OBC cannot be used towards gratuities!

[Redtravel]

There are cruise lines that don’t allow you to use OBC for gratuities.  Be careful. Read the FINE print.  The first time that we had it happen was a real shock.  We just assumed that we had enough OBC to cover posted tips.  Wrong.  We got charged for the tips and were left with no way to spend that OBC.   That was before accounts were posted daily.  Now I read everything and also ask guest relations.  Look at your onboard account daily. Often find mistakes.  

[Alakegirl]

9 hours ago, bstoeck said:

I have a small wallet sized card the Casino staff gave me while on the Summit last week with the steps to take cash from the slot machines and it worked like a charm:

 

Tap your Seapass Card

Choose Account option

Touch Personal Banker button

Enter 4 digit PIN (your Month and Day of Birth)

Touch Transfer to Game button

Select Promo ($)

Select amount "Other" button  (this is where you enter your on board Credit amount)

then hit CASH OUT  and take ticket to Casino cashier

 

This works on most Celebrity ships - I also did this recently on the Silhouette and Equinox with no issues.

 

I believe that it doesnt work on Reflection

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Redtravel said:

There are cruise lines that don’t allow you to use OBC for gratuities.  Be careful. Read the FINE print.  The first time that we had it happen was a real shock.  We just assumed that we had enough OBC to cover posted tips.  Wrong.  We got charged for the tips and were left with no way to spend that OBC.   That was before accounts were posted daily.  Now I read everything and also ask guest relations.  Look at your onboard account daily. Often find mistakes.  

 

 This is the Celebrity Board so what other cruise lines may do or not do does not really apply to Celebrity.  Celebrity permits the use of OBC for additional gratuities. 

 

[whattodo]

Thanks so much for sharing your slot experiences. Hope I get lucky too. 🎰

[vjmatty]

On 2/2/2023 at 12:29 PM, _lefty26_ said:

Just noticed a service charge added to my credit card and not deducted from my OBC purchase for Specialty Dining Package

 

Wow that seems really petty... it is one thing to not allow OBC for the daily gratuities, but to separate it out from the drinks and dining packages in the cruise planner is a bit micro.  Someone had to go in and change the program for this to happen.  I don't know if even Royal's cruise planner does this.

[jelayne]

2 hours ago, vjmatty said:

 

Wow that seems really petty... it is one thing to not allow OBC for the daily gratuities, but to separate it out from the drinks and dining packages in the cruise planner is a bit micro.  Someone had to go in and change the program for this to happen.  I don't know if even Royal's cruise planner does this.

On Celebrity OBC can be used for the daily gratuity, for extra gratuities to staff members and for any gratuity on purchases in the Cruise Planner and any on board purchase that has a gratuity attached.  
 

I just booked specialty dining and the entire charge, including the gratuity was paid with OBC.

[alyssamma]

How do threads like this get reopened after so long? The person who did so only has a handful of posts...did they really go back and read through 2yrs of posts? Did they use the search? Is it a troll who purposefully looks for old threads and then brings them back to life?

 

Inquiring minds want to know 🙂

 

[alfiemom]

On 2/2/2023 at 12:49 PM, whattodo said:

I confirmed with onshore team today that Celebrity's OBC can be used for gratuities onboard but cannot use it to prepay. 

I will have a tough time using the rest of OBC after paying gratuities. X rep said I cannot use OBC to pay for deposit on future cruise, is that correct? That's what I was thinking about doing. 

I read on RCCL board people have successfully cashed out nonrefundable OBC on slot machines. Has anyone done that on Celebrity ships? If so, how to do that? 

Yes and came out $150 ahead.  See the casino for info.