On Board Credit Question

[mhb1757]

We have a VO cruise booked for May, 2020. Our TA will be providing a fairly substantial amount of OBC. I know on our Viking River cruises we could not use OBC to pay gratuities. Does the same apply on their ocean cruises?  Not sure we would want to do enough optional excursions to use all the credit so it would be nice if we could use it toward gratuities. 

[stretchcruz]

Yes, you can use it for gratuities. We did.

[mhb1757]

2 minutes ago, stretchcruz said:

Yes, you can use it for gratuities. We did.

Perfect. Thanks for the speedy response. 😁

[Heidi13]

17 hours ago, mhb1757 said:

We have a VO cruise booked for May, 2020. Our TA will be providing a fairly substantial amount of OBC. 

You should also be aware that Viking limits the OBC that TA's can provide. For cruises of 15 days or longer it is limited to $500 per person. Even World Cruises of 100+ days still only get $500 pp. Shorter cruises get even less.

 

If your TA is prepared to provide you OBC in excess of the Viking policy, you should be aware that it might be reduced when the TA sends it to Viking.

 

For our World Cruise, our TA provided the max $500 pp, but because we paid in Canadian $, we were limited to $500 in Canadian funds, or about US $400 pp.

 

https://www.vikingcruisescanada.com/terms-conditions/advertising-and-commissions-policy.html

Edited June 29, 2019 by Heidi13

[Mahogany]

On 6/29/2019 at 11:25 AM, Heidi13 said:

You should also be aware that Viking limits the OBC that TA's can provide. For cruises of 15 days or longer it is limited to $500 per person. Even World Cruises of 100+ days still only get $500 pp. Shorter cruises get even less.

 

If your TA is prepared to provide you OBC in excess of the Viking policy, you should be aware that it might be reduced when the TA sends it to Viking.

 

For our World Cruise, our TA provided the max $500 pp, but because we paid in Canadian $, we were limited to $500 in Canadian funds, or about US $400 pp.

 

https://www.vikingcruisescanada.com/terms-conditions/advertising-and-commissions-policy.html

Do you know why Viking (and no other line I travel on) has this restrictive policy? I would think Viking would welcome more spending in the shops, purchase of high-end wines, and more excursions.

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, Mahogany said:

Do you know why Viking (and no other line I travel on) has this restrictive policy? I would think Viking would welcome more spending in the shops, purchase of high-end wines, and more excursions.

Viking is a private company that does not follow the norms of the multi-national cruise lines. We may not like all their policies, but can't question the success of their business model, which has many cruises fully booked up to a year in advance.

 

Did we expect more OBC for a 119-night cruise, most definitely - yes. Had we gone with other cruise lines we would have received additional OBC, or other perks. However, we want to try the Viking product, so accept this 1 negative, as it is balanced with many more positives.

[stretchcruz]

We got $1600, $800pp but that is because our cruise is a back to back...Rome to Lisbon, Lisbon to Miami. $500 for one, $300 for the other.