Using OBC prior to boarding

[bobstheboy]

Question for our P&O friend, Moley. You hinted some months ago that P&O were looking at changing the T&C's for OBC to allow customers to use it to buy services before sailing. Any news?

[molecrochip]

No news. Not so much about changing the Ts and Cs but actually changing the systems behind the cruise personaliser to allow it to take place. 

[bobstheboy]

20 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

No news. Not so much about changing the Ts and Cs but actually changing the systems behind the cruise personaliser to allow it to take place. 

Thanks.

[TigerB]

13 hours ago, molecrochip said:

No news. Not so much about changing the Ts and Cs but actually changing the systems behind the cruise personaliser to allow it to take place. 

 

That's interesting, and would be welcome. 

Do you know if, when it does happen, booking through the Cruise Planner will still attract a 20% discount and further Peninsula discount for dining, or will it be like when onboard, where you have spend the lot before you get your Peninsula discount?

 

[molecrochip]

15 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

That's interesting, and would be welcome. 

Do you know if, when it does happen, booking through the Cruise Planner will still attract a 20% discount and further Peninsula discount for dining, or will it be like when onboard, where you have spend the lot before you get your Peninsula discount?

 

I don’t know, but would expect it to follow the onboard concept.

[majortom10]

So they might start letting you use your OBC but you won't get Peninsular Club discount or 20% discount for booking early. Personally if that is the case I would prefer to stay with current system where I get 20% early booking discount and 10% Peninsular Club discount for the speciality restaurants we book. Obviously not P&O being nice to customers more than no discounts so more money for them because end of day OBC is not free as they like you to think you pay for it in cruise fare 

Edited February 6 by majortom10

[cruising.mark.uk]

23 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Obviously not P&O being nice to customers more than no discounts so more money for them because end of day OBC is not free as they like you to think you pay for it in cruise fare 

Except for those who qualify for shareholder and / or military OBC (£300 together on a 14-night cruise).  To all intents and purposes those are pretty much 'free' money for the individual, with a miniscule element of the cost being paid for in their cruise fare by every single passenger on the line.

[bobstheboy]

Everyone wants what's best for them.

[TigerB]

I would hope, if it does happen, that they would allow the option to also use a credit card.  In that case, we would be minded to use a credit card and get the discounts for dining, and use OBC for any trips.

[majortom10]

7 hours ago, TigerB said:

I would hope, if it does happen, that they would allow the option to also use a credit card.  In that case, we would be minded to use a credit card and get the discounts for dining, and use OBC for any trips.

That may happen because not everyone will have OBC but remains to be seen if you still get the discounts especially 20%.

[jeanlyon]

7 hours ago, TigerB said:

I would hope, if it does happen, that they would allow the option to also use a credit card.  In that case, we would be minded to use a credit card and get the discounts for dining, and use OBC for any trips.

I thought you could always use a credit card?

[TigerB]

Yes, that is correct Jean. My comment was in reaction to the likelihood that OBC can be used before the cruise; i.e. would the requirement be that you had to use your OBC first before they allowed you to book things with a credit card?

[cruising.mark.uk]

1 hour ago, TigerB said:

Yes, that is correct Jean. My comment was in reaction to the likelihood that OBC can be used before the cruise; i.e. would the requirement be that you had to use your OBC first before they allowed you to book things with a credit card?

@TigerB - that is a very good question.  Hopefully, as is the case now, they will continue to charge advance purchases against your credit card (however much OBC you have) should you wish them to do that.  On our current cruise, we purposefully avoided booking in advance (other than Epicurean, which we wanted to attend on a specific evening) because we had a ridiculous amount of OBC.  We did that conscious that, in doing so, we were foregoing the advance discount and the loyalty saving.  But that would have been a false economy because if we  had booked and paid for everything in advance we would have spent additional  'real' money and then been left with literally hundreds of pounds of OBC unspent.  As it is, we are likely anyway to have to do a supermarket sweep on the sea days back to Southampton to spend it all. 

 

But, I can appreciate that, if it becomes possible to spend OBC in advance, bookings made before sailing should not automatically be taken from OBC.  Those with limited OBC may well have a specific use for it onboard and should, therefore, be allowed to continue to make advance purchases on their credit card.  I'll be interested to see how they implement this in practice.

[laslomas]

On Celebrity you can use OBC before sailing. When making a purchase prior to sailing you are offered a choice of paying with OBC or credit/debit card. Hopefully it would be the same as this if P&O went that same route.

[sandancer]

On Celebrity we would always use OBC for pre-cruise purchases. However, Celebrity do not give loyalty discount nor do they give an early booking discount for speciality restaurants. If you plan to eat in those restaurants on several evenings then credit card payment would be the way we would go. 

[TigerB]

34 minutes ago, laslomas said:

On Celebrity you can use OBC before sailing. When making a purchase prior to sailing you are offered a choice of paying with OBC or credit/debit card. Hopefully it would be the same as this if P&O went that same route.

 

I would hope, if it does come off, we would have the same choices. Only time will tell

[waddle]

On our recent Azura cruise we prepaid for the classic drinks package (with a 10% + penisular discount) with the plan to use OBC to upgrade to Deluxe when on board

 

However, we were unable to pay the difference (c £10 per day pp) and would have had to cancel the Classic in full (refunded to Credit card) and then pay full price for the Deluxe (without the 10% discount or penisular if using OBC)

 

We decided not to bother and just paid for a handful of drinks (speciality cocktails) that werent on the classic package using OBC

 

If the system changes, flexibility to use combination of OBC and prepayment before boarding would be welcome 

[jeanlyon]

They would have to change the name of OBC (on board credit = on board ) If you could use it before you were on board

[david63]

16 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

They would have to change the name of OBC (on board credit = on board ) If you could use it before you were on board

Not really as it would still apply to activities on board - it's not as if you would be able to spend it shoreside before you sail.