Pre-paid gratuity offer...legit?

[lochncup]

I am getting ready to book a B2B cruise and was going to book directly with the cruise line till I started checking out some of the online TAs. The prices all seem to be the same but they all have different offers for OBC, etc. These perks are very tempting and I have zeroed in on one TA that offers prepaid gratuities. Because of the number of cruise days involved, this would be a much better perk than OBC which other agencies are offering. My concern is…is this a valid offer? Have any of you ever gotten prepaid gratuities from your TA and how does it work? I do see that this TA is one of the agencies listed here on this Cruise Critic site but that doesn’t really vouch for them. How can I ensure that this TA is a reputable agency? I know that we are not allowed to discuss TA's on this board but I would appreciate it if you could direct me to a site that does review online TAs? Thank you!

[jewopaho]

I believe I know the agency you're referencing ... they run that promotion on a regular basis. The only caveat is that you must book at least a balcony stateroom ... and even then, it could be of a higher category. The agency has been around for years, and I've booked there with no problems .

[Jesscap5]

Yes they are legit and so is the offer(s). ;)

[cb at sea]

Prepaid tips happen from TA;s all the time.

[compozer]

What's the difference from OBC's - They can be used for tips.

[okbowler]

What's the difference from OBC's - They can be used for tips.[

 

OBC is probably less than tips for 14 day cruise, and probably prepaid tips cannot be used for anything else. Bill

[schmoopie17]

From the description, I'm pretty sure we used this TA for our upcoming cruise. Yes, the offer is real...unless the price of your cruise drops, like ours did. Our price dropped $150 per person, so they pulled the prepaid gratuities offer away from us and now we are paying them ourselves. Oh well, we still come out about $200 ahead all things considered.