Onboard credits

[Cruise 'n Lady]

Would appreciate any tips you can offer to get maximum amount of onboard credits from Cruise Line and TA when booking a cruise. This is new to me and am not sure how it works.:confused:

[Jade13]

Would appreciate any tips you can offer to get maximum amount of onboard credits from Cruise Line and TA when booking a cruise. This is new to me and am not sure how it works.:confused:

 

My TA gave an option of OBC or direct discount, and we took the discount.

 

As far as OBC, we got them directly from the Cruise lines offer. Others get them as stock holders or from booking on board.

[tgg]

Check the web sites of some of the larger online agencies and see what they're offering. Then do the same thing by phone. This is like buying a car, reserving a hotel room, or horse trading.

 

Some agencies reserve blocks of rooms on every sailing and are able to sell them for less than the cruise line is selling them direct. This is better than OBC.

 

If an agency does a large dollar volume with a particular cruise line, they may be able to offer you a better deal because they have an override based on volume. So search on a term like "agency of the year" or "account of the year" along with the cruise line name and you may be able to identify a high volume agency. I'm sorry that it is against board rules to post agency names.

 

There will always be someone on the ship what got more OBC credit than you did, but, happily, most people have too much class to talk about it.

[SFL]

Always ask your TA what their "Consortion" is offerring on the cruise. This is the equivalent of an auto dealer holdback from the manufacturer. Also some of the larger agencies that advertise on this website have group block rooms at lower or older rates than the cruise line and OBC to boot.

:D