How much was your OBC from your TA?

Just curious. I know it's highly subjective based on travel agency, cost of cruise, ship etc. But I was just wondering how much your travel agent gave you.

Ours gave us $150 which I thought was pretty sweet.

We have booked over 9 cruises with our friend who is a TA and about 8 or so for friends and we have never received an OBC. We will not be using her again without at least a $150 OBC. I think we deserve at least that !!!

We have booked over 9 cruises with our friend who is a TA and about 8 or so for friends and we have never received an OBC. We will not be using her again without at least a $150 OBC. I think we deserve at least that !!!

I agree! You should ask your travel agent for at least that.

This was the first time we used this agency and bam! - got an e-mail today saying they threw in $150 for our honeymoon.

It's gotten bumped up from $118 to $142. Random figures - huh?

Almost $600!

I was told that it could be up to 10% the cost of your cruise.

It is whatever part of her commission your TA is willing to share - for repeat business and referrals.

Check around - there are huge differences among TAs.

Mine is very generous - that's why she gets my business.

$300.00 plus one night free specialty dining for 2.

We received 11.3% of the cost of our cruise which totalled $669.00 on a 14 day cruise. Sounds pretty good!

I use one of those warehouse, 'Big Box' retail outlet's travel agency... Our Alaska Millie cruise was about $15K (cruise and land package) and our OBC was about $1300. The bummer part of the OBC is that X won't allow you to use it to pay for shore excursions/wine package/liquor packages that you book BEFORE you board the ship. Obviously, you don't want to wait to book the popular shore excursions until you board, or you will be faced with the dreaded 'sold out' signs.

We received 11.3% of the cost of our cruise which totalled $669.00 on a 14 day cruise. Sounds pretty good!

The raw numbers are meaningless. Depends on length of cruise and cabin choice. You are correct in calculating by the percent of the cost of the trip. Anywhere between 10% and 12% is acceptable to me.

Almost $700 and very close to 12% of our cruise costs. Very happy, now just hoping that it actually does show up in our account.

Agree, you can't use OBC to purchase excursions that you book prior to sailing, since they require immediate payment with a credit card. I guess in the end, it really doesn't matter, since if you don't use the OBC it just gets refunded to your credit card.

Edited to add: to Phxazzcruisers...9 cruises with the same agent...who is also a friend? And no onboard credit?! I guess he/she probably thinks she is doing YOU a favor, rather than the other way around. I could see how it would be hard to ask a friend for OBC. Unless your TA is doing something amazing that no other TA could do, I agree, time to move on!

OBC would be nice but it isn't required. I think the most we've received is $75 on a two week cruise. Now throwing in insurance would be awesome!

I must say I'm more than a bit surprised by the amount of OBC some of you have received. Since OBC is usually a function of your cruise fare, are you booking Penthouse Suites only? Prior to booking, we always check will several travel agents, online and otherwise, for price and OBC and always return to our travel agent of more than ten years because her standard offer of $100 OBC for Concierge or balcony is equal to or greater than other agents. We're looking to book Solstice and after checking with at least eight different travel agencies, the best OBC offer I've heard is a mere $50/cabin, nowhere near the 10% benchmark some have mentioned. Looks like I might have to hire some of you to do my bidding for me! LOL! What's the secret and where are you finding such magnanimous travel agents?

The TA I use offers pre-paid gratuities. Next cruise I might so some additional shopping around to see what I have been missing!

For our upcoming Solstice cruise we received $200 OBC plus pre-paid gratuities for a balcony cabin. I thought that was very good.

Just curious. I know it's highly subjective based on travel agency, cost of cruise, ship etc. But I was just wondering how much your travel agent gave you.

 

Ours gave us $150 which I thought was pretty sweet.

zilch ,nada,zip hmm !!! i missed out on that one

Our last 7-day cruise costs us $1698 + taxes & fees, and our TA prepaid all our gratuities, which came out to $161. So, 10% is a good rule of thumb.

even after asking very sweetly, I was told "no way" you already got a great price, UGHHHHH sure could have used some OBC

We received $250 in obc's from our TA plus another $200 obc due to a price drop. We booked a category 2C balcony cabin on Equinox. Most of the obc was used up to pay for gratuities on the ship and a few souvenirs I brought home.

even after asking very sweetly, I was told "no way" you already got a great price, UGHHHHH sure could have used some OBC

We got 10% for our upcoming cruise from the "big box" and the service has turned out to be great.

For our 2 week Baltic cruise we got $200 OBC plus pre-paid gratuities. For our 15 day Transatlantic we got $250 OBC. The Baltic cruise was nearly twice as expensive as our Transatlantic.

How do you people do it ????

I know you cannot tell me who your travel agents are ..NO FAIR

I NEVER get OBC from anybody .I'm scared to try unknown agencies as so many have caved in

I DESERVE OBC ...a little hint please

I'm going on Milliin Nov Booked thru Celebrity ..Am I missing something????

even after asking very sweetly, I was told "no way" you already got a great price, UGHHHHH sure could have used some OBC

Since Celebrity does not allow TAs to discount the cruisefare, I'm not sure how this TA would justify telling you that he/she is giving you a great price. It's the same. Was this a Celebrity cruise that you were on? If so, then it's time to find a new TA!

Thanks for the suggestion but "been there, done that!" I received eight virtually identical bids from eight different travel agents and the OBC being offered varies from a low of $25/cabin to a high of $100/cabin - none of which comes close to 10% of any of the bids, excluding port/taxes. I'm certain there's a secret out there that I'm just not privy to - LOL!

I don't know what the "big box" is that some people are referring to, but I've been successful at finding one or two TAs that were offering substantial OBC - much more than the others. You need to look for a TA that deals in high volume. I think there must be some kind of incentive for volume of cruises booked. They may only be making a little bit of money on your cruise in terms of commission, but the actual number is more important to them. At least that's my theory.

We are booked for a 14-day Panama Canal cruise in a sky suite. We have a $300 OBC for booking onboard, which is slightly better than shareholder credit (which would be $250) and you can't combine the two any more.:( Our TA is paying gratuities ($15 per day per person in a sky suite - $420 for the two of us). Our cruise fare totals $7,000. Guess we could do better? Maybe I will look around next time.