On board credit

[Demonyte]

But my point is, it ought to not be any darn business of NCL what I put that towards. It should be any charges that go on my Shipboard Account (including DSC), less any OBC I may have, then I pay the rest at the end of the cruise.

 

You seem to miss the point that all cruise lines and TAs use OBC as marketing incentive and hence it's very much their business what it can be used to and when. We too have had generous amounts of cruise line OBC on some of our cruises because of early booking of a suite etc and never had any problems using it all and we always do our plans of the cruise budget taking that OBC in to consideration.

[QuiGonJohn]

all cruise lines and TAs use OBC as marketing incentive

 

In my mind, this is the "scam aspect" that I referred to. People buy their package and think, great, I have this X Dollars of OBC. But then they find out there are all sorts of stipulations, limitations and gimmicks attached to it. If they're gonna give you X dollars as an incentive to book a cruise, it ought to be without all the strings attached. Like for example, the non-refundable OBC's ought to be used first. Without one having to work the system. It's also like the UBP. Sounds pretty good, and I bet many people think, if I'm shelling out over $50 per day, per person, I can drink as much and what I want. Then you find out you can't get this or can't get that, or if it's over the dollar amount, you can't just pay the difference.

 

I will do everything I can to enjoy my Alaska Cruise, but beyond that, all of this, along with the declines in the food quality I have read about, have really turned me off from taking cruises for my future vacations.

[MCAT48]

It seems the OBC is more of a scam than a help. I mean first of all, if they give you an OBC, for whatever the reason, from NCL, from your TA, that ought to go right onto your Shipboard Account. And it should not matter what you buy or don't buy or any other charges that go to your Shipboard Account, (like the DSC's). At the end of the cruise, they should show the total of ALL charges, deduct any OBC, then charge your credit card for any remaining balance, (or give you the refund if there is one coming).

 

That's is exactly what they do. At least that has been my experience. I've never had a problem using up my obc given to me by the cruise line and or at or the obc I had put onto my account myself. We were given 250 obc from TA for our booking an inside cabin....I won't have any problem spending that money either....it's free money.

[johnql]

In my mind, this is the "scam aspect" that I referred to. People buy their package and think, great, I have this X Dollars of OBC. But then they find out there are all sorts of stipulations, limitations and gimmicks attached to it. If they're gonna give you X dollars as an incentive to book a cruise, it ought to be without all the strings attached. Like for example, the non-refundable OBC's ought to be used first. Without one having to work the system. It's also like the UBP. Sounds pretty good, and I bet many people think, if I'm shelling out over $50 per day, per person, I can drink as much and what I want. Then you find out you can't get this or can't get that, or if it's over the dollar amount, you can't just pay the difference.

In a perfect world, any promotion or discount would be unfettered and unlimited, unrestrained by small print. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in. Your opinion that the way OBC works is akin to a scam could be applied to pretty much all marketing promotions. There's a reason that "there's no such thing as a free lunch" has become a cliche. It's incumbent on the consumer to make himself aware of all the small print with any marketing promotion. It's regrettable but necessary because there are very few discounts that aren't designed by the seller to give the seller some sort of edge. It's up to us, as consumers, to determine which ones still offer value. In the case of cruise OBC, if you feel that it's either not worth your time and effort to cope with the limitations of the promotion, or if you feel that it's unfair, you can simply exercise your opinion by taking your vacation dollars elsewhere.