Paying for pre-booked excursions with OBC

[Ken the cruiser]

On the last few cruises we've had over $1,000 of OBC on our HAL sailings and have waited to book shore excursions until we got onboard because HAL wants you to pay up front when pre-booking excursions. It would be nice if HAL one day would update their website software to allow folks to pre-book excursions and then pay for them with OBC once they sail like Princess, Crystal, Disney and other cruise lines do. However, until that day comes, has anyone ever tried the following strategy and, if so, we're you successful?

 

First, pre-book your desired excursions online and pay for them with a credit card. Then once onboard go to the Excursions Desk, cancel the pre-booked excursions and then immediately rebook the excursions with your OBC.

 

Here are two questions that come to mind:

 

1. Will the money from the canceled excursions eventually be refunded to our credit card or simply be converted to refundable OBC?

 

2. If the pre-booked excursion is now full with a wait list and we try to rebook it with OBC, will we get to rebook the excursions with our previously reserved slots or will we be put at the end of the wait list?

 

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Just trying to figure out how to more efficiently use all the OBC they keep giving out, especially if you use a TA.

[richwmn]

I believe the answer to #1 is not the one you want. Somewhere on the HAL site it states that prebooked items canceled prior to 3(?) days before the cruise will be refunded to the card used, otherwise it will show up as additional OBC

[Ken the cruiser]

I believe the answer to #1 is not the one you want. Somewhere on the HAL site it states that prebooked items canceled prior to 3(?) days before the cruise will be refunded to the card used, otherwise it will show up as additional OBC

 

That's OK if it is earmarked as "refundable" OBC. For example if we pay for a pre-booked excursion and we later cancel it onboard in the proper amount of time, the refund will be put in our onboard account. I'm assuming since we prepaid for that excursion with cash (using a credit card), the refund will be in kind, "refundable OBC", rather than "use or loose" OBC like you would get with a HAL promotion. I just want to make sure that if we don't dip into that batch of "refundable" OBC, we'll get that money back in either the form of cash or a credit posted to our credit card at the end of the cruise.

[Tom O.]

I believe Richwmn answered your first question.

I have never tried to do what you have asked, because I always have plenty of on-board charges to apply OBC credit to. Do you really have trouble finding things to apply your OBC to? Maybe I am incredulous because I never seem to get the kind of OBC some others have.

I would be afraid to cancel a favorite excursion, in the hopes of rebooking it with OBC.

[Ken the cruiser]

I believe Richwmn answered your first question.

I have never tried to do what you have asked, because I always have plenty of on-board charges to apply OBC credit to. Do you really have trouble finding things to apply your OBC to? Maxybe I am incredulous because I never seem to get the kind of OBC some others have.

I would be afraid to cancel a favorite excursion, in the hopes of rebooking it with OBC.

 

We just got back from a 17 day Hawaiian cruise where we had $1,150 OBC along with free gratuities, free internet, a $100 beverage card and free laundry. However, we did buy over $1,000 worth of excursions onboard during 6 port days using our OBC. I can just imagine how much OBC we would have had if we would have transferred our booking to a TA prior to paying our final payment as we also book using our HAL PCC.

[RocketMan275]

On the last few cruises we've had over $1,000 of OBC on our HAL sailings and have waited to book shore excursions until we got onboard because HAL wants you to pay up front when pre-booking excursions. It would be nice if HAL one day would update their website software to allow folks to pre-book excursions and then pay for them with OBC once they sail like Princess, Crystal, Disney and other cruise lines do. However, until that day comes, has anyone ever tried the following strategy and, if so, we're you successful?

 

First, pre-book your desired excursions online and pay for them with a credit card. Then once onboard go to the Excursions Desk, cancel the pre-booked excursions and then immediately rebook the excursions with your OBC.

 

 

You maybe overthinking the problem.

Is the OBC refundable or not?

Did you get it from HAL or from a third-party?

Unless the great majority of this OBC is non-refundable, you shouldn't experience any issues.

 

Suppose you book the excursion paying with a credit card. Any unspent OBC will be credited to your credit card. From an accounting standpoint, that is the equivalent of paying with the credit card.

Edited December 18, 2016 by RocketMan275

[Tom O.]

I have heard others mention that they have large amounts of OBC too. I don't know where it comes from, since the most I have ever had is $150.

Does it come from your Travel Agent or PCC?

I think the reason we get so little OBC, is that our TA gives us fantastic prices instead of OBC. We usually get prices that are around 25% less than if we booked directly with HAL.

[RocketMan275]

I have heard others mention that they have large amounts of OBC too. I don't know where it comes from, since the most I have ever had is $150.

Does it come from your Travel Agent or PCC?

I think the reason we get so little OBC, is that our TA gives us fantastic prices instead of OBC. We usually get prices that are around 25% less than if we booked directly with HAL.

 

That's been our experience. Our cruise line OBC is normally about the same as the HSC. We prefer TA that discount rather than give OBC. So much simpler and the discount usually exceeds the OBC.

[Ken the cruiser]

You maybe overthinking the problem.

Is the OBC refundable or not?

Did you get it from HAL or from a third-party?

Unless the great majority of this OBC is non-refundable, you shouldn't experience any issues.

 

Suppose you book the excursion paying with a credit card. Any unspent OBC will be credited to your credit card. From an accounting standpoint, that is the equivalent of paying with the credit card.

 

All of our OBC when we set sail is "use or loose" OBC. I apologize for not making that fact clear. So the way we see it, if we pre-booked the excursions online, then if we later cancel those excursions while onboard, those refunds should get deposited to our onboard account and flagged as "refundable" OBC. Now we have two types of OBC in our account, "use or loose" and "refundable". In theory, any debits applied to our onboard account should come from the "use or loose" stack before being pulled from the "refundable" stack. If that is true, which I believe is the case, then we should be able to cancel the pre-booked excursions and then rebook them using the "use or loose" OBC as long as we have enough "use or loose" OBC in our account. If we didn't, there wouldn't be any reason to use this strategy.

 

Now comes the question of the overbooked excursion. Will we be allowed to rebook an excursion with the slots we just freed up by canceling the pre-booked excursion? If not, I guess we just won't rebook that over-booked excursion.

 

This, of course, is all theory. It would be nice to hear from someone who has actually done it.

[Cruising-along]

I have heard others mention that they have large amounts of OBC too. I don't know where it comes from, since the most I have ever had is $150.

Does it come from your Travel Agent or PCC?

I think the reason we get so little OBC, is that our TA gives us fantastic prices instead of OBC. We usually get prices that are around 25% less than if we booked directly with HAL.

 

Besides promotions that come out, you can get OBC if you own Carnival stock, if you ask for the "welcome back" OBC (booking another cruise within x amount of time after your last one), and if you purchase a Future Cruise Credit when on a cruise. That FCC doesn't have to be for a specific cruise either, you can leave it open until you decide on which cruise you want. Then if you transfer it to a TA you may get more OBC from the TA. We have had over $1000 many times for 2-week cruises.

[kazu]

All of our OBC when we set sail is "use or loose" OBC. I apologize for not making that fact clear. So the way we see it, if we pre-booked the excursions online, then if we later cancel those excursions while onboard, those refunds should get deposited to our onboard account and flagged as "refundable" OBC. Now we have two types of OBC in our account, "use or loose" and "refundable". In theory, any debits applied to our onboard account should come from the "use or loose" stack before being pulled from the "refundable" stack. If that is true, which I believe is the case, then we should be able to cancel the pre-booked excursions and then rebook them using the "use or loose" OBC as long as we have enough "use or loose" OBC in our account. If we didn't, there wouldn't be any reason to use this strategy.

 

Now comes the question of the overbooked excursion. Will we be allowed to rebook an excursion with the slots we just freed up by canceling the pre-booked excursion? If not, I guess we just won't rebook that over-booked excursion.

 

This, of course, is all theory. It would be nice to hear from someone who has actually done it.

 

Yes, the "use it or lose it" is used first.

 

You can cancel on board and rebook and they will save your spot, but I believe you will be subject to a 10% cancellation fee from what I understand and have experienced. Even on day one. But, if it's OBC that you are struggling to spend, then a 10% charge should not be a big issue.

 

It can be done. Remember you "use it or lose it" is also applied to your HSC, etc.

 

Check it out, but hope this helps.

[Ken the cruiser]

I have heard others mention that they have large amounts of OBC too. I don't know where it comes from, since the most I have ever had is $150.

Does it come from your Travel Agent or PCC?

I think the reason we get so little OBC, is that our TA gives us fantastic prices instead of OBC. We usually get prices that are around 25% less than if we booked directly with HAL.

 

One way to get more use or loose OBC from HAL is to buy 100 shares of Carnival stock which gets you up to $250 OBC per cruise. Another way to get OBC is to book your room when the cruise first gets posted. Then keep track over the next 18 or so months when they periodically post their promotional sales, some only last a month or so, that would be beneficial for you to rebook. However, not all promotions are worth rebooking. Another way is to book a vista suite, if you can afford it, as most of HAL's promotions give more OBC if you have a suite booked. Another way is to buy a future cruise credit when you're onboard and then book a cruise within 60 days of disembarking that cruise and get double OBC just as if you would have booked that future cruise onboard. That's some of the ways we gain extra OBC without going through a TA.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Yes, the "use it or lose it" is used first.

 

You can cancel on board and rebook and they will save your spot, but I believe you will be subject to a 10% cancellation fee from what I understand and have experienced. Even on day one. But, if it's OBC that you are struggling to spend, then a 10% charge should not be a big issue.

 

It can be done. Remember you "use it or lose it" is also applied to your HSC, etc.

 

Check it out, but hope this helps.

 

Thanks Kazu! That's what I was hoping to hear. The 10% might be worth it depending on how much OBC we have.

[alwaysfrantic]

On the second question I think if it's a full tour with a waiting list, you'd drop off the tour and go to the end of the list. I've read that here but someone will come along with a personal experience.

 

Good luck.

[Ken the cruiser]

On the second question I think if it's a full tour with a waiting list, you'd drop off the tour and go to the end of the list. I've read that here but someone will come along with a personal experience.

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks! If that turns out to be the case, then we would keep the pre-booking and book a couple more nights at the Pinnacle Grill!

[Ken the cruiser]

I have heard others mention that they have large amounts of OBC too. I don't know where it comes from, since the most I have ever had is $150.

Does it come from your Travel Agent or PCC?

I think the reason we get so little OBC, is that our TA gives us fantastic prices instead of OBC. We usually get prices that are around 25% less than if we booked directly with HAL.

 

So your TA can get you 25% off all HAL cruises? For example if you find a specific room when doing a fake booking on the HAL website, let's say a Vista Suite on the port side in the middle of the ship on the Voyage of the Vikings cruise for $16,000 pp, your TA can get the exaxt same room for $12,000?

[Randyk47]

So your TA can get you 25% off all HAL cruises? For example if you find a specific room when doing a fake booking on the HAL website, let's say a Vista Suite on the port side in the middle of the ship on the Voyage of the Vikings cruise for $16,000 pp, your TA can get the exaxt same room for $12,000?

 

I don't know who Tom O uses but he's struck the mother lode to get 25% off his cruises. Good for him. We've averaged around a 12% cash discount for the past twelve or so years and have been pretty happy with that. The largest discount we've ever gotten was 26% on a Celebrity cruise but that was 10 years ago just before the cruise lines cracked down on Internet discounters.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Randyk47

[Tom O.]

So your TA can get you 25% off all HAL cruises? For example if you find a specific room when doing a fake booking on the HAL website, let's say a Vista Suite on the port side in the middle of the ship on the Voyage of the Vikings cruise for $16,000 pp, your TA can get the exaxt same room for $12,000?

 

The 25% I came up with is based on my current reservation. I don't remember the exact amounts of other cruises I booked, but I remember it being significant.

My current cruise (in January) is for an 11 day cruise. When I first booked, about a year ago, the online HAL price was close to $2,000 pp for a verandah cabin (VB). Our TA booked it for us for $1500 per person. But she only gives us $75 OBC.

When prices go down she rebooks the cruise at a lower price rather than give us OBC.

I have received the future cruise credit in the past, (on Princess), but I seem to remember it being around $100. We never book suites, so we don't get any extra that way. I guess we should look into the Carnival stock thing, but our investments are tied up in retirement accounts.

[RocketMan275]

I guess we should look into the Carnival stock thing, but our investments are tied up in retirement accounts.

 

Tom, I interrupt this conversation to say that you can own the stock in at least some retirement accounts as long as they are "sell directing" where you get to choose the investments. I own CCL in my Schwab IRA.

 

The cruise line pays you, not the broker's account.

Edited December 18, 2016 by RocketMan275

[Ken the cruiser]

The 25% I came up with is based on my current reservation. I don't remember the exact amounts of other cruises I booked, but I remember it being significant.

My current cruise (in January) is for an 11 day cruise. When I first booked, about a year ago, the online HAL price was close to $2,000 pp for a verandah cabin (VB). Our TA booked it for us for $1500 per person. But she only gives us $75 OBC.

When prices go down she rebooks the cruise at a lower price rather than give us OBC.

I have received the future cruise credit in the past, (on Princess), but I seem to remember it being around $100. We never book suites, so we don't get any extra that way. I guess we should look into the Carnival stock thing, but our investments are tied up in retirement accounts.

 

Sounds good. I assume when your TA rebooks your room at the lower rate, it doesn't cut into your 25% discount. Would you also get any perks, if any, that came with the HAL promotion that caused the rates to go down? Hopefully one day we'll find a TA like yours. As far as the future cruise credits for verandas, these are the HAL OBC rates: 3-10 days ($50 pp), 11-21 days ($75 pp), 22-50 days ($150 pp). If you book onboard or within 60 days of your last sailing, the rates are doubled.

 

Here's a thought. Book your next future cruise with your TA using the FCC you purchased onboard within 60 days of your last sail and get the double OBC, get your 25% price discount and then buy 100 shares in Carnival stock, especially if you cruise a lot with one of their cruise lines. Then, as promotions come along and the price doesn't go up too much until your final payment is due, have your TA pick them up too. Before you know it, you'll have $500+ OBC, some extra perks you won't have to spend your OBC on, plus a heck of a savings on your cruise price. Easy peasy ... :)

Edited December 18, 2016 by Ken the cruiser

[Randyk47]

The 25% I came up with is based on my current reservation. I don't remember the exact amounts of other cruises I booked, but I remember it being significant.

My current cruise (in January) is for an 11 day cruise. When I first booked, about a year ago, the online HAL price was close to $2,000 pp for a verandah cabin (VB). Our TA booked it for us for $1500 per person. But she only gives us $75 OBC.

When prices go down she rebooks the cruise at a lower price rather than give us OBC.

I have received the future cruise credit in the past, (on Princess), but I seem to remember it being around $100. We never book suites, so we don't get any extra that way. I guess we should look into the Carnival stock thing, but our investments are tied up in retirement accounts.

 

OK. When I calculate our discount it's on the final out pocket fare cost. I don't include price adjustments the cruise line may have made like a sale or fare adjustments from the initial published fare. OBCs are a bit different as some are cruise line incentives which I don't use in my calculations and some are TA incentives which I do include. I don't include what I call "junk" incentives or add-ons like Pinnacle Grill dinners, bottles of wine, etc., that are nice but of little monetary value

[Ken the cruiser]

I don't know who Tom O uses but he's struck the mother lode to get 25% off his cruises. Good for him. We've averaged around a 12% cash discount for the past twelve or so years and have been pretty happy with that. The largest discount we've ever gotten was 26% on a Celebrity cruise but that was 10 years ago just before the cruise lines cracked down on Internet discounters.

 

Our initial calls the other day to 7 different big box TAs got us various discounts ranging from 1-7%, all but one being for OBC. The one cruise discounted price deal was for about 6%, but they weren't sure if they would be able to add future promotions or price discounts. Since we were looking to transfer an existing Oct 2018 booking, we didn't want to transfer it, then find out we would miss out on any future deals after the fact. We wound up taking the 6% OBC deal as the 7% deal only gave us a gift card you could only use in their stores. On the bright side though when combined with the OBC we got from the cruise line, in this case Azamara, our overall discount (in OBC) was 15%. What's good about that is it's a 31 day cruise with a lot of excursions and by the end of 2017 Azamara will have their online software updated to allow you to book excursions online and then pay for them when you board the ship! It's not as good as getting 15% off the cruise price, but since we love to go on excursions, it's a suitable substitute.

 

But, more importantly, the game is now afoot! Finding that elusive TA everyone talks about that gives those great deals. Cruising isn't just a hobby, it's an adventure! :D

Edited December 18, 2016 by Ken the cruiser

[RocketMan275]

Our initial calls the other day to 7 different big box TAs got us various discounts ranging from 1-7%, all but one being for OBC. The one cruise discounted price deal was for about 6%, but they weren't sure if they would be able to add future promotions or price discounts. Since we were looking to transfer an existing Oct 2018 booking, we didn't want to transfer it, then find out we would miss out on any future deals after the fact. We wound up taking the 6% OBC deal as the 7% deal only gave us a gift card you could only use in their stores. On the bright side though when combined with the OBC we got from the cruise line, in this case Azamara, our overall discount (in OBC) was 15%. But the game is now afoot! Finding that elusive TA everyone talks about that gives those great deals. Cruising isn't just a hobby, it's an adventure! :D

 

There is one Big Box who will give you 8.75% OBC. This is the one most commonly mentioned.

 

If you want a true discounting TA you'll have to look for the smaller TA. The one's I know have only one, two, or three employees. That can be a great advantage if you want to always speak to the same person, one who knows you personally.

 

A friend put me in touch with these two TA.

[Tom O.]

Completely agree with Rocket Man. Find a smaller TA that specializes in cruises.

There are some TA networks, that consists of independent agents. My TA has a partner, but no employees, and is a member of a network.

[RocketMan275]

Completely agree with Rocket Man. Find a smaller TA that specializes in cruises.

There are some TA networks, that consists of independent agents. My TA has a partner, but no employees, and is a member of a network.

 

So are mine but one has two employees and the other has one.