Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

New OBC Policy for Celebrity

Wine-O

By Wine-O,
in Celebrity Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

Wine-O

Wine-O

Posted
Posted

In the past, if you wanted to use your Celebrity OBC to book an excursion, you had to wait until you get on board to use it. Now, you can go into your cruise planner and use your Celebrity OBC to purchase excursions, etc. ahead of time. I just called the Captain's Club on a cruise I am going on next February to purchase the unlimited internet package with the Elite Plus 35% discount, and instead of paying for it with my credit card, they just deducted it from the $300 OBC I had for that cruise from Celebrity.

 

I was told this is a new program that was recently rolled out. It's a good deal as far as I'm concerned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dkjretired

dkjretired

Posted
Posted
In the past, if you wanted to use your Celebrity OBC to book an excursion, you had to wait until you get on board to use it. Now, you can go into your cruise planner and use your Celebrity OBC to purchase excursions, etc. ahead of time. I just called the Captain's Club on a cruise I am going on next February to purchase the unlimited internet package with the Elite Plus 35% discount, and instead of paying for it with my credit card, they just deducted it from the $300 OBC I had for that cruise from Celebrity.

 

I was told this is a new program that was recently rolled out. It's a good deal as far as I'm concerned.

 

Hi Mike:

 

Thanks for posting this, I knew they were doing a trial program but didn't realize it was now rolled out for everyone.

 

I just brought up my reservation for Sept and a big pop up comes on explaining that you can do it and how much you have available. Please note that it appears to show up only Celebrity OBC, not the OBC given to you by your TA.

 

Thanks again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mkbruce

mkbruce

Posted
Posted

Just checked my reservation and the OBC shows up as being a payment option for pre-booked excursions, dining, etc. Apparently there is an option when checking out to use the OBC as payment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CanuckCFAN

CanuckCFAN

Posted
Posted

I just checked our reservation and I have no option to use our celebrity OBC.

 

Maybe it's because we are leaving in a week or perhaps it's because my booking is in CAD $ and the OBC is in USD but I tried to book an excursion, took it all the way to the end but no luck. Celebrity still wanted payment via a CC. No option to use our OBC...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kevinyork

kevinyork

Posted
Posted

That's good to hear. Our Royal booking for Sep showed the OBC as a credit balance some time back. Nice that Celebrity have aligned. Last year on Eclipse we pre booked excursions and on boarding asked at the shore excursion desk if we could cancel and rebook with our OBC and he looked less than pleased saying the price may have gone up. Eventually he did it but it wasn't comfortable. Also showing your OBC balance in advance may actually increase full price speciality restaurant bookings rather than people taking discounted offers onboard so it could benefit them.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
XLVIII

XLVIII

Posted
Posted
I just checked our reservation and I have no option to use our celebrity OBC.

 

Maybe it's because we are leaving in a week or perhaps it's because my booking is in CAD $ and the OBC is in USD but I tried to book an excursion, took it all the way to the end but no luck. Celebrity still wanted payment via a CC. No option to use our OBC...

I just checked our October cruise. We also booked in CAD$, but are able to use our USD OBC to book excursions and dining before we cruise. $300 USD works out to $397 CAD. Especially happy because we booked this through a TA, and up until now weren't able to see the OBC on the Celebrity site at all. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
XLVIII

XLVIII

Posted
Posted

For Canadian cruisers, here's something I also found out on the site:

 

"Today's Exchange Rate

Today's onboard credit exchange rate is listed below. This exchange rate can fluctuate until you make your first purchase using onboard credit. At that time, your exchange rate will be locked"

If the exchange rate goes way up, I may purchase a bottle of water to lock the rate in!;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CanuckCFAN

CanuckCFAN

Posted
Posted
I just checked our October cruise. We also booked in CAD$, but are able to use our USD OBC to book excursions and dining before we cruise. $300 USD works out to $397 CAD. Especially happy because we booked this through a TA, and up until now weren't able to see the OBC on the Celebrity site at all. :D

 

I just checked again and nope, I still don't seem to have the option.

 

Maybe I will pose the question over at the roll call to see if any of my fellow travelers have been able to pre-book using OBC..:confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
theriac

theriac

Posted
Posted

I have copied and pasted all the terms and what shows up on the X website for people to read. Obviously my OBC will be different than yours, but the rest is the same.

 

 

 

Pre-Cruise Onboard Credit Available

 

Lucky you! You can now use your onboard credits as a form of payment on Cruise Planner.

Once you've added all your items to the Shopping Cart, you can choose to use your credits and apply them to the balance due.

$500.00 USD*

Onboard Credit Available for Pre-Cruise Purchases

*Amount reflected is eligible for use pre-cruise. Additional Onboard Credit (OBC) amounts may be available onboard.

 

 

 

 

FOR FULL TERMS & CONDITIONS EXPAND BELOW

 

Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions relate only to the use of promotional on-board credit (OBC) that you may have received as a benefit under a promotion (“Promotional OBC”). Promotional OBC is issued in US$.

Guests that have been awarded Promotional OBC will be able to log in to Cruise Planner prior to the sail date of their booked cruise and see their available Promotional OBC in US$ where the booking was priced in US$. For all other currency bookings, Promotional OBC will be converted from US$ into the same currency as the cruise booking that gave rise to the award of Promotional OBC (“Available Spend”).

Available Spend may be redeemed via Cruise Planner for individual bookings and for group bookings where Promotional OBC was allocated at an individual level.

Available Spend may be used to purchase shore excursions, dining, beverage packages, internet packages, spa & fitness services, entertainment activities and any future ancillary products / services available for purchase in advance of your cruise via Cruise Planner for your benefit or that of any other booking subject to such bookings relating to the same cruise sailing as your booking and such bookings being in the same currency.

Not all OBC is eligible for purchases through Cruise Planner. Promotional OBC excludes OBC you may have received as a gift, from your travel agent, Customer Service, or any OBC awarded through a group booking.

Making a Purchase via the Pre Cruise Planner

Subject to availability, guests may make purchases via Cruise Planner utilizing their Available Spend.

Where the value of Available Spend is less than the cost of any purchase(s), you may apply the Available Spend to the purchase(s) and pay any shortfall utilizing a credit or debit card.

Where the value of Available Spend exceeds the cost of any purchase(s) to be made, any balance will remain available to use on purchase(s) via Cruise Planner until the cut - off date for making purchases utilizing Cruise Planner (usually 48 hours prior to the sail date) after which any unused residual balance will be converted back to US$ on the sailing date and added to the guest’s on-board account for spend onboard.

Please note that the value of Available Spend in your Cruise Planner account is subject to exchange rate fluctuation between the US$ and your cruise booking currency so your Available Spend will vary between visits to Cruise Planner. When however a purchase is made via Cruise Planner utilizing Available Spend, at the time of that purchase the exchange rate will become fixed for the purchase and will also be applied to the balance of any residual Available Spend (where applicable). As such, any residual balance of Available Spend will no longer be subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

Change(s) to Cruise Booking

Should you make a purchase in Cruise Planner that utilizes Available Spend and then subsequently change your cruise booking in any way so that it is no longer eligible for any portion of the Promotional OBC, then the amount of Available Spend will be adjusted accordingly in Cruise Planner.

Please note that in the event that you have made purchases utilizing Available Spend that you are no longer entitled due to such a change of booking, then to retain those purchases you will need to pay those elements of your purchases no longer covered by such Available Spend. In such circumstances, we will promptly advise you by email of the amount payable by you and the deadline to make such payment.

Cancellation of Cruise Booking

In the event that your cruise booking is cancelled for any reason, any purchases made using Available Spend will be automatically cancelled and forfeited. Where any cash payment was made in full or in part for any purchase made via Cruise Planner using a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments the amount of such cash payment will be refunded back in the original form of payment within 30 days.

Cancellation of Purchases

In the event that you wish to cancel any purchase(s) made via Cruise Planner prior to the sail date of your cruise, you may do so via Cruise Planner up to the cut off date.

Where you do cancel any purchase made via Cruise Planner, any relevant amount of Promotional OBC released by such cancellation will be credited back to your Cruise Planner account to be used as Available Spend. In the event the purchase was in part funded by cash (via a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments then the applicable amount will be credited back to the original form of payment within 30 days.

Balance Due Notification & Cancellation of Cruise Planner Purchase

PLEASE NOTE THAT SHOULD YOU FAIL TO PAY THE FULL AMOUNT OF ANY SUM DUE BY THE DEADLINE COMMUNICATED TO YOU BY US FOLLOWING A CHANGE OF BOOKING, THEN THE RELEVANT PURCHASE(S) MADE VIA CRUISE PLANNER WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY CANCELLED WITHOUT ANY LIABILITY ON OUR PART TO YOU OR ANY OTHER BENEFICIARY OF SUCH PURCHASES.

In the above circumstances, where we are forced to cancel any purchase, where any cash payment was made in full or in part for any purchase made via Cruise Planner using a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments the amount of such cash payment will be refunded back in the original form of payment within 30 days.

Transfer of Available Spend for use onboard the Ship

Should you have any residual Available Spend at the cut-off date for making purchases utilizing Cruise Planner, such Available Spend will be automatically converted back to US$ for spend onboard your booked cruise.

The rate of exchange applied will be the same rate that applied to your original purchase utilizing Onboard Spend. Where however no purchase has been made utilizing your Available Spend, the original amount of Promotional OBC awarded to you in US$ shall be transferred to your onboard account to spend onboard.

Please note that Promotional OBC is non-transferable, not redeemable for cash, and will expire if not used by 10:00 PM on the final night of your cruise.

Last Minute Changes to Cruise Booking

Be advised that last minute changes to a cruise booking within 3 days of sailing and after final notification of Cruise Planner Credit Balance Summary has been sent to you where you are no longer eligible to receive Promotional OBC will have an impact on your final Cruise Planner Credit Summary and available onboard credit spend.

Additionally, this will make it impossible to organize the collection and processing of payments via Cruise Planner and thus owe us money to pay for any existing purchases made via Cruise Planner prior to any change utilizing Cruise Planner credit. We must reserve the right to simply cancel any purchases made via Cruise Planner where Promotional OBC was applied.

In these circumstances we will advise you by email that your purchase(s) are cancelled and credit any cash payments (as applicable) back to the original form of payment within 30 days. We recommend that where your change of booking is within 3 days of your sailing date, that at the time of changing your booking you ask your travel agent or our call center if any change is likely to affect any Promotional OBC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cdn_tbird

cdn_tbird

Posted
Posted
For Canadian cruisers, here's something I also found out on the site:

 

"Today's Exchange Rate

Today's onboard credit exchange rate is listed below. This exchange rate can fluctuate until you make your first purchase using onboard credit. At that time, your exchange rate will be locked"

If the exchange rate goes way up, I may purchase a bottle of water to lock the rate in!;)

 

Right now their exchange rate is actually better than the Canadian banks. X is offering 1.32 whereas the banks are 1.30 (converting USD to CAD), let alone getting nailed 1.37+ for making purchases in USD once onboard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Arzeena

Arzeena

Posted
Posted
In the past, if you wanted to use your Celebrity OBC to book an excursion, you had to wait until you get on board to use it. Now, you can go into your cruise planner and use your Celebrity OBC to purchase excursions, etc. ahead of time. I just called the Captain's Club on a cruise I am going on next February to purchase the unlimited internet package with the Elite Plus 35% discount, and instead of paying for it with my credit card, they just deducted it from the $300 OBC I had for that cruise from Celebrity.

 

I was told this is a new program that was recently rolled out. It's a good deal as far as I'm concerned.

 

Thanks for posting.

Was able to see and book with pre cruise $$ on all of our future celebrity cruises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luvcrusn

Luvcrusn

Posted
Posted

Happy to hear this. Previously we have waited to book shore excursions until on board in order to use OBC, and subsequently had to pay higher prices, since pre-booking them offered a slight discount sometimes. Still, we preferred using the OBC than our credit card. Now it's a win/win!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
floridafolks

floridafolks

Posted
Posted
I just checked again and nope, I still don't seem to have the option.

 

Maybe I will pose the question over at the roll call to see if any of my fellow travelers have been able to pre-book using OBC..:confused:

I also do not have option for April 17 cruise. I called Captains Club and was told it is for cruises beginning on/after April 22. I believe you said your cruise was soon, so perhaps this is the reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...