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eliana
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Nobody on this board would be likely to know about any cash flow issues at Regent. Having said that, it is unlikely that offers for early payment would have significant influence on any cash issue.

 

There are several more likely scenarios. Is the offer actually from Regent or is it from a travel agent? If from an agent it would be more likely that the agent may have some cash flow issues or for some reason needs to finalize the booking. If from Regent, I'd be willing to bet that part of the offer is that it would count as a final non-cancellable payment. Some sailings are having some degree of difficulty selling the entire ship (for example, sailings in the Med). If they give a small amount of OBC in return for a final non-cancellable payment that is one less cabin they have to sell (since there is no longer a possibility of cancellation). And, if it is sold, any further discounting will not have to be made on that cabin - and any potential discounting could easily be equal or greater than the cost of the OBC.

 

There are other scenarios as well but I believe that the offer of OBC for early payment is a not uncommon and is not an indication of any instability of Regent. We have several bookings and I'd be happy to take the offer if it was made to me.

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Interesting response John. I understand the offer was from Regent via the TA. The cruise is waitlist only. You are right that acceptance would mean non-cancellable payment. I suspect that might be the reason as Regent want to keep the cruise full.

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Crystal and Silversea give discounts if you pay for your cruise early. On Silversea every voyage has a 10% discount if you pay early by a set date (e.g. Dec 31). Wondering when regent will offer a similar pricing model. When we book SS, we pay early to snag the 10% discount like we did for a May expedition cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Nobody on this board would be likely to know about any cash flow issues at Regent. Having said that, it is unlikely that offers for early payment would have significant influence on any cash issue.

 

There are several more likely scenarios. Is the offer actually from Regent or is it from a travel agent? If from an agent it would be more likely that the agent may have some cash flow issues or for some reason needs to finalize the booking. If from Regent, I'd be willing to bet that part of the offer is that it would count as a final non-cancellable payment. Some sailings are having some degree of difficulty selling the entire ship (for example, sailings in the Med). If they give a small amount of OBC in return for a final non-cancellable payment that is one less cabin they have to sell (since there is no longer a possibility of cancellation). And, if it is sold, any further discounting will not have to be made on that cabin - and any potential discounting could easily be equal or greater than the cost of the OBC.

 

There are other scenarios as well but I believe that the offer of OBC for early payment is a not uncommon and is not an indication of any instability of Regent. We have several bookings and I'd be happy to take the offer if it was made to me.

 

Really appreciated your post! While I know how much net profit that NCLH made, I cannot share it but it is likely available since it is a public company. Anyone that knows the number would not question cash flow. Regent is doing more than quite well!!!!!

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Nobody on this board would be likely to know about any cash flow issues at Regent. Having said that, it is unlikely that offers for early payment would have significant influence on any cash issue.

 

There are several more likely scenarios. Is the offer actually from Regent or is it from a travel agent? If from an agent it would be more likely that the agent may have some cash flow issues or for some reason needs to finalize the booking. If from Regent, I'd be willing to bet that part of the offer is that it would count as a final non-cancellable payment. Some sailings are having some degree of difficulty selling the entire ship (for example, sailings in the Med). If they give a small amount of OBC in return for a final non-cancellable payment that is one less cabin they have to sell (since there is no longer a possibility of cancellation). And, if it is sold, any further discounting will not have to be made on that cabin - and any potential discounting could easily be equal or greater than the cost of the OBC.

 

There are other scenarios as well but I believe that the offer of OBC for early payment is a not uncommon and is not an indication of any instability of Regent. We have several bookings and I'd be happy to take the offer if it was made to me.

I'm new to Regents. I know there's a penalty for cancelling prior to final payment date, but this post indicates if you pay in full early then it becomes totally non-cancellable. Did I read that correctly? Or are you suggesting that to get the OBC you'd have to agree to the full payment being non-refundable? We are planning on paying our cruise in Nov. in installments over a series of months. Up until final payment date, will it still be cancellable and refundable with the exception of the cancellation penalty on the deposit?

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No, my post suggests that it was likely, in this circumstance only, that there was a special incentive ( incremental OBC) for full payment early and that it was likely that there was a side restriction making the reservation noncancellabe. The original poster confirmed that this was the case although they did not know if the offer was actually from Regent or from the travel agent.

 

This is not the normal way of doing business for Regent or most travel agents. It does not mean that if you pay in full the reservation usually becomes noncancellable. And, it is quite normal for OBC to be given on many Regent cruises - sometimes by Regent, sometimes by the travel agent and sometimes by both.

 

My suggestion is that you check with your travel agent or Regent if you are not using a travel agent to ensure that your timing of payments does not change the cancellation dates and that the OBC is not dependent on early payment.

 

If you are not using a travel agent, you probably should be and it will likely save you money. TC2 - please feel free to jump in here with the reasons to use a TA ( you can say it more clearly and succinctly than I can).

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John, IMO, your posts come across kinder than mine but I do agree that having a TA that regularly books Regent is a huge plus. I was just posting on another thread that we don't have to worry about prices going down, port or excursion cancellations or anything else that we should know about as our TA makes sure that we are aware of changes. We also get upsell notices and offers to extend/change our cruise.

 

IMO, a person should not book a Regent cruise with their friend/relative just because they have used them for years. Booking with a luxury TA vs. a regular TA is somewhat akin to going to a specialist vs. going to a general practitioner. Luxury TA's have more education when it comes to luxury cruising.

 

For a moment I was wondering why John asked me to talk about TA's. I get it now - it's about OBC's. Yes - you get more OBC's from certain TA's and also get a percentage of your cruise fare back.

 

Basically, there is no reason not to have a TA that regularly books Regent (and has sailed on Regent). There is no down side. Some information that I share on Cruise Critic comes from our TA (no - I don't call them and ask all the time but have learned from them).

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Very interesting to hear that other luxury lines offer significant discounts (i.e. real up-front cash) for early payment, whereas Regent just seems to be starting to experiment with offering some guests on some cruises a nominal amount of shipboard credit.

 

Of course the declaration of healthy profits does not necessarily equate to a company having good cashflow. However, if NCLH has plenty of cash in hand, I wonder why they do not:

  • Pay any dividends to their shareholders (cf excellent dividends from Carnival Corporation stock)
  • Improve loyalty benefits for their Regent cruisers
  • Invest in addressing the numerous problems reported with Regent website glitches, database problems and customer notifications
  • Put a team in to improve the quality & consistency of on-shore services

Just a few thoughts for NCLH/Regent management as to what good use they could put all this spare money that they have sloshing around ;)

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Not sure what the last post has to do with onboard credits. My comment about NCLH's earnings was in response to the TS's specific question. Granted, I went on about TA's at another posters request but the bottom line was about onboard credits. Not sure that any of us are qualified to decide how NCLH should spend their profits (other than on new ships, refurbishments, etc.)

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I think the issue is that you were equating Free Cash Flow with Net Profit which are not the same thing (you were the one who mentioned how you were "in the know" about NCLH Net Profit.) You can absolutely have profit on paper but issues with other financial metrics like receivables and no or even negative cash flow. You were making a point in response to a previous posters question about cash flow that was not quite accurate.

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I think the issue is that you were equating Free Cash Flow with Net Profit which are not the same thing (you were the one who mentioned how you were "in the know" about NCLH Net Profit.) You can absolutely have profit on paper but issues with other financial metrics like receivables and no or even negative cash flow. You were making a point in response to a previous posters question about cash flow that was not quite accurate.

 

Yes, you are so right LynnRuns. You can have a positive net income and still have a negative cash flow as there are certain transactions that do not appear on the P&L statement.

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Flossie,

 

I may be incorrect but I believe that the lack of payment of dividends is because of debt covenant restrictions. I forget if the debt/loans (and covenants) came about from the merger/acquisition a few years back or from the financing of the Explorer but I seem to recall it was the result of the Explorer financing. I looked into this several years ago when I was considering purchasing NCLH stock.

 

Best,

John

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I'm new to Regents. I know there's a penalty for cancelling prior to final payment date, but this post indicates if you pay in full early then it becomes totally non-cancellable. Did I read that correctly? Or are you suggesting that to get the OBC you'd have to agree to the full payment being non-refundable? We are planning on paying our cruise in Nov. in installments over a series of months. Up until final payment date, will it still be cancellable and refundable with the exception of the cancellation penalty on the deposit?

 

I have not seen an ad from Regent offering OBC's if you pay early. I wonder how that would work with their onboard bookings that give price guarantees. I've been aware that Silversea has had promotions like this for years but rather than OBC's, they give a percentage off of the cruise (which, IMO, is preferable).

 

It seems that we have more questions than answers and need more information. This may be a promotion that is only available in the U.K.

 

IMO, OBCs on Regent is an interesting topic since none of us really need to have them. Sometimes they are great to have (if you use the spa as my DH does or like to purchase premium wines). Sometimes I don't know how to spend OBCs and end up buying an expensive handbag that I may or may not use in the future. In any case, OBCs would not be an incentive for us to pay a cruise in full early. OTOH, if we received a discount on the cruise, I'd pay in full a year early!

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Flossie,

 

I may be incorrect but I believe that the lack of payment of dividends is because of debt covenant restrictions. I forget if the debt/loans (and covenants) came about from the merger/acquisition a few years back or from the financing of the Explorer but I seem to recall it was the result of the Explorer financing. I looked into this several years ago when I was considering purchasing NCLH stock.

 

Best,

John

Thanks for the info, John; very useful to know.

Whatever the reason it makes the NCLH stock less attractive than the likes of Carnival Corporation, which provides an excellent level of income as well as capital growth.

 

Apologies for letting this thread go mildly off-topic :o

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It is interesting to consider who actually pays for OBCs and/or Discounts. Is it the TA who accepts a lower commission or the cruise line which if the promotion is successful has a fuller ship. Maybe it’s we the passengers who get disgruntled if we discover someone has paid less for the same package or, as we are all finding with Regent, finds that the benefits for cruising a lot with the same line are being eroded.

In the ultimate though let us cruise on an itinerary we like, with a cruise line we enjoy, at a cost that is acceptable, relax and not be one of the moaners.

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