When (if ever) will BOA credits show as OBC in my account?

[GottaKnowWhen]

It has been a very long time since the one time I cashed out some of my Celebrity Bank of America credit as OBC. I have accumulated quite a bit since then, and am trying to cash out a bunch as OBC for an upcoming trip. 

 

Going online to Manage my Cruise, I see that I still have the $100 OBC that came with my deal. I do not see the $250 OBC I thought I had arranged for via BoA 11 October 2021. I do have the BOA confirmation but nothing from Celebrity to show that they received it.

 

Will my $250 show up eventually? Or do I need to call and go on hold for an hour to talk to someone at Celebrity? Is there a good e-mail address for such inquiries?

 

Follow-on question: if the OBC is not showing in my account, and if I book excursions, and if the OBC eventually shows up, can I use that retroactively for already-booked excursions? I assume I'll need to cancel any such excursions, get a refund back to whatever card I used, and re-book using the OBC...

 

(Backstory: I made the mistake of booking the upcoming cruise directly with Celebrity rather than through my usual Celebrity Vacation Planner or a TA so I have no agent to reach out to other than the 1-888- number.)

Stan

Edited October 21, 2021 by GottaKnowWhen

[Bellfree Bat]

• It's been a while for me and redeemed BOA points for OBC. Does not show up in my account...Hopefully will show up onboard but I should check!

[OhioCraig]

I just did this for an upcoming cruise. It wasn’t showing up for me neither. I ended up emailing a copy of the BOA rewards transaction to celebrityengagementcenter@celebrity.com.They had is resolved in a couple of days.

[Mcgeneseo]

When I called about it, they said it could take 10 days or more. I'd take a copy of the printout just in case.

[kathynorth]

I had this same situation a couple of months ago and was a bit anxious that my BOA $300 cruise credit may be lost somewhere in cyberspace. I booked with an online TA so needed to have them speak with BOA. When I received a call back from the TA they said the person who works for Celebrity and is supposed to post the BOA credits and OBC had quit, so they were significantly behind with updating the reservation statements. However, the credit was showing up on our account. About a week later the TA sent me an updated reservation statement and the credit showed on the new statement. 

[sn2792]

I had to call Crown and anchor to get mine applied for our cruise at the end of September.  They had to call and verify the transaction. It showed up a few hours later after they verified it.

[GottaKnowWhen]

Thanks to all for your comments. I just followed up on the suggestion from OhioCraig post #3 above, and have emailed Celebrity with a copy of my transaction receipt. I'll update this thread when I have my situation clarified and/or resolved.

 

Stan

[blueboro]

I had $150 from the X card I redeemed for our 9/17 Equinox cruise.  It never showed up on my planner, also did not show up on my account after boarding.  On the 2nd day of the cruise, I went down and showed them my email indicating I had redeemed, they had to call, and then it was added.  BE SURE to take some proof showing you redeemed the points.

[NaplesKnitter]

I would call and check because last time I did it a month ago, it wasn’t showing on my OBC- She said they are running 6-7 weeks behind and she did it for me and it showed up on my cruise planner immediately.

[cruising in mn]

Hi there. I just did this in for our cruise last month. It was about 600 in BOA Credits for OBC. It took a while, but not more than 30 days. I also brought my printout with just in case, but I used it to buy a couple of excursions (on Alaska the excursions are BEYOND expensive) so 600 didnt last long. But they did show up 🙂

[Franken]

Mine never showed up even though it had been 2 months. I had to go to guest services once onboard and they took care of it for me.

[zitsky]

Could someone explain like I'm 5?  This is some kind of discount for having a Bank of America checking account?

[hcat]

Sorry ..we don't have a BOA checking acct..just a Royal C BOA cred card.

We use  accrued points for a reduced final payment so it is applied instantly.

Any extra points do go to OBC . It does take awhile to show up..but we keep calling til it is shown  on our paperwork.

[bboop51]

Here is another (maybe stupid) BOA credit card OBC points question.  If I redeem my points now, for my cruise in January and for some reason do not use them, can I use them for my cruise in June ?  I've never used my points before for OBC, so this is new for me.

Thanks !!!!

[bboop51]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Sorry ..we don't have a BOA checking acct..just a Royal C BOA cred card.

We use  accrued points for a reduced final payment so it is applied instantly.

Any extra points do go to OBC . It does take awhile to show up..but we keep calling til it is shown  on our paperwork.

I've always done that before, but lost thr points when I cancelled my cruise cruise last time (Covid.) So, until things are settled, I'll not do that again. 

[GottaKnowWhen]

@zitskyBottom of the page when you log into the Celebrity site you should see a promo for their Bank of America Credit Card. Follow the link, apply, get a new credit card. Just like any other card except that instead of cash back offers,  every $ you spend earns a point, every $ you spend on Celebrity earns 2 point. If you accumulate 5000 points, you can use those points to buy $50 of OBC on a given cruise. Or you can use the points for other Celebrity purchases, like paying for part of the cost of a cruise.

[GottaKnowWhen]

12 minutes ago, bboop51 said:

Here is another (maybe stupid) BOA credit card OBC points question.  If I redeem my points now, for my cruise in January and for some reason do not use them, can I use them for my cruise in June ?  I've never used my points before for OBC, so this is new for me.

Thanks !!!!

I had heard that once the Points were converted to OBC, they could not be replaced in your BoA account. But once they are in your Celebrity account as credit toward a cruise fare or as OBC, and if you cancel and shift the reservation to another sailing, the credit should move with the reservation. But I have never tried that.

[zitsky]

5 minutes ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

@zitskyBottom of the page when you log into the Celebrity site you should see a promo for their Bank of America Credit Card. Follow the link, apply, get a new credit card. Just like any other card except that instead of cash back offers,  every $ you spend earns a point, every $ you spend on Celebrity earns 2 point. If you accumulate 5000 points, you can use those points to buy $50 of OBC on a given cruise. Or you can use the points for other Celebrity purchases, like paying for part of the cost of a cruise.

Ok thanks for explaining that!

[hcat]

We are going to use all our accrued points for our next cruise.. not cruising as much these days,  and a cash back card is a better deal.  The BOA card has accrual changes coming Nov 1st....don't remember the details but hopefully  won' t affect us..

[lenetere]

1 hour ago, bboop51 said:

I've always done that before, but lost thr points when I cancelled my cruise cruise last time (Covid.) So, until things are settled, I'll not do that again. 

We had something like that happen on Royal.  I called (wish I could remember who!) and had them transfer to my next Royal cruise that's in 2022.  I don't know if they will transfer the OBC more than once.

 

[bboop51]

15 minutes ago, lenetere said:

We had something like that happen on Royal.  I called (wish I could remember who!) and had them transfer to my next Royal cruise that's in 2022.  I don't know if they will transfer the OBC more than once.

 

The transfer was for Royal (first time cruising them) and we are now cruising Celebrity. The rep for Royal was the most unhelpful miserable rep I've ever dealt with. 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We just disembarked yesterday so I can't remember all the questions asked but here is my experience.

 

The 1st time we applied points and a cruise was cancelled the points were added back to our BOA account.

The 2nd time we applied points as a price reduction to a cruise that was subsequently cancelled. At the time the points were applied we received a confirmation from Celerity showing all the info, including a transaction ID #, which I printed out. When the cruise was cancelled I expected the points to be posted back to our BOA account but was told they did not do that anymore and the points would be applied to a cruise when we were ready through Celebrity.  There used to be a question in the FAQ with a phone # and extension to call.  When we were ready to reapply the points that question was removed.  We ended up going through the Retreat Desk and the reduction was applied that day.  It shows up on your booking confirmation as code V037.

 

It might take a bit of digging but you should not have lost the points.  They are sitting out there somewhere in your Celebrity account but you need to call to have them applied.

 

 

[kathynorth]

When I called to find out why my BOA credit hadn't been posted as a cruise rate reduction yet I asked what would happen if our cruise was cancelled. I was told that if Celebrity cancels then the points would be put back into my BOA account. However, if I cancelled, even if due to Covid, then I would forfeit the credit/points. 

[GottaKnowWhen]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:11 AM, GottaKnowWhen said:

Thanks to all for your comments. I just followed up on the suggestion from OhioCraig post #3 above, and have emailed Celebrity with a copy of my transaction receipt. I'll update this thread when I have my situation clarified and/or resolved.

 

Stan

Well, that didn't work. Or I didn't wait long enough. So anyway I eventually went back to the phone. After a long wait I got a Celebrity Service Rep who had no idea what I was talking about. Once she grasped the notion of using Bank of America points, she assumed I wanted to book a new cruise. Eventually she came to understand the option of transferring points to OBC, had no clue how to find out where my request was in the system, but she would be glad to arrange airline travel and transfers for the cruise. And then queried me about our vaccine status (don't they have that in the system? I've answered that question several times before.) And then asked twice if there was anything else she could do before transferring me to another number. I think she muttered something about "the bookkeeping department."

 

So, another wait On Hold. Thankfully this time only 10-15 minutes. This time I spoke with someone who knew what she was doing, quickly went into the system, found my "in process" request, clicked the right buttons et voila my $250 OBC was added to my cruise. She sent an updated Confirmation for verification. So nice to deal with someone competent! 

 

In my side conversation with her she commented that most service reps had no idea how to get into this aspect of the system, that the process was usually handled by their over-night crew, and that "it has been somewhat iffy lately."  I asked if I should just be patient or should i be calling, she said that she would recommend calling to check on the status of an OBC purchase if it hadn't shown in my cruise account after about 2 weeks from the initial request.

 

The ±10% jump in RCCL stock price yesterday hopefully will make company executives so happy that they will be inspired to hire and train some new service reps to answer the phone!

 

Stan

[CHEZMARYLOU]

@GottaKnowWhenThanks for coming back and posting your experience.  We just used our points this week for a price reduction.  Now I know to give it a few weeks before I call.  We have plenty of time before final payment.