Can a future cruise be paid using OBC

[metter]

I am going on a cruise next week and will have over $400 OBC. Can I use this towards the future cruise deposit?

 

If not how else can I use it? Purchases in the shops?

[wrk2cruise]

No future cruise deposits must be made with credit card payment. OBC can generally be used for anything which would be applied to your seapass account.

[Lsimon]

I am going on a cruise next week and will have over $400 OBC. Can I use this towards the future cruise deposit?

 

If not how else can I use it? Purchases in the shops?

 

As wrk2cruise said, the future cruise deposits must be made directly to a credit card so OBC can't be applied directly to those. But as lots of threads on Cruise Critic discuss there are two types of OBC: refundable and non-refundable. If you have both then Celebrity uses the non-refundable first and any unused refundable is credited to the credit card you register at check in for your on board account.

 

What can you use OBC for? Well off the top of my head: extra cost beverages (soda pop, espresso coffee, alcoholic drinks), specialty restaurants, shops on board, excursions, photographs, bingo, gratuities, spa services, gelato (although their great ice cream has no extra charge) and the shuttle services available at some ports (mostly in Europe) to get from the ship to the town center. I've read that you can also get cash advances at the casino, at a cost of around 3%, but have never tried it myself. The OBC is applied as a credit to your on board account early in the cruise so it gets deducted from everything you charge to your on board account.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Lsimon

[upwarduk]

I had pre booked excursions and as we were on Select Dining, our gratuities had also been paid.

 

As we are not heavy drinkers, we had sufficient with our daily Elite vouchers.

We ended up buying an iPad from the on board Apple Store as the conversion rate $-£ was in our favour.

Edited April 1, 2014 by upwarduk

[TomTN]

As wrk2cruise said, the future cruise deposits must be made directly to a credit card so OBC can't be applied directly to those. But as lots of threads on Cruise Critic discuss there are two types of OBC: refundable and non-refundable. If you have both then Celebrity uses the non-refundable first and any unused refundable is credited to the credit card you register at check in for your on board account.

 

What can you use OBC for? Well off the top of my head: extra cost beverages (soda pop, espresso coffee, alcoholic drinks), specialty restaurants, shops on board, excursions, photographs, bingo, gratuities, spa services, gelato (although their great ice cream has no extra charge) and the shuttle services available at some ports (mostly in Europe) to get from the ship to the town center. I've read that you can also get cash advances at the casino, at a cost of around 3%, but have never tried it myself.

 

That does not make sense to me, and when I read what you wrote I believe you are somewhat skeptical. Basically X is saying "you must spend your OBC on our products. No cash refund." But if you go to the casino you can get a cash refund. Even if you buy chips you could just turn around and cash them in. At least you get 97% of your unused OBC back in cash.

I guess it is a topic for a new thread.:confused:

[forceten]

Somebody else said it was 5% penalty

 

Even then $400 you would only lose $20 and could get $380 back. So if you had $400 and thats true you cash it out at the casino and use that $380 for the future cruise.

[Doctor G]

That does not make sense to me, and when I read what you wrote I believe you are somewhat skeptical. Basically X is saying "you must spend your OBC on our products. No cash refund." But if you go to the casino you can get a cash refund. Even if you buy chips you could just turn around and cash them in. At least you get 97% of your unused OBC back in cash.

I guess it is a topic for a new thread.:confused:

 

 

I did this several times in February. Go to the casino ask for a specific amount of cash from your seapass and they give you the cash--no need for chips. They do charge 5%. You can figure out how much cash to get to use up your OBC. I think they only gave the cash in $5 0r $10 increments. So, I got all my OBC in cash except for about $2.

 

Carolyn

[PartyAllDaTyme]

That does not make sense to me, and when I read what you wrote I believe you are somewhat skeptical. Basically X is saying "you must spend your OBC on our products. No cash refund." But if you go to the casino you can get a cash refund. Even if you buy chips you could just turn around and cash them in. At least you get 97% of your unused OBC back in cash.

I guess it is a topic for a new thread.:confused:

 

No need for a new thread, this has been discussed many times before. It's a perfectly legitimate way of getting back any OBN (nonrefundable onboard credit) that you may have left over at the end of the cruise, albeit at a 5% penalty.

 

My understanding is that, originally, you could get cash from the casino without penalty, charging it to your SeaPass account. People figured out that this was a way of avoiding ATM fees for cash advances, and they added the 3% penalty to discourage the practice. This was apparently not enough of a deterrent, so they upped it to the current 5%.

 

As Larry said, OBN gets used up first, so if you have any expenses at all, there's not much that will be left. If you didn't have to prepay gratuities because you have Select dining, that'll take care of most if not all of it. OBR (refundable onboard credit) comes back to your credit card tied to your SeaPass account, so no reason to use it up.

 

OBN is credit you received from Celebrity-- e.g., booking bonus, shareholder credit. OBR is from outside sources-- e.g., travel agent, gift from family.

Edited April 2, 2014 by PartyAllDaTyme
corrected OBC to OBR

[Cruise Junky]

No need for a new thread, this has been discussed many times before. It's a perfectly legitimate way of getting back any OBN (nonrefundable onboard credit) that you may have left over at the end of the cruise, albeit at a 5% penalty.

 

My understanding is that, originally, you could get cash from the casino without penalty, charging it to your SeaPass account. People figured out that this was a way of avoiding ATM fees for cash advances, and they added the 3% penalty to discourage the practice. This was apparently not enough of a deterrent, so they upped it to the current 5%.

 

As Larry said, OBN gets used up first, so if you have any expenses at all, there's not much that will be left. If you didn't have to prepay gratuities because you have Select dining, that'll take care of most if not all of it. OBR (refundable onboard credit) comes back to your credit card tied to your SeaPass account, so no reason to use it up.

 

OBN is credit you received from Celebrity-- e.g., booking bonus, shareholder credit. OBR is from outside sources-- e.g., travel agent, gift from family.

 

It also used to be a great way to rack up credit card points. I remember some posts here that people would take out thousands in the casino as it shows as a charge not a cash advance and then just use the cash when they got home to pay back the card.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

It also used to be a great way to rack up credit card points. I remember some posts here that people would take out thousands in the casino as it shows as a charge not a cash advance and then just use the cash when they got home to pay back the card.

 

Hmmm... if I bought myself an OBR using my Celebrity Visa card, then put another card on file for my SeaPass account, the unused credit would go back to that card. I could then use that card to pay off the Celebrity Visa. I get double points because it's an RCCL purchase.

 

What's wrong with this picture? Probably something in the card rules preventing it.

[jagoffee]

Hmmm... if I bought myself an OBR using my Celebrity Visa card, then put another card on file for my SeaPass account, the unused credit would go back to that card. I could then use that card to pay off the Celebrity Visa. I get double points because it's an RCCL purchase.

 

What's wrong with this picture? Probably something in the card rules preventing it.

 

If you buy OBR is it considered a cash advance or a regular purchase.

 

On Princess I always purchase Casino credits to use as cash on my cruises and it is never been an issue. I have never tried this on Celebrity.

[FLACRUISER99]

No need for a new thread, this has been discussed many times before. It's a perfectly legitimate way of getting back any OBN (nonrefundable onboard credit) that you may have left over at the end of the cruise, albeit at a 5% penalty.

 

My understanding is that, originally, you could get cash from the casino without penalty, charging it to your SeaPass account. People figured out that this was a way of avoiding ATM fees for cash advances, and they added the 3% penalty to discourage the practice. This was apparently not enough of a deterrent, so they upped it to the current 5%.

 

As Larry said, OBN gets used up first, so if you have any expenses at all, there's not much that will be left. If you didn't have to prepay gratuities because you have Select dining, that'll take care of most if not all of it. OBR (refundable onboard credit) comes back to your credit card tied to your SeaPass account, so no reason to use it up.

 

OBN is credit you received from Celebrity-- e.g., booking bonus, shareholder credit. OBR is from outside sources-- e.g., travel agent, gift from family.

Keep posting this and Celebrity and RCI will stop it as they do read and monitor Cruise Critic.:rolleyes:

[TomTN]

Keep posting this and Celebrity and RCI will stop it as they do read and monitor Cruise Critic.:rolleyes:

 

 

LOL, Seems like something they would want to discourage to me.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Keep posting this and Celebrity and RCI will stop it as they do read and monitor Cruise Critic.:rolleyes:

 

LOL, Seems like something they would want to discourage to me.

 

OK, from now on, mum's the word!:cool:

[metter]

Thanks for all the replies, really helpful. 8 more sleeps to go, getting excited now

 

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk

[ghstudio]

Keep posting this and Celebrity and RCI will stop it as they do read and monitor Cruise Critic.:rolleyes:

 

Don't worry...this isn't new news to celebrity. I have seen some OBC offers (by celebrity) that actually exclude the casino in their fine print...but I don't think their system actually checks. To be safe, check the fine print.

 

Don't assume that every OBC from your TA or credit card company is refundable (OBR)...there are some situations where part of the OBC comes from Celebrity and if you don't ask, or the agent doesn't know that...you may find that the OBC is non refundable or that OBC means that you aren't eligible for the stockholder credit (I think this was/is an issue with some AMEX deal).