Navigating Water Journeys: The Ease of Booking with Credit Cards

From luxurious Mediterranean cruises to popular Hawaiian catamaran tours and convenient city water taxis, there are a wide variety of water-based travel experiences that open up unique sightseeing opportunities for adventure seekers. However, booking these exciting water journeys often comes at a premium cost that can strain vacation budgets. This is where leveraging rewards credit cards can help offset some of that expensive. This comprehensive guide explores best practices for maximizing your accumulated credit card points and travel mile redemptions when booking water excursions big and small. Follow these tips to get the most value from your rewards.

Types of Water Journeys to Book

There are a number of different types of water journey bookings that are compatible for credit card point redemptions and travel rewards usage:

• Cruises: From sprawling ocean liner cruises embarking from major port cities to more intimate river boat cruises through scenic inland waterways, most major cruise providers now let you pay for all or part of your cruise booking using earned points and miles. This includes mega carriers like Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Princess.
• Boat Tours & Rentals: You can also book sightseeing adventures like sailing excursions, deep sea fishing boat rentals, high-speed boat rides and even submarine tours using your accrued travel rewards from eligible credit cards. This allows you to save on these à la carte water activities.
• City Water Transit: Paying for practical local water transit like water taxis, ferries and area sightseeing boats using points is also possible in some metro areas. This stretches your rewards value for basic transportation needs.

Benefits of Booking With a Credit Card

There are a variety of advantages to putting water journeys like cruises, boat rentals and water excursions on a travel rewards credit card over paying by cash, check or debit card. These include:

• Earn Rewards: You have the ability to rack up points, airline miles or cash back rewards at an accelerated pace to redeem toward statement credits that offset your water trip purchases or to book discounts on future travel. This saves substantially on costs.
• Buyer Protection: You also get access to buyer protection from your card provider when paying for water journeys by credit card. This allows you to more easily dispute fraudulent charges or recoup costs should a journey get cancelled unexpectedly.
• Bonus Perks: Certain premium travel rewards credit cards include nice complimentary bonuses when you pay for cruises and other water transportation tickets using the card. This can include extras like travel and baggage insurance, priority boarding privileges at ports, onboard credits to spend during your journey, etc.
• Flexible Cancellations: It can sometimes be easier to cancel an existing cruise booking or other water tour that was purchased via credit card to receive a refund when compared to prepaying by cash or check. The card provides a buffer with the vendor.
• Emergency Support: Lost your wallet containing physical tickets while in the cruise terminal? Had your boat tour departure time changed last minute? Your credit card provider has a vested interest in getting you on your way and can quickly help resolve issues or provide emergency trip support if plans go awry.

Choosing the Best Credit Card

When it comes to maximizing monetary rewards through credit card bookings of water-focused trips, the most critical factor is picking the optimal card tailored to your specific spending and redemption goals. Some top options include:

• Travel Rewards Cards: For versatile redemption across any type of cruise line, boat rental or water tour company, look to flat-rate travel rewards cards that earn generous points per dollar spent booking airfare, hotels, tours, activities and also cruises or water transportation costs. Ever popular picks include the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture cards which allow transferring points to various loyalty programs for maximum flexibility.
• Cruise Rewards Cards: If you are a devoted cruise lover who spends most of your vacation time on the seas, then consider getting a co-brand rewards card directly affiliated with your preferred cruise company. An example would be the Carnival Mastercard that offers accelerated point bonuses and money-saving perks when you use it to pay for Carnival cruises and associated portfolio ships exclusively.
• Flexible or Cash Back Cards: If you don’t want to be tied down to a single airline mileage program or hotel chain, another route is getting an unrestricted flexible point or cash back rewards card with a nice sign-up bonus and generous earning potential across all travel category spending. You can earn on water journeys taken through any provider and redeem rewards however best fits your needs.

Earning Rewards on Your Booking

It’s important to remember that with most travel rewards credit cards, you must meet certain spending thresholds and booking requirements to earn and qualify points associated with cruise packages or water transportation purchases. For example, with cruises you often must prepay the full fare upfront at booking for the charge to be eligible toward introductory bonus thresholds and ongoing point earnings. If only putting down a refundable deposit now, consider waiting until 30 days or so pre-departure to pay the full cruise balance so the transaction posts in time to earn rewards. And don’t forget you can use earned points toward other related travel too – like flights to the port, ground transportation or hotel stays before an early embarkation.

Important Credit Card Considerations

In addition to focusing rewards optimization when leveraging credit cards to prepay for water journeys, it’s also important to analyze what specific coverage protections or insurance benefits apply to cruises or boat tours should you need to cancel due to illness or other issues arise during your trip. Be sure to read the complete cardholder agreement’s fine print to know what is and isn’t covered under your card so there are no surprises accessing protections if needed pre or mid-voyage.

And while you may be primarily getting an aqua-focused card for the generous sign-up bonuses and ongoing rewards earnings toward cruises or sailing charters, remember some of cards also offer nice one-time bonuses you could use toward any travel once approved – like the Merrick Bank card we mention in depth in our article.

Conclusion

Taking once-in-a-lifetime bucket list voyages on the open ocean or exploring new exotic destinations accessible only by water often requires investing a sizable amount into your travel budget. However, by strategically booking cruises, popular sightseeing boat tours or local water taxi transportation using travel rewards credit cards, you can offset a portion of these costs through earned points and miles redemptions, statement credits, cardholder perks and built-in protections. Just be sure to research and select the right card tailored to your particular redemption goals and remember key considerations around qualifying earnings activities and insured coverage specifics before setting sail. Follow these best practices and you’ll be smooth sailing both financially and experientially on your next water-based getaway!