Using on board credit positively

[Alberta Quilter]

13 minutes ago, Judyrem said:

I am a newbie on HAL.  I will have 600$ total OBC for our Nov 10 sailing on Nieuw Statendam.  400$ from TA and 200$ from HAL.

There is an excursion that I really want to do on my birthday and I booked that ahead of time?  Was that necessary?

 We are in a NS so I will be able to use the services of the concierge to book specialty dinners, etc.

 

Can I use the OBC for gratuities?

 

I really wish they could let me use some OBC ahead of time like many cruise lines do.

If you really want that excursion then, yes, it's best to book in advance because it could be sold out by the time you board.  Yes, the OBC can be used for the Hotel Service Charge (gratuities).  You really only have to use the $200 from HAL because it's non refundable.  Anything over that $200 will be refunded to you, if it's not used.

 

Keep in mind that there are many ways to use OBC - specialty dining, beverages, wine/drink packages, onboard shopping, Bingo, pub crawls, wine/beer tastings, special chef dinners, and probably a number of other things that I can't think of right now.

[jb008]

1 hour ago, Alberta Quilter said:

You really only have to use the $200 from HAL because it's non refundable.  Anything over that $200 will be refunded to you, if it's not used.

 

 

Once you're on board you should be able to tell whether OBC are refundable/nonrefundable right on your stateroom account.  In general, the OBC from TAs are paid for and thus refundable (although that's not 100% certain so check don't just assume).  

[Ellen495]

Interesting. I didn't know it could be refundable. I will check. THANKS

[Woofbite]

23 hours ago, Ellen495 said:

  it's very expensive and I'm bringing daughter's boyfriend. I'll have to think more about it. IF I did it, which port and which excursion?

 

I can't help you there.  We haven't done helicopters in Alaska but did do a 5 glacier sea plane tour in Juneau which departed a short walk from the ship pier.  It was a great trip.

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, jb008 said:

 

Once you're on board you should be able to tell whether OBC are refundable/nonrefundable right on your stateroom account.  In general, the OBC from TAs are paid for and thus refundable (although that's not 100% certain so check don't just assume).  

I've not had an issue getting refunds.  Our last cruise a few weeks ago, $370 in OBC credits were refunded to the credit card.  We had almost $1K in OBC, $450 of which was from HAL (non refundable).  The rest was from the TA which was refundable.

[jb008]

7 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

I've not had an issue getting refunds.  Our last cruise a few weeks ago, $370 in OBC credits were refunded to the credit card.  We had almost $1K in OBC, $450 of which was from HAL (non refundable).  The rest was from the TA which was refundable.

 

I had a portion of OBC that was from my TA that was marked non-refundable in the past.  I think it was part of a group rate fare that included OBC, so described as OBC unique to the TA.  The line of "who" is giving the OBC can be fuzzy.  It is easy to definitively answer by day 1 or 2 of the cruise though, once the OBC posts to the account it should note refundable or not right on the statement.

 

 

[Ellen495]

My TA is irritating me. He wanted to take over my cruise that I booked with HAL. The HAL board said this would be better for me so I said yes. So now he's getting the commission but has done nothing for me. I even booked my own air. He did find a good flight and we bought it  ourselves so it wasn't nothing. I asked him if he any OBC for me.