Waiting until onboard to book excursions/rant about limits on OBC

[WriterOnDeck]

13 hours ago, croozen said:

Source is HAL for a portion because price of cruise dropped significantly on a “private fare” poster that came out on the weekend (only good for new bookings not those crazy pre planner people who reserved months ago and paid $1300 more approximately) and I was PO’d so it was a goodwill gesture from them. 🤣😂 and then another $100 was from husband holding Carnival Shares. Which he says isn’t worth it and he’s dumping them! 

There are many flavors of OBC, and this one from HAL as a goodwill gesture may have come with strings. Also, sometimes OBC you get for "inconveniences" such as poor internet service, or OBC that comes with a casino fare, etc., may not qualify for some expenses. It is important to get the details about the OBC when you get it.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

There are many flavors of OBC, and this one from HAL as a goodwill gesture may have come with strings. Also, sometimes OBC you get for "inconveniences" such as poor internet service, or OBC that comes with a casino fare, etc., may not qualify for some expenses. It is important to get the details about the OBC when you get it.

They are telling the poster that they can’t use obc for anything.  At this point are they trustworthy?

 

The obc from owning shares is definitely non refundable.

[croozen]

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

There are many flavors of OBC, and this one from HAL as a goodwill gesture may have come with strings. Also, sometimes OBC you get for "inconveniences" such as poor internet service, or OBC that comes with a casino fare, etc., may not qualify for some expenses. It is important to get the details about the OBC when you get it.

I am going to spin the wheel one more time and call HAL back when they open and see what they say as to the restrictions on these particular goodwill OBCs we have. If dragon lady’s responses from yesterday are indeed true the $100 from the shares can perhaps be spent more widely. 

Edited May 31, 2023 by croozen

[3rdGenCunarder]

48 minutes ago, croozen said:

I am going to spin the wheel one more time and call HAL back when they open and see what they say as to the restrictions on these particular goodwill OBCs we have. If dragon lady’s responses from yesterday are indeed true the $100 from the shares can perhaps be spent more widely. 

 

Good luck. HAL does have some agents with a clue. I would ask about each OBC individually, and if you get a blanket response that, based on the posts here, you believe is wrong, ask to speak to a supervisor. 

[Haljo1935]

And remember that adjustments from prepay to OBC for excursions are done once onboard by going to Shore Excursions desk.

[Tampa Girl]

17 hours ago, croozen said:

Source is HAL for a portion because price of cruise dropped significantly on a “private fare” poster that came out on the weekend (only good for new bookings not those crazy pre planner people who reserved months ago and paid $1300 more approximately) and I was PO’d so it was a goodwill gesture from them. 🤣😂 and then another $100 was from husband holding Carnival Shares. Which he says isn’t worth it and he’s dumping them! 

 

I don't know what a "private fare" is, but If your cruise was one of the "inside cabin free" fares that HAL sends out periodically, they are correct when they say that any of the "special" OBC's, such as Veterans and Carnival, will not be given.  In fact, if you read the fine print, you will see this disclosure.  However, HAL or casino fares may specifically include their own OBC's, which can be used on board.  As for your DH dumping Carnival shares, those can be used on all cruises that don't come under the "special fare" promotion.  And if you cruise even once a year, the OBC's can be well worth the investment.

[DaveOKC]

2 hours ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

I don't know what a "private fare" is, but If your cruise was one of the "inside cabin free" fares that HAL sends out periodically, they are correct when they say that any of the "special" OBC's, such as Veterans and Carnival, will not be given.  In fact, if you read the fine print, you will see this disclosure.  However, HAL or casino fares may specifically include their own OBC's, which can be used on board.  As for your DH dumping Carnival shares, those can be used on all cruises that don't come under the "special fare" promotion.  And if you cruise even once a year, the OBC's can be well worth the investment.

If possible, hold 100 shares of CCL in a JOINT stock account.  That way when either of you cruise you can get the OBC.  Limit of one per cabin though.

[croozen]

Update: we are about 14 days out from our sailing, and our Personal Cruise Consultant  called (didn’t know we had one!) to see if we had any questions or concerns. 

I took the opportunity to ask about the limits on the OBC and asks if I was given erroneous info from the aforementioned HAL person? Turns out I was! She apologized, said they “had a lot of new people”.
 

As everyone on this string assured me, we can use the OBC for  laundry, gratuities, - all the things the Hal rep previously explicitly told me I could not. 

 

I also took the chance to query the Navigator App - our boarding passes are not showing up there yet. She said to

wait a couple more days, as it is only approximately 14 days before that they are ready. Trying to print boarding pass the traditional way from HAL website also doesn’t work. It says there will be a bar code loaded on the pass which is necessary, but it’s not there yet. 

[Haljo1935]

1 minute ago, croozen said:

Update: we are about 14 days out from our sailing, and our Personal Cruise Consultant  called (didn’t know we had one!) to see if we had any questions or concerns. 

I took the opportunity to ask about the limits on the OBC and asks if I was given erroneous info from the aforementioned HAL person? Turns out I was! She apologized, said they “had a lot of new people”.
 

As everyone on this string assured me, we can use the OBC for  laundry, gratuities, - all the things the Hal rep previously explicitly told me I could not. 

 

I also took the chance to query the Navigator App - our boarding passes are not showing up there yet. She said to

wait a couple more days, as it is only approximately 14 days before that they are ready. Trying to print boarding pass the traditional way from HAL website also doesn’t work. It says there will be a bar code loaded on the pass which is necessary, but it’s not there yet. 

Good to hear you're getting some concrete answers from your PCC.

Correct, the "traditional" paper boarding pass will not have the barcode until closer to sail date, just keep checking back.

[lazey1]

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

Good to hear you're getting some concrete answers from your PCC.

Correct, the "traditional" paper boarding pass will not have the barcode until closer to sail date, just keep checking back.

My cruise in May the barcode did not show up on the "traditional" paper boarding pass until 24 hours before boarding. The Navigator App never did update. My friend "traditional" paper boarding pass never updated but it didn't matter. She had no problem boarding.

 

[iflyrc5]

We have over 900 days on HAL ships.  Our last cruise was in Jan/Feb 2023.  We have always used OBC for crew appreciation, drinks, wine package, excursions, Pinnacle, Tamarind, shops, wifi and never had an issue.

[Banditswife]

Glad your PCC gave you better answers.  I have used OBC for laundry, gratuities, specialty dining,  floral arrangement, individual drinks.  But not until after we were on the ship.  Even though it says it can't be used in the casino, they do allow it sometimes. because I have charged my room account for use in the casino successfully.  It then showed on our account statement as a debit on our account, but it came off our OBC.  Our final bill was much less than I had spent in the casino.  But it isn't guaranteed, I would think this varies by ship.

[Fouremco]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:49 PM, FOPMan said:

The excursion credit with HIA isn’t onboard credit. It’s explicitly excursion credit. Unused value doesn’t convert to general OBC and is not refundable.

Good point. It is not included with listed OBC on your booking confirmation and is shown elsewhere, under Special Services, as "Shore Excursion Discount HIA".

[FOPMan]

And dining credits can/are treated in similar fashion (they arr not general onboard credit, cannot be used fir other items, and are not refundable).

[TiogaCruiser]

On 5/30/2023 at 7:27 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Pretty straight forward. I don't know how this is confusing. We are on page two with 50 responses. The conversation evolved to include broader forms of OBC beyond those which the OP asked about.

 

 

OP did not initially specify what type of OBC they had.
 

The discussion started with making broad statements about OBC, ( which sounded like ALL OBC), some of which could have been incorrect depending on the type of OBC. 
 

Kind of like a thread some 8 years ago where some OP came on after having been denied boarding because they had been told by their TA and confirmed by HAL that they could cruise on their particular closed loop cruise with just their official US birth certificate. They were a US serviceman and had been all over with their paperwork. A few pages in it came out they were born on a US base in Germany, and needed one more paper (IIRC it was a type of registration) to make that work for their cruise.

Edited June 20, 2023 by TiogaCruiser

[deliver42]

When it comes to OBC, HAL marches to a different drummer than the other major lines. OBC on them can be used tor anything connected with the cruise.