Tyrone Posted November 16, 2017 Report Share Posted November 16, 2017 Hi Everyone, I have the Royal Caribbean credit card issued from Bank of America. Has anyone tried to redeem points from their card for use as on board credit? I did this, but it hasn't shown up in the cruise planner on my active reservation. I contacted Royal Caribbean and they said it doesn't show up until about 2 weeks before the sail date. I was hoping to use the on board credit to purchase items through the cruise planner, but I've ended up paying separately for some items like the beverage package when it went on sale and didn't want to miss out on the sale price. It seems like the points really are only intended to be used once you are on board and not beforehand. I was hoping someone else has tried this and could share their experience. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted November 16, 2017 Report Share Posted November 16, 2017 Yes, we use ours all the time. You should show an available onboard credit to use for purchasing goods and services prior to sailing. As with all things RCI, they are very inconsistent with how long prior to your cruise that OBC shows up. I think, for our upcoming Thanksgiving cruise, our RCI Visa OBC showed up about 1 week ago. The cruise is this coming Sunday. So it was about 2 weeks prior. Word of advice. Be sure and take a copy of the confirmation email that they sent you when you redeemed the points with you on the cruise (unless you spend everything before you get onboard !). If there is any discrepancy with the OBC, that confirmation email is the only thing they will accept as proof that they owe you the OBC. That’s only happened to us once but problems do occur from time to time. ellcee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jce2 Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 Inconsistent is the word! Redeemed $50 in June and it showed up in July. Redeemed the rest ($200) in July and nothing showed up yet. Called them and got the "Not till closer to embarkation" response Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 I have the same story. Redeemed for $150 OBC, it wasn't showing up so I called. They told me 2 weeks prior to sailing also. We are on Anthem February 17th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilson Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 Off topic, but in my opinion there are far better cards out there that pay better rewards. Our Sam's Club MasterCard pays 5% cashback on all fuel purchases, 3% on all travel and dining and 1% on everything else. We have been using it for two years now and are getting a lot more in return than our now cancelled Royal BOA cards ever did. MikeK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Burd Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 I used it a year ago on Anthem. I called a couple of times and received the same story about waiting till closer to departure. I actually did not see it on my account until after the first day of the cruise. I also made sure i had all my paperwork with me in case there was an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeK Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 On my last cruise I thought I had redeemed points worth $200. Well I made the mistake of not getting paperwork to show it. When it didn't show up on my on board account I went to guest services. Guest services distanced themselves from the problem and reluctantly got Bank of America on the phone. Bank of America claimed they had no record of me even requesting on board credit. So I was in the middle of the Caribbean with my pants around my ankles with no recourse. I will try and redeem my points on my next cruise and then cancel my Bank of America Royal Caribbean card. So like others have said....make sure you have something in writing. On a side note, this wasnt my first time redeeming points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 We talked about the BoA credit card on this podcast episode: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-209-using-credit-cards-save-cruise-vacation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKSglitz Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 I've only redeemed my points in the past to get an additional discount on our cabin. We rarely use that RCCL credit card for anything else other than RCCL purchases. They double the points when it is used that way. I redeem my points several weeks before final payment so that I know a record of it is in the system. When I call RCCL for that final payment, there it is. Easy peezy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 This is what I do every cruise, redeem points for OBC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted November 17, 2017 Report Share Posted November 17, 2017 9 hours ago, Wilson said: Off topic, but in my opinion there are far better cards out there that pay better rewards. Our Sam's Club MasterCard pays 5% cashback on all fuel purchases, 3% on all travel and dining and 1% on everything else. We have been using it for two years now and are getting a lot more in return than our now cancelled Royal BOA cards ever did. I agree completely that if you are only looking for cash back then the BoA Visa card is not the best option. However, we like it b/c it generates direct OBC to the cruise of our choice. We have other CCs that we use for general cash back options but we find the BoA Visa to be our best option for generating shipboard OBC on RCI. RestingBird and janza 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest toodle68 Posted November 18, 2017 Report Share Posted November 18, 2017 I applied for a RC credit card, got the bonus points, paid a thousand toward a cruise for more points, cashed in all the points and then went back to my cap one card. Yes, it hurts my credit a little, but I got $200 'free' money.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Posted January 8, 2018 Report Share Posted January 8, 2018 We cruise on Anthem Feb 17th, converted our points to OBC in October, it finally showed up as OBC today, about 6 weeks from Sail Away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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