of those airline miles.
Use factors from cruise line cobranded bank cards to ebook
With cruise line cobranded bank cards, you’ll be able to earn factors for purchases that you would be able to then use to offset the price of your cruise reserving. Nevertheless, this won’t be your best choice for incomes and redeeming factors.
Right here, you’ll wish to ensure you should use your factors towards the cruise fare as a substitute of just for onboard purchases. For instance, the Royal Caribbean Visa Signature® Credit score Card gives 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 decisions range.
As an example, you’ll be able to 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 easy methods to redeem MyCruise rewards factors right here.
The data 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 supplied 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 standing perks on voyages.
You may redeem not less than 180,000 factors towards a flat $1,000 financial savings on the cruise fare. After that, you’ll be able to redeem increments of 90,000 factors towards $500 in financial savings, as much as your entire 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: Greatest methods to earn Marriott Bonvoy factors: From resort stays and bank card spending to journey companions
Moreover, Marriott Bonvoy’s Cruise with Factors program lets you money in Marriott factors for credit score towards any cruise that’s bookable on the Cruise with Factors web site.
You may 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 simply unveiled a luxurious ocean‑journey partnership with the launch of Hilton Honors Adventures. Vacationers must wait till summer time 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 embody as much as $400 in Journey Expertise Credit (and $200 on different voyages), an in‑suite welcome present and 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus factors per suite.
By summer time 2026, members will be capable of 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 assessment: Setting a brand new bar for luxurious at sea
Backside line
It isn’t all the time simple to get nice worth on your factors and miles once you use them towards cruise redemptions — not less than, not the way in which you’ll be able to with premium cabin flights. Nevertheless, redeeming your factors and miles without cost or discounted cruise journey is potential.
That mentioned, if you wish to redeem your rewards for optimum worth, it’s best to keep away from utilizing airline miles or resort factors for cruises. These are higher used on flights and in a single day stays.
It’s an identical story for bank card currencies. Capital One gives probably the most flexibility of all the foremost issuers as a result of you’ll be able to ebook your cruise straight or by means of a journey agent. With a number of reserving choices, you’ll be able to make the most of further perks and entry promotional charges from journey brokers and on-line retailers that aren’t accessible by means of bank card portals. You possibly can even stack these offers for added financial savings by reserving through an airline portal to earn miles.
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