Benefits of booking on-board

We will be on a cruise in about 2 weeks and wondered what benefits are being offered for booking a cruise while on board.

The new cruise would be a TA and so not eligible for the new go big go better go best.

Talked to a travel agent about booking the cruise and they said they were giving me a $175 price reduction but needed $900 deposit.

Carol

Who knows what the new deals are for booking onboard. :rolleyes: They change frequently just like Celebrity's perks packages do.

Unless you get a response about some very recent experiences, don't count anything in stone. When we last cruised, we went thinking we were getting a certain amount of OBC per someone that had just come back from a cruise the week before. Sometime in the 2 days that I read a thread from that person and the day we boarded the ship, Celebrity changed the onboard booking incentives.

Thanks Iamthesea

I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Still hoping that someone who has sailed since the new BigBetterBest program might respond.

If not I will post once we return from our cruise the end of August.

Carol

We generally book our cruises while onboard and they are usually lower priced with more perks. Once booked, we transfer the cruise back to our TA.

With this new BBB program, make sure you do your homework before cruising, so you’ll get the best deal.

In our case we received a lower deposit, lower price, an OBC, and got first pick of the cabin. This was because we booked far out. We then transferred to our TA. This may not be the case for everyone, but it worked for us.

Why do you transfer to your TA? Is there a benefit to going with the TA over staying with Celebrity?

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Celebrity has a webpage for travel agents that usually includes copies of the onboard booking forms. They have updated that site with the BBB promotion, but none of the links to the forms work yet. http://celebrityonboardcruisesales.com/

We find that booking onboard gets us additional OBC and lower initial deposit.

Why do you transfer to your TA? Is there a benefit to going with the TA over staying with Celebrity?

 

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Because there are lots (like mine) of TA's who will give perks themselves out of their commissions, so you get to keep everything X gave you PLUS what your TA gives you. Mine gives me OBC valued at about half her earned commission.

Also, any reservation issues, it's your TA dealing with Celebrity and long hold times etc. No muss no fuss for me. No aggravating X website stuff, as I use my TA's website for everything.

TA's can't sell cabins for anything less than X does, unless the TA contracts group space on specific itineraries and ships.

CLIA statistics show that 70% of cruisers use Travel Agents.

We are cruising on eclipse, end of next month. We are going to look at booking our 2016 cruise while on board, if it looks a good deal. If we did book, can we in UK also transfer the booking to a travel agent, or is this just a U.S. Thing?

We are cruising on eclipse, end of next month. We are going to look at booking our 2016 cruise while on board, if it looks a good deal. If we did book, can we in UK also transfer the booking to a travel agent, or is this just a U.S. Thing?

You can transfer to a TA, but you will illy be limited to transferring to a UK based TA as they will price you out on board in GBP.

Because Celebrity ignores the West coast where we live with the occasional exception of Panama Canal & Alaska cruises ,we will be taking our last Celebrity cruise next April ,a 7 night Caribbean cruise ;because we will be in Florida any way . We will have used the last on board booking .$200;)

Being retired & having done 66 cruises we now feel that both Princess & Holland America are our best options ;because we can get R/T cruises with no airfares involved :D.

Our most recent cruise is on HAL ,a 21 night Sydney Australia cruise from SD .This has a one way airfare involved ;but ,it is the last of our bucket list. The price comparison of this cruise vs a similar X cruise was far less costly in a Veranda cabin:D .Having sailed many lines I would definitely say that HAL is equal to Celebrity in most ways & their service is excellent:D

Why do you transfer to your TA? Is there a benefit to going with the TA over staying with Celebrity?

 

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Guess we are just greedy :). And yes, we can always get additional perks from any of our favorite cruise agencies and these perks can amount to some real savings. Savings (when valuing perks) can often fall in the 7-10% (of cruise cost).

Hank

We also seem to always book onboard and when we return home, the price and perks are so much better than what is offered on site. It just makes you feel that you received a great deal. In addition, it goes to our TA and OBC is added from her too. It is nice to know that you can come home with $500.00 if you just use Celebrity's OBC so the deal is one that keeps giving.:)

Do you need to inform the TA of the transfer or? How does it work? :)

X has some nice goodies like the free in cat. upgrade and reduced deposit for Captains Club but we use an online US TA most of the time so those go by unused..

But, would like to know how it works! Thanks in advance!

I think the real question here is, does any one know what the benefits are at the current time. Does anyone know what celebrity is giving for booking a cruise while on-broad,credits pre say. We understand that we have the option to transfer are booking to are TA for additional credits.

But does anyone know what Celebrity is offering on-broard as far as booking new cruises?

Do you need to inform the TA of the transfer or? How does it work? :)

 

X has some nice goodies like the free in cat. upgrade and reduced deposit for Captains Club but we use an online US TA most of the time so those go by unused..

 

But, would like to know how it works! Thanks in advance!

You should still be able to get those benefits through your TA.

Some TAs will proactively reach out to you once the transfer is finished and make further arrangements, but some (e.g., big box TA) require you to call them to create a booking with them, at which point they can tell you how much in extra perks you're getting.

Also, the current onboard booking offer is Instant OBC (on the current cruise only) matching the price of the stateroom deposit. See the grid at the bottom of the first page of http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/CEL_FutureCruise_Cruise_Now_Overview.pdf. The price you find there is both the deposit you have to pay and the amount of OBC you get on your current cruise as your onboard booking incentive.

Note: These deposits are nonrefundable, even in the US.

You should still be able to get those benefits through your TA.

 

Some TAs will proactively reach out to you once the transfer is finished and make further arrangements, but some (e.g., big box TA) require you to call them to create a booking with them, at which point they can tell you how much in extra perks you're getting.

Cool, thanks! Much appreciated, slightly moving over from NCL to X..

ok. I know I'm being thick and it probably is different in the uk but am I getting this right - you book on board and when you get home you ring your TA and ask them to take over your booking and then they give you extra perks for taking over your booking?

ok. I know I'm being thick and it probably is different in the uk but am I getting this right - you book on board and when you get home you ring your TA and ask them to take over your booking and then they give you extra perks for taking over your booking?

You can either have the booking assigned directly to a TA at the time you book it, or you can keep the booking in your own name and take the next 60 days to check around and compare offers from different TAs.

That way you can transfer the booking to any TA of your choice (or not) at any time within the 60 day limit.

For ease and convenience, we always prefer to keep a new booking in our own names initially.

That gives us flexibility, as we then have up to 60 additional days before deciding which TA we want to use for that particular cruise.

Often one TA will have the best offer for one cruise, while for another cruise a different TA will offer a much better deal.

If you assign the booking to a TA when you initially book the cruise, it can then be complicated and unpleasant trying to get that TA to release the booking if you later change your mind and decide to use a different TA instead.

Some TAs will even charge a fee to release it.

That is why I think it is better to take your time to look around and compare offers before deciding instead of compulsively committing to any one particular TA immediately up front.

I think the real question here is, does any one know what the benefits are at the current time. Does anyone know what celebrity is giving for booking a cruise while on-broad,credits pre say. We understand that we have the option to transfer are booking to are TA for additional credits.

 

But does anyone know what Celebrity is offering on-broard as far as booking new cruises?

Post #7 in this thread provided a link to current on board perks, Basically just OBC of the deposit paid to spend on current sailing and reduced deposit.

Post #7 in this thread provided a link to current on board perks, Basically just OBC of the deposit paid to spend on current sailing and reduced deposit.

I don't have time to search for the post now, but our official "Celebrity_Cruises" rep posted on another thread that all the FCCs are trained to offer the option of either instant OBC on current cruise or OBC deferred to the future "Cruise Now" booking. That makes sense for those who already have enough OBC on current cruise and/or want to book more than 1 "Cruise Now".

A few people posted that the FCCs refused to allow OBC to apply to future bookings, so they didn't book. Celebrity Cruises came back and posted that the FCCs would all be contacted and told to allow this.

No details were provided about whether that makes the deposit refundable. I would hope so, but it's usually wise to retain the booking # by just moving it to a future cruise instead of canceling the booking.

Jane

I found the thread with the "Instant" OBC info from our official rep:

Hi all,

 

Our onboard program is better than ever!

 

Along with Go Bigger, Better, Best!, guests receive reduced deposits, upgrades and most importantly an additional OBC up to $500.

 

This amount up to $500 is an exclusive onboard benefit so guests won't get it anywhere else and it is combinable with GBBB.

 

To make it even more attractive we offer the option to choose this OBC amount to be spent on their current cruise or on the future cruise they are booking.

 

Finally, our staff can give the best recommendations on categories, location, best deals, and most popular cruises.

Thank you for your response.

 

Just to let you know that the ships don't always pay attention to what Miami says. I was unable to book a future cruise on the Infinity in May because the FCCs INSISTED that the onboard booking credit be used on the current cruise rather than giving the option to use it currently or on the future cruise being booked.

 

Lois, sorry, I know this is a tad off topic, but I wanted the Celebrity Cruises person to see this. I too am curious to know how booking on board will work with the new program.

 

Linda

 

Hi there,

 

I think this could only be a misunderstanding as our teams are well trained to offer both options: either Instant OBC or OBC on future cruise based on guest's preference. We'll send a note to each ship to ensure both options are being presented to guests.

Hi all,

 

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience onboard. We allow guests to choose if they want their onboard credit on their current cruise or for a future sailing.

 

We will make sure our teams onboard are up to date with the policy!

 

Have a great day!

Jane

We will be on a cruise in about 2 weeks and wondered what benefits are being offered for booking a cruise while on board.

The new cruise would be a TA and so not eligible for the new go big go better go best.

Talked to a travel agent about booking the cruise and they said they were giving me a $175 price reduction but needed $900 deposit.

 

Carol

Hello Carol,

I can tell you what we got for booking on board this week:

**"Onboard OBC sale" 14 nights was $250, which we chose to use on the future cruise we booked, NOT on the current cruise.

**Lower deposit $200.

**We chose one perk (prepaid gratuities) from the Go big, better, best sale...it worked out better for us.

In addition to this the Travel Agents perks/amenitites will be added.

Also, when we booked a previous Celebrity cruise (not on board), they were having some sort of promotion for Captain's Club members and we paid $250 deposit. We booked with Celebrity directly then transferred to a TA.

Hope this helps.

We should mention that for RCI Stockholders, the OBC offered by the future cruise folks is really worthless! Yes, totally worthless. That is because Celebrity will not allow stockholders to "stack" their usual stockholder credit on top of the OBC given for onboard bookings. A Future Cruise Councilor told us that the issue had been raised at a high level corporate meeting and the CEOs attitude was something like "too bad."

Hank