Bonus OBC for early final payment?

[D C]

This is a new one to me.  I'm ~3 weeks away from final payment being due on my cruise. 

I just received a voicemail from X, offering me an additional $100 OBC if I make my final payment within the next 48 hours.

Has anyone seen this before?   Maybe I should have answered the phone and negotiated with them for a bit more  :)

 

[Andy]

Hi Dave,

We have many X cruises booked, and made final on an X sailing about 2 weeks ago. Never heard of this offer, but it's interesting to say the least. I suspect Celebrity will get takers. If it were offered to me, I would definitely say yes. 

Curious to hear from other members !

 

[TeaBag]

15 minutes ago, Andy said:

Hi Dave,

We have many X cruises booked, and made final on an X sailing about 2 weeks ago. Never heard of this offer, but it's interesting to say the least. I suspect Celebrity will get takers. If it were offered to me, I would definitely say yes. 

Curious to hear from other members !

 

I would too.

[8mma]

I would for sure take that deal

[hcat]

There's another recent thread...same issue.  With limited search function could not locate it but they could be merged at some point...

[CEOofVacation]

If you pay in full before final payment and the price drops, can you get a refund of the difference?  If the answer is no, then it tells me that Celebrity wants to piss off her customers by collecting full amount first and then drops their prices before final payment.

[davekathy]

I'd pay our cruises off before the final payment date if the OBC offered is at least $100.00  We always book early and have never had a price reduction. 

[Ma Bell]

If they have a lot of cabins remaining they're trying to find out who's really going so they know if they need to discount their prices before final payment. One thing you can be sure of is they're not doing anyone any favors. It's inventory management.

They've come up with new ways to make a little more, for example the bidding on upgrades. Profit is the name of the game and who can blame them.😉

[mandream]

I just received this offer as well.  It is for an Edge sailing that I booked the morning they opened bookings for the Edge.  While I did take advantage of a price drop / sale at one point - current prices are SO much higher than what I am paying, I'm not really worried about missing out on a price drop.  Plus, I believe a price drop would still be honored if it were to happen before actual final payment anyway.

 

I will probably do it (it is only one month early anyway) for the $100.

 

Mike

[Emdee]

I pay my Crystal cruises 6 months before so I can get 2.5% of the total. I consider it a good deal.

[jelayne]

We are beyond final payment and our sailing went from a near sell out  ( a few insides available) to over 150 cabins open including 54 Suites!  I think this offer of $100 OBC is a step to get a better handle on cancellations early so they can adjust prices as needed without huge price drops after final payment.  

[Orator]

There is another thread on this topic. Several posters said that many of those who booked were thinking with their hearts not their heads and when the hype and excitement ended and final payment became due, many would cancel. That appears to be an accurate prediction! 

[verizon]

21 hours ago, davekathy said:

I'd pay our cruises off before the final payment date if the OBC offered is at least $100.00  We always book early and have never had a price reduction. 

If every body does like you on Edge Sailing we will never see prices drop on those ridiculous high prices.

 

[Phxazzcruisers]

We find that very interesting.  It has never been offered to us.  We would, I'm almost all cases accept the OBC fo $100.00 to make a payment two weeks early

[davekathy]

18 hours ago, Emdee said:

I pay my Crystal cruises 6 months before so I can get 2.5% of the total. I consider it a good deal.

That is a nice deal. 

[CEOofVacation]

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

We are beyond final payment and our sailing went from a near sell out  ( a few insides available) to over 150 cabins open including 54 Suites!  I think this offer of $100 OBC is a step to get a better handle on cancellations early so they can adjust prices as needed without huge price drops after final payment.  

Similarly for our upcoming Millennium sailing.  It went from zero available suites to more than 20 available suites just before final payment. 

[Ma Bell]

3 hours ago, Orator said:

There is another thread on this topic. Several posters said that many of those who booked were thinking with their hearts not their heads and when the hype and excitement ended and final payment became due, many would cancel. That appears to be an accurate prediction! 

I have to admit I was one of the skeptics. I'm not surprised.

[hcat]

There's another recent thread...same issue.  I found it..it's on an EDGE thread..one about reduced prices for Inaugural cruises..I will attempt to copy a link to this thread for those posters ( not sure how that will work out)

 

I

[D C]

On 10/18/2018 at 5:24 PM, mandream said:

I just received this offer as well.  It is for an Edge sailing that I booked the morning they opened bookings for the Edge.  While I did take advantage of a price drop / sale at one point - current prices are SO much higher than what I am paying, I'm not really worried about missing out on a price drop.  Plus, I believe a price drop would still be honored if it were to happen before actual final payment anyway.

 

I will probably do it (it is only one month early anyway) for the $100.

 

Mike

 

That's probably the cruise that this one is for, as well.  We also booked the Edge the day it was announced.  

I say probably, because we actually have overlapping cruises booked, and need to move at least one of them.   

 

Maybe they are trying to figure out who's really going, except not to offer discount, but to make more.  Last I checked, the Edge booking we have has about doubled in price from when we booked it. 

[OceanCruise]

I have a spring 2019 Edge cruise and didn't receive the offer but figured I would call to inquire about it. I was able to get a $200 credit for paying in ful for our suite. The rep told me the offer was good for Feb and March Edge sailings only.

[Jeremiah1212]

The first 7 day cruises on 12/9, 12/16 and 12/23 all have a significant number of cabins open. Especially 12/23. Prices are absurd,  but availability is there. January inventory seems a little tighter on the cruises that are past final payment, but still no issues getting a cabin if you would like to pay $7.5k for a C3.