How I Earned 1 Million Points With My Family Cruise Booking

But, there is an even better way, one where I racked up more than one million points (and I’ve done it more than once) on a big family cruise vacation: airline-branded cruise agencies. These agencies also give you access to a cruise travel advisor, who can help you get better deals or onboard perks like cabin upgrades, dining or Wi-Fi credits and welcome gifts.

Let me walk you through how I combined the best of all of the above to score a seven-digit mileage bump to my frequent flyer account.

For a family of 18 and one babysitter, we needed four cabins, and we chose to book suites on Norwegian Viva. The cruise ship is part of the line’s Prima class of ships, which offers an elevated experience in dining, design and cabins. We booked The Haven, which is the hotel-within-a-hotel concept on the top floors.

The Haven comes with private elevator access, butler service, complimentary ensuite amenities like espresso machines and binoculars and access to The Haven lounge. There, we could enjoy all meals a la carte, although we typically spend time off the ship during the day.

Since I was paying in full using United co-branded credit cards, I earned all of the United MileagePlus miles for our trip. I was able to split my payments for the four suite cabins in The Haven across my two cards. But, if you are booking multiple cabins, different people can pay for each cabin so they’re each eligible to earn miles.

A 10-night Mediterranean cruise in a Family Suite in The Haven is not cheap. Fortunately, this was a special bucket-list trip for all of us, so we were prepared to spend for the experience. The total cost of the actual cruise was around $115,000 for 19 people, and when you multiply that by 10 miles per dollar spent, you end up with more than one million miles! You just have to be lucky enough, like me, to book a cruise when the highest mileage offer is available.

This is not the first time I have used the portal to book a cruise vacation either. I have earned close to 3 million miles through United Cruises alone for various family trips.

Not only do you earn 10 miles per dollar spent for a suite booking, but also you earn the miles for using a United credit card. So for the $115,000 I put on the card, I received 115,000 additional MileagePlus miles. And the first time I used United Cruises, I had signed up for a new United card so that I could earn the sign-up bonus after meeting (and obviously exceeding) that limit. So that netted another 70,000 miles into my account.

Earn elite status for booking a cruise

Delta Vacations regularly runs offers where trips booked through its portal award Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs), which can inch you closer to elite status (especially if booking an expensive cruise trip).

When booking my United cruise, I also earned Premier Qualifying Points for spending on my United credit cards. While this was of little consequence to me as I don’t fly much with United, it is a nice perk (especially if you reach a tier that gives you status with an alliance). With United, I reached Premier Gold, which gave me Star Alliance Gold status.

As a result, whenever flying a Star Alliance airline, I can use priority check-in and boarding, premium lounges and take advantage of preferred seats when eligible.

The perks also continue with United Cruises. I qualified for a special offer that comes with wine, strawberries and a spa credit, just for being a Premier member with United.

If you are hesitating to book your cruise through a third-party portal, it may ease your fears to know United Cruises provides you with a travel advisor that you can reach out to at any time via phone or email to handle any questions or particular needs. For example, I had to add a crib to the cabin, and they took care of it. They also can help with booking excursions or airport transfers.

Cruise lines pay a commission to agencies when they assist with a cruise booking. Then, the agency awards travelers some of the benefit (United miles in this United Cruises example). If you book directly with the cruise line, you would not receive any bonus.

Of course, there are times when cruise lines run incredible deals for booking directly. And frequent cruisers know that there are times when you can book a future sailing while on board an existing one. There are big credits and discounts that could make sense (and be more valuable than miles) if you can plan ahead.

Each traveler will have different circumstances that they need to meet, but using an airline-branded cruise portal has little downside.

Earning miles for booking a cruise vacation

If you have a cruise planned (no matter the cost), consider your options before plunking down your credit card to pay for a cruise. Be sure to think through which card in your wallet has certain benefits for reaching spending thresholds. Or if you are thinking of signing up for a new card, this could be the spending you need to earn a sign-up bonus.

When making a big travel purchase, it’s also important to consider whether to buy travel insurance or book with a credit card where travel insurance is built in.

For me, using United Cruises for a major 19-person family vacation proved to be quite the windfall for my MileagePlus account. If you play your cards right (both credit cards and elite status ones), it may be a mileage jackpot for you, too.