hoopics

Apologies if there is a master thread for this, but it seemed different from any I could find. I'm considering booking a cruise through United Cruises, which is pricey enough to bounce off their 45,000 RDM earnings bonus cap for Chase card holders. I have an older Mileage Plus Select Visa, which gives me 3 rdm for every $1 spent on United.com, but 1 rdm on every other travel purchase. United cruises is cruises.united.com. The cruise is sufficiently expensive that those extra 2 RDMs per dollar have some serious value, and would tip the scales of who I book with. I can find zero information on this, and the Chase phone rep was uncertain. I don't trust the cruise agent to give me a straight answer, as they have incentive to close the deal. Looking for real world experiences.

[As an aside, For this sailing the miles bonus is already the best incentive I can find out there; no TA is prepared to discount more than $600, and I value 45k miles higher than that].

Thanks.

Steve M

I would not expect cruises to count as united.com purchases. Even though the website might be cruises.united.com, the charges for the cruises are generally made by the cruise lines themselves. For example, if you book a Carnival cruise, the credit card payment is made by Carnival using their merchant account. The money never touches United Cruises (which is run by an independent travel agency) nor United Airlines. United Cruises gets paid a commission by the cruise line after the cruise is complete, rather than marking it up beforehand. And, there's no way for Chase to know that a particular charge by a cruise line was made via United Cruises vs any other booking method, and I doubt they award United.com booking bonuses to all cruise charges.

Having said all of that, it's not clear to me what your dilemma is. I can't tell for sure what you're saying about your cards, but it seems that you have two MileagePlus credit cards, one of which earns 3x miles on united.com purchases. It also seems that you're under the impression that only the other one is eligible for the United Cruises booking bonuses, but I don't see how that's the case. Unless it's some legacy non-Chase MileagePlus product that I'm not aware of. I could have that wrong - please clarify what your situation is and maybe I can comment better.

AFAIK, the United Cruises booking bonuses apply to any Chase MileagePlus credit card product, including any legacy products that are no longer available to new cardholders. For example, I always get the bonus when I use my Presidential Plus card.

Also, regarding the stated 45K max on the United Cruises bonus, it's a bit of a misnomer. In my experience, they post the bonuses in multiple segments. For example, if you book a balcony or suite, and use a Chase MileagePlus credit card to pay for it, you get 7x miles (plus the 1x miles that the credit card gives you for all purchases). The thing is, based on how they code the booking, the 7x posts in multiple segments, such as 4x, 2x, and 1x. In my experience, whatever max credit they state (such as the current 45k) applies individually to each segment. In the above example, unless the 4x segment exceeded 45k, you'd get the full 7x bonus, even if all of the bonuses together exceeded 45k. At least that's how it's worked for me. Of course, things may have changed over time.

TCD

I think the answer is no. We're booked on an Alaskan cruise this summer. We haven't paid the main amount but it doesn't look as if we got any united.com bonus for the deposit. In fact, according to the invoice statement UNITED CRUISES took half, and PRINCESS CRUISES took the other half.

I did get an extra $150 in on board credit on top of the mileage bonus, not sure if that was a limited time bonus, but might be worth checking if you can get anything like that "as I'm reaching the bonus cap limit"!

hoopics

Thank you, your post is exactly the information I was looking for. And apologies for being unclear. I have only one card. It is the discontinued MP Select Visa, which offers 3x RDM for all purchases on united.com (as well as on board aircraft), and up to 5k PQM a year for your first $5k in spend on united.com.

I fully expect to get the 7x bonus through united cruises [and maybe well more than 45,000, based on your optimistic read of the tiers], and an additional 1x on the card itself for having made the purchase. I was trying to determine whether the transaction would also post as being from united.com, in which case I'd likely be getting an additional 2x from Chase (for a can't-refuse total of 10x RDM).

Sounds like that last 2x is almost definitely not happening -- if the charges show up as from the cruise line, I agree the terms of the Select Card are clear it'd only count for the 1x RDM applicable to all purchases.

TCD

I'm assuming OP was asking about triple dipping? As in, you can get the stated 7x miles bonus from United Cruises. But you will also get your standard credit card spend bonuses. I believe though that those are not listed as united.com charges (or airfares), so sadly you can only double dip, not triple dip.

Edit: Ninjaed!

aoumd

I have both the Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x points on all travel) and a UA MP Explorer card, and am considering a cruise in the future.

I see that there's a cardmember bonus for UA MP credit card holders of 2x RDM per $1, on top of the usual 1 RDM/$1 spend.

What I want to know is: do you actually have to USE your MP Explorer Card for the transaction to get the deal (like when booking UA flights for the free checked bag?). Or can you pay with the CSR and still get the points because you have a UA MP credit card attached to your MP number (which is how MileagePlus X app purchases do it)?

Obviously hoping for the latter, but not that optimistic. If the former, I might as well just buy with the CSR, since it's the same number of points, but with CSR UR points I can either use them on UA, or use them on WN or other metal/hotels.

Mike Sagalovich

Have you figured out the answer to your question?

aoumd

Not yet!

kiam

Any luck on this? About to purchase a cruise via United and have the same dilemma.

Tony300S

Anybody figure out what category the United Cruises payments code under? Travel or other?

Already have a cruise planned in the fall and trying to determine what card to charge the balance to...only paid the booking fee to date. Thanks!

BBSHOPSINGER

I'm pretty sure you actually have to use your card to get the bonus miles. I just booked a cruise last week where I'll be getting 11.5 miles/dollar - 10 miles/dollar based on special bonuses + cardmember bonuses, plus 1.5/dollar from my Club Card.

Tony300S

Just to update.....It's yes AND no really, based on all the terms and fine print listed.

Per the chart, you are capped at 4-miles per dollar if you are using another payment method and earn UP TO 7-miles per dollar if using a United MP card.

I would argue it's likely worth it to skip the EXTRA 3 miles if you are earning more valuable points/miles elsewhere AND these charges actually code as travel.

Earning 3-5 X in bonus categories (Travel) of UR cards or Amex would be a win vs United miles. ^

litefoot

Have to use MP card in order to get the miles. That said, booked cruise w/a friend where we each paid our own way. United Cruise Rep said one person had to be the lead and that person would receive the miles (note after the cruise). We had to decide which one would receive the miles. Not happy but okay, can gift the miles later (albeit there's a charge for this). Checked my credit card statement my MP cc gave me 1 mile per $. Sent Chase an email to question this as it was obvious the charge was for a cruise line as noted on statement. Was told the United Cruise rep assigned a code that was not accepted in the computer as travel. Questioned again saying it should be travel and that's 2x points. Chase sent back an FAQ T&C (I was talking to the cruise rep who booked the trip and really didn't see this) which states clearly 'Merchants who accept Visa/MasterCard credit cards are assigned a merchant code which is determined by the merchant or its processor in accordance with Visa/MasterCard procedures based on the kinds of products and services they primarily sell. We group similar merchant codes into categories for purposes of making rewards offers to you. Please note that we make every effort to include all relevant merchant codes in our rewards categories. Purchases submitted by you, an authorized user, or the merchant through third-party payment accounts, mobile or wireless card readers, online or mobile digital wallets, or similar technology will not qualify in a rewards category if the technology is not set up to process the purchase in that rewards category.

BBSHOPSINGER

I believe the 2X miles are only for travel on United Airlines, not just any travel. I've never received any more than the normal spend value (which is 1.5X on the Club Card). The rest of the bonuses come later based on whatever bonuses are in effect at the time. There are bonuses from having the Chase card, but they don't come as part of the statement credit.

mahasamatman

I've found that United Cruises is a terrible deal. The money you save by booking elsewhere more than makes up for any miles you could earn.