On-board credit, how do you get it,
and what can you spend it on, and why?
I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another
of my Cruise Tips For Travellers.
I was recently on a cruise, and I was lucky enough
to have a lot of On-board credit,
and that got me thinking about
how do you get loads of On-board credit?
And importantly, what you can, can't spend it on?
And what are the best things to spend on-board credit on?
So let's take a look starting
with actually what is on-board credit?
The best way to think about on-board credit
is it's free money.
So it's a bit like someone giving you a gift card
or some cash to go and spend on whatever you like.
So it's a bit like a gift,
and it comes normally from the cruise line.
So it's basically free money for you to spend on board.
So how do you actually get on-board credit?
There are nine key ways that you can get onboard credit.
The first of these is from the cruise line
when they do promotions.
You'll find when itineraries are launched especially,
there are lots of deals and incentives
to encourage you to book.
So the cruise line will normally throw in
some on-board credit,
which will normally be per person or per cabin.
And this can mount up to quite a lot
depending on the grade that you book.
The other way that you get on-board credit linked to that
is if you book your cruise on the ship,
so when you're another cruise, they pretty much always
will throw in on-board credit incentives.
Again, scaling up based on the length of the cruise,
or the grade of the cabin that you're actually booking.
Those are the most common ways of getting on-board credit,
but there are seven other ways that you can get it.
One of those is if you book with a agent,
you'll often find the cruise agents will throw in
other incentives to try and get you to book with them,
and often, they are able to offer extra on-board credit.
And certainly, when you're booking with an agent,
ask them if there's any opportunities,
they'll often throw in some, sometimes I guess,
they'll use some of their commission perhaps
to put into onboard credit to encourage you
to book with them.
One of the ways that I have been very successful
at getting on-board credit
is by tracking the price of a cruise.
So once I've booked a cruise,
what I then do is I keep an eye on what the prices are
for the grade that I've booked.
If you see the price falling dramatically,
the cruise line normally is not gonna tell you,
but what I then do is I either talk to my agent,
or if I booked direct with the cruise line,
I say to the cruise line, look, I see that my cabin
is now being sold for so many hundred dollars less,
what are you going to do?
They'll normally offer either an upgrade,
or what they prefer to do is offer you on-board credit.
So for example, the cruise that I've just come off on,
there was a dramatic reduction in price
because the itinerary was changed,
and I ended up getting $400 of on-board credit
because that was the difference in price.
So it's really an important thing to do,
to keep tracking the price of your cabin on a cruise.
It's a great way of getting
a lot of extra credit to spend on board.
A lot of loyalty programmes will also offer on-board credit.
So as you work your way up the different tiers,
you'll find that on-board credit often gets thrown in
as one of the benefits.
So loyalty to a cruise line
is another great way of getting on-board credit.
Some of the cruise lines nowadays
have their own credit cards.
So if you're a member of their credit card
and you spend and you build up points,
instead of being able to use those for other things,
you can convert those into on-board credits.
So if you really love a particular cruise line,
check if they have a credit card.
You'll find that a lot of the really big well known names
in cruising have a credit card.
So it's a great way of just doing your everyday spending
and building up credits to your next cruise
that you can spend on board.
If you have a problem on board,
that's another way of getting on-board credit
through compensation.
So if you have a problem with service
or your cabin or whatever,
and the cruise line is not able to resolve it,
be cheeky and ask if they're prepared to give you
any on-board credit as compensation, because that is
an easier way of them keeping passengers happy,
and of course, it doesn't necessarily cost them
a lot of money.
So that's a great way of getting on-board credit.
So if you're a serving member of the military,
and sometimes if you're a veteran
through different ID programmes,
you're often able to get on-board credit.
So if you are a serving member of the military
check if your cruise line offers
extra benefits and on-board credit.
The last way to get on-board credit is if you're
a shareholder in a particular cruise company,
and you'll find that you can apply for on-board credit.
So for example, I hold shares
in the Carnival Cruise Corporation,
and I use that whenever I'm going on a cruise
to apply for extra on-board credit.
Again, it varies based on the length of time of the cruise
and the cruise line.
It does involve a little bit of admin,
because you have to contact them,
you have to send them a copy of your booking,
a copy of your shareholding,
but you can get extra on-board credit
by owning shares in a particular cruise company.
So those are the nine key ways you can get on-board credit.
Once you've got on-board credit,
what on earth can you spend it on
and what are the best things to spend it
once you're on board?
Before we look at what you can spend on-board credit on
there are probably four key watch outs
about on-board credit that you should know when you get it
and before you think about what you're going to spend it on.
First of all, really important, is in most cases
on-board credit is non refundable.
So if you don't spend it on board,
they're not going to give you the cash.
So you need to make sure that you spend
all of your on-board credit on board.
And the way you can do that, of course,
is track it either by getting a printout,
from Guests Services, or nowadays on the app,
or the interactive television on most cruise lines.
But really important, you're not going to get the cash back,
so make sure that you're planning and spending
all of your on-board credit when you're on the ship.
Most cruise lines won't let you use on-board credit
for things you book in advance.
So there are a couple that will say,
the cruise I was just on, Oceania for example,
they did let you pre-book things
and allocate it against your on-board credit.
But many other cruise lines have been on
if you pre-book things online, excursions, drinks,
packages, internet, whatever it is,
it doesn't come off your on-board credit.
So you have to wait until you're on the ship
before doing that.
So check very carefully if your cruise line
lets you allocate prebooking stuff to your on-board credit.
The third key watch out is what you can spend on-board credit
does differ slightly by cruise line.
So I'm going to talk about the things you can spend it on
but do listen very carefully
because there are some cruise lines
that won't let you spend on-board credit on certain things.
The big and easiest guideline though
when it comes to on-board credit is pretty much anything
that you can use your cruise card for, on the ship,
normally you can allocate to on-board credit.
So that's kind of an easy guideline.
So let's take a look, first of all at what you can
and then at what you can't spend on-board credit on.
There are 10 key things that you can
normally spend on-board credit on.
The first of those is excursions,
and this is often what I use a lot of my on-board credit for.
You can find all sorts of range of excursions
at all sorts of prices, and you can allocate
your on-board credit to it,
it's a great way of spending on-board credit
because excursions can be one of the biggest on costs
to your cruise fare.
So excursions is a really good idea
to allocate on-board credit to.
The second thing that I like to use
on board credit for is gratuities.
You'll find pretty much on every single cruise line,
you can use on-board credit to offset gratuities.
Now, there are one or two exceptions so double check
and if you're not sure ask at Guest Services
when you get on board, if your on-board credit
is going to be allocated against gratuities.
But most of the most cruise lines I have been on
will allow you to offset that.
And of course, that's a cost
that you often haven't budget for,
or you forget, and that can mount up.
You can spend $200 or more per person
on gratuities on a week long cruise.
So on-board credit is a great way of
kind of negating that impact.
The third thing that I like to use on-board credit
because I see it as sort of free money is spa treatment.
Spa treatments on cruise ships can be quite costly.
So using on-board credit is a great way of making that
more of a justifiable expense.
So I like to use on-board credit for spa treatments
if I have any leftover after gratuities and excursions.
Another great use of onboard credit is for WiFi.
WiFi can be pretty expensive on board
and you can use on-board credit to buy it.
Drinks is also something you could charge
against on-board credit.
So either buying a drinks package or drinks ad hoc.
I tend to buy drinks ad hoc using my on-board credit
rather than drinks package.
I don't drink a lot so I find that ends up being
a better use of on-board credit than buying a drinks package,
but you can use on-board credit
to buy drinks ad hoc or drinks packages.
The other key things that you can use it for
is if they have a cabana area or sort of a retreat area,
you can use on-board credit for that.
You can use it for specialty dining.
So if you want to go and eat at one of the restaurants,
you can use on-board credit for that.
You can use it for shopping in the on-board shops.
So that's a great thing if you have gifts to buy
if you have on-board credit left.
The photographs on board the ship.
And the other thing that you can do,
which is great for many people is you can use it for treats.
So if you like specialty coffees, gelato,
those kind of things in those shops,
you can normally use on-board credit to buy those things.
So those are the 10 things that you can buy.
So what can't you use on-board credit for.
Now, pretty much every single ship
there are three key things you can't use on-board credit for.
First of all, the medical centre.
So if you need any treatment in the medical centre,
you can't use on-board credit.
Secondly, most cruise lines will not let you use it
for gambling, or bingo, there are a couple of exceptions,
and that does change over time.
So particularly with Carnival and Royal Caribbean,
you can often use on-board credit.
So just double check if you're going on those.
Most of the other lines I've come across don't let you.
So do double check, but assume that you can't use it
for gaming and gambling.
And the third thing you can't use it
is to book your next cruise.
Certainly when you're on a cruise,
lots and lots of people book their next cruise
but unfortunately you can't use
on-board credit as your deposit.
on-board credit, it's free money, work at those nine things
to try and get as much onboard credit as you can.
I had loads of onboard credit on my last cruise
it was fantastic because I can do things
that I probably wouldn't normally do on a cruise,
and it felt like it wasn't costing me any money.
I have loads more Cruise Tips For Travellers videos,
so why don't you watch another one of those right now.