Can OBC be used in advance?

[illiniwahoo]

Can you use OBC in advance? I know you can on celebrity, but not sure about rccl. I'm looking a a cruise with a lot of OBC, but all I really want is the drink package, which I know is cheaper in advance. We buy very little on board otherwise. 

Alternately, can you use OBC to to pay gratuities? Some is from the cruise line and some from the travel agent if that matters. 

[Clarea]

Yes, OBC from Royal and Visa Points can be used in advance.  See your Cruise Planner.

 

OBC can also be used to pay gratuities onboard.

[SRF]

TA OBC is not added to your account until you sail.

 

Any OBC can be used to gratuities.

[erby2283]

Yes, you can. I had a $50 OBC and applied it to the purchase if my refreshment package. Like Clarea said, check your cruise planner. 

[SuiteLady]

As stated above, check on ur cruise planner.....right now I have $100 and it shows up there and I can use it to purchase things BEFORE my cruise!  Any OBC that you CAN NOT use prior to sailing, will NOT show up in ur cruise planner.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

i tried to apply the $100 OBC on my Cruise Planner the other day and it wouldn't take it.  It just kept spinning when I selected the OBC.  I could have probably called to have it applied, but didn't want to bother.  I just paid the full price even though it said I had the OBC & I had selected "pay with OBC".  It is still showing on my Cruise Planner as available, so I guess I will just use it onboard. 

[StrikeEagle]

I use my OBC to pay for shore excursion I bought online through RCL cruise planner

[CruiseGirl4ever]

I redeemed 400 RCI Visa points on January 21, but they still aren't showing up as OBC in my Cruise Planner. I was considering purchasing the drink package, but I wanted to use my Visa points. Do I need to call RCI to follow up on this, or do they not allow you to spend Visa points prior to departure?

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, CruiseGirl4ever said:

I redeemed 400 RCI Visa points on January 21, but they still aren't showing up as OBC in my Cruise Planner. I was considering purchasing the drink package, but I wanted to use my Visa points. Do I need to call RCI to follow up on this, or do they not allow you to spend Visa points prior to departure?

 

You can spend Visa points OBC prior to the cruise, however they may not apply the redemption to your cruise until a week or two before the cruise.

[JustUs275]

7 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

You can spend Visa points OBC prior to the cruise, however they may not apply the redemption to your cruise until a week or two before the cruise.

 

Bob, did you recently post a number to call and request that they apply the redeemed points to the cruise? I thought I saw that, but I've since searched for that post and can't find it...maybe I dreamed it. LOL  I too would like to make some purchases ahead of time using the obc, so I thought it would be worth a call.

Terri

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, JustUs275 said:

 

Bob, did you recently post a number to call and request that they apply the redeemed points to the cruise? I thought I saw that, but I've since searched for that post and can't find it...maybe I dreamed it. LOL  I too would like to make some purchases ahead of time using the obc, so I thought it would be worth a call.

Terri

 

I posted the number for the redemption department at RC:  888-305-4626

[JustUs275]

Just now, Host Clarea said:

 

I posted the number for the redemption department at RC:  888-305-4626

 

Thank you, Bob.

[Coralc]

9 hours ago, CruiseGirl4ever said:

I redeemed 400 RCI Visa points on January 21, but they still aren't showing up as OBC in my Cruise Planner. I was considering purchasing the drink package, but I wanted to use my Visa points. Do I need to call RCI to follow up on this, or do they not allow you to spend Visa points prior to departure?

Did you mean Visa Points for $400? Because I think 5000 points is the minimum required to redeem for $50 OBC. I don't think 400 points gets you anything. 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Coralc

[CruiseGirl4ever]

@Coralc - yes, I meant $400 worth of OBC from 40,000 Visa points. Sadly, I haven't been on a cruise in 3 years, so I've been accruing points for a while. I'm going to call the number Host Clarea shared today to see if they can track down my credit. Thanks everyone for your help & advice. Nancy

[Royal Fun]

I too am waiting for visa OBC to show up on my planner. I was told by RC it will show up approx two weeks b4 sail date. Kind of a bummer because you do miss out on sales in the cruise planner. We redeemed the points months ago. We are thinking we will use it for gratuities.

[masterdrago]

Just our experience recently with OBC. My Joy recently (couple months ago) transferred points from our RCI Visa card to OBC. We got the card after our last cruise in June '18 and have been stacking up points. We just used some of the OBC 2 weeks ago to buy a Juneau glacier flight. So they do transfer and are usable. Joy will pay off the cruise balance prior to the due date which will pile a rather nice chunk of points back on the RCI Visa card. We have also been piling up the miles on the Alaska Mileage Plan with an AlaskaAir card. Joy bought a 1st class fare and I think I remember her saying she got triple miles. Fun, Fun!

[Royal Fun]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:22 AM, Royal Fun said:

I too am waiting for visa OBC to show up on my planner. I was told by RC it will show up approx two weeks b4 sail date. Kind of a bummer because you do miss out on sales in the cruise planner. We redeemed the points months ago. We are thinking we will use it for gratuities.

Just a follow up ....our OBC  did show up on our cruise planner (3 weeks prior to our sail date). Sales are still happening so I purchased our Voom internet 🙂

[JimmyL]

On 2/4/2019 at 6:52 PM, illiniwahoo said:

Can you use OBC in advance? I know you can on celebrity, but not sure about rccl. I'm looking a a cruise with a lot of OBC, but all I really want is the drink package, which I know is cheaper in advance. We buy very little on board otherwise. 

Alternately, can you use OBC to to pay gratuities? Some is from the cruise line and some from the travel agent if that matters. 

Yes you can. I applied mine toward our drink package