OBC if we pay early?

[recruiter 28]

Today we got an offer of 100 OBC if we make our final payment 2 months before it's due.  Not interested ...doesn't seem like an incentive?  Why are they doing this?

[oaktreerb]

We got it, too.  HAL made an offer during the Covid shut down (I think it was a 10% discount on our cruise fare if we paid our booked cruise in full).  Our June cruise is really expensive and $100 OBC doesn’t interest me this time.  I think HAL needs cash, again.

[POA1]

Unless we were on the fence about our cruise I'd just look to see if I'd get a $100 return on holding onto our final payment for a couple of months.

[renee00]

We got the offer for a cruise in August 2025! Definitely not doing final payment this soon for $100.

[crystalspin]

I did find the offer in my email box after being away from computer all day. $100 OBC, the cost of two steak dinners, OR 1.3% of the fare they think I should pay over a year in advance. Nope.

[Mary229]

I did not get the offer but a friend did.  The friend was only required to pay by October 30 with original final payment November 12. That is a no brainer. 
 

My savings account is now paying close to 5% so HAL will have to pay me 6% minimum for early payment 

[Ellencruise]

I passed on the offer as well, cruise isn’t til 12/24!

[wdw1972]

I have 5 cruises booked - #1 has already passed/made final payment.  My offer of $100 was for cruise #5 in May of 2025.  They must be kidding - if they were offering it for cruise #2 (final payment due early December 2023 then I might, but definitely no way am I prepaying something due almost 2 years from now!

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Banditswife]

I haven't truly checked my emails from HAL, but don't think we've gotten the offer.  We have 2 paid in full cruises coming up, but the Amazon explorer cruise in 2025-no we would not pay up front to get $100 OBC, we already have over $1000 OBC due to early booking bonus & shareholder credit.

[foodsvcmgr]

Avoid the temptation, however minimal.

Don’t want HAL getting the idea that people are ok paying months if not years ahead lest they change their policy to be like Viking!

[BermudaBound2014]

I received the offer. $100 to pay 2 weeks early. I’ll take it :). 
 

But my suspicious mind is curious why they are offering this incentive. In my situation HAL gains virtually nothing. They must really want cash.

Edited September 28, 2023 by BermudaBound2014

[Mary229]

5 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I received the offer. $100 to pay 2 weeks early. I’ll take it :). 
 

But my suspicious mind is curious why they are offering this incentive. In my situation HAL gains virtually nothing. They must really want cash.

They have, for years, had the same scheme with grand voyages.  Pay early and get 3% off and that is about 8 months early. I pay HAL only FCD of $100 to $300 to reserve and would rather keep my money earning interest until required.  People may have gotten so used to 0% interest rates that they see no value in waiting.

[BermudaBound2014]

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

They have, for years, had the same scheme with grand voyages.  Pay early and get 3% off and that is about 8 months early. I pay HAL only FCD of $100 to $300 to reserve and would rather keep my money earning interest until required.  People may have gotten so used to 0% interest rates that they see no value in waiting.

I totally get why it is advantageous for Hal to offer incentives to pay months early. We do the same thing in our business.
 

But in my case it’s less than 2 weeks early. I see no real benefit for HAL 

[DarrylR85]

This offer came our 3 weeks after they did there $1 deposit offer, I got the same 100 OBC offer for an August 24 cruise and like others have said it doesn't really make sense to pay early.  My upcoming New Years cruise I booked on the same offer well over a year ago and I vaguely remember some offer in the email with incentives for paying early. 

[DarrylR85]

For conversation sake.....let's say 1000 people took advantage of the $1 deposit for an August 24 cruise at 5000/reservation with final payment due in February. That's $5,000,000. If 10% of customers decided the 100 obc is worth it to them.....that is half a million in liquid cash for the company.

[BermudaBound2014]

51 minutes ago, DarrylR85 said:

For conversation sake.....let's say 1000 people took advantage of the $1 deposit for an August 24 cruise at 5000/reservation with final payment due in February. That's $5,000,000. If 10% of customers decided the 100 obc is worth it to them.....that is half a million in liquid cash for the company.

Interesting conversation- i suspect a significant number of people who booked with $1 deposits did so because…. 

 

a) they are financially conscious and are putting the deposit money to work for them.  In which case, they would be well aware that paying off 8 months early makes little financial  sense. 
 

b) they selected the $1 deposit because they wanted flexibility before making a final decision. In which case, paying off early defeats the purpose of $1 deposit. 
 

c) they made $1 deposit because they just didn’t have the money to make full deposit. At which case they likely can’t pay full 
amount early. 
 

d) as evidenced by reports here and various social media sites, people made multiple $1 deposits in order to secure several rooms increase choices later. 
 

But it is interesting timing and an interesting conversation. 
 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

If one chooses to take this $100 OBC offer and pays the cruise fare in full prior to final payment, does the booking now become one with a "nonrefundable deposit"? More specifically if true, does the new "nonrefundable deposit" booking status eliminate one's ability to refare the booking to a lower rate should the price go down prior to the actual Final Payment Due Date?

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If one chooses to take this $100 OBC offer and pays the cruise fare in full prior to final payment, does the booking now become one with a "nonrefundable deposit"? More specifically if true, does the new "nonrefundable deposit" booking status eliminate one's ability to refare the booking to a lower rate should the price go down prior to the actual Final Payment Due Date?

Indeed it does.  You move the final payment date to the new date and are now passed final payment date and all it’s penalties 

[crystalspin]

Wow. They could offer me $1000 in OBC and not make it worth that condition!

[KAKcruiser]

Are you sure?  I thought it would be refundable up until the original final payment date.  

[Mary229]

23 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

Are you sure?  I thought it would be refundable up until the original final payment date.  

I encountered this once and was warned by my TA and, at the time, confirmed with HAL.  Things can and do change - YMMV

[Cruise Suzy]

When I took advantage of a previous pay early and save 10%, the fare remained fully refundable until the final payment date.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Indeed it does.  You move the final payment date to the new date and are now passed final payment date and all it’s penalties 

Thanks. We learned the hard way back in 2019 on our 30-day Australia circumnavigation cruise when the cruise fare went down another $3500 that a "nonrefundable deposit" booking cannot be refared. One of the little "gotcha" items not well publicized but can be very eye-opening when it happens to you.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

When I took advantage of a previous pay early and save 10%, the fare remained fully refundable until the final payment date.

I guess if we ever decide to take HAL up on one of these offers, we'll just have to confirm with our TA that our booking will remain with a refundable deposit. 

[jjfarns]

We got the same offer for our upcoming January 2024 cruise with a PIF date 10/26/2023. Offer says the $100 OBC is available if we pay by 10/31/23. No brainer for us. Just picked up a $100 OBC for paying on time. 
 
We also have another cruise booked in September 2024 but did not receive the same offer on that cruise. We would have passed on that offer.