kwokpot Posted March 11, 2023 #176 Share Posted March 11, 2023 47 minutes ago, chamima said: However, no guarantee if Amex will take back those bonus points if you get the refund on the card. There's a loophole to avoid a clawback of bonus points from AMEX if the purchased OBC is refunded at the end of the cruise;use a different credit card onboard than the AMEX account you used to purchase the OBC. If the OBC is refunded to a different credit card AMEX will have no idea that the transaction has occurred, thus no chance of a clawback of bonus points. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Fly and Sail Posted March 11, 2023 #177 Share Posted March 11, 2023 50 minutes ago, kwokpot said: There's a loophole to avoid a clawback of bonus points from AMEX if the purchased OBC is refunded at the end of the cruise;use a different credit card onboard than the AMEX account you used to purchase the OBC. If the OBC is refunded to a different credit card AMEX will have no idea that the transaction has occurred, thus no chance of a clawback of bonus points. I think you can also ask for a cash refund on the last day (or withdraw cash at the casino). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrk2cruise Posted March 11, 2023 #178 Share Posted March 11, 2023 I'm not sure the OBC would be refunded to the original form of payment (Amex) or the card registered for you onboard account. We once had a gift purchased for us by our TA which Celebrity didn't have so they just refunded our TA's credit card. I've never been willing to take the chance so I take it in cash on the last day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwokpot Posted March 11, 2023 #179 Share Posted March 11, 2023 36 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said: I'm not sure the OBC would be refunded to the original form of payment (Amex) or the card registered for you onboard account. We once had a gift purchased for us by our TA which Celebrity didn't have so they just refunded our TA's credit card. I've never been willing to take the chance so I take it in cash on the last day. I know from experience that it's refunded to whatever card you're using for onboard charges. I had purchased two separate casino cash credits precruise and when onboard forgot all about it. On the 2nd to last day of the cruise both casino cash credits were refunded to the credit cards that were being used for on board charges. The refunds were actually to two separate credit cards. So AMEX has no idea of the refunds since it's not back to the card used to make the precruise purchases. TBH I was very lucky the Solstice did it on their own since I forgot all about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1620rock Posted March 11, 2023 #180 Share Posted March 11, 2023 I didn't have any offers on my cards and checked one more time this morning before paying the deposit for my January 2024 cruise I had on hold with my TA. Checked again this morning and had the spend $500 get 17,500 points on my Everyday card, added it and called my agent 30 minutes latter and just got my email from AMEX confirming I used the offer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfaaa Posted March 11, 2023 #181 Share Posted March 11, 2023 9 hours ago, kwokpot said: There's a loophole to avoid a clawback of bonus points from AMEX if the purchased OBC is refunded at the end of the cruise;use a different credit card onboard than the AMEX account you used to purchase the OBC. If the OBC is refunded to a different credit card AMEX will have no idea that the transaction has occurred, thus no chance of a clawback of bonus points. So much for this little maneuver. You just spilled the beans and tipped off AMEX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwokpot Posted March 11, 2023 #182 Share Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) 4 minutes ago, sfaaa said: So much for this little maneuver. You just spilled the beans and tipped off AMEX. TBH how would they ever know? Look at it another way, you go to Macy's and buy a piece of clothing with a Visa card, and go back the next day and return it for store credit. To Visa the charge is complete and nothing more will come of it. As I said it wasn't even an intentional move. I totally forgot about the casino credits even though I had printed out a page with the information on it. Edited March 11, 2023 by kwokpot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alabaster Cruiser Posted March 12, 2023 #183 Share Posted March 12, 2023 How does one buy $500 OBC? When I try it is in $25 increments with a limit of 9. That is only $225 that the site is allowing me to purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrk2cruise Posted March 12, 2023 #184 Share Posted March 12, 2023 14 minutes ago, Alabaster Cruiser said: How does one buy $500 OBC? When I try it is in $25 increments with a limit of 9. That is only $225 that the site is allowing me to purchase. Call. $500 is not an issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awhcruiser Posted March 12, 2023 #185 Share Posted March 12, 2023 (edited) The offer showed up on my Platinum card today. Edited March 12, 2023 by awhcruiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awhcruiser Posted March 12, 2023 #186 Share Posted March 12, 2023 On 1/7/2023 at 7:52 AM, NutsAboutGolf said: Call X, I wouldn’t trust someone on here telling you it’s refundable as that info may be out of date Yes to both, I asked my TA both of these questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alabaster Cruiser Posted March 13, 2023 #187 Share Posted March 13, 2023 20 hours ago, wrk2cruise said: Call. $500 is not an issue. Had to wait until a weekday. Otherwise the call goes to general Celebrity number and on one knew how to do it. Called Gifts by Celebrity this morning and both our offers created the "used your offer" email. Hoping they are approved on final bill. Thanks....Susan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drowelf Posted March 13, 2023 #188 Share Posted March 13, 2023 I got the 17500 for $500 offer on my card. Made a partial payment to a March 2024 cruise and the points showed up within a couple of days. Woo Hoo! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBL97 Posted March 18, 2023 #189 Share Posted March 18, 2023 Just found this thread - I have the spend $1000 offer and called to add OBC for my sailing *ahem* tomorrow (March 18 Apex) - was told he could not make any modifications to the reservation as the manifest has been sent (which is done about 7d prior to sailing). Seems like a reasonable statement......but just wanted to cofirm that? If so, darn, I missed out on this one. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise Gopher Posted March 18, 2023 Author #190 Share Posted March 18, 2023 15 minutes ago, HBL97 said: Just found this thread - I have the spend $1000 offer and called to add OBC for my sailing *ahem* tomorrow (March 18 Apex) - was told he could not make any modifications to the reservation as the manifest has been sent (which is done about 7d prior to sailing). Seems like a reasonable statement......but just wanted to cofirm that? If so, darn, I missed out on this one. Thanks Yep it’s too late unfortunately. Do you have any future cruises on Celebrity booked? If so, just make a $1,000 payment on one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Fly and Sail Posted March 18, 2023 #191 Share Posted March 18, 2023 On 3/12/2023 at 6:23 AM, sfaaa said: So much for this little maneuver. You just spilled the beans and tipped off AMEX. Right. Because Amex combs through cruise critic on the hunt for the latest churning strategies. Please! 🤡 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeachAloha Posted March 18, 2023 #192 Share Posted March 18, 2023 Anyone had any luck using this for Celebrity booked hotels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise Gopher Posted March 18, 2023 Author #193 Share Posted March 18, 2023 7 hours ago, TeachAloha said: Anyone had any luck using this for Celebrity booked hotels? No, those will not be charged by Celebrity. They literally use Expedia in the background for this. Don’t attempt. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virgo61 Posted March 18, 2023 #194 Share Posted March 18, 2023 In the past I’ve called Celebrity and added $500 in SBC and that worked fine. This year I paid $500 toward a future cruise booking, and received $175 back. We were really lucky because I’m the primary on the account and my husband is an authorized user. He got the $1000 offer and we got $350 back on his card. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvelous35 Posted March 19, 2023 #195 Share Posted March 19, 2023 On 3/12/2023 at 1:58 PM, wrk2cruise said: Call. $500 is not an issue. Can I just make multiple purchases with the same credit card on the website? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrk2cruise Posted March 19, 2023 #196 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Yes multiple purchases will work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chamima Posted March 19, 2023 #197 Share Posted March 19, 2023 1 hour ago, marvelous35 said: Can I just make multiple purchases with the same credit card on the website? As soon as your purchases meet the required amount you should get notification from Amex that you've fulfilled the requirement. If 24 hours go by without that notification you might want to contact Amex to see if any of your purchases don't count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awhcruiser Posted March 19, 2023 #198 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Paid off one of our cruises today and had the email within minutes that I had used my enrolled offer of spend. $1000 get 35,000 points! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jameslee Posted March 20, 2023 #199 Share Posted March 20, 2023 Did anyone get the offer, I made multiple purchases totaling $1000 and not a single purchase is that still ok for me to qualify for the bonus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Fly and Sail Posted March 20, 2023 #200 Share Posted March 20, 2023 8 minutes ago, jameslee said: Did anyone get the offer, I made multiple purchases totaling $1000 and not a single purchase is that still ok for me to qualify for the bonus? As long as you registered for the offer then you'll be ok! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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