OBC in GBP - Confused

[Tigrou]

My next Celebrity cruise is a UK booking, priced in sterling (GBP).  I've paid for cruises in GBP on other lines before but not Celebrity, and OBC has always been in USD because that's the currency used on board.  However, for this Celebrity cruise, the OBC is showing in GBP and says the exchange rate will be set the first time I pay for something.

 

I am completely confused!  Everything on board is priced in USD, why do I have to pay in GBP and be committed to whatever exchange rate Celebrity chooses to charge?  I would prefer to pay in USD and pay my credit card's exchange rate at the time.  It's also much easier on board to have my OBC in USD when that's how everything is priced.

 

Could someone please explain how this works.

 

I have e-mailed Celebrity to ask for my OBC to be shown in USD but haven't received a reply.

  

[lulurobby]

It should change to $ once you board. We are the same, if you purchase anything from your credit before you sail, it will be in sterling, if you do not purchase anything once onboard it will go to $. So look at your tours and convert to see if it is beneficial to use as sterling or $.

[little britain]

As it’s a U.K. booking all prices in your planner will be in £ anyway.

The first time you buy something pre cruise on the planner, that will then lock in the conversion rate for whatever is left over.

If you don’t buy anything pre cruise than the full amount of OBC will be converted to $ for you to use onboard.

 

I had $400 OBC and I bought a shore ex back in August and it’s locked the rate at 1.23.   Cable that day closed at 1.2285 so it was spot on. 
 

I view it as free money so if you lose a few quid on the exchange rate does it really matter?   

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by little britain

[Mark_T]

9 hours ago, Tigrou said:

My next Celebrity cruise is a UK booking, priced in sterling (GBP).  I've paid for cruises in GBP on other lines before but not Celebrity, and OBC has always been in USD because that's the currency used on board.  However, for this Celebrity cruise, the OBC is showing in GBP and says the exchange rate will be set the first time I pay for something.

 

 

The only rate that is being set is for the conversion of your $300 OBC if you use it to pay for things pre-cruise.

 

Your pre-cruise costs are all in GBP and that is what will be charged to your card when you order things like excursions before the cruise.

 

If you don't use OBC for that then it just stays in USD and will be available onboard to pay USD charges.

 

If you do use your OBC before the cruise then the rate at which is converts to GBP is set the first time you use it to pay for something.

[Tigrou]

Thank you everyone.  I think I've almost got my head around it but could I please just confirm.

 

If I don't buy anything with the OBC pre-cruise then it will convert to USD to use on board.

 

If I do buy something pre-cruise then the rate is set, and that's the rate which will be used for any further purchases.

 

But the bit I'm still not sure about is if I only use some of it pre-cruise.  Does the rest then convert back to USD to spend on board?

 

 

[Tigrou]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

I view it as free money so if you lose a few quid on the exchange rate does it really matter?   

 

 

 

Fair point.  But it was more the idea of being on board where everything is priced in USD, with OBC potentially in GBP that I didn't like.

 

I still don't understand why Celebrity do it this way.  The on board currency is USD, why mess about with it?

 

 

[Mark_T]

16 minutes ago, Tigrou said:

Thank you everyone.  I think I've almost got my head around it but could I please just confirm.

 

If I don't buy anything with the OBC pre-cruise then it will convert to USD to use on board.

 

If I do buy something pre-cruise then the rate is set, and that's the rate which will be used for any further purchases.

 

But the bit I'm still not sure about is if I only use some of it pre-cruise.  Does the rest then convert back to USD to spend on board?

 

 

 

You are only setting the rate that will be used to convert the OBC balance to GBP when spending it in GBP, so if you have say $300 and you don't use any of it pre-cruise then you will have $300 OBC onboard.

 

If you buy something in GBP pre-cruise then you fix the rate for conversion to GBP for all other pre-cruise purchases using your OBC. That rate is only pre-cruise and only when spending in GBP and using USD OBC.

 

If you only use part of it pre-cruise then the balance will still be in USD for use onboard.

[little britain]

23 minutes ago, Tigrou said:

 

Fair point.  But it was more the idea of being on board where everything is priced in USD, with OBC potentially in GBP that I didn't like.

 

I still don't understand why Celebrity do it this way.  The on board currency is USD, why mess about with it?

 

 

Because you booked your cruise in UK so your cruise planner is in £.

On cruises I book via the USA my cruise planner is in $. 
Don’t worry, when you get on board your obc will be in $ ( if you haven’t spent it all!)

 

 

[mickey89]

Be careful what you buy pre-cruise.  Celebrity website are always quick to adjust the exchange rate for your obc but forget to change the prices of the purchases.  Currently the exchange rate is 0.78 but all the prices at charged at 0.81

[Mark_T]

Always worth rechecking periodically as there are sales from time to time.

 

I've cancelled and rebooked the same excursions a couple of times now as prices have fallen.

[drakes2]

13 hours ago, Tigrou said:

My next Celebrity cruise is a UK booking, priced in sterling (GBP).  I've paid for cruises in GBP on other lines before but not Celebrity, and OBC has always been in USD because that's the currency used on board.  However, for this Celebrity cruise, the OBC is showing in GBP and says the exchange rate will be set the first time I pay for something.

 

I am completely confused!  Everything on board is priced in USD, why do I have to pay in GBP and be committed to whatever exchange rate Celebrity chooses to charge?  I would prefer to pay in USD and pay my credit card's exchange rate at the time.  It's also much easier on board to have my OBC in USD when that's how everything is priced.

 

Could someone please explain how this works.

 

I have e-mailed Celebrity to ask for my OBC to be shown in USD but haven't received a reply.

  

Pounds sterling on your cruise planner usd on board. I booked in Canadian currency and it shows on mine as cad. Not to worry. I actually find the exchange rate celebrity is using slightly better than the banks.

[Tigrou]

Thank you everyone, greatly appreciated.

 

[Klapka]

Sorry to come to this topic late.  

 

I have a U.K. booking and have been complaining to myself about the way Celebrity now do the on board accounting.

 

I find it completely awful.  To be told that (eg) a speciality restaurant will cost £39 when I know it will be $50 (rounding the numbers) confuses rather than clarifies.  Same for the on board credit and shore excisions.  I usually have excursions booked before we sail, but I am not going near this one.

 

Why do they do this? Just sailed with Cunard.  Almost everyone on board was British, but no one complained about the fact that all the pricing is in Dollars.

 

I sailed with Celebrity about three years ago and everything was in dollars.

 

Until  a few days ago, I did not focus on it; now I have started to do the check in stuff.

When I did the online check in the system asked me about the currency to be charged to my card.  I want to pay with a card issued by a US bank.  

 

I fear that I will find that the on board (dollar) account will be converted into pounds and then converted back into dollars by my bank.

 

All this muddle just so Celebrity can twist a few dollars out the currency exchange.  How cheap can you get?

[fragilek]

9 minutes ago, Klapka said:

Sorry to come to this topic late.  

 

I have a U.K. booking and have been complaining to myself about the way Celebrity now do the on board accounting.

 

I find it completely awful.  To be told that (eg) a speciality restaurant will cost £39 when I know it will be $50 (rounding the numbers) confuses rather than clarifies.  Same for the on board credit and shore excisions.  I usually have excursions booked before we sail, but I am not going near this one.

 

Why do they do this? Just sailed with Cunard.  Almost everyone on board was British, but no one complained about the fact that all the pricing is in Dollars.

 

I sailed with Celebrity about three years ago and everything was in dollars.

 

Until  a few days ago, I did not focus on it; now I have started to do the check in stuff.

When I did the online check in the system asked me about the currency to be charged to my card.  I want to pay with a card issued by a US bank.  

 

I fear that I will find that the on board (dollar) account will be converted into pounds and then converted back into dollars by my bank.

 

All this muddle just so Celebrity can twist a few dollars out the currency exchange.  How cheap can you get?

 not sue if its the same but I pay my on board account with my  British Fairfx card which is loaded with dollars and we were charged exactly the number of dollars due.

[isdoo]

just make sure that when you put your credit card into the booking to pay for any extras you do not allow Celebrity to convert the charges to GBP. 

Either swallow the 3% charge made by your credit card company or ideally use a 0% FX card. Personally I use Curve and then recharge that to my Mastercard. 

If you allow Celebrity to convert to GBP you will pay a poor exchange rate. Of course this is usually true of all foreign transactions - always ask to be billed in the local currency. 

[Klapka]

I am familiar with this trick.  I didn't have to worry about it last time I sailed with Celeb because everything was priced in USD.

[jan_in_za]

This is absolutely RUBBISH of Celebrity. Thank you for putting this thread up and to the folk who have given an explanation. I think it is very sneaky of Celebrity to be honest. I booked two cruises B2B... $800 per cruise OBC. They push you to BOOK BEFORE THE CRUISE because you will get better offers! They don't say to you... ok... be aware that you are going to convert that rate. It resulted in one cruise having my $800 changed to £647.00!!! The other cruise $800 converted to £623.00!!! No where did they inform me of this... not even when I phoned to speak to them to make my first reservation, and I told them I was phoning because this was my first cruise with Celebrity. Surely you should be given the opportunity to say if you want it converted, and especially when they then convert it back to $ once on board. They advertise $800 OBC... then use some conversion that that suits them. Sorry... Celebrity... you are loosing points in my book and especially when they use strap lines like... 'Nothing comes close'!

[jan_in_za]

On 1/30/2020 at 7:51 PM, Klapka said:

Sorry to come to this topic late.  

 

I have a U.K. booking and have been complaining to myself about the way Celebrity now do the on board accounting.

 

I find it completely awful.  To be told that (eg) a speciality restaurant will cost £39 when I know it will be $50 (rounding the numbers) confuses rather than clarifies.  Same for the on board credit and shore excisions.  I usually have excursions booked before we sail, but I am not going near this one.

 

Why do they do this? Just sailed with Cunard.  Almost everyone on board was British, but no one complained about the fact that all the pricing is in Dollars.

 

I sailed with Celebrity about three years ago and everything was in dollars.

 

Until  a few days ago, I did not focus on it; now I have started to do the check in stuff.

When I did the online check in the system asked me about the currency to be charged to my card.  I want to pay with a card issued by a US bank.  

 

I fear that I will find that the on board (dollar) account will be converted into pounds and then converted back into dollars by my bank.

 

All this muddle just so Celebrity can twist a few dollars out the currency exchange.  How cheap can you get?

I could not agree with you more. I think it stinks as far a corporate ethos is concerned. I have sailed with Princess a lot... you get OBC which is put into your account, you can pre-book your excursions etc. You pay with the OBC in $ and you know exactly what it will cost, and what you still have. None of this penny-pinching by the company. Also the constant changing of the prices is extremely annoying. Celebrity are driving me away before I have even stepped onto the ship, and I have 4 cruises booked with them.