Purchasing OBC online

[Xcitdcruiser]

I'm online now & trying to purchase OBC.

 

It's only giving me the option to gifting it to our own room - we've entered our reservation number (& are logged in).

 

Id there a way to simply purchase it? Or is gifting it the only way?

And does it make a difference?

[warmwinds]

I've never heard of this before. Are you trying to buy it for yourself or someone else? If it's for yourself, how is it any different than just paying your bill at the end of the cruise? If a gift for someone else, then that makes sense.

[Xcitdcruiser]

I'm trying to purchase obc for ourselves . Maybe I'm going through the wrong link-

I'm in 'already booked' then 'Gifts by celebrity'

 

Is there another way to purchase obc ?

 

 

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[warmwinds]

I'm still confused. Why would you buy OBC for yourself? You're letting them use your money until you sail.

[Xcitdcruiser]

Because X have not updated their exchange rates - a glitch or oversight of some sort .

 

$1AUD is buying $1USD of OBC online whereas the Aussie dollar is currently only worth $0.88 - we would be saving $100 doing it this way

 

 

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[varoo]

I've never heard of this before. Are you trying to buy it for yourself or someone else? If it's for yourself, how is it any different than just paying your bill at the end of the cruise? If a gift for someone else, then that makes sense.

I am guessing that you are probably someone who pays in US dollars and therefore has no currency conversion concerns involved, so there would usually be no advantage to buying OBC for yourself in advance.

 

Passengers who pay with foreign currency, however, may be able to get a better exchange rate by buying themselves OBC in advance.

 

But even an American may be offered an incentive to do it, for example, to take advantage of one of those credit card offers where they offer you extra cash back or extra airline miles if you spend X amount of dollars on their card before a certain date.

 

Edited January 22, 2014 by varoo

[Xcitdcruiser]

Ok all done- I ended up calling X (1st time the phone got disconnected after 10 mins on hold, tried again, 20 mins later). & they processed the payment over the phone.

 

Within seconds I received an email confirmation. I also asked the following if anyone is interested :

 

Although based in Aus the bank that it gets processed at is a US one so watch out for those fees- I used my 28 degree card to avoid any

 

Rate was confirmed as 1 for 1. (Yepee! Saved $100!)

 

The purchased obc is refundable

 

& the consultant said that there is no way to do it over the website (?)

 

 

One step closer to our cruise !

 

 

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[jaydeebee60]

I did it on the website and got a confirmation email. It seems a good way to get value for minet with our Aussie dollar losing value

 

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[upwarduk]

The exchange rate for Sterling (GBP-£ ) is also favourable, as Celebrity do not constantly change their rates.

You can ( or could -Jan '13)!do it on the web site, but the max you can buy is 9 units@$25 per unit. That cost me £15+. In June the rate had changed, it would have cost £16+.

[Pean]

I have done this several times but just a warning, although you receive an email saying something like 'this email is confirmation your order has gone through' check the account where you made the payment from and make sure the money has been taken out as sometimes the money doesn't come out and when you ring up to check they have no record of your request. The last time I had to purchase it three times for it to show. Just another problem with their website.

As far as only being able to purchase 9 lots of OBC once you have selected the 9 you can continue shopping and purchase more.

[warmwinds]

I'm sorry, didn't even think about exchange rates :(

[cruisestitch]

Another reason to buy OBC is to spread out ones expenses over several billing cycles instead of having one big credit card bill from ones Sea Pass account the month after you cruise

[mmcruise]

I received a gift card for Christmas and decided to use it to purchase some OBC for myself to use on the cruise, to avoid standing in line to pay with it when I got there.

 

Got the confirmation email that others have reported but with no specifics, confirmation number, etc. For our first two days on the ship, no OBC showed up - finally I got the RCCL credit card OBC I expected but not the one I purchased. Guess what - wound up waiting in line 3x to fix the problem. Lesson learned. For USD to USD it's just not worth the hassle unless you want to spread out expenses as suggested.

Edited January 22, 2014 by mmcruise

[mrsdoc3]

I received a gift card for Christmas and decided to use it to purchase some OBC for myself to use on the cruise, to avoid standing in line to pay with it when I got there.

 

Got the confirmation email that others have reported but with no specifics, confirmation number, etc. For our first two days on the ship, no OBC showed up - finally I got the RCCL credit card OBC I expected but not the one I purchased. Guess what - wound up waiting in line 3x to fix the problem. Lesson learned. For USD to USD it's just not worth the hassle unless you want to spread out expenses as suggested.

 

Thanks for this tip. I also used a gift card to buy some OBC and also got the "confirmation" e-mail. Fortunately, I kept the gift card. I just called the # on the card to get the balance, and the OBC didn't go through.

[helen haywood]

I recently had the following experience. On December 20 I purchased OBC as a gift from the website. I received an email that day thanking me for my purchase. No specifics listed. I kept an eye on my credit card and by January 3 when I did not see a charge for the OBC but saw an immediate charge for the shore excursion I had also purchased on 12/20 I sent a reply email on the email confirmation from X saying that I had not seen a charge for this "confirmed" purchased gift.

 

On January 8 I received a reply that they apologized but had no order for my booking. At this point I decided to forget the whole thing.

 

Checking my credit card on line later I saw a charge from X on January 16. Of course on your credit card statement there is no information other than a charge by Celebrity Cruises. So I called Celebrity. First I started off with the Gifts Department # that I would have used if I purchased the OBC over the phone. Pulling up my reservation I was told there was no OBC purchased. I asked to be transferred to someone who could tell me what the charge was for in that case. I was transferred to the Enhancement Department who were able to confirm that it was in fact my OBC for that cruise. This person said the first person I spoke to was "wrong." I asked if he could send me a confirmation specifically listing my OBC purchase and he did so immediately. He had no explanation as to why a purchase I made on 12/20 that was denied as being received on 1/8 would suddenly get processed on 1/16.

 

So for anyone purchasing OBC online or by phone...I would make sure you get an email confirmation that specifically states how much you purchased and the sailing for which you purchased it.

[upwarduk]

The Christmas/ New year holidays plays havoc with payments.

I sent a cheque on 20/12/13, as payment for a land based holiday.

It was not processed until 9/1/14, which not acceptable as the banks had only had 3 'Bank Holidays.'

[helen haywood]

Yes, but they charged my credit card on Dec 20 for the shore excursions I booked that day....but the OBC purchased the same day from the same website didn't process until Jan 16. Obviously shore excursions and OBC are handled by two different IT teams... Also, you can see purchased shore excursions on your reservation online. You will not see anything about OBC you have purchased thru the website in your reservation. So you really need to have a confirming detailed email.