Like with Carnival, you are eligible if you have 100 shares of RCL stock. With Carnival, you get $250 (14+ nights), $100 (7-13), or $50 (5 or fewer) but with Royal Caribbean there are four tiers of benefits. It’s only one extra tier but those going on sailings of 10-13 nights will appreciate the extra hundred bucks! Here are the tiers:

• 14 nights+: $250 onboard credit per stateroom
• 10-13 nights: $200
• 6-9 nights: $100
• 5 or fewer: $50

These benefits are available for Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises (excluding Celebrity Xpeditions) or Azamara Club Cruises Sailings.

There are a few other caveats. The stateroom must be double occupancy and you get one benefit per stateroom, the one the shareholder is in. You can redeem the benefit as many times as you want by:

Provide your name, address, confirmation number, ship and sailing date along with a copy of your shareholder proxy card or a current brokerage statement showing proof of share ownership in Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.
Via Mail: RCL Investor Benefit, PO Box 025511, Miami, Florida 33102-5511
Via Fax: 1-305-373-6699 Via Email: shareholderbenefit@rccl.com

I hope you can take advantage of it!

Perhaps it’s the recession, perhaps they want to say thanks, but double credit is back at BWI (and Philadelphia and Washington Dulles) and any flight into and out of those airports will receive double credit in the Rapid Rewards program. Travel must be booked between July 15th and August 15th and completed before September 30th.

All you need to do is register at this link.

Terms & Conditions:

The Rapid Rewards Award is free, but travel is subject to the government-imposed September 11th Security Fee of up to $10 per roundtrip. Travel good on Southwest Airlines published, scheduled service.

Terms and Conditions: One additional credit per one-way will be issued, except Business Select. Business Select Customers will receive 2.25 credits for flights less than 750 miles and 3.0 credits for flights 750 miles or longer. Member must register for this promotion between July 15, 2010 and August 11, 2010 to qualify, and registration must be completed prior to commencement of travel. Valid on new reservations only. Reservations must be booked between July 15, 2010 and August 15, 2010 for travel into or out of Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington, or Washington (Dulles). Qualifying travel must be completed between July 15, 2010 and September 30, 2010. Rapid Rewards account number must be entered at the time of booking. Travel on an Award or Companion Pass does not qualify for promotion. Bonus flight credits do not count toward A-List qualification. Rapid Rewards credit will post to your account within four days of completing travel. Changes made to the itinerary after purchase may eliminate qualification for this promotion. All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply. BN029

The allure of free points and miles when you sign up for a new credit is really appealing but it isn’t free, even if there is no annual fee. There are the costs you can see and the costs you can’t. It’s clear that hotel stays will cost you money. It’s clear that spending money will, of course, cost you money! There is, however, one cost that you will pay that you may not realize and it’s a small hit to your credit score.

Your credit score is based on a variety of factors and one of them is the number of new accounts you’ve recently applied for. When you apply for a credit card, the credit card issuer will initiate a hard inquiry for your report and that inquiry will result in a small reduction in your score. The reasoning is that someone who is requesting more credit is riskier than someone who isn’t.

Normally, this isn’t a big deal. Your score will take a temporary hit but it’ll recover shortly. This is most damaging right before you need a large loan, such as on a home mortgage or a car loan. If you are planning on getting a loan like that within a year, I’d avoid apply for any new credit cards regardless of how many points they’re offering! If your score drops enough, you could end up paying thousands of dollars in interest or even be denied the loan.

If your score is high enough, you can check with a service like myFICO, or you don’t intend to get a loan in the near future, by all means go for it. I personally feel that you shouldn’t let your credit score dictate what you can and cannot do, but sometimes we need to bend a little to its will in order to get what we want.

So the next time you see a hot new offer for tens of thousands of miles or points, remember it does come at a small cost.

If you think the best part about a cruise is life on the ship, a cruise to nowhere may be exactly what the doctor ordered. Cruises to nowhere let you enjoy life on the ship without the extra hassle of entering into any ports. With the size cruise ships are today, you could easily fill your days with activities on the ship and many cruise lines are catering to this type of customer.

Cruises to Nowhere are often cheaper because you don’t have to pay any docking or port fees, which can get quite expensive if your ship docks in numerous ports. They’re also cheaper because they’re shorter, no more than two or three days, so you don’t get sick of being on the ship even though that’s exactly what you signed up for!

I’ve never gone on a cruise to nowhere and I’m not entirely convinced I’d enjoy them, as I get bored quickly with things, but sometimes you need a getaway and you can’t really beat the deals you get on these types of cruises. I recently found a “Cruise to Nowhere” on Norwegian Cruise Line on the Norwegian Pearl starting at $149 for a quick two night cruise to Great Stirrup Cay. On that particular cruise you do go “somewhere” but with only a day in Bermuda it’s more cruise than land.

What makes these deals even better is that they count as sailings towards your cruise loyalty rewards program. Need a few more sailings before you get to the next tier in the Carnival Past Guest loyalty program? Hit up a cruise to nowhere.

Not a bad deal if you want a quick getaway on the cheap and have the cruise bug!

(Photo: mascardo1)

The American Express Hilton HHonors card is the Hilton branded American Express rewards card that, among other things, rewards you quite generously when you spend it at Hilton hotels. Simply apply for the card and you can earn 62,500 points just by:

• 20,000 HHonors bonus points after your first purchase
• 30,000 HHonors bonus points when you spend $1,500 in your first three months of Cardmembership
• 2,500 HHonors bonus points for each of the first four stays at any participating properties within the hilton Worldwide portfolio paid for with the Card during the first 18 months of Cardmembership
• 2,500 HHonors bonus points when you add an Additional Cardmember to your account

Here’s the application link.

The best part? No annual fee. Most travel cards have fees and they are able to reward you so generously after your first purchase or with additional cardmembers because they earn it back on annual fees. This card has no fee, so there’s no worry that you will back into an annual fee.

The Hilton HHonors Program is very straightforward, free to join, and you can spend your points easily. Periodically they run Point Stretcher promotions, where your points go further when booking rooms, but their Category 1 rooms cost only 7,500 a night. 62,500 points can go a very very long way, that’s not even counting the points you earn when you use the card normally.

If you’re looking to give your Hilton HHonors reward point balance a boost, here’s an easy way to give it a 62,500 point boost.

Earning Rewards

The rewards structure is pretty standard – 1 point for most purchases and 2x points earned on airfare booked through Ultimate Rewards. The points never expire, which is a fantastic perk, and there is no annual fee. A no annual fee travel rewards credit is very rare. Most credit card companies will waive the first year’s fee but charge it in subsequent years, but Chase doesn’t with the Sapphire card. No annual fee means no annual fee this year and no annual fee next year.

Here’s a little extra incentive that very few other rewards cards are offering: after your first purchase, you hit the ground running with 10,000 Ultimate Rewards reward points, worth $100 in rewards from many of their partners.

Redeeming Rewards

Ultimate Rewards is the rewards program and redeeming your points is as straightforward as at any other program. You can convert your points into gift cards from places like Best Buy and you can also convert it into products from vendors like Amazon. The redemptions start at 2,500 points so you can convert them fairly quickly.

If you prefer cash, you can do that as well by turning 2,000 points into $20. Some reward programs make it difficult, or at least expensive, to convert your points back into cash but not so with Ultimate Rewards.

Chase Blueprint

If you’ve seen the commercials about Chase’s new Chase Blueprint program, you’ll be happy to learn that it’s available on the Chase Sapphire as well. Chase Blueprint helps you map out a payment plan that works with your tendencies. There is a suite of budgeting tools to help make sure you don’t overspend and you can pick several ways to pay back your balances.

Overall, I’m impressed with the Chase Sapphire card because it’s one of the few travel rewards cards that doesn’t have an annual fee and has favorable point earning schedules.

Here’s a shot of me and our dog Tobey:

The scenery is mostly woodland areas and every so often you cross over a wet puddle or two:

All in all, it’s a nice relaxing hike that gets you a little exercise but isn’t terribly taxing. If nothing else, it’s a little appetizer for what’s to come when we go to Lake Tahoe!

Passport Entry Requirements

• If you travel by air from any international location, you are required to have a U.S. Passport Book in order to regain entry.
• If you travel by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean Region, you will need to supply a U.S. Passport Book or Card.
• If you travel from any U.S. territory, you only need a valid photo ID.

Visa Requirements

If you travel to Canada and are a citizen of the United States, you do not need a visa to visit Canada. Specifically the following do not need a visa to visit Canada – citizens of the United States as well as:

persons lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence who are in possession of their alien registration card (Green card) or can provide other evidence of permanent residence;

If you travel to Mexico and are a citizen of the United States, you will not need a visa but you will need a U.S. Passport (to show that you can return to the United States) or other form of citizenship identification.

Also, if you need extra passport visa pages, it’s currently free but will jump to $82 on July 13th (you can only get extra pages if you have fewer than 4 Visa pages remaining). Finally, if you wish to renounce your U.S. Citizenship, the price of that will jump from free to $450.

You still have a few days to file your documents and save yourself some money. Passport books for adults are valid for ten years while for minors they are good for only five.

If you’re considering travel insurance, check with your credit card company first because they may offer complimentary insurance if you make the purchase with their card. Not all cards offer this but many do and, like purchase protection and other benefits, it really pays to know what you get for free. You can spend the savings on your vacation!

Citi

Some Citi cards offer a Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption benefit that will give you up to $1,500 in Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption coverage in the event you cannot take or continue a trip you’ve paid for with your card. I noticed this benefit on my Citi Dividend World MasterCard in a recent mailing but it’s on several of their cards including:

• Citi® Gold and Platinum Select / AAdvantage® World MasterCard®
• Citi PremierPass® Card – Regular and Elite Level
• Citi PremierPass® Expedia.com Card – Regular and Elite Level
• Citi Chairman® American Express® Card
• Citi® American Express® Cards – Citi AAdvantage, Citi Chairman, Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards, Citi Platinum, Citi Premier Pass, Citi Select AAdvantage.

You can learn more here.

American Express

American Express also offers Trip Cancellation insurance included on some of their cards. Some of the cards were listed under Citi (Citi is the branded card, AMEX is the payments processor on those cards) but the insurance works in the same way – you usually get $1,500 per insured persons to a maximum of $3,000 for all persons combined if you cancel for a covered reason.

In addition to the included coverages for trip cancellation, several American Express cards offer other travel related insurance coverage such as baggage insurance, AD&D insurance, etc. You can learn more about all the travel insurances American Express offers here.

JPMorgan Chase

Chase has rolled out several cards that offer travel insurance, including their travel card – Chase Sapphire. The cards that do offer this type of insurance often have the whole portfolio of insurances – trip cancellation insurance, auto rental collision damage waivers, travel accident and travel delay insurance, lost luggage, baggage delay, roadside dispatch and travel & emergency services (that’s an exact listing of the insurances available on the Chase Sapphire).

The next time you go to book a trip, check to see if one of your credit cards offers complimentary travel insurance and save yourself some money!

(Photo: streamishmc)