Deposit Question

[Clydesmom7865]

When I inquired about a cruise on Monday last week I was told it came with $75 on board credit and another $250 OBC if you paid in full by April 15th. I booked the 14 night Celebrity cruise for Jan 2013 through an online travel agent last Friday. I did some more research and paid the $450 deposit and received confirmation from the agency.

 

Last night I get a call from the agent stating that in order to get the OBC of $75 I have to pay a total of $900 deposit and be moved to a "special group" in order to get it and if I don't pay now they won't guarantee I get the OBC. According to the TA this is Celebrity's rule not theirs.

 

The whole thing stinks as far as I am concerned. Why should the amount of the deposit control whether or not there is OBC involved? She states it is because I am traveling solo. I never had to pay Celebrity a larger deposit for traveling solo. I am angry because I had another agent who had a deal that didn't include these shenanigans. Thoughts from those who have done this more than I have?

[Lsimon]

I only have two thoughts on this:

 

First, if you don't like the current TA and wish you had another then cancel and book through the other TA.

 

Second, if you must pay for the cruise in full in 16 or 17 days is it really that big of a deal to up the deposit now?

[Clydesmom7865]

I only have two thoughts on this:

 

First, if you don't like the current TA and wish you had another then cancel and book through the other TA.

 

Second, if you must pay for the cruise in full in 16 or 17 days is it really that big of a deal to up the deposit now?

 

You don't have to pay for the cruise in full by April 15th. You get extra OBC if you do. I am considering re-booking. Before I did that I wanted to find out if anyone else had heard of such a policy and if so what would be the reason behind a larger deposit to get OBC.

[Lsimon]

You don't have to pay for the cruise in full by April 15th. You get extra OBC if you do. I am considering re-booking. Before I did that I wanted to find out if anyone else had heard of such a policy and if so what would be the reason behind a larger deposit to get OBC.

 

I've never heard of any OBC based on either deposit size or paying early. At the same time I'll admit my knowledge on the subject is limited to my own past cruise bookings and casual reading on these boards and I'm no expert.

 

If I had to guess I'd guess that this is motivated by your agents finances and/or them putting together a group booking - but these guesses are just speculation. Still, you might ask if the charges for deposits and the cruise payments are going direct to Celebrity, as they do with my TA, or if the charges ate going to the TA agency.