How do people get so much OBC?

[Glennifers]

This is such an informative thread. After reading this, I called my TA (big internet site) to see whether any OBC is owed to me. After checking with Celebrity, she tells me that I am not eligible for any OBC b/c I booked my cruise under the "Happy Hour Promotion" price, which is not combinable with any other promotion (including the shareholder's benefit!).

 

Fyi - I booked my cruise between 30 - 60 days prior to sailing and at the time of booking, and did receive prepaid gratuities from my TA.

 

I feel that there are so many rules and fineprints to this business, it's very confusing for a layperson like myself to keep track. Good luck to everyone!

[cruisecriticmember]

would be to search for really good fares and not worry about OBC. For my next cruise the price for the cabin category I am in has doubled since I booked it.

[Wanderlost]

We booked the Millenniun on a Sunday (already in final payment period) and saw that the price had dropped by $500.00 on Monday. Because of Celebrity's price guarantee, we were given an onboard credit equal to 110% of the difference. That, in addition to our $100.00 stockholder's benefit gives us a $650.00 onboard credit which can be used for anything onboard. While we would have preferred to have the price adjusted, we are quite happy to have the OBC. Three weeks to go!!!! Thanks Celebrity.:cool:

[regmcole]

We booked using our Visa signature card and a specified TA. We received $350 OBC and an "exceptional savings book", whatever that is!!

[Infi]

would be to search for really good fares and not worry about OBC. For my next cruise the price for the cabin category I am in has doubled since I booked it.

 

Celebrity and RCI make this difficult, as they do not allow TAs to discount. For any given cruise, every TA will have roughly the exact same price. Hence the importance of OBCs and other perks.

[fleckle]

........ many posters just offer their OBC bottom line without explanation, leaving the rest of us wondering what we've been doing wrong. In many cases, though certainly not all(!), we've simply been mislead by those who fail to let us know that they themselves have in one way or another paid for all or part of that humongous OBC about which they are all too eager to boast.

A big thank you for pointing this out. Your message is the most useful and informative of all the messages that I have seen about the subject of OBCs.

 

The dollar amount of any OBC that one "receives" is meaningless without knowing the circumstances involved. There are many situations where it may even be misleading, such as the case of passengers who chose to spend their own credit card points to buy themselves OBC.

 

To cite yet another such example, lets say you and I each booked the same category cabin directly from Celebrity before the price dropped by $500. I requested and received the price drop so it lowered my final payment by $500. You paid the full original price and received the $500 as OBC.

 

In any discussion of how much OBC we received, you could accurately boast that you received a $500 OBC for a price drop from Celebrity while I received no OBC for the price drop at all.

[gbearbuck]

A big thank you for pointing this out. Your message is the most useful and informative of all the messages that I have seen about the subject of OBCs.

 

The dollar amount of any OBC that one "receives" is meaningless without knowing the circumstances involved. There are many situations where it may even be misleading, such as the case of passengers who chose to spend their own credit card points to buy themselves OBC.

 

To cite yet another such example, lets say you and I each booked the same category cabin directly from Celebrity before the price dropped by $500. I requested and received the price drop so it lowered my final payment by $500. You paid the full original price and received the $500 as OBC.

 

In any discussion of how much OBC we received, you could accurately boast that you received a $500 OBC for a price drop from Celebrity while I received no OBC for the price drop at all.

 

Yep... when you see crazy high numbers you know it was due to a price adjustment (obc, not reduced payment)... Also, folks don't indicate where, for how many day's, and what cabin type (indirect hint at the cost paid)...

[O2cruise_again]

Love this thread. Called my TA today to ask about OBC for my upcoming cruise on Celebrity. She didn't get me an OBC but we found out the cabin cost went down. Just saved $200.

[mek]

On our Zaandam cruise in March,(9 nights) we booked an inside cabin for $899 + $100 OBC, dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, 4 beverage cards - which I traded 2 for 1 wine card, and a bottle of wine. The price was reduced several times and I finally paid $599 pp and still kept the incentives.

 

On our next three cruises $200 is the lowest OBC I have + on my RCCL and Celebrity I have dinner in the specialty restaurant added to the package - all with very good cabin prices.

 

They really are easy to find.

[Dorene1]

On our Zaandam cruise in March,(9 nights) we booked an inside cabin for $899 + $100 OBC, dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, 4 beverage cards - which I traded 2 for 1 wine card, and a bottle of wine. The price was reduced several times and I finally paid $599 pp and still kept the incentives.

 

On our next three cruises $200 is the lowest OBC I have + on my RCCL and Celebrity I have dinner in the specialty restaurant added to the package - all with very good cabin prices.

 

They really are easy to find.

 

Are you a diamond or elite , may I ask how many cruises you sailed? I do know with some cruise lines when you reach a specific amount of cruises you do get dinners. Seeing you have been here for some time now.

[mek]

Are you a diamond or elite , may I ask how many cruises you sailed? I do know with some cruise lines when you reach a specific amount of cruises you do get dinners. Seeing you have been here for some time now.

 

40+ cruises, but only 4X on HAL - I think it was a HAL promo offered to this TA,(not the same one as I am using for my next three cruises), since it wasn't available through any other TA's I frequently use. I'm getting dinners on my OV cabin on RCCL,(Platinum), in December and on my OV cabin on X,(Select) next May in addition to my OBC - all booked with the same TA who has been offering great deals recently. I did make a mistake on the final price of the HAL cruise because I forgot we decided to pay $699 for a cabin assignment rather than $599 for a guarantee.