Calnev1

I took a look at the description of one of my AARP Carnival Gift Card purchases on my Bank of America Cash Reward monthly statement. Unfortunately, it did not give me a merchant code like you described for AARP. This is what it did give me: Transaction type: Purchases Merchant description: CHARITABLE AND SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS Merchant information: 866-451-6305 , DC Reference number: 1942 Merchant Name: AARP Transaction Category: Giving: Giving Online Purchase: Y I also have the Citi Custom Cash card you describe that gives 5% cash back on up to $500 in max spend per month in one of several limited categories. None of the Custom Cash categories seem to fit AARP, and the Citi card has no generic “online purchase” category like the BA cash rewards card has. So I use my Custom Cash to buy Gift of College gift cards at my local grocery store (where the GC purchase codes as groceries) to fund the grandkids’ 529 plans. If you do try your Custom Cash back at AARP, please post whether or not it gave you the five percent back.

Sure. Its the Chase Ink Business Plus. While Chase still issues some types of Ink Business cards to new applicants, I am pretty sure they don't issue the type of Ink card I have.

We buy many AARP gift cards and have used different credit cards to pay for them. One readily available no annual fee credit card is the Bank America Cash Rewards credit card. You pick a purchase category for the card and then you get three percent cash back on all purchases in that category for up to $2,500 in purchases each quarter. The BA category you want to use for AARP gift card purchases is "online purchases." (Note: If you have certain bank or investment accounts at Bank America you can get greater than three percent cash back). There are also some credit cards that give you two percent cash back on purchases, such as the no annual fee Citi Doublecash, and we have used that for some AARP gift card purchases. We also have another Chase credit card that gives us eight percent back on AARP GC purchases(!), but Chase no longer offers that card to new applicants so not worth discussing here.

+1 My wife and I have a joint AARP membership but separate AARP Rewards accounts. So we can get up to ten Princess GCs a month (five on each account). Actually, my wife's sister and her husband also have an AARP membership and allow us to use their AARP Rewards accounts. So we can technically get up to 20 GCs per month. And we do take advantage of this, because we routinely buy discounted grocery store GCs and discounted Uber GCs in addition to discounted Princess GCs.

Allstate continues to . . . suk. 🙂

And I say that the best indicator of what you will spend in the ship’s casino next time is what you spent in the ship’s casino the last time. My wife spent more in the ship’s casino on her May cruises, and she got a better casino offer in June. Was there some other reason for the increased casino offer? Possibly, but not likely. My wife did nothing in May or early June that would change her “personal information” on the internet or her credit history. We didn’t buy a house, we didn’t file for bankruptcy, her credit score didn't change, and our income didn’t change either. Her “personal information” is not an explanation for her improved casino offer. You and I obviously disagree, and there is no point in beating this dead horse further. I will stop posting on this thread now.

This is true. As individual cruisers, all we can really do is observe and report how much we played and how our follow-on casino offers change (if at all). Carnival slot players have long had access to info about their casino points, a measure of how much they have played and an indicator to the casino of how much the player will likely lose over time. Now, Carnival table players also have almost real time access to their point totals, so we too can get an idea of how much the casino thinks we have played and lost. To me, this is valuable info, and I will continue to record these points numbers for my wife and I after every cruise and measure that against subsequent casino offers.

Many folks on this thread have been asking how much to play on the ship to get casino offers. No one except you is limiting the discussion to "marketing" offers.

There is a lot of speculation on this thread. I now have an explicit data point that I can throw out. I play table games on the ships, and my wife plays slots. I play much more than my wife, who on past cruises maybe dropped $50 to $100 max in losses. We both have been getting casino offers continually since the COVID restart. Mine were initially free balcony, but have dropped to free ocean view. My wife’s offers were in the form of discounts, and, frankly, not very interesting. We had two Carnival cruises this past May, a four day and a seven day. We decided to do an experiment with my wife and her slot play. On each cruise we allotted her $45 in maximum losses per day, of course hoping she wouldn’t lose but if she did capping those losses. So on the four day cruise she played until she lost $180 total for the cruise and then quit playing, racking up 202 points in the process. On the seven day cruise she played until she lost $315 total for the cruise and by then had racked up 1,059 points. Fast forward to five days ago, and my wife started to get free room offers. Well, it was a limited free room offer entitled “Casino Last Minute Offer: Free Room.” Clicking thru, at first there were just a couple of cruises and both were within a week of departure. One out of Miami, and one in Europe. Interior Rooms. OK, not that interesting, too far away and not enough notice. And then this morning another cruise appeared under the free room offer: A 10 day Alaska out of San Francisco departing June 12. Much closer to us geographically and more interesting. I don’t know if we will ever use one of my wife’s last minute free room offers, but of course we will continue to monitor them. Anyways, I think this gives some insight into what sort of play may trigger good casino offers.

How do you know all this? Like that "bounceback offers are given to the top 10 percent of players on the cruise?" That is very specific.

Yes. Load the GCs to your sign and sail account at guest services, and then charge your room on the slot machines or buy chips at the tables by telling the dealer you want to charge your room.

What did you tell guest services when you got the extra keys? That you lost your original key(s), or the truth (that there was a room switch)?

Can you give me an example of "loss of perks?" All I can think of that might be at risk would be maybe my wife's DOU in the casino (and casino points?) if she goes to the casino with my BILs room key.

My wife and I have thought about leveraging both of our free offers by booking two cabins on the same cruise, one cabin in her name and her sister's name, and one cabin in my name and my brother-in-law's name. Then when we are aboard my wife and my brother-in-law would trade keys. We haven't actually tried this yet, but if the right cruise offers itself up, we will try it. Yes, there are some potential issues, like sorting out room charges, but we are a close knit family so am pretty sure we could work through those issues.

Yes, the Marriott GC deals are very good too. I think 20% off? The IHG point sales are pretty good at 0.5 cents a point. I also will be buying a few IHG points.

On my last casino comped cruise I woke up one night because my rump was sore. Do you think something happened in the casino?

This is the link I use to log in to AARP Rewards. Have never had any trouble. See if it works for you. https://www.aarp.org/rewards/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarp.org%2Frewards%2Fdiscover

The USTA still runs the "Daily Getaways" summer promotion. The promotion no longer includes any cruise deals, but some of the hotel deals are really good (hint: Choice hotel points for European Travel). The next Daily Getaways promotion starts in just three days. https://dailygetaways.ustravel.org/Calendar/Index/2 And there are some other retailers that offer discounted gift cards, including discounted Carnival cards. Specifically, Raise.com and the Kroger 4x fuel points program. As discussed on other threads in this forum, some cruisers prefer to get their Carnival gift cards through these methods. Still, I personally think the (old) Allstate and the (new) AARP were/are the best ways to get Carnival GCs.

I have no experience with Princess, but this happened to me with Carnival and they sent me a new gift card as a refund. I actually used several gift cards to make my cruise deposit, and Carnival sent me one new gift card in the total amount of the deposit refund.

Another factor at play here is gift card breakage. That is, all gift card issuers expect that a certain percentage of purchased gift cards will never be used, whether because they are lost or forgotten, or in the case of a cruise the cruise is cancelled and never rebooked so the card never used. Particularly for Princess gift cards that are actually given as gifts, I wouldn't be surprised if the aggregate breakage exceeds ten percent of the all the gift cards given.

Don't do it!!

Just bought two GCs. email delivery took about five minutes.

Well, it was only a matter of days. Princess gift cards are back on AARP now after a five day hiatus.

The Princess egift cards are back on AARP now after a five day hiatus.

Interestingly, the double sensors are for the new version of Lucky Ladies, where they have increased the minimum bet to either $5 (left sensor) or $10 (right sensor). In my recent experience on the Panorama, fewer people were wanting to bet that much money on the Ladies, so the game did not seem slower. And yes Fun21 is different game from regular blackjack due to the removal of the Kings, the bonuses that are paid out, the option for early surrender, etc.. But you no longer have to use the Spanish21 strategy, which itself is a slightly different game from Fun21 (e.g,, no ES and the bonuses are different). As of about two months ago the internet now has a basic strategy crafted specifically to Carnival Corporation Fun21! Check it out at https://wizardofodds.com/games/fun-21/, authored by BJ expert Michael Shackleford (the Wizard).