There's OBC and then there's OBC!!!

[grandgeezer]

Excellent point. It's the total net cost that matters, not just OBC. In fact, a lower cruise fare (by the same amount) is more valuable than OBC, since there's a temptation to go ahead and spend OBC. And even if you get the leftover refunded, you've "loaned" the cruise line that money for many months. Paying less up front is actually slightly better.

 

And while a free beverage package promo is nice, it's only "savings" up to the point that you would have spent on beverages anyway.

 

You may get "full value" out of airfare credit, but maybe not if their base airfares are more expensive that what you might otherwise be able to find externally. Plus there's more flexibility booking your own.

 

I'm learning more and more to check the cruise fares for the exact same cruise/date/cabin category across multiple sites. Sometimes they're the same, sometimes not.

 

I agree with almost everything you say except the part about you loaning the unused obc for several months for nothing. I don't know what you get for interest, but I get .1 percent on my checking amount since I carry such a low balance. Based on $500 return that's about 42 cents a month. Final payment plus length of cruise plus a few days to get your card credited means I'm out about $1.26, that's less than .1 percent of the cost of the cruise. I get money back on almost every cruise we take and I go through this exercise on the more expensive cruises and it still amounts to a waste of time.

[catugirl]

Has anyone had good experiences with a local TA offering good OBC? Or do you get more OBC with online TA's? I have a friend (not a close friend) who is a local TA, so I called her last year for a quote on a Celebrity cruise. Her price was the same as the price Celebrity offered, and there was no OBC! I finally booked with a well known online TA and got $400 OBC. The issue with online TA's is that after you have booked and paid your deposit, it's very difficult to receive decent customer service. I recently booked a X cruise with the online TA I believe posters on this thread referred to, and the customer service was so bad that I canceled within several days, and they charged me $125!

 

I would love to find a local TA who offers good deals and is more accountable than an online TA, one that I could use on an ongoing basis. How is the best way to go about I find a couple of them have confusing websites. Many of them don't have staff to answer phones, so you have to leave a message and wait at least 24 hours for them to call you back. Any advice?

[Purplsmurf]

Does anyone know If OBC from a TA shows up on our reservation anywhere? We have a decent amount and I'm not seeing it. Do we have to wait until we board to find it? Just don't want any unpleasant surprises when we board......have had enough with this vacay already!

 

 

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[TravelerThom]

Does anyone know If OBC from a TA shows up on our reservation anywhere? We have a decent amount and I'm not seeing it. Do we have to wait until we board to find it? Just don't want any unpleasant surprises when we board......have had enough with this vacay already!

Travel Agent OBCs do not appear on the cruise line invoice (whether hard-copy or on-line) that I have ever seen. The TA invoice (NOT the cruise line invoice) I get from my TA does show note the TA OBC. In general the cruise line on-line account does not even show cruise line OBC, but I am able to get them to send me a printed invoice that does note the cruise line OBC.

 

In the previous msg catugirl discusses both OBCs and service. I think it is a fact of life that the best service (eg staying right on top of every price drop, etc) does NOT come with the best OBC. TAs have to make money to stay in business; if they spend a lot of time monitoring your reservation and holding your hand, money is going to pay for that time and is not available for OBCs. I have cousins whose TA (who gives them no OBC) stays on top of price drops, fills out their forms, gets their visas, etc with them having to think about it - they are aware that they could get OBCs from other agencies, but they are quite happy to let their guy do all the work in exchange for no OBC. Now if you are getting neither good service nor OBC, maybe it is time to look around.

 

Thom

[rubydoobydoo]

Does anyone know what what a guarantee balcony actually means ? That is what we have booked, I asked if that would be a 2D/C grade as that is the lowest and the TA said it is a balcony anywhere on the ship not tied to any particular grade, that is why we are not able to have the automatic one step upgrade for being Captains club member.

 

The reason they said we could not have this upgrade is because one step up could technically mean CC class as we have not been assigned to any grade ?

 

It is all very confusing to me, surely whatever grade or cabin they decide to give me then could then upgrade it one ?

 

I don't understand how all this works

[happy 2 b cruising]

Has anyone had good experiences with a local TA offering good OBC? Or do you get more OBC with online TA's? I have a friend (not a close friend) who is a local TA, so I called her last year for a quote on a Celebrity cruise. Her price was the same as the price Celebrity offered, and there was no OBC! I finally booked with a well known online TA and got $400 OBC. The issue with online TA's is that after you have booked and paid your deposit, it's very difficult to receive decent customer service. I recently booked a X cruise with the online TA I believe posters on this thread referred to, and the customer service was so bad that I canceled within several days, and they charged me $125!

 

I would love to find a local TA who offers good deals and is more accountable than an online TA, one that I could use on an ongoing basis. How is the best way to go about I find a couple of them have confusing websites. Many of them don't have staff to answer phones, so you have to leave a message and wait at least 24 hours for them to call you back. Any advice?

 

Our local TA is fine if you have a complicated travel itinerary but that is about all. They can't compete with online TA's who have special pricing and high OBC's. I would love to find good service, reduced pricing and great OBC's for my next trip too but don't think it is going to happen. My advice is go local for complicated travel and online for easy booking type travel. A family member that only travels in upper end suites pays his TA $20 a hour for her services and only gets OBC from the cruise line or American Express.

[dbsb3233]

I agree with almost everything you say except the part about you loaning the unused obc for several months for nothing. I don't know what you get for interest, but I get .1 percent on my checking amount since I carry such a low balance. Based on $500 return that's about 42 cents a month. Final payment plus length of cruise plus a few days to get your card credited means I'm out about $1.26, that's less than .1 percent of the cost of the cruise. I get money back on almost every cruise we take and I go through this exercise on the more expensive cruises and it still amounts to a waste of time.

This is true. Interest rates for savers have been terrible for some time now. Although while I pay off my credit cards monthly, for those people that don't, the interest charges they're paying for fronting extra money can add up.

 

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's bad to go for big OBC promos. Quite the opposite, since that's usually the method where the best promos are found. I'm just saying that if 2 deals are equal on the surface (fare + OBC), the one that fronts less money up front (i.e. the lower fare) is slightly better. But only slightly.

[teecee60]

We got $1500 for our Azamara Antarctica trip last January and got $600 for our 7 day Reflection trip this January (we do travel in suites so the obc goes up)...it's usually around 13% of the total cost we get back in obc

 

If I understand your post correctly, and did the math right, you paid about $12,000 for the Azamara cruise?

 

Big fat zero, never had OBC :rolleyes:

 

If you spend just a LITTLE time looking at online sites specializing in cruises you can fix that!

 

My girlfriend and I were on a 15 night Constellation transatlantic and paid $609pp and got $400 in OBC.

 

That may not sound like much but it's over 30% of the fare in OBC. For a two week cruise that cost us twelve hundred, as opposed to twelve thousand.

[TravelerThom]

Does anyone know what what a guarantee balcony actually means ? That is what we have booked, I asked if that would be a 2D/C grade as that is the lowest and the TA said it is a balcony anywhere on the ship not tied to any particular grade, that is why we are not able to have the automatic one step upgrade for being Captains club member.

 

The reason they said we could not have this upgrade is because one step up could technically mean CC class as we have not been assigned to any grade ?

 

It is all very confusing to me, surely whatever grade or cabin they decide to give me then could then upgrade it one ?

 

I don't understand how all this works

If you have a balcony GTY it means that you will get at least the worst balcony on the ship. Celebrity MIGHT give you a higher class - you can hope for a suite:). With US bookings once you are assigned a specific cabin (and often you are assigned one fairly rapidly, but MIGHT not be assigned until you get to the pier) you can move within the class you have been assigned in, but I'm pretty sure (not positive) there is no Captain's Club one class upgrade, but rather that upgrade is given up when you got the reduced rate for a GTY (if I'm wrong, I hope that someone will correct my mistake). Note that I'm uncertain about laterally moving cabins after assignment if the booking was made outside the US.

 

Given that US bookings can be cancelled at no penalty up until Final Payment, there are almost always people who cancel and give up their reserved cabin. If all balconies have been reserved, the cruise line still has a statistical estimate for the number that will be given up, and will book GTYs against those returns, especially if they have openings in higher categories. If fewer cabins are given up than expected, then some passengers will be upgraded to higher categories. If LOTS fewer cabins are given up than expected, then the cruise line may end up with more reservations than they have cabins; this doesn't happen often, but if it does they will start calling people and offering incentives (eg "we'll put you in an Owner's Suite on a different date if you move"). Usually everyone ends up happy.

 

I have used GTYs a number of times, and have been happy with the price paid for what I got, but if you would be unhappy with whatever in your opinion is the worst balcony then maybe that is not the way for you to go.

 

Thom

[rubydoobydoo]

If you have a balcony GTY it means that you will get at least the worst balcony on the ship. Celebrity MIGHT give you a higher class - you can hope for a suite:). With US bookings once you are assigned a specific cabin (and often you are assigned one fairly rapidly, but MIGHT not be assigned until you get to the pier) you can move within the class you have been assigned in, but I'm pretty sure (not positive) there is no Captain's Club one class upgrade, but rather that upgrade is given up when you got the reduced rate for a GTY (if I'm wrong, I hope that someone will correct my mistake). Note that I'm uncertain about laterally moving cabins after assignment if the booking was made outside the US.

 

Given that US bookings can be cancelled at no penalty up until Final Payment, there are almost always people who cancel and give up their reserved cabin. If all balconies have been reserved, the cruise line still has a statistical estimate for the number that will be given up, and will book GTYs against those returns, especially if they have openings in higher categories. If fewer cabins are given up than expected, then some passengers will be upgraded to higher categories. If LOTS fewer cabins are given up than expected, then the cruise line may end up with more reservations than they have cabins; this doesn't happen often, but if it does they will start calling people and offering incentives (eg "we'll put you in an Owner's Suite on a different date if you move"). Usually everyone ends up happy.

 

I have used GTYs a number of times, and have been happy with the price paid for what I got, but if you would be unhappy with whatever in your opinion is the worst balcony then maybe that is not the way for you to go.

 

Thom

 

Thank you

 

I am expecting a restricted view, but I am just so happy to have any balcony and be on the ship :D

 

I just wasn't sure what it all meant, as things seem to be different in the UK