Stock Obc Not Combinable Anymore

[shmthaus]

We booked for Jan 09 on the Voyager on the special "book today and get $100 obc". Then around the first of Aug, when stock was at $19, we purchased the rest of our 100 shares (we already had some from what we could afford). When we emailed our statement, we received a confirmation for the shareholder obc. Theoretically, the shareholder obc would cancel out the original book today obc.

 

I don't want to call RCL to see if we have both obc's credited for our cruise. I think I will wait and see what happens.

 

We didn't purchase the stock because of the obc, we fell in love with cruising and especially RCL (because of Rhapsody), so my DW originally purchased what we could afford as a birthday present for me. When we found out about the obc, well that was just another perk.

[Gonzo70]

If RCL decides to change the policy at some point it’s well within their rights but I think they know that they are making a good return on the stock discount.

 

They very recently did change the policy; they just have not yet begun to enforce the new policy which prohibits combining the Shareholder OBC with other OBC's/Discounts awarded by the cruise ship. You were lucky to get in before they began to enforce the new policy.

 

What do you mean they are making a good return on the stock discount? :confused: They are losing money on the stock discount. That is why they came out with the new policy to limit people to one type of OBC/Discount per cruise.

[Gonzo70]

I put a limit order in for RCI about 2 months ago and today the purchase was made.....Even though I had read parts of this thread the last few days I still decided to keep the order and figured from where the price was yesterday that I would be an owner today.

 

 

So it appears from the last few posts that I still may get OBC?

Even though I have used NC, diamond disc., C&A...unfortuantely to young for senior and visa?

 

We sail on in less than 2 weeks will this be cutting it to close?

Probably won't have a confirm until Mon. or Tues. of next week.

 

So far they are not enforcing the new policy, so you likely will be in luck. I would e-mail the confirmation immediately after it becomes available (preferably via e-mail as they seem to process those requests same day or next business day - so your close sailing time should not prevent you from cashing in). They are pretty open to accepting all types of documentation - i.e. if you have online access to your portfolio you can save a current copy of your portfolio and e-mail it as an attachment.

 

Good luck and have a nice cruise. :)

[Coralc]

This came up because CC member DaveyInterweb? ran in to a roadblock or "fuzz-buzz" (as critterchick calls it)....when she tried to apply the Shareholder's benefit to an Azamara cruise. She posted the new wording from the FAQ, I checked it out. I pointed it out to Gonzo a few days ago on one of the "RCl Stock OBC, should I buy?" threads.

 

I have not commented further, because at this point it is just a matter of everyone being aware of the new wording. Are they enforcing it now? No idea. Do they plan to? Still no idea. Fore-warned is fore-armed. We don't have anything booked after this November.

 

I am overjoyed that future cruisers are combining as we always have. :D :D And even if things should change.... I'm still going to submit everything and expect to combine my discounts. It is RCCL's decision if they choose to deny it:)

[dirtgirl]

We provided the 954 628 9634 number to try to help the poster who was having a problem faxing his brokerage statement to RCCL. It is the number that we have been using for some time and it worked fine as late as August 18, of this year.

 

Thank you for correcting us. We realize that the number off RCCL's website couldn't possibly be wrong.

 

 

:confused: Ummmmm, I don't know what your problem is, but I was also trying to be helpful. I'm glad your fax number works, too. This isn't a contest, and giving a different fax number wasn't meant to be. It just so happened that I had to fax them today, and had the number already on a cover page to refer to. Sorry I treaded on your toes....

 

The 373-6699 fax number worked great. I guess I'll have to update my phone book! :D

 

I used that number this morning and it went through.

 

I'm happy it worked for you.:) Mine went through as well.

[Demongear]

They very recently did change the policy; they just have not yet begun to enforce the new policy which prohibits combining the Shareholder OBC with other OBC's/Discounts awarded by the cruise ship. You were lucky to get in before they began to enforce the new policy.

 

What do you mean they are making a good return on the stock discount? :confused: They are losing money on the stock discount. That is why they came out with the new policy to limit people to one type of OBC/Discount per cruise.

 

Other than the stockholder benefit, how is Royal losing money on other means of OBC? RCL Visa Points I'm assuming that they(Royal) are being reimbursed by BOA. Travel Agent OBC they are being paid for by the Travel Agent. The future booking on board/next cruise OBC is something that they offer to entice you to book. How long are they holding your deposit money which looks better on the books?

[xpcdoojk]

They very recently did change the policy; they just have not yet begun to enforce the new policy which prohibits combining the Shareholder OBC with other OBC's/Discounts awarded by the cruise ship. You were lucky to get in before they began to enforce the new policy.

 

What do you mean they are making a good return on the stock discount? :confused: They are losing money on the stock discount. That is why they came out with the new policy to limit people to one type of OBC/Discount per cruise.

 

I love how you choose the logic of the moment, are you a future Illinois Senator? When it comes to us stock owners here we make no difference to the price of stock, but we are forcing them to lose money. We are all-powerful one time and impotent the next. How do you know why they implemented the new policy that I can assure you as of this moment they are not enforcing? Are you really the CEO of RCI, because you post as if you "KNOW" so many things, while the rest of us are only limited to opinions. It must be wonderful to "KNOW" so many wonderous things!:D :eek:

 

jc<----- I absolutely crack myself up:D

 

jc

[Gonzo70]

Other than the stockholder benefit, how is Royal losing money on other means of OBC? RCL Visa Points I'm assuming that they(Royal) are being reimbursed by BOA. Travel Agent OBC they are being paid for by the Travel Agent. The future booking on board/next cruise OBC is something that they offer to entice you to book. How long are they holding your deposit money which looks better on the books?

 

They are not losing money on BOA OBC. They lose money indirectly on TA OBC as there is a big trend in people transferring reservations to TA's just to receive OBC (and therefore RCL needs to pay commissions to the OBC). They also lose money when people combine Shareholder OBC with Next Cruise OBC from onboard bookings as well as other types of OBC they may offer during sales. They also are losing money when people cash in on price drops after final payment. If I were the CEO I sure would be limiting people to one discount, making it more difficulty to transfer to a TA after booking, and not permitting price drops after final payment. As a cruiser I enjoy being able to take advantage of all these varying perks, but as a company facing significant challenges due to skyrocketing expenses and a troubled economy, no way would I allow all this revenue loss to go on.

[piercetc4]

dh just emailed me a copy of our proof of stock purchase on thursday so i could email it to shareholderbenefit@rccl.com- it was an attachment- linda emailed back that i had to email proof of stock ownership.......... i am thinking thats what i just sent! had sept 28 2008 date on it , our names, date we bought the stock, showed we own 100 shares......etc.......... today i am going to print it, scan it into email, and resend it circling the sept 28 2008 date...................... as in thats the current report /info on that stock we own- hoping it works this time...... dh says he can get another diff type report on it? or something- we have never had this much trouble getting this applied.............lol

[ribarfly]

They very recently did change the policy; they just have not yet begun to enforce the new policy which prohibits combining the Shareholder OBC with other OBC's/Discounts awarded by the cruise ship. You were lucky to get in before they began to enforce the new policy.

 

What do you mean they are making a good return on the stock discount? :confused: They are losing money on the stock discount. That is why they came out with the new policy to limit people to one type of OBC/Discount per cruise.

 

Here is my reasoning, by buying the stock you are injecting cash into RCL, the Stock OBC is like getting COMP points at a casino so it’s an incentive to get you to cruise with them again, and by repeat cruising you are adding to their profits. Yes you are getting free dollars with the credit but most cruisers will spend that and more in the bars, casino and the shops onboard because they have the credit. Basically they give you the credit and you give it back to them “plus” while onboard so they are not losing anything. I have owned the stock for a few years and have had a total $1,600.00 in onboard credits to date, all of which went back to RCL, I certainly didn’t buy the stock to rich it just made sense to take advantage of the benefit. I do agree that some people may try to cash in the OBC at the casino but I think they are a very small percentage. As far as the policy change I am a Diamond Plus member with 34 cruise credits, the benefits that you receive at that level are dwindling and at some point being Loyal to Royal won’t be worth it! For the time being it seams RCL is not enforcing the new policy and are allowing the combination of certain offers so I will continue to take advantage of the stock credit and other offers for now.

Let me add this, due to recent economic events I think at some point with all the new larger ships that RCL is putting into the fleet they will be forced to offer more incentives not take them away. Sailing with a full ship of discounted passengers makes more business sense than sailing with a ship half empty.

Here is the official policy statement stated in the “Investor Relations”

6.

Can this benefit be combined with other offers, onboard credits and coupons?

 

Shareholder Onboard Credit is not combinable with other onboard credit offers, general loyalty offers, “dollars off” promotions and savings certificates. Guests have the option to choose between the shareholder benefit or the other offer. The benefit is NOT available to company employees, travel agents, tour conductors and/or others utilizing complimentary or reduced-rate cruise fares.

[dak_friendly]

Here is my reasoning, by buying the stock you are injecting cash into RCL, the Stock OBC is like getting COMP points at a casino so it’s an incentive to get you to cruise with them again, and by repeat cruising you are adding to their profits. ...

 

I'd love to have someone correct me or shed some light on this but ...

 

I've been under the impression that when you bought stock in a company, you weren't injecting cash into that company. You were just taking the shares off the hands of the another stock holder. The only injection of cash took place when they initially offered the stock ... or offered more shares. On the second option, I'd figure stock would get devalued for awhile.

 

I kind of believe that a stock holder is part of the company ... and that's what the stock holder OBC is for ... a reward for being a partial owner.

[DON M.]

So far they are not enforcing the new policy, so you likely will be in luck. I would e-mail the confirmation immediately after it becomes available (preferably via e-mail as they seem to process those requests same day or next business day - so your close sailing time should not prevent you from cashing in). They are pretty open to accepting all types of documentation - i.e. if you have online access to your portfolio you can save a current copy of your portfolio and e-mail it as an attachment.

 

Good luck and have a nice cruise. :)

 

Is this really a new policy? According to the official policy the shareholder OBC was never combinable with "general loyality offers". I would interpret that to include C & A balcony discounts and other discounts. Maybe they have decided to enforce it. Or, maybe this is a new policy, I dont know what the policy said prior to 7/1/08.

[land lover]

dh just emailed me a copy of our proof of stock purchase on thursday so i could email it to shareholderbenefit@rccl.com- it was an attachment- linda emailed back that i had to email proof of stock ownership.......... i am thinking thats what i just sent! had sept 28 2008 date on it , our names, date we bought the stock, showed we own 100 shares......etc.......... today i am going to print it, scan it into email, and resend it circling the sept 28 2008 date...................... as in thats the current report /info on that stock we own- hoping it works this time...... dh says he can get another diff type report on it? or something- we have never had this much trouble getting this applied.............lol

 

Let us know what the final outcome is.

[rt1092]

I just added my shareholder discount to my cruise 11/28/08.

They added the OBC to it I called and checked with C&A and they told me both obc's were there $200 for shareholder and another $200 for booking on board.

Plus we got a $300 balcony discount

And will add about $500 from RCL visa card credits

[Ocean Boy]

They are not losing money on BOA OBC. They lose money indirectly on TA OBC as there is a big trend in people transferring reservations to TA's just to receive OBC (and therefore RCL needs to pay commissions to the OBC). They also lose money when people combine Shareholder OBC with Next Cruise OBC from onboard bookings as well as other types of OBC they may offer during sales. They also are losing money when people cash in on price drops after final payment. If I were the CEO I sure would be limiting people to one discount, making it more difficulty to transfer to a TA after booking, and not permitting price drops after final payment. As a cruiser I enjoy being able to take advantage of all these varying perks, but as a company facing significant challenges due to skyrocketing expenses and a troubled economy, no way would I allow all this revenue loss to go on.

Yes, they are making less money when a reservation is transferred to a TA. But when the cruise fare is set a certain amount of that is factored in as TA commission. Those of us who book directly with RCI are providing extra income for the company that was not anticipated. If the reservation is transferred RCI is making what they expected when they set the fares.

 

Booking "Next Cruise" gives RCI your money to play with long before they would have gotten it and pretty much insures that you will book another cruise with the company rather than RCI risking that you will be sitting home watching some show on the Travel Channel and decide...Hey, maybe I'll try booking Princess to Alaska instead of RCI. So, for the $100.00 that RCI is out in OBC they pick up a $2000.00 booking. Not a bad return on their investment.

 

If they don't want to give price drops until after final payment, fine. Then maybe people won't book until much closer to sailing date in order to see if there is a drop. That gives RCI much less time to play with deposit money and makes it far more difficult to know if a sailing is going to sell well or not.

 

Your way of looking at this seems to be.... If they are taking in $100.00 less because of OBCs then they are loosing money. My way of looking at it is that because of that $100.00 less that this cruise may cost me I am giving them a $2000.00 booking.

[Liz]

dh just emailed me a copy of our proof of stock purchase on thursday so i could email it to shareholderbenefit@rccl.com- it was an attachment- linda emailed back that i had to email proof of stock ownership.......... i am thinking thats what i just sent! had sept 28 2008 date on it , our names, date we bought the stock, showed we own 100 shares......etc.......... today i am going to print it, scan it into email, and resend it circling the sept 28 2008 date...................... as in thats the current report /info on that stock we own- hoping it works this time...... dh says he can get another diff type report on it? or something- we have never had this much trouble getting this applied.............lol

 

Hi Tamra! Liz from Navigator here... I hope you are well!

I think the issue for Linda might be the settlement time for your purchase. If memory serves me right, it takes three business days to settle the purchase of a publicly-traded stock. You may have to wait until you can either access your month-end brokerage statement on-line, or until you receive it in the mail. (Or - depending on your brokerage, you may be able to see it in your portfolio listing on Tuesday.) Either way, you can scan it and email it to Linda - she's great about updating things very quickly.

Take care!

 

Liz

[rolfecms]

Yes, they are making less money when a reservation is transferred to a TA. But when the cruise fare is set a certain amount of that is factored in as TA commission. Those of us who book directly with RCI are providing extra income for the company that was not anticipated. If the reservation is transferred RCI is making what they expected when they set the fares.

 

Booking "Next Cruise" gives RCI your money to play with long before they would have gotten it and pretty much insures that you will book another cruise with the company rather than RCI risking that you will be sitting home watching some show on the Travel Channel and decide...Hey, maybe I'll try booking Princess to Alaska instead of RCI. So, for the $100.00 that RCI is out in OBC they pick up a $2000.00 booking. Not a bad return on their investment.

 

Excellent observations!

[Gonzo70]

Here is my reasoning, by buying the stock you are injecting cash into RCL, the Stock OBC is like getting COMP points at a casino so it’s an incentive to get you to cruise with them again, and by repeat cruising you are adding to their profits. Let me add this, due to recent economic events I think at some point with all the new larger ships that RCL is putting into the fleet they will be forced to offer more incentives not take them away. Sailing with a full ship of discounted passengers makes more business sense than sailing with a ship half empty.

 

You have three misconceptions:

1) Purchasing exisiting shares of a stock does not "inject" money into the company. You are not purchasing the shares from RCL, you are purchasing them from someone who is selling their stock. No money goes to RCL when you purchase their stock.

 

2) The Shareholder OBC is works as an incentive to sail with RCL if the majority of people using the Shareholder OBC would not have done the cruise if the Shareholder OBC was not around. I think that most who use Shareholder OBC (likely over 90%, but that is just my guess) were planning on doing the cruise anyway, so the Shareholder OBC is simply a discount (i.e. RCL loses the money) rather than led to a new booking (i.e. increased revenue for RCL).

 

3) RCL cannot start increasing incentives; they would go bankrupt. In the past year they have been exacting all sorts of cost cutting measures. The price of oil is doing severe harm to the travel industry. Look at the airlines - they are not dropping prices, they are cutting flights. If cruise lines started doing deeper discounts they would be losing money on the cruise. Fortunately for now they are sitll filling ships despite the cutbacks (though Carnival Corp recently announced bookings are falling off of last year's pace). If cruise ships start having significant vacancies, I think you will see a decrease in the number of ships that remain active (i.e. retiring the older ships earlier than they would otherwise) rather than deeper discounts - just like with the airlines.

[Gonzo70]

Is this really a new policy? According to the official policy the shareholder OBC was never combinable with "general loyality offers". I would interpret that to include C & A balcony discounts and other discounts. Maybe they have decided to enforce it. Or, maybe this is a new policy, I dont know what the policy said prior to 7/1/08.

 

Where are you getting the 7/1/08 date from? I think the new policy just appeared a few days ago (or at least that's when threads about it on Cruise Critic popped up). Someone posted the language of the old policy and it clearly stated Shareholder OBC was combinable with other OBC's and discounts - so there definitely is a new policy.

[ribarfly]

You have three misconceptions:

1) Purchasing exisiting shares of a stock does not "inject" money into the company. You are not purchasing the shares from RCL, you are purchasing them from someone who is selling their stock. No money goes to RCL when you purchase their stock.

 

2) The Shareholder OBC is works as an incentive to sail with RCL if the majority of people using the Shareholder OBC would not have done the cruise if the Shareholder OBC was not around. I think that most who use Shareholder OBC (likely over 90%, but that is just my guess) were planning on doing the cruise anyway, so the Shareholder OBC is simply a discount (i.e. RCL loses the money) rather than led to a new booking (i.e. increased revenue for RCL).

 

3) RCL cannot start increasing incentives; they would go bankrupt. In the past year they have been exacting all sorts of cost cutting measures. The price of oil is doing severe harm to the travel industry. Look at the airlines - they are not dropping prices, they are cutting flights. If cruise lines started doing deeper discounts they would be losing money on the cruise. Fortunately for now they are sitll filling ships despite the cutbacks (though Carnival Corp recently announced bookings are falling off of last year's pace). If cruise ships start having significant vacancies, I think you will see a decrease in the number of ships that remain active (i.e. retiring the older ships earlier than they would otherwise) rather than deeper discounts - just like with the airlines.

 

Like I said it is my reasoning and it works for me. Does it really matter whose opinion is right or wrong:confused: Well, I hope we cruise together some day and I’ll use my stock OBC to buy you a drink, so see they will be getting it back:)

[Captain Jake]

Jake, usually we agree on things, but I am not sure I understand you calling it "theft." Are you talking about theft in a moral sense or as in a person is actually breaking a law? I do not believe there is any law that would allow for formal charges being placed on someone for selling their RCL stock after confirming Shareholder OBC but before their actual cruise. If you are talking about theft in a moral sense than I understand.

Needless to say its not theft in a criminal sense but theft in taking something thst you know you are not entitled to.They know they are putting one over on RCCL.

[Captain Jake]

Nobody, he makes up stuff like that all of the time. It makes his case stronger!:D

 

jc

 

Whatever:rolleyes:Scary isn't it ,that gives us something in common

[Captain Jake]

Who told you that?

 

Just my opinion that its one of the reasons.I think the number one reason is the cashing out of OBC in the casino.

[DON M.]

Where are you getting the 7/1/08 date from? I think the new policy just appeared a few days ago (or at least that's when threads about it on Cruise Critic popped up). Someone posted the language of the old policy and it clearly stated Shareholder OBC was combinable with other OBC's and discounts - so there definitely is a new policy.

 

If the old policy said it is combinable, I stand corrected. Would love to see a copy of that old policy or the post you are referring to.

[dirtgirl]

If the old policy said it is combinable, I stand corrected. Would love to see a copy of that old policy or the post you are referring to.

 

 

This was posted by critterchick:

 

Here's the link to a thread from April, when somebody kindly cut and pasted the language. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...ht=shareholder

 

And here's what that person posted (see item 6):

 

Who is eligible for this offer?Any shareholder holding a minimum of 100 RCL shares at time of sailing.

2.What is the offer?$250 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 14 or more nights.

$200 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 9 to 13 nights.

$100 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 6 to 8 nights.

$50 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on Sailings of 5 nights or less.

Applicable on any Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Cruises Sailings. (excludes Celebrity Xpeditions)

 

3.How do I redeem this offer?Provide your name, address, confirmation number, ship and sailing date along with a copy of your shareholder proxy card or a current brokerage statement showing proof of share ownership in Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

Via Mail: RCL Investor Benefit, PO Box 025511, Miami, Florida 33102-5511

Via Fax: 1-305-373-6699

Via Email: shareholderbenefit@rccl.com

 

Can I use the offer each time I sail?Yes, you may request this offer multiple times-as often as you sail on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Cruises (excludes Celebrity Xpedition).

6. Can this offer be combined with other offers, onboard credits and coupons?Yes, this offer is combinable with other offers, onboard credits and coupons. The offer is NOT available to company employees, travel agents, tour conductors and/or others utilizing complimentary or reduced-rate cruise fares.

 

I'd say that's a radical change...