Hi,

I am a newbie as well. I have been looking for something similar. I am planning a cruise in Hawaii. I hate to use my points for a cruise, as the reward cost is not very good. I have found you usually get 1-2 cents per point for cruises. On hotels and airlines you can get a lot better. This is my wife's, my parent's, and my aunt's dream and so we are all working together on this one. I have the mileage for the air fair figured out, but I am working on the cruise details.

Here is what I have so far:

Chase offers cruise rewards through their Ultimate Rewards Program. For the cruise I am looking at it will cost about 200,000 points. We have 100,000 through the chase sapphire program sign up bonus (right now you can only get the 50,000, but I was able to slid in at the 100,000 level). I will be having my wife apply for a chase sapphire card as well, to get us another 50,000. I talked to chase, and they said they can combine spouse points. You can also combine your chase sapphire points with your chase freedom card as well. This could get you some more points.

For anything that is missing, you can use cash, or I am hoping to use a gift card. Discover card will double the amount you buy with their points (for Norweigen). So for example, if you buy a $25 gift card with their points, they will give you $50. This will help some. This is at least for the cruise line we are looking to go on.

Hope this helps.