How to Book a Cruise With Points and Miles
The Complete Guide to Using Your Travel Rewards for a Dream Cruise Vacation
Introduction: Your Points Can Put You on a Ship
You have been collecting points and miles for years. Every flight, every hotel stay, every credit card swipe — all of it feeding your loyalty accounts with rewards that represent real travel value. You have probably redeemed some of those points for free flights or hotel nights. Maybe you have used them for an upgrade or a gift card. But here is something that many points-and-miles collectors never consider, even experienced ones. You can use your travel rewards to book a cruise.
Not a discount. Not a partial credit. A full cruise vacation — cabin fare, taxes, and all — paid for with the points and miles you have already been accumulating. And depending on how you do it, the value you get per point can be surprisingly strong, sometimes rivaling or even exceeding the value you would get from redeeming for flights or hotels.
The catch is that booking a cruise with points and miles is not as straightforward as booking a free flight. There is no single “redeem miles for cruise” button on most airline or hotel websites. The process involves understanding which programs offer cruise redemption options, which transfer partners and booking portals give you the best value, and how to structure your redemption to squeeze the maximum number of nights at sea out of every point in your account.
This article is going to walk you through everything you need to know. We are going to cover the major ways to book a cruise with points and miles, which programs and credit card currencies offer the best cruise redemption value, how to combine points with cash for maximum flexibility, real stories from travelers who have sailed for free or nearly free using their rewards, and step-by-step strategies for planning your own points-funded cruise. By the time you finish reading, you will see your points balance in an entirely new light — and you might just start planning a cruise you never thought you could afford.
The Major Ways to Use Points and Miles for Cruises
There is no single path to a points-funded cruise. Instead, there are several different approaches, each with its own mechanics, value propositions, and trade-offs. Understanding all of them gives you the flexibility to choose the method that works best for your specific points balances, travel goals, and cruise preferences.
Method One: Credit Card Travel Portals
This is the most straightforward and widely accessible way to book a cruise with points. Several major credit card programs operate travel booking portals where you can use your credit card points to pay for travel purchases — including cruises — at a fixed redemption rate.
The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, accessible to holders of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Chase Ink Business Preferred cards, allows you to book cruises using your Ultimate Rewards points. The redemption rate depends on which card you hold. Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders get 1.5 cents per point when booking through the portal, meaning 100,000 points is worth $1,500 toward a cruise. Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders get 1.25 cents per point, making 100,000 points worth $1,250.
The American Express Membership Rewards program offers a similar option through its travel portal or through its cruise booking partners. Capital One Venture miles can be redeemed through their travel portal or used to erase cruise purchases from your statement at a rate of one cent per mile.
The major advantage of the travel portal method is simplicity. You search for cruises within the portal, select the sailing you want, and pay with points just like you would pay with a credit card. The portal handles the booking, and you receive your cruise confirmation. The value per point is fixed and predictable, which makes budgeting straightforward.
The potential disadvantage is that the cruise selection within a travel portal may be more limited than what you would find booking directly with the cruise line, and the prices may not always reflect the best available promotional rates. It is always worth comparing the portal price to the price on the cruise line’s own website before committing.
Method Two: Transfer Points to Cruise Line Loyalty Programs
Some credit card point currencies can be transferred directly to cruise line loyalty programs, allowing you to book a cruise using cruise-specific points. This method can offer excellent value, but the options are more limited.
For example, certain programs have partnered with specific cruise lines to allow direct point transfers. The transfer ratios and values vary, so you need to check the current partnerships and calculate whether transferring gives you better value than booking through a travel portal.
The advantage of this method is that it sometimes unlocks better redemption rates than the portal method, especially for premium cabin categories or high-demand sailings. The disadvantage is that transfer partnerships are limited, transfer ratios are not always favorable, and once you transfer points to a cruise program, you generally cannot transfer them back.
Method Three: Use Points to Cover the Airfare and Hotel, Pay Cash for the Cruise
This is the strategy that many experienced points-and-miles collectors consider the smartest overall approach. Instead of using your points directly on the cruise fare, you use them to cover the expensive ancillary costs of a cruise vacation — the flights to and from the departure port and the pre- and post-cruise hotel nights — and pay cash for the cruise itself.
This strategy works well because flights and hotels often offer some of the best points redemption values, while cruise fares can sometimes be found at excellent cash prices during sales events and promotional periods. By using points where they deliver the most value per point and cash where it goes the furthest, you optimize your total spending across the entire trip.
For example, a family of four might use airline miles for free round-trip flights to Miami (saving $1,200 to $2,000 in cash), use hotel points for a free pre-cruise night at a port hotel (saving $150 to $250), and then pay cash for a cruise fare they found during a Wave Season promotion. The total out-of-pocket cost for the entire vacation might be half or less of what it would have been without the strategic use of points.
Method Four: Statement Credits and Purchase Eraser Tools
Several credit card programs allow you to redeem points as statement credits to erase recent travel purchases from your credit card bill. This method works with any cruise booked on any credit card — you book and pay for the cruise normally, then use your points to wipe the charge from your statement.
Capital One’s Purchase Eraser is one of the most well-known versions of this approach. You book your cruise, charge it to your Capital One card, and then log into your account and apply your Venture miles to erase the charge at a rate of one cent per mile. Other programs offer similar features with varying redemption rates.
The advantage of this method is maximum flexibility. You can book any cruise on any cruise line through any channel — the cruise line’s website, a travel agent, a sale event — and then use your points to cover the cost after the fact. There are no restrictions on which sailings qualify and no need to book through a specific portal.
The disadvantage is that the redemption rate for statement credits is sometimes lower than what you could get through a travel portal or a transfer partner, so you may be leaving some value on the table.
Method Five: Use Hotel Points for Onboard Credit or Cruise Packages
Some hotel loyalty programs offer cruise-related redemption options. Certain programs allow you to convert hotel points into cruise line gift cards, onboard credits, or package deals that include cruise fare and hotel nights together. The value of these conversions varies widely, and you need to calculate the per-point value carefully to determine whether it is a good deal.
In some cases, hotel-to-cruise conversions offer surprisingly good value — especially during promotional periods when the conversion rates are boosted. In other cases, you would get far better value using those hotel points for hotel nights and paying cash for the cruise.
Real Stories from Real Points-Funded Cruises
The Garcias’ Entirely Free Caribbean Cruise
The Garcia family — two parents and two children from Houston — booked a seven-night Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean and paid for the entire vacation using points and miles. They used 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the Sapphire Reserve travel portal to cover $1,800 of the cruise fare. They redeemed 50,000 United MileagePlus miles for two round-trip flights from Houston to Fort Lauderdale (the cruise departure port). They used 35,000 Hilton Honors points for a free pre-cruise night at a Hilton near the port. And they redeemed 25,000 Chase points for the remaining port taxes and fees.
Their total out-of-pocket cost for a seven-night Caribbean cruise for four people — including flights, a hotel night, the cruise fare, taxes, and port fees — was zero dollars. The total points redeemed had a combined value of approximately $2,800, which they had accumulated over roughly two years of normal credit card spending and targeted sign-up bonuses.
The Garcias say the key was planning the redemption in stages rather than trying to cover everything with a single points currency. By using airline miles for flights, hotel points for the hotel, and credit card points for the cruise fare, they maximized the value of each currency and avoided overpaying in any single category.
Rachel’s Solo Alaska Cruise on Points
Rachel, a 33-year-old software engineer from Seattle, used a combination of American Express Membership Rewards points and statement credits to book a solo seven-night Alaska cruise on Celebrity Cruises. She had accumulated 180,000 Membership Rewards points over three years through her Amex Platinum card and targeted spending bonuses.
Rachel booked the cruise directly through Celebrity during a promotional sale that included a free classic drink package and $150 in onboard credit. She paid for the cruise fare with her Amex Platinum card and then used 130,000 Membership Rewards points to cover the majority of the charge through Amex’s Pay with Points feature. Her remaining out-of-pocket cost for the cruise fare, after applying points, was $220 — which she considered a bargain for a week in Alaska with a balcony cabin, a drink package, and onboard credit included.
Because Rachel lives in Seattle — a common Alaska cruise departure port — she did not need to fly to the port, which eliminated the airfare expense entirely. She drove to the terminal and parked for the week, spending $140 on parking. Her total cash outlay for the entire seven-night Alaska cruise was $360.
Rachel says the key insight was booking the cruise during a promotional sale to capture the included perks, and then applying points to the discounted fare rather than the full fare. By stacking the cruise line’s promotion with her credit card points, she got dramatically more value than she would have by redeeming points for a cruise at full price through a travel portal.
Michael and Jennifer’s Anniversary Mediterranean Cruise
Michael and Jennifer, a couple from Atlanta celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary, executed what they call a triple-layer points strategy to book a ten-night Mediterranean cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line.
Layer one was airfare. They transferred 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United MileagePlus and booked two round-trip flights from Atlanta to Barcelona in economy class for 60,000 miles each. Cash price for those flights would have been approximately $1,400 per person.
Layer two was hotels. They used 70,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for two nights at a Marriott in Barcelona — one night before the cruise and one night after — saving approximately $400 in cash.
Layer three was the cruise fare. They booked the Norwegian cruise during a Black Friday promotion that offered a reduced fare, free drink package, free Wi-Fi, and $200 in onboard credit. They paid the discounted fare of $3,200 for the couple using their Capital One Venture card, then redeemed 320,000 Venture miles to erase the entire charge from their statement.
Their total cash outlay for a ten-night Mediterranean cruise with round-trip flights, two hotel nights in Barcelona, a drink package, Wi-Fi, and onboard credit was essentially zero. The total points and miles redeemed had been accumulated over approximately three years of coordinated credit card spending between the two of them.
Michael says the triple-layer strategy was the key. Instead of trying to find a single redemption that covered everything, they broke the trip into components and used the best points currency for each one. The result was a luxury anniversary cruise that would have cost approximately $7,000 in cash — funded entirely by travel rewards.
Tom’s Last-Minute Points Cruise
Tom, a 45-year-old sales director from Chicago, found himself with an unexpected week off work and decided to see if he could book a last-minute cruise using points. He had approximately 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and wanted to use them for a Caribbean getaway.
Tom logged into the Chase travel portal and searched for cruises departing within the next six weeks. He found a five-night Bahamas cruise on Carnival departing from Jacksonville, Florida, in four weeks. The portal price for a balcony cabin was $680 per person — significantly discounted from the original fare due to the last-minute departure. Tom redeemed 90,700 points through his Sapphire Reserve card at 1.5 cents per point to cover the $1,360 fare for himself and his wife.
He then used 25,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points for two round-trip flights from Chicago to Jacksonville. The flights would have cost approximately $380 in cash. His total points expenditure was roughly 116,000 points across two currencies for a five-night cruise vacation with flights included.
Tom says the last-minute approach worked in his favor because cruise lines discount unsold cabins aggressively as the departure date approaches. By combining a last-minute cash deal with portal point redemption, he got more value per point than he would have on a cruise booked months in advance at full price.
Step-by-Step Strategy for Planning Your Points-Funded Cruise
Now that you understand the methods and have seen them in action, here is a structured approach to planning your own cruise vacation using points and miles.
Step One: Inventory Your Points
Before you start dreaming about destinations, take stock of what you have. Log into every credit card rewards account, airline frequent flyer program, and hotel loyalty program you belong to. Write down the balances. Identify which currencies are transferable to partners and which are restricted to specific redemption channels. Knowing your complete points inventory is the foundation of your planning.
Step Two: Choose Your Cruise First
Do not start with “how can I use my points.” Start with “what cruise do I want to take.” Browse cruise line websites, talk to a travel agent, and identify the specific sailing, ship, itinerary, and cabin category that excites you. Get the cash price. Then figure out how to pay for it with points.
This approach ensures you book the cruise you actually want rather than settling for whatever happens to be available in a particular travel portal. The goal is to use points to fund your dream cruise, not to let your points inventory dictate your vacation.
Step Three: Break the Trip Into Components
Separate the total trip cost into its major components — the cruise fare, the airfare, the pre- and post-cruise hotels, the ground transportation, and any other significant expenses. Then evaluate which points currency gives you the best value for each component.
Airline miles typically offer the best value for flights. Hotel points typically offer the best value for hotel nights. Credit card travel portal points or statement credits typically offer the best value for the cruise fare itself. By matching each component to the optimal currency, you maximize the total value of your redemption.
Step Four: Watch for Sales Before Redeeming
This is critical and often overlooked. The value of your points redemption depends not just on the redemption rate but also on the cash price you are offsetting. If a cruise fare is $3,000 at full price, redeeming 200,000 points to cover it gives you 1.5 cents per point. If the same cruise goes on sale for $2,000 during a Wave Season promotion and you redeem 133,000 points, you still get 1.5 cents per point but you spend 67,000 fewer points — points you can save for your next trip.
Always check for promotional pricing before redeeming points. Booking during sales events stretches your points further and allows you to get more vacations out of the same points balance over time.
Step Five: Consider the Hybrid Approach
You do not have to pay for the entire cruise with points. A hybrid approach — using points for part of the cost and cash for the rest — is often the most practical strategy, especially for expensive sailings or longer itineraries. Using points to cover the airfare and hotel while paying cash for a discounted cruise fare is a common and effective hybrid approach that many experienced rewards travelers swear by.
Maximizing Your Points Earning for Future Cruises
Once you have booked your first points-funded cruise, you will want to start building your balances for the next one. Here are some strategies for accelerating your points earning.
Credit card sign-up bonuses are the single fastest way to accumulate large points balances. Many travel credit cards offer bonuses of 50,000 to 100,000 points or more for meeting a minimum spending threshold within the first few months of opening the account. A single well-timed sign-up bonus can cover a significant portion of a cruise fare.
Maximize category spending bonuses. Most travel credit cards offer bonus points on specific spending categories — three times points on dining, five times points on travel, two times points on groceries. By using the right card for each category of spending, you can earn points two to five times faster than using a flat-rate card for everything.
Use shopping portals and dining programs to earn bonus points on everyday spending you are already doing. These passive earning strategies add up faster than you might expect, often generating thousands of bonus points per year with zero additional effort.
Pay attention to promotional earning opportunities. Credit card issuers and loyalty programs regularly offer limited-time bonus earning promotions — extra points for specific spending categories, bonus miles for certain flights, or boosted earning rates for partner transactions. Taking advantage of these promotions when they align with spending you were already going to do accelerates your earning without increasing your spending.
The Math Adds Up: Points-Funded Cruises Are Real
If you have been sitting on a pile of credit card points, airline miles, or hotel points and wondering what to do with them, consider this. A seven-night cruise for two people — including flights, a hotel night, and the cruise fare — might cost $4,000 to $6,000 in cash. With strategic use of points and miles accumulated through normal spending and sign-up bonuses over one to three years, you can cover most or all of that cost.
You do not need to be wealthy to cruise. You do not need to be a miles-and-points expert. You just need to understand the options, match your points to the right redemption channels, and plan with a little bit of strategy. The rewards you have already been earning have real, tangible cruise vacation value. All you need to do is put them to work.
Your next cruise might already be sitting in your points accounts, waiting for you to claim it.
20 Powerful and Uplifting Quotes About Smart Travel, Reward, and the Joy of the Journey
1. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbor.” — Mark Twain
2. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” — Saint Augustine
3. “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” — Anonymous
4. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd
5. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
6. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” — Jacques Cousteau
7. “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey
8. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
9. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius
10. “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” — Amelia Earhart
11. “Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
12. “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” — Gustave Flaubert
13. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — Andre Gide
14. “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” — Unknown
15. “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” — Dalai Lama
16. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” — Neale Donald Walsch
17. “Investment in travel is an investment in yourself.” — Matthew Karsten
18. “Collect moments, not things.” — Unknown
19. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
20. “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination, and brings eternal joy to the soul.” — Wyland
Picture This
Close your eyes for a moment and really let yourself feel this.
It is embarkation morning. The sun is warm on your face as you step out of the hotel shuttle at the cruise terminal. The ship towers above you — massive and white and gleaming against a cloudless blue sky. Around you, families and couples are buzzing with excitement, dragging suitcases, clutching boarding passes, and snapping photos of the ship they are about to call home for the next week.
You have a boarding pass too. And a suitcase. And that same electric excitement humming through your chest. But you also have something most of the people around you do not — the quiet, private satisfaction of knowing exactly how you paid for this.
You did not pay five thousand dollars in cash. You did not put it on a credit card and brace for the bill. You did not dip into your savings or sacrifice anything from your regular budget. You paid for this cruise with points and miles. Rewards you accumulated over the past two years from spending money you were going to spend anyway — groceries, gas, dining out, online shopping, the occasional well-timed sign-up bonus. Every swipe of your credit card was quietly building toward this moment, and now you are here.
The flights that brought you to this port city yesterday were free — booked with airline miles. The hotel you slept in last night was free — booked with hotel points. The cruise fare that is about to give you seven nights on the ocean, with a balcony cabin, meals, entertainment, and a new destination every morning, was covered entirely by credit card points redeemed through a travel portal during a Wave Season sale. The total cash you spent on this entire trip — flights, hotel, cruise, everything — was less than two hundred dollars for taxes, tips, and incidentals.
You board the ship. You walk through the atrium. A crew member smiles and says, “Welcome aboard.” You find your cabin. You step onto the balcony. The port stretches out below you. The ocean shimmers beyond the harbor. And you stand there, hands on the railing, breathing in salt air and sunlight, knowing that this — all of this — was earned, planned, and paid for with points that would have sat unused in your account if you had not taken the time to learn how to use them.
That is the thing about points and miles. They have no value sitting in an account. They only become valuable when you turn them into experiences. And right now, standing on this balcony, watching the crew prepare the ship for departure, you are turning yours into one of the best experiences of your life.
The horn sounds. The ship begins to move. The dock slides away behind you. The open ocean opens up ahead. And you smile — not just because the cruise is beginning, but because you know something that most people never figure out. You know that the rewards you earn every day, from the spending you are already doing, can carry you to places you never thought you could afford. All you need is a plan, a little patience, and the willingness to learn.
You have all three. And the proof is the ocean stretching out in front of you right now, endless and sparkling, taking you somewhere extraordinary.
On points.
Share This Article
If this article showed you a way to use your points and miles that you had never considered — or if it gave you a concrete strategy for booking a cruise vacation you thought was out of reach — please take a moment to share it with someone who has a pile of points and no idea they could be used for a cruise.
Think about the people in your life. Maybe you know someone who has been collecting credit card points for years but has only ever redeemed them for gift cards or statement credits at mediocre rates. They have no idea that those same points could put them on a cruise ship. This article could completely reframe how they see their rewards.
Maybe you know a couple who has been dreaming about a cruise but keeps putting it off because of the cost. They do not realize that between their credit card points, airline miles, and hotel points, they might already have enough to cover most or all of the trip. A single shared article could be the thing that turns their someday into a booking confirmation.
Maybe you know a family that travels a lot and earns points across multiple programs but has never thought about combining those currencies strategically for a single big trip. The triple-layer approach — using airline miles for flights, hotel points for hotels, and credit card points for the cruise — could save them thousands of dollars on their next family vacation.
Maybe you know someone who is brand new to points and miles and just got their first travel credit card. They are earning points every month and have no idea what to do with them. This article gives them a vision of what those points can become and a roadmap for getting there.
So go ahead — copy the link and send it to every points collector you know. Text it to the friend who just mentioned wanting to take a cruise. Email it to the family member who keeps asking what they should do with their credit card rewards. Share it in your travel communities, your miles-and-points groups, and anywhere people are talking about how to make travel rewards work harder.
You could be the reason someone finally books the cruise they have been dreaming about — funded entirely by rewards they were already earning. Help us spread the word, and let us make sure every traveler knows that their points can take them further than they ever imagined.
Disclaimer
This article is intended for informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. All content provided within this article — including but not limited to points and miles redemption strategies, credit card program descriptions, travel portal explanations, transfer partner information, personal stories, and general travel rewards advice — is based on general travel industry knowledge, widely known rewards strategies, personal anecdotes, and commonly shared traveler experiences. The examples, stories, redemption rates, point values, and scenarios included in this article are meant to illustrate common situations and strategies and should not be taken as guarantees, promises, or predictions of any particular redemption value, availability, pricing, or travel outcome.
Every traveler’s situation is unique. Individual redemption rates, point values, transfer ratios, portal pricing, promotional availability, credit card benefits, and program terms will vary significantly depending on a wide range of factors including but not limited to the specific credit card issuer, the loyalty programs involved, the current terms and conditions of each program (which can and do change at any time without notice), the cruise line and sailing selected, the time of booking, promotional availability, and countless other variables. Credit card sign-up bonuses, earning rates, and redemption options are subject to change and may require specific spending thresholds or application approval.
The author, publisher, website, and any affiliated parties, contributors, editors, or partners make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, currentness, suitability, or availability of the information, advice, redemption strategies, program descriptions, opinions, or related content contained in this article for any purpose whatsoever. This article does not endorse or recommend any specific credit card, credit card issuer, cruise line, loyalty program, or booking platform. Any reliance you place on the information provided in this article is strictly at your own risk.
This article does not constitute professional financial advice, credit counseling, travel consulting, legal advice, or any other form of professional guidance. The use of credit cards and the accumulation of points through spending carry financial risks and responsibilities. Always use credit responsibly, pay balances in full when possible, and consult with qualified financial professionals before making financial decisions based on rewards strategies. Always verify current program terms, redemption rates, and promotional offers directly with the relevant program or credit card issuer before making any redemption or booking decisions.
In no event shall the author, publisher, website, or any associated parties, affiliates, contributors, or partners be liable for any loss, financial harm, booking error, redemption disappointment, credit card fees, interest charges, damage, expense, or negative outcome of any kind — whether direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or otherwise — arising from or in any way connected with the use of this article, the reliance on any information contained within it, or any financial, booking, or redemption decisions made as a result of reading this content.
By reading, sharing, bookmarking, or otherwise engaging with this article in any way, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this disclaimer in its entirety, and you voluntarily agree to release and hold harmless the author, publisher, website, and all associated parties from any and all claims, demands, causes of action, liabilities, damages, and responsibilities of every kind and nature, known or unknown, arising from or in any way related to your use, interpretation, or application of the content provided in this article.
Redeem wisely, earn responsibly, verify current program terms, and always make financial decisions that align with your personal budget, needs, and circumstances.
