Ship Board Credits from TA

[lgcochran]

We'll be sailing soon on our second O cruise. Our travel agent had included a ship board credit and pre-paid gratuties. When I received our documents from O, the pre-paid gratuties were specified; but no reference to the ship credit. When I e-mailed O regarding this, their repsonse was check with your TA, which I've done but haven't heard back yet. How is this usually handled:confused:

[caribbeansun]

Seems to be hit or miss - on my most recent cruise (Feb/10) it was listed under "Gift Orders" on my next cruise (Oct/10) it's listed under "Booking Comments"

[hondorner]

Most of the time we have not received any official word of the shipboard credit until we are aboard; then there is usually a card in an envelope that says, "You have received X dollars of on board credit". And, of course, you can sometimes tune in to the accounts channel on the cabin TV and see your credit balance (sometimes it's not working or not up to date -- just stop at Reception and ask).

 

The "hit or miss" of notification may depend on the source of the credit -- sometimes it is an incentive passed from Oceania through the TA, sometimes it is the TA sending back part of their commission as a direct payment in your favor. It's probably more likely to show up on your invoice if the TA is entirely responsible for paying it, because that's an actual cash transaction between the TA and the cruise line. When the cruise line passes it to the TA, it's called soft money" - the TA never actually sees it, it is just credited to the onboard account. TA's get those incentives partially based on how much business they book with the cruise line.

 

I'm not now, and never have been, a TA, but I keep my ears open.

[Leonid]

Our experience on O has been that our Stewardess would have me sign a card acknowledging that I would be receiving SBC. I also received a duplicate copy for my records.

[CintiPam]

Both have been shown on our Oceania documents and then we were asked to sign a card that was waiting in our cabin on the desk when we boarded acknowledging them.

[lgcochran]

Interesting...It appears as though there are many ways to handle this.

 

This was listed on my invoice from the travel agent:

" The XXX Travel amenities include Pre-paid gratuities and a $xxx shipboard credit".

 

The Oceania Vacation Summary Cruise Details shows the complementary gratuities under Cruise Details; but the the ship board credit.

 

I'm sure I'll hear from my TA this week and explain who they handle this.