On Board American Express Platinum Card Credit

[Crystal Rich]

When booking with OC I was able to receive a $500 per stateroom On Board Credit when charging my cruise to my AMEX Platinum Card. I did not have to use the AMEX Travel Agency. Instead my independent TA was able to get the OBC from AMEX and apply it to my booking. I just learned that NC has not yet finalized an OBC Program with AMEX Platinum but it is likely to be $300 per stateroom instead of $500 if and when it is approved. I called AMEX and they said my TA should call the Cruise Department at AMEX Platinum and request the OBC on the two Serenity cruises I have booked.
If you charge your cruises to an AMEX Platinum Card has your TA heard about this pending new program and what are they saying?

Thank you for any information you can share.

Kind Regards

Crystal Rich

[krb1000]

wow Rich! Thank you for this information…we have 4 cruises fully paid for with AMEX Platinum …we always loved getting the AMEX OBC …I’d looked on the AMEX website prior to booking but when I didn’t see Crystal included in the cruise program…I didn’t bother to ask. 😊😊😊

[ctjon]

When I looked at the AMEX site none of the cruise benefits they used to have are listed (or I could find)  I suspect they are re-doing them now that cruises are back on.  I know they lost a lot of money since they were one of the few credit card companies that actually refunded people the money they lost on cancelled cruises.

Hope this happens.

[BWIVince]

I’ve been hearing the same rumors, which would be consistent with the restart.  It takes a year or two to work out most preferred supplier agreements, and many of them (like consortiums) get implemented in stages…. They’ll do mild initial offerings without any sales data, to get the relationship started and put the new supplier at less of a disadvantage, but then once they have more sales data, both parties can better assess the true value of the relationship and tune the benefits to work better for all parties.

 

I agree about the prediction for the future — it seems unlikely it’ll be more than $300 for most people though, as they advertise CPP as giving “up to $300” in credits as the headline, but that does still leave the door open to potentially offering the extra $200 in credit that AmEx offers Centurion card holders booking certain lines under CPP.  Time will tell.  🤞 

 

Vince

[doglover214]

Amex told me that in order to get OBC, you must use American Express Travel to book. 
That was never the case before, but she said it’s the new policy. 

[AtA]

4 minutes ago, doglover214 said:

Amex told me that in order to get OBC, you must use American Express Travel to book. 
That was never the case before, but she said it’s the new policy. 

Well that's not good if they hold to that.

[BWIVince]

We’ll see if they hold to that.  That was the published rule of CPP for a long time, but then they had a back door option for certain other agents. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

 

Vince

[cruisr]

11 hours ago, doglover214 said:

Amex told me that in order to get OBC, you must use American Express Travel to book. 
That was never the case before, but she said it’s the new policy. 

Absolutely 100% not true.  The Amex Travel reps always say this and it is not true.  As recently as last week, I have had the $300.00 onboard credit applied via my TA.  Your TA has a dedicated online Amex site that they access and they give Amex your Platinum/Centurion number, name of cardholder, cruise line, cabin and fare.  Once entered and submitted your TA gets a tracking number which they call in to the cruiseline and have that number added to your reservation.  Do NOT believe what Amex agents tell you as they want the booking themselves. 

[BWIVince]

2 hours ago, cruisr said:

Absolutely 100% not true.  The Amex Travel reps always say this and it is not true.  As recently as last week, I have had the $300.00 onboard credit applied via my TA.  Your TA has a dedicated online Amex site that they access and they give Amex your Platinum/Centurion number, name of cardholder, cruise line, cabin and fare.  Once entered and submitted your TA gets a tracking number which they call in to the cruiseline and have that number added to your reservation.  Do NOT believe what Amex agents tell you as they want the booking themselves. 

100% correct…. But IMHO, I have a hard time placing too much blame on the AmEx agents though, compared with AmEx themselves.  The agents are just reciting the rules, they’re not making anything up — it’s AmEx that’s talking out of both sides of its mouth and literally trying to have it both ways.  It’s literally the first term in the rules:

 

Cruise Privileges Program
Cruise Privileges Program (“CPP”) benefits are valid only for new CPP bookings made with participating cruise lines through American Express Travel. 

 

Vince

[saminina]

Last used AMEX Travel eighteen years ago.  Happy enough to book a particular cruise and the agent asked if she could book the air.   Unannounced $35 service charge for booking the plane ride.   Their reward for charging the added fee......AMEX Travel no more.