Combining points for cruise
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist


Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 22,919
FF miles in airline frequent flyer programs generally cannot be moved out. The few that are result in significant loss of value.
Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Which airline/hotel should I transfer points to?
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...tt-bonvoy-766/
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist




Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 26,113
You need to understand why airline miles and hotel points have value. They're used for "excess capacity" type inventory, meaning when they think there's going to be an unsold seat or unbooked hotel room, they give to you cheap since they don't expect a paying customer.
But cruises don't work that way. They don't have an "excess capacity" system. They either sell you a ticket or they don't, that's it.
So the only way an airline or hotel program can get you a ticket on a cruise line is to actually buy the ticket, and then they have to charge you real money. So if you try to use miles or points, you'll get no better value for this than you would if you were redeeming for gift cards, which are notoriously considered bad value, compared to actually using miles for airline seats and using hotel points for hotel rooms.
So while airline miles work well for airline seats, and hotel points work well for hotel rooms, neither works well for unrelated travel stuff like cruises, rental cars, etc, because in all of those cases the airline or hotel program has to pay cash for the service from another company in another sub-industry.

