[Targeted] New AMEX Offer - Spend $1,000 with Celebrity get 35,000 Membership Rewards Points

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Question for those who have purchased OBC before. It looks like you can only purchase $225 max in one order online in the cruise planner. So can I just do four separate orders?

 

Also, is there a way to make sure this is refundable OBC? 
 

Maybe this is something I should call and purchase over the phone?

 

1 hour ago, chamima said:

 

 

Good question. I was hoping someone could answer.

I have done this before. My cruise was fully paid off so I called to purchase $500 of OBC using the Amex card. I spent some of the OBC on board and whatever was left I cashed out on the last day of the cruise to gift to various staff. It's important not to let any unused OBC be reimbursed back to the same Amex card as that could result in a clawback of the offer. So either cash out, or be sure to have a different card on file when checking in for the cruise.

[chamima]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

 

I have done this before. My cruise was fully paid off so I called to purchase $500 of OBC using the Amex card. I spent some of the OBC on board and whatever was left I cashed out on the last day of the cruise to gift to various staff. It's important not to let any unused OBC be reimbursed back to the same Amex card as that could result in a clawback of the offer. So either cash out, or be sure to have a different card on file when checking in for the cruise.

 

So they let you cash  out?

Can I ask how recent this was?

Thanks!

[Cruise Gopher]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

 

I have done this before. My cruise was fully paid off so I called to purchase $500 of OBC using the Amex card. I spent some of the OBC on board and whatever was left I cashed out on the last day of the cruise to gift to various staff. It's important not to let any unused OBC be reimbursed back to the same Amex card as that could result in a clawback of the offer. So either cash out, or be sure to have a different card on file when checking in for the cruise.

Did they question you at all as to why you wanted to purchase such a large amount of OBC?

 

How do you cash out the remaining OBC? I plan to use a Visa card for my onboard account so no risk of clawback but just curious how to cash out instead. 

[RichYak]

Just now, chamima said:

 

So they let you cash  out?

Can I ask how recent this was?

Thanks!

Yes, October 2021

[RichYak]

Just now, Cruise Gopher said:

Did they question you at all as to why you wanted to purchase such a large amount of OBC?

 

How do you cash out the remaining OBC? I plan to use a Visa card for my onboard account so no risk of clawback but just curious how to cash out instead. 

No questions asked. I wouldn't even think $500 would be considered a large amount of OBC. I cashed out by visiting Guest Services on the last day of the cruise. They didn't appear super excited to do so, but they did it without any pushback. I learned later that there's a form I could have filled out to use leftover OBC for additional tips, so that's another option.

[LMaxwell]

So my balance is below $500; I owe about $450 on the cruise.  

 

I have $100 OBC from booking promo tht I was going to allow to cover part of the gratuities onboard.  Instead of doing the pre-paid grats option, can I simply purchase $50 more OBC so that my bill is $500? 

[Cruise Raider]

6 hours ago, chamima said:

 

I think you can buy OBC which should be totally refundable. We've done that in the past and gotten cash from Guest Services to use in ports.

Not sure if this still works.

 

*

I already have nearly $1000 in OBC .. long story!  I may look into another cruise but their pricing is high for what I’m interested in.  

[93srvman]

3 hours ago, dlh015 said:

Are you sure? My Green card had this offer:

 

"Spend $500 or more, get $175 back "

 

This would be given as a statement credit...good until 3/31/2023

Unfortunately yes. A few posts after mine mention we Canadians get the short end on these offers.   I'll keep an eye over the next few days, but historically with other offers I either get them when everyone else is talking about them, or never.  🤞

[barbeyg]

Got the 35k point offer on my husband’s user card, and a 17.5k point, $500 spend offer on MY card! Woohoo! 
 

Don’t forget to check not only your cards, but any authorized user cards as well. My husband’s card had a larger offer, and we will just pay down our Thanksgiving cruise. 🙂

Edited January 3, 2023 by barbeyg

[LMaxwell]

I''m trying to upgrade my room to be over $500 balance, but the phone agent is quoting a higher price for the room than the website.  40 minutes into the call, now waiting for a supervisor.  Might be easier to just cancel the cruise entirely and rebook it since it has a refundable deposit. 

[dlh015]

47 minutes ago, 93srvman said:

Unfortunately yes. A few posts after mine mention we Canadians get the short end on these offers.   I'll keep an eye over the next few days, but historically with other offers I either get them when everyone else is talking about them, or never.  🤞

Sorry, I missed that you were in Canada...doh...🤪

[drowelf]

Where do you find the link to buy OBC for the cruise? I've looked under all the tabs under "My Celebrity Cruise" but can't seem to find it. 

[Anne614]

My Amex blue offer is spend $1000 get $350 back.  This will be the second time I’ve used this offer on the same cruise. 

[Stealthdog]

Got this version of the offer - spend $500 get 17,500 points. Looks like I need to figure out my 2024 travel plans!

 

 

 

[chamima]

39 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Where do you find the link to buy OBC for the cruise? I've looked under all the tabs under "My Celebrity Cruise" but can't seem to find it. 

 

Go to Manage Reservations. Then scroll down to Delivery Aboard.Then scroll down to On Board Credit.

The most you can add online seems to be $225 so it looks like you have to call

 

To Place an order offline:

Call 1-800-242-6374

Fax (US) 1-800-882-8292

Outside U.S. 1-305-982-2406

*All prices are in USD

[Cruise Gopher]

3 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

So my balance is below $500; I owe about $450 on the cruise.  

 

I have $100 OBC from booking promo tht I was going to allow to cover part of the gratuities onboard.  Instead of doing the pre-paid grats option, can I simply purchase $50 more OBC so that my bill is $500? 

 

Yes pay your remaining $450 balance and then go into your cruise planner and buy $50 of onboard credit. That should do it. 
 

 

[LMaxwell]

Just now, Cruise Gopher said:

 

Yes pay your remaining $450 balance and then go into your cruise planner and buy $50 of onboard credit. That should do it. 
 

 

Cabin upgrade was only $100 for both of us so did that instead, but now I know that can be done through the planner - it appears to go to a 3rd party type site so I was hesitant to buy OBC in the $25 denominations.  I'll keep watching for any additional Amex offers.  This smaller offer actually fit better for me this time. Next time I want the big dog offer though 🙂 

[Cruise Gopher]

4 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Cabin upgrade was only $100 for both of us so did that instead, but now I know that can be done through the planner - it appears to go to a 3rd party type site so I was hesitant to buy OBC in the $25 denominations.  I'll keep watching for any additional Amex offers.  This smaller offer actually fit better for me this time. Next time I want the big dog offer though 🙂 

 

It's not a 3rd party site that processes it, it will process through Celebrity.  It will post as a charge from "Celebrity Cruises".

[CasinoInvitee]

If you use OBC in the caisno is it also charged 5%? 

 

[Julma]

Thank you!  Have a final payment to make in a couple of weeks.  I've heard recently that even if you have several cards on one account that get the offer,  the account can only receive one offer.  That was not how it was in the past.  One time I used all 4 cards on my account and received $1,000.  I'm going to try again and I will post what happens.

 

[LMaxwell]

Good info in here. Best part of CC - Money saving alerts and tips. 

[Cruise Gopher]

2 hours ago, Julma said:

Thank you!  Have a final payment to make in a couple of weeks.  I've heard recently that even if you have several cards on one account that get the offer,  the account can only receive one offer.  That was not how it was in the past.  One time I used all 4 cards on my account and received $1,000.  I'm going to try again and I will post what happens.

 

Yeah, my authorized user on my account also has this offer on their card and so I am wondering if we both could get the points?  The terms are not very clear, but we both definitely were able to add this offer to our cards, so I would think it will work.  Please post back as soon as you know if it worked or not.

[rj59]

10 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Another tip if you have AMEX and do not see the offer...

 

AMEX offers only show 100 offers at a time...If you see you have 100ish offers waiting to be added and do not see Celebrity as one, add a bunch of offers even if you have no intention of using the offer and check tomorrow and the day after

What I do is add all the travel offers, in the hope that they'll target cruise offers to me that way. 

[Sea Dayze]

We got the spend $1,000, get 35,000 points on our platinum card.  We have B2B2B cruises that have already passed final pmt. 

 

Does anyone know if the $1000 "spend" has to be one transaction?  I'm thinking that buying OBC is our only option and spreading it between the 3 cruises might be the best way to do it.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Yeah, my authorized user on my account also has this offer on their card and so I am wondering if we both could get the points?  The terms are not very clear, but we both definitely were able to add this offer to our cards, so I would think it will work.  Please post back as soon as you know if it worked or not.

 

To simplify it, one card per membership reward account and all authorized user cards are linked to the same membership reward account.  Or to put it another way, assuming the offer is added, whichever AMEX card you use first is the only card that will receive with the offer

 

If you have two different AMEX cards and therefore two different membership reward accounts, then they will both receive the offer