Shareholder Benefits - Cruising Credit

[TheCruisingKids]

I received $200 credit through my travel agent for booking the May 20th cruise on the Century. I also owned 100+ shares of Royal Caribbean stock. According to their website, $250 credit is given for my cruise if you own at least 100 shares.

 

What I am confused though, is that they say I cannot combined my credit that I received when I booked through my travel agent with the investor credit. The investor site even says

"

9.Combinability?Please note that as of December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is no longer combinable with other Onboard Booking Credits, Loyalty Programs and/or other Reduced Fare Offerings. For bookings made prior to December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is combinable under certain conditions. Please direct queries to investorrelations@rccl.com and a prompt response will be forthcoming.

"

Please correct me if I am wrong but "Onboard Booking Credit" is when you book your next cruise while on the cruise ship...

 

Thoughts?

[bob278]

I received $200 credit through my travel agent for booking the May 20th cruise on the Century. I also owned 100+ shares of Royal Caribbean stock. According to their website, $250 credit is given for my cruise if you own at least 100 shares.

 

What I am confused though, is that they say I cannot combined my credit that I received when I booked through my travel agent with the investor credit. The investor site even says

"

9.Combinability?Please note that as of December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is no longer combinable with other Onboard Booking Credits, Loyalty Programs and/or other Reduced Fare Offerings. For bookings made prior to December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is combinable under certain conditions. Please direct queries to investorrelations@rccl.com and a prompt response will be forthcoming.

"

Please correct me if I am wrong but "Onboard Booking Credit" is when you book your next cruise while on the cruise ship... that's correct

 

Thoughts?

There are several types of OBC/discounts that you can get from Celebrity. Included are shareholder benefits, booking while on board a cruise or Captains Club discount coupons.

 

Except in rare cases of promotions, you cannot combine any two that you get from Celebrity. But anything you get from an outside source such as a travel agent does not count.

 

In your example, you should get both the $250 S/H benefit and your TA OBC. If you had booked on board, you would have had to choose between that credit and the S/H benefit, but would still get the TA OBC on top of whichever you chose.

 

Hope this helps.

[Gonzo70]

If your travel agent is giving you the $200 OBC out of their commision, you can then also obtain the Shareholder OBC. However, if the travel agent is passing on $200 OBC that is coming out of Celebrity's pockets, then you cannot combine that with Shareholder OBC. You need to find out where your travel agent's OBC offer is coming from (their commission or a promotion by the cruise line).

[Wine-O]

I received $200 credit through my travel agent for booking the May 20th cruise on the Century. I also owned 100+ shares of Royal Caribbean stock. According to their website, $250 credit is given for my cruise if you own at least 100 shares.

 

What I am confused though, is that they say I cannot combined my credit that I received when I booked through my travel agent with the investor credit. The investor site even says

"

9.Combinability?Please note that as of December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is no longer combinable with other Onboard Booking Credits, Loyalty Programs and/or other Reduced Fare Offerings. For bookings made prior to December 31, 2008, the Shareholder Onboard Credit is combinable under certain conditions. Please direct queries to investorrelations@rccl.com and a prompt response will be forthcoming.

"

Please correct me if I am wrong but "Onboard Booking Credit" is when you book your next cruise while on the cruise ship...

 

Thoughts?

OBC from your travel agent does not count with regards to combining Celebrity OBC. You can get TA and Stockholder OBC at the same time. You just can't get Stockholder OBC and OBC for booking a cruise while on another cruise. You just take the higher amount of the two.

 

Additionally, OBC given to you by Celebrity because after making final payment, the price of the cruise went down. That OBC will be considered as "cash" and refunded to you onto your credit card after the end of the cruise if you don't use is all.

[PatC]

Also, what is the length of your cruise? If it's less than, I believe, 14 days, it's onlly $200. Check that out also.

 

Pat C

[Gonzo70]

Also, what is the length of your cruise? If it's less than, I believe, 14 days, it's onlly $200. Check that out also.

 

Pat C

 

It ranges from $50 to $250 depending on length of the cruise.

[mkmark]

Just to add in - I was denied my shareholder credit because Expedia offered an onboard credit for my booking. I didn't even realize that Expedia offered the credit until after the investor relations people told me I couldn't use my shareholder credit.

[stipmom]

Posted this above but I will also ask it here. Can you combine the stockholder credit with the American express cruise privilages program?

[firstplacechef]

You can with Bank Of America X rewards, so I would think yes.

[lbw]

I was able to combine the Amex Cruise Privileges with my shareholder benefit for my Solstice cruise 2 months ago. The first time I called Celebrity and asked about it, I was told no. But later I found out otherwise. So I emailed Celebrity with my brokerage statement and got a return email confirming my OBC. Then I asked my TA to add the Cruise Privileges since I had paid for the cruise with my Amex Platinum. When we got on board there was a bottle of champagne in our cabin from Amex, and, after a few days, the appropriate OBC was added to our account from Amex and from Celebrity.

 

By the way, if you're not a champagne person, you can trade the bottle for wine. We spoke to the wine steward the first night and he told us to bring the bottle with us to trade. The next evening he took the champagne and credited our account for about $32. Then we ordered a nice cabernet to drink with dinner and paid the difference.

[TheCruisingKids]

I know we got $200 ONC from Century as a booking bonus from them. If we lose that and have $250 instead as investor benefits.... I wonder if there is some way to get my TA to give us some OBC from them...

[BEAV]

If your travel agent is giving you the $200 OBC out of their commision, you can then also obtain the Shareholder OBC. However, if the travel agent is passing on $200 OBC that is coming out of Celebrity's pockets, then you cannot combine that with Shareholder OBC. You need to find out where your travel agent's OBC offer is coming from (their commission or a promotion by the cruise line).

 

You are absolutely correct. Whenever I recieve a quote from a TA that includes shipboard credits, I always ask the origin of such credits, explaning that I'm also a stockholder, and, as long as the credits are coming out of their commission, then I quality for the stockholder credits as well.

 

Be sure to ASK who shipboard credits are coming from (Travel Agent or Celebrity) to ensure you can "double dip" with the stockholder credits.

[hajekfam]

I received $200 credit through my travel agent for booking the May 20th cruise on the Century. I also owned 100+ shares of Royal Caribbean stock. According to their website, $250 credit is given for my cruise if you own at least 100 shares.

 

What I am confused though, is that they say I cannot combined my credit that I received when I booked through my travel agent with the investor credit.

 

Just to add in - I was denied my shareholder credit because Expedia offered an onboard credit for my booking. I didn't even realize that Expedia offered the credit until after the investor relations people told me I couldn't use my shareholder credit.

 

Celebrity has offered a few specials lately on certain cruises where they offered onboard credit. In both of these cases the posters might have booked during a Celebrity offer. I have noticed that it is sometimes very hard to distinguish if the credit is from the TA or from the cruiseline directly from the various TA ads and newsletters. You definitely need to ask where the onboard credit is coming from.