OBC and tips

[Jo and Rob]

Can we use our OBC to pay for the tips as we are freedom dining? I appreciate we will have to give an envelope to our steward but I would have thought the dining tips would be okay with OBC?

 

Also, can I just check is it right than we both have to spend our OBC equally on each card and can't just put it all on one card to be charged to the cabin?

[dsrdsrdsr]

Can't answer the first one, but for question 2, I've more than once (including last October) had three cruise cards charged to one credit card, and the negative remaining on one of the cards was transferred across to the main one. So no problem there.

 

(Once over, you could save a few pennies doing it that way. They used to work out the discount on all my spend on the main card, say 5% of £500 = £25, and then subtract the spare OBC from the other card. Now they subtract the spare OBC first, and do the discount on the remaining say £400 x 5% = £20. Oh well.)

[ROSEBASKETS]

The OBC is placed on each of your groups individual accounts at the beginning of the cruise (probably divided by the two adults and none on the kids accounts) At some point during your cruise (usually in the middle) your freedom dining tips are also debited to your individual accounts.

 

You can keep an eye on all the account balances on the in cabin TV, so provided you don't go over the credit balance (into negative figures) the OBC will pay for the freedom dining tips, though if you plan to tip your steward this will have to be done "In hand" Just make sure you leave a zero or negative balance on your account as you will lose any credit remaining after midnight on the last night of your cruise.

 

As previously said, if you just register one credit card then all your balances are added together which makes things much simpler.

 

 

If you go to the casino, you can get slot machine tokens from the cashiers desk using your cruise card. I've often wondered (for example) if you had £100 OBC on your account and took out £100 in tokens and subsequently cashed them in whether you would be given the cash in your hand (as it were) as when I have cashed in tokens they always give me the cash back and cannot add it to my cruise account. Maybe you could enquire and potentially finish your cruise with more cash than you started with!:D

[feebee_71]

Rosebaskets,

 

OBC cannot be used to pay for casino chips so, if you were to draw £100 worth of chips on your account then nothing else was spent on that account, you would still get a bill for £100.The OBC would be lost.

 

Feebee_71

[feebee_71]

Jo & Rob,

 

You certainly used to be able to pay for Freedom Dining tips using OBC as I did it for a cruise in 2008. Whether they have changed that I am not sure.

 

Feebee_71

[ROSEBASKETS]

Rosebaskets,

 

OBC cannot be used to pay for casino chips so, if you were to draw £100 worth of chips on your account then nothing else was spent on that account, you would still get a bill for £100.The OBC would be lost.

 

Feebee_71

 

Thanks for that :)

[Thejuggler]

Your OBC will be on your account when you board, your freedom dining tips will be added to your account every day and these will reduce the balance of your OBC.

 

You do need to charge amounts to each account as the OBC is personal, not per cabin.

[cclarke12]

Your OBC will be on your account when you board, your freedom dining tips will be added to your account every day and these will reduce the balance of your OBC.

 

You do need to charge amounts to each account as the OBC is personal, not per cabin.

 

I was told different things on this by staff on reception. My baby had OBC last year that she clearly wasn't going to use. Anyway, I was first told that the OBC would just be knocked off the total bill at the end but when I queried it again I was told the OBC had to be used by the person it was allocated to. Anyway, reception just arranged for the OBC to be transferred into my name. I will check again this weekend as my son has been allocated OBC as the second cabin occupant (he's in with grandma) and he is only 5 so I am not expecting him to be signing for anything either.

 

I know others have said different but the last couple of cruises I have been told that OBC could not be used for the tips. However, I don't know how they police this in practice (I suspect the computer system isn't that sophisticated!) and anyway I think we'll get through more than the £150 OBC we have on this cruise so it won't be an issue anyway.

[tring]

P&O's terms and conditions state "Money to spend on board can be spent in the on board shops, bars, spas, and on shore excursions". Hence they do not consider that the tips can be paid with OBC.

 

However, there was the occasion we were given potunus discount on currency exchange. We also got portunus discount on the some freedom dining tips which we reinstated at the end of a holiday (we had earlier had them removed because of major problems with service received).

 

So the answer is no, OBC can not be used for tips, but I would not put anything past P&O's accounting systems!!! We have found the shops worthwhile when we had a very large onboard credit - bought a computer security package and then there is the jewellery........

 

We have always had our onboard credit combined, but we do tend to check that has happened at a reasonably early point in the cruise.

[rumchaser]

We booked through Thomas cook and our total cruise cost includes the expected tips as we chose the Freedom Dining option. I will carefully check my onboard account to ensure I do not pay twice. I understand I will need to tip the cabin steward/s. Has anyone else paid Freedom Dining tips up front?

 

Regards

 

Pete

[cclarke12]

We booked through Thomas cook and our total cruise cost includes the expected tips as we chose the Freedom Dining option. I will carefully check my onboard account to ensure I do not pay twice. I understand I will need to tip the cabin steward/s. Has anyone else paid Freedom Dining tips up front?

 

Regards

 

Pete

 

You may want to double check with TC on what they mean. You can't pre-pay tips on P&O like you do on RCI (as far as I am aware). All that happens with the Freedom Dining is that the tips of £1.60 per person per day are automatically added on to your account. I may be wrong but I have never heard of being able to pay your tips in advance on P&O but things could have changed.

[ROSEBASKETS]

I'm right, everyone else is wrong, don't listen to them, the're talking out of their elbow :D

 

To solve the problem, go to reception cancel the freedom dining tips on all the accounts, go to the Beach House for dinner each evening use your OBC to buy chocolate bars from the shop and put them in the tips box at the end of the cruise. They'll love that!;)

[cclarke12]

I'm right, everyone else is wrong, don't listen to them, the're talking out of their elbow :D

 

To solve the problem, go to reception cancel the freedom dining tips on all the accounts, go to the Beach House for dinner each evening use your OBC to buy chocolate bars from the shop and put them in the tips box at the end of the cruise. They'll love that!;)

 

Will the chocolate bars fit in the tips boxes? :D

[ROSEBASKETS]

Will the chocolate bars fit in the tips boxes? :D

 

Perhaps not! Best use "After Eights" :D failing that wafter thin ham :eek: