promotional chips

[ghstudio]

promotional chips-eclipse 5/10 sailing

 

You can get promotional chips in the casino with no extra charge (you get $100 in promotional chips for $100 charged to your on board account) and the charge is applied to your non-refundable OBC actually printed in the daily events paper as a way to spend your non-refundable obc. If you don’t have an obc, they charge the 5% and they still give you promotional chips.

 

I got $100 of the chips….placed a $10 in blackjack, won, and received $10 in normal chips and they left the $10 in promotional chips. They did not replace the promotional chips with real chips. The only way to “spend” the promotional chips is to lose them to the house. If you placed the full $100 at blackjack and won, you would have $100 in normal chips (cashable) and $100 in promotional chips which are useless other than betting them.

 

I verified this with the pit boss.

 

I am not sure this is consistent across ships….and I’m interested to know other’s experiences because consistency is not one of Celebrity’s strong points.

[Wine-O]

promotional chips-eclipse 5/10 sailing

 

You can get promotional chips in the casino with no extra charge (you get $100 in promotional chips for $100 charged to your on board account) and the charge is applied to your non-refundable OBC actually printed in the daily events paper as a way to spend your non-refundable obc. If you don’t have an obc, they charge the 5% and they still give you promotional chips.

 

I got $100 of the chips….placed a $10 in blackjack, won, and received $10 in normal chips and they left the $10 in promotional chips. They did not replace the promotional chips with real chips. The only way to “spend” the promotional chips is to lose them to the house. If you placed the full $100 at blackjack and won, you would have $100 in normal chips (cashable) and $100 in promotional chips which are useless other than betting them.

 

I verified this with the pit boss.

 

I am not sure this is consistent across ships….and I’m interested to know other’s experiences because consistency is not one of Celebrity’s strong points.

 

Well, that stinks. We have a lot of Celebrity non-refundable OBC on an upcoming cruise on Summit, and I'm looking for innovative ways to cash it out. Of course, my wife would like to spend it all at the spa. :eek:

[killsport]

The simplest and safest way to "convert" promotional chips to cash is roulette. There is about a 5% cost. I think it is is still a 35-1 payout on 00/green.

If you have $103 in promo chips, put $50 on black, $50 on red, and $3 on green.

If black comes up, you get $50 real and have $50 remaining in promo. Same if red comes up. If green (00), you get $105 in real and only $3 left in promo. Repeat as needed to continue to get rid of your promo chips. Not elegant, but effective.

 

Or have fun at the spa.

Or take home some booze to fill your liquor cabinet.

Or buy your wife some things at the boutiques.

Or meet me on a cruise and buy me stuff :)

Edited May 12, 2016 by killsport

[Andy]

promotional chips-eclipse 5/10 sailing

 

You can get promotional chips in the casino with no extra charge (you get $100 in promotional chips for $100 charged to your on board account) and the charge is applied to your non-refundable OBC actually printed in the daily events paper as a way to spend your non-refundable obc. If you don’t have an obc, they charge the 5% and they still give you promotional chips.

 

I got $100 of the chips….placed a $10 in blackjack, won, and received $10 in normal chips and they left the $10 in promotional chips. They did not replace the promotional chips with real chips. The only way to “spend” the promotional chips is to lose them to the house. If you placed the full $100 at blackjack and won, you would have $100 in normal chips (cashable) and $100 in promotional chips which are useless other than betting them.

 

I verified this with the pit boss.

 

I am not sure this is consistent across ships….and I’m interested to know other’s experiences because consistency is not one of Celebrity’s strong points.

 

Hi Ghstudio,

 

We were also on Eclipse the first 2 weeks in April, and can confirm they handled it the same way as you described, at the gaming tables. Another member mentioned something slightly different at Roulette, but I cannot comfirm this, as we do not play Roulette.

 

I'm not much of a gambler, but I must say the new system doesn't seem reasonable, as there's no way to make anything of the promotional chips - at least at the tables.... other than to eventually lose them.

 

You would think that if you won the bet, the promotional chips would be replaced with real chips, but I suppose Celebrity won't be in favor of this. IMO, replacing the chips is only fair, especially as you risked the chips, via the wager. In my case, I dont mind the risk, as I'm gambling anyway... but what's the point, if you can't get real chips if you win ? :confused::confused::confused:

 

Frankly, this is all very complicated, and I don't like complicated when on vacation.

 

I wish Celebrity would scrap this plan, and consider going back to the old system of charging 5% and be done with it. 5% for doing virtually nothing, is a decent profit for them.

 

With all of the never ending promotions, I can't imagine how many repeat guests are going to presume they can continue to cash out at the Casino - only to find out the rules have changed when they board the ship. I suspect there's going to be *many* unhappy guests.

[DrivesLikeMario]

It seems they're doing this on every ship now. Too many people were going to the casino to cash in their OBC and making a big deal about it on the boards so they put a stop to it. :mad: Doing it the roulette way mentioned above seems to be the best way to handle it.

[SusieV]

I must be missing something. What if you just want to buy regular chips, whether you have an OBC or not? Why would anyone want these promotional chips unless you were getting extra or something?

[AmazedByCruising]

The casino is not meant for people who want to turn non refundable OBC into cash or to withdraw money from your credit card. Isn't this just an elegant way of saying "please use these chips to play instead of laundering OBC via the casino"?

 

Let's say you'd play BJ at $10/bet. For the sake of argument, say you lose 50% of the bets (slightly more, but that's why it's a casino, not a bank). So on average you'd have to play 20 times to get rid of the promo chips, and on average that would cost you like 3%, leaving $97 (depending on how well you play/count cards/house rules).

 

From the ship's standpoint, given the fact that the casino is used as a bank, that's only fair IMHO. They could have said "you can't use non refundable OBC in the casino".

 

Anyway, if someone needs to get rid of their useless promotional chips I'll give you really good price. :D

[DrivesLikeMario]

I must be missing something. What if you just want to buy regular chips, whether you have an OBC or not? Why would anyone want these promotional chips unless you were getting extra or something?

 

You can still do that, it's just that a bunch of us have too much non-refundable OBC that we're trying to use up. If you don't use it, you lose it. With pre-booking shore excursions and so much included already, it makes it a little hard to use it all up sometimes.

[WAVTAM]

The simplest and safest way to "convert" promotional chips to cash is roulette. There is about a 5% cost. I think it is is still a 35-1 payout on 00/green.

If you have $103 in promo chips, put $50 on black, $50 on red, and $3 on green.

If black comes up, you get $50 real and have $50 remaining in promo. Same if red comes up. If green (00), you get $105 in real and only $3 left in promo. Repeat as needed to continue to get rid of your promo chips. Not elegant, but effective.

 

Or have fun at the spa.

Or take home some booze to fill your liquor cabinet.

Or buy your wife some things at the boutiques.

Or meet me on a cruise and buy me stuff :)

 

Just off Solstice. ONE person can't not play both red/black. Take friend or spouse. Don't forget to use 5 dollar match paly under every play if you are Elite or above.

I ask for my 250 stock OBC back, got stuck with promotional chips. Played 4 rolls at roulette and ask for 650 winnings. I kind of smirked at them.

[Livin Life]

Our recent experience on Reflection was not positive with the Casino--surprise, surprise! We had $60 in non-refundable OBC the last night of the cruise and had them put $30 on each of our cards. One of us hit a bonus after a few rolls and had about $45. We understood we had to play the full $30 before cashing out, but it appears you must play it all on the first machine you put your card into. We cashed our ticket with the intention of going to another machine because after one bonus, the odds are not that great the machine will continue to pay. However, instead of getting the $45, the ticket was for about $15. After several conversations with 3 casino employees, including the manager, they put $10 back on and needless to say, we ended up walking away with nothing. I don't recommend using this option for your unused OBC.

[LzyCruiser_NWA]

The simplest and safest way to "convert" promotional chips to cash is roulette. There is about a 5% cost. I think it is is still a 35-1 payout on 00/green.

If you have $103 in promo chips, put $50 on black, $50 on red, and $3 on green.

If black comes up, you get $50 real and have $50 remaining in promo. Same if red comes up. If green (00), you get $105 in real and only $3 left in promo. Repeat as needed to continue to get rid of your promo chips. Not elegant, but effective.

 

 

Isn't betting both black and red, even as a couple is against the rules?

[lisalovlee33]

say you bet 10 dollars promo chip. You win, you get $10 real chip. The $10 promo you bet is still yours to continue betting? So it's different than the elite coupons match play where if you win, they'll give you the extra match play but they'll take your match play coupon right?

[WAVTAM]

Isn't betting both black and red, even as a couple is against the rules?

 

Then don't act like a couple.!!!!!

[WAVTAM]

say you bet 10 dollars promo chip. You win, you get $10 real chip. The $10 promo you bet is still yours to continue betting? Correct So it's different than the elite coupons match play where if you win, they'll give you the extra match play but they'll take your match play coupon right?

Correct

[sooper]

The odds are better with BJ than Rouelette. I don't see why X would have an issue with a player betting both red and black and insure on the zeros - that's over 5% house edge! I'd gladly pay $95 for your $100 promo chips. Come find me if you can. :D

[AmazedByCruising]

The odds are better with BJ than Rouelette. I don't see why X would have an issue with a player betting both red and black and insure on the zeros - that's over 5% house edge! I'd gladly pay $95 for your $100 promo chips. Come find me if you can. :D

 

$96 here!

 

But seriously, this thread is about finding new ways to turn non-refundable OBC into cash. My guess is that non-refundable OBC are meant to be like a coupon for a free $15 pizza. Where in this case you can choose between a nice excursion or a specialty restaurant. Without the coupon, you'd have to pay $15 for that pizza, but the company wouldn't give you $15 cash for the coupon.

 

The whole idea of giving away OBC gets useless when everyone goes to the casino to turn OBC into chips, then suddenly realize they didn't want to play tonight and ask for cash for their chips. I guess too many guests found the loophole to turn their free pizza into $15, and Celebrity had no other option than saying "OK, you can use your OBC to play in the casino, but then you have to use it to play in the casino". If the casino wasn't there, many people would try to turn their OBC into cheap watches etc, and many others would just forget about it.

[getaway101]

Being Elite+ with X has recently left me cruising with Princess of which I am also Elite. We just got off a 15 night on X Infinity. You couldn't even get singles from the casino. The only way to get any was to put $5 in slot and play it down to where they had to give you $4 to cash out your card.

On Princess we always have so much obc that it's impossible to use it all. What do I do? I go to the casino, put my card in and put it on my card at 0% then cash out. Love the perks of elite on Princess. All laundry FREE. Mini bar set up. No matter the amount of obc....you still get stock holder benefit. Up coming cruises on X for 26 days we only have &625 obc....no stock credit. 22 day on Princess we have $1850. Obc. Just saying......

[jagoffee]

Being Elite+ with X has recently left me cruising with Princess of which I am also Elite. We just got off a 15 night on X Infinity. You couldn't even get singles from the casino. The only way to get any was to put $5 in slot and play it down to where they had to give you $4 to cash out your card.

On Princess we always have so much obc that it's impossible to use it all. What do I do? I go to the casino, put my card in and put it on my card at 0% then cash out. Love the perks of elite on Princess. All laundry FREE. Mini bar set up. No matter the amount of obc....you still get stock holder benefit. Up coming cruises on X for 26 days we only have &625 obc....no stock credit. 22 day on Princess we have $1850. Obc. Just saying......

 

Why in the world would you have $1850 OBC on a Princess cruise? Since Princess allows discounts my TA just gives me the lower price. It is like getting your "OBC" in cash on the final payment day. You might want to shop around next time. I would generally think the OBC on per person basis is is significantly lower than on a Celebrity cruise because of the discount policies.

The liberal combining of OBC types on Princess is nice for the Princess portion of the OBC. The fact that you do not need to prepaid for Princess shore excursions is great. Since Princess does not allow cruisers to prebook specialty restaurants you can spend OBC for those reservations.

 

Only $625 total OBC for a 26 day Celebrity cruise seems low to me, but I suppose it depends on the category/price for cruise. The TA portion should be about 8% which is refundable.

 

As an Elite+ all the laundry that I ever need to use is free. Many of my cruises have the drink package built into the price (which is still lower than the discounted Princess price) and when it does not the drink coupons when used are really nice.

 

If you really being objective the closing of the loop hole that allowed people to get cash for a non refundable OBC is very logical. I do not think Celebrity ever expected so many people to take advantage of the "loop hole" aggravated by the increase of OBC numbers with the BBB pricing.

 

Just my perspective. Enjoy your Princess cruise.

[getaway101]

Why in the world would you have $1850 OBC on a Princess cruise? Since Princess allows discounts my TA just gives me the lower price. It is like getting your "OBC" in cash on the final payment day. You might want to shop around next time. I would generally think the OBC on per person basis is is significantly lower than on a Celebrity cruise because of the discount policies.

The liberal combining of OBC types on Princess is nice for the Princess portion of the OBC. The fact that you do not need to prepaid for Princess shore excursions is great. Since Princess does not allow cruisers to prebook specialty restaurants you can spend OBC for those reservations.

 

Only $625 total OBC for a 26 day Celebrity cruise seems low to me, but I suppose it depends on the category/price for cruise. The TA portion should be about 8% which is refundable.

 

As an Elite+ all the laundry that I ever need to use is free. Many of my cruises have the drink package built into the price (which is still lower than the discounted Princess price) and when it does not the drink coupons when used are really nice.

 

If you really being objective the closing of the loop hole that allowed people to get cash for a non refundable OBC is very logical. I do not think Celebrity ever expected so many people to take advantage of the "loop hole" aggravated by the increase of OBC numbers with the BBB pricing.

 

Just my perspective. Enjoy your Princess cruise.

 

I failed to mention that both the said cruises X&P are b-2-b. When we booked the X cruise it was with the military rate therefore we didn't get any perks except from our FCC and TA. With their new policy if you have a FCC then you can't get the shareholder benefit.

 

Princess is running a promo with obc for the 2 b-2-b + they offer obc for military + they still let you use your stock credit with FCC. We did get a discount from cruise fare from our TA. Both cruises run about the same price even though the X is 4 days longer. However one leg of that cruise is a transatlantic which are normally cheaper anyway. We are also in a category 2B on X while we are in a premium balcony aft on Princess, a B-4 corner aft.

 

I was just showing some of the differences between the 2 cruise lines. We still travel both. I go for itinerary first then price and perks.

[eduk8or]

I understand the problem with too much OBC. However, most of the perks have a different cost than the actual dollar amount to purchase them. For example, I think they value a drink package at $65 per day. Very few people actually consume that amount of liquor purchased at Celebrity's cost - there must be significant profit built into that figure. If a massage is $125, there is significant profit built into that amount - the masseuse is not making that amount of money. So the OBC is not given as a dollar for dollar incentive. They are expecting you to spend it on something which has built in profit for them. So the actual cost might be 50% of the OBC. Tips are the one exception, I think it is dollar for dollar there.

 

So while I wish I could cash out my OBC at full value, I am not disappointed that I cannot.

 

My plan is to buy merchandise from the Apple store and resell it as unused.

[jagoffee]

I failed to mention that both the said cruises X&P are b-2-b. When we booked the X cruise it was with the military rate therefore we didn't get any perks except from our FCC and TA. With their new policy if you have a FCC then you can't get the shareholder benefit.

 

Princess is running a promo with obc for the 2 b-2-b + they offer obc for military + they still let you use your stock credit with FCC. We did get a discount from cruise fare from our TA. Both cruises run about the same price even though the X is 4 days longer. However one leg of that cruise is a transatlantic which are normally cheaper anyway. We are also in a category 2B on X while we are in a premium balcony aft on Princess, a B-4 corner aft.

 

I was just showing some of the differences between the 2 cruise lines. We still travel both. I go for itinerary first then price and perks.

 

Smart way to do it. Thank you for the clarification.

[Duanerice1]

I understand the problem with too much OBC. However, most of the perks have a different cost than the actual dollar amount to purchase them. For example, I think they value a drink package at $65 per day. Very few people actually consume that amount of liquor purchased at Celebrity's cost - there must be significant profit built into that figure. If a massage is $125, there is significant profit built into that amount - the masseuse is not making that amount of money. So the OBC is not given as a dollar for dollar incentive. They are expecting you to spend it on something which has built in profit for them. So the actual cost might be 50% of the OBC. Tips are the one exception, I think it is dollar for dollar there.

 

So while I wish I could cash out my OBC at full value, I am not disappointed that I cannot.

 

My plan is to buy merchandise from the Apple store and resell it as unused.

 

Good point, kind of like Vegas. They give folks the big comps but then charge $150 for a lobster in one of their restaurants. So you're charged $150 for a $45 lobster. You just got $45 in comps and not $150.

 

My plan is to enjoy the money and have a great cruise. I only have about $650 credit but half of that is refundable. My wife can easily spend it. We used to get some of it at the casino then spend it onshore where prices are cheaper. Oh well, we'll just have to have fun.