Using onboard credit for specialty dining but credit card needed to finalise

[Boatharbour]

We want to use part of our onboard credit to book specialty dining for our Edge cruise in 2024. I’ve gone through the process of making the booking and applying the credit, but have to provide my credit card details to complete the booking.

 

The onboard credit completely covers the cost so I’m not sure why my credit card details are needed. Can anyone explain why this is the case? Thank you. 
 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Boatharbour

[Barwick Cruiser]

Check that the amount you want taken out of your obc includes the additional gratuities/service charge. Could be why they want the cc so the total amount due is covered. You should see on the right hand side of the page the amount of the dinner plus the grats…that’s the amount you need to enter in the box beside the available obc. Bit confusing but if that’s not the reason then 🤷‍♀️

[Jim_Iain]

I've had this happen more times than I can count. 

It is fairly simple but not always intuitive -

 

When you get to this screen on checkout you have to manually put in the dollar amount of OBC you want to use.   In this case $139.20 then click apply credit.      When you do this the amount Total Amount in the summary will change to Zero and you won't get the Credit Card screen

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Jim_Iain

[Boatharbour]

Thank you for your reply. I applied the credit to the “total amount due”. There isn’t any mention of gratuities. Fair enough if it’s for the gratuities but if so, they haven’t spelt it out.
I’m reluctant to go ahead until I know why they want my credit card details almost a year out.

 Surely it’s not a hold on the card until we make final payment for the cruise?
Hoping someone knows on this board, but if not I’ll contact Celebrity. 

[jelayne]

I recently booked dining and an excursion and paid with OBC however the transaction wouldn’t go through until I added the CVC number from my credit card.  Once I did that the transactions went through, nothing charged to my card and no hold.

[Arizona Wildcat]

18 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

Thank you for your reply. I applied the credit to the “total amount due”. There isn’t any mention of gratuities. Fair enough if it’s for the gratuities but if so, they haven’t spelt it out.
I’m reluctant to go ahead until I know why they want my credit card details almost a year out.

 Surely it’s not a hold on the card until we make final payment for the cruise?
Hoping someone knows on this board, but if not I’ll contact Celebrity. 

It actually would be a charge to your card. As Jim said it is confusing and not intuitive.  Either start over or call is about all you can do.

[Boatharbour]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I've had this happen more times than I can count. 

It is fairly simple but not always intuitive -

 

When you get to this screen on checkout you have to manually put in the dollar amount of OBC you want to use.   In this case $139.20 then click apply credit.      When you do this the amount Total Amount in the summary will change to Zero and you won't get the Credit Card screen

 

Thank you Jim for your advice. The zero balance was right down at the bottom of my iPad screen.

 

The system still wanted my credit card details even for a zero charge - all the uncompleted fields were in red and I couldn’t finalise. Good news is that I have the dining bookings secured now.