AARP Carnival Gift Cards

[Organized Chaos]

17 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

There is no problem, just initial confusion. I have no interest in reading 1000s of posts to figure it out. 

 

I imagine in the future new Allstate threads will pop up from those who didn't get the memo. But I will know to ignore those, as I have no interest.

 

No one has to read thousands of posts. When newcomers came to this thread asking about Allstate Rewards, sometimes we'd direct them back to a particular post or conversation, but they certainly weren't expected to read the entire thread. And no one has ever felt like they should. We've always been happy to answer questions. I see the size of this thread having been active for as long as it has as an accomplishment, for lack of a better word, and feel like it's worth it to keep it going.

 

I doubt too many, if any at all, new Allstate threads pop up before they shut down. Most Carnival cruisers didn't even know it existed until they saw the thread. The same could probably be said of AARP Rewards because the topic of these discount cards didn't come up too much over the years. Most people still think you have to be 50 or older to join AARP, so they don't even think about the benefits.

[Organized Chaos]

We still have another week before AARP picks the winner for the $1,000 Carnival card sweepstakes. I wish they didn't wait 2+ weeks to pick a winner. Not that I expect to win, I have terrible luck, but the suspense is killing me. 😜

[Organized Chaos]

15 minutes ago, CoquitlamBC said:

I know this might have been asked before but I could not find a concrete answer by searching the 236 pages... 

 

Other than begging US friends, is there a way people from Canada can buy discounted Carnival gift cards directly, through AARP or other sources? Your answer will be greatly appreciated since we have an upcoming Carnival cruise trip next week and any savings would be great. Cheney  

 

As far as AARP, unfortunately your only option would be to know a member in the U.S.

 

The electronics website, newegg, occasionally sells Carnival cards for 8% off, but I looked and there's none currently for sale. There's another website that I won't mention because users have gotten in trouble for it in the past. If you google "buy and sell gift cards," it should be the second search result. They have Carnival cards for 8% off, but that site lets individuals sell gift cards and I do know in the past there was trouble with people buying gift cards that were empty. Which is why users have gotten posts deleted for posting the link. So unless there's a way to guarantee the seller is legit, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe someone who's more familiar with that site can chime in.

[CoquitlamBC]

1 minute ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

As far as AARP, unfortunately your only option would be to know a member in the U.S.

 

The electronics website, newegg, occasionally sells Carnival cards for 8% off, but I looked and there's none currently for sale. There's another website that I won't mention because users have gotten in trouble for it in the past. If you google "buy and sell gift cards," it should be the second search result. They have Carnival cards for 8% off, but that site lets individuals sell gift cards and I do know in the past there was trouble with people buying gift cards that were empty. Which is why users have gotten posts deleted for posting the link. So unless there's a way to guarantee the seller is legit, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe someone who's more familiar with that site can chime in.

Thank you very much for your swift response. I have diligently tested your recommendations, exploring options on Newegg as well as the "other 8% off GC" website. However, I have encountered a roadblock - none of these platforms permit me to purchase their gift cards from Canada. They require a valid US phone number (although I attempted some free online US VoIP numbers, they proved unsuccessful), along with a US credit card (unfortunately, PayPal Canada and Canadian bank US dollar credit cards are not accepted). It's becoming quite the puzzle.

 

While I do have friends in the US, I am hesitant to inconvenience them for a mere 10% discount (which might even be less considering the need to cover the AARP membership fee, given my friends lack AARP memberships or the potential 8% discount from alternative sources). Additionally, arranging payment to them presents its own set of challenges.

 

Interestingly, it appears that individuals from Mexico can still access the AARP rewards program through the use of a VPN. I'm open to the idea of accessing the Rewards program after paying for an AARP membership (as Canadians are allowed to join). My query pertains to whether I would then be eligible to purchase discounted Carnival gift cards through the rewards program (typically reserved for US residents). It's possible that the answer could be negative, as suggested by this thread 

  https://community.aarp.org/t5/AARP-Rewards-Connect/Canadian-purchase-of-Carnival-Gift-Cards/td-p/2453426 

 

Your insights on this matter would always be greatly appreciated.

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, CoquitlamBC said:

Thank you very much for your swift response. I have diligently tested your recommendations, exploring options on Newegg as well as the "other 8% off GC" website. However, I have encountered a roadblock - none of these platforms permit me to purchase their gift cards from Canada. They require a valid US phone number (although I attempted some free online US VoIP numbers, they proved unsuccessful), along with a US credit card (unfortunately, PayPal Canada and Canadian bank US dollar credit cards are not accepted). It's becoming quite the puzzle.

 

While I do have friends in the US, I am hesitant to inconvenience them for a mere 10% discount (which might even be less considering the need to cover the AARP membership fee, given my friends lack AARP memberships or the potential 8% discount from alternative sources). Additionally, arranging payment to them presents its own set of challenges.

 

Interestingly, it appears that individuals from Mexico can still access the AARP rewards program through the use of a VPN. I'm open to the idea of accessing the Rewards program after paying for an AARP membership (as Canadians are allowed to join). My query pertains to whether I would then be eligible to purchase discounted Carnival gift cards through the rewards program (typically reserved for US residents). It's possible that the answer could be negative, as suggested by this thread 

  https://community.aarp.org/t5/AARP-Rewards-Connect/Canadian-purchase-of-Carnival-Gift-Cards/td-p/2453426 

 

Your insights on this matter would always be greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry about that, I didn't know those other 2 sites weren't eligible in Canada. Judging by the response from the AARP mod in the post you linked, it looks like you can become a member, but can't join AARP Rewards, as it doesn't allow verification through Canadian phone numbers. I think it's odd they'd let Canadian residents join AARP, but not the rewards program. AARP's Carnival gift cards are all digital, they're sent via email, so it's not like shipping would be a problem. Unfortunately, I don't see a way around that.

 

Since your U.S. friends aren't already AARP members, I understand what you mean about being an inconvenience. It'd certainly be easier if they were members. There are popular smartphone apps that make transferring money to someone pretty easy, like CashApp, Zelle, & Venmo, but I don't know if they work between the U.S. & Canada. If using a friend was a viable option, you'd need to make sure you trust them. You'd have to trust them enough to purchase the gift card and not use it themselves, and they'd have to trust you enough to send them the payment.

 

Sorry, I wish we had a solution for you.

[BlerkOne]

I think this is pretty clear:

 

"

@JasonM720905 Thanks for joining AARP! Unfortunately, a Canadian phone # cannot be used to verify your Rewards account. Only users within the 50 United States and the District of Columbia are able to participate in the AARP Rewards program. Sometimes, users may hold addresses in different countries which allow them to use a US address/payment method and phone #. I sincerely hope you reconsider and decide to stick with us. Your membership includes a long list of carefully selected discounts, products and services. Have you seen them all? I invite you to explore our site: www.aarp.org/LearnAboutBenefits "

[MagnoliaBlossom]

We just switched our insurance to Allstate this month.  But if I read this right, their discount cards have gone away, is that right..  I’ve checked Allstates website and don’t see anything there.  Thanks

[canes20]

40 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

We just switched our insurance to Allstate this month.  But if I read this right, their discount cards have gone away, is that right..  I’ve checked Allstates website and don’t see anything there.  Thanks

[Organized Chaos]

6 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

We just switched our insurance to Allstate this month.  But if I read this right, their discount cards have gone away, is that right..  I’ve checked Allstates website and don’t see anything there.  Thanks

 

They're shutting down Allstate Rewards on Oct. 31. We can still buy Carnival cards if they're in stock, and right now they do have $100 & $500 cards. I think you still have to set up an Allstate Rewards account on top of your regular Allstate account, and that's IF they're allowing new rewards accounts. I'm not sure how you, as a policy-holder, do that, but we access the rewards site through this URL: https://myaccountrwd.allstate.com/anon/account/login?campaign=145

 

You'd have to quickly accrue some points to buy the cards, if it didn't give you some automatically. There are promo codes (for points) spread throughout this thread. Most of them used to last a long time, but within the past year or two, they expire after 2 weeks.

[n6uqqq]

6 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

We just switched our insurance to Allstate this month.  But if I read this right, their discount cards have gone away, is that right..  I’ve checked Allstates website and don’t see anything there.  Thanks

The other problem with the Allstate cards now is the discount has been dropped to 8 percent plus they only ship physical cards that cost 1.75 per 100 dollar card and 5 dollars per 500 dollar card. This deflates the savings even more. AARP has 10 percent off with edelivery and no shipping so it adds up real quick. I wouldn't bother signing up for a dying rewards program at Allstate unfortuntalely.

[tensixmom]

On 8/9/2023 at 5:32 PM, Organized Chaos said:

 

As far as AARP, unfortunately your only option would be to know a member in the U.S.

 

The electronics website, newegg, occasionally sells Carnival cards for 8% off, but I looked and there's none currently for sale. There's another website that I won't mention because users have gotten in trouble for it in the past. If you google "buy and sell gift cards," it should be the second search result. They have Carnival cards for 8% off, but that site lets individuals sell gift cards and I do know in the past there was trouble with people buying gift cards that were empty. Which is why users have gotten posts deleted for posting the link. So unless there's a way to guarantee the seller is legit, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe someone who's more familiar with that site can chime in.

I am not an expert, but I frequently purchase Carnival cards from that other site... I love that Carnival makes it easy for me to use them.

I have my booking up on one screen, and the card website on the other, and I purchase and immediately apply them to pay for my cruise fare etc.  I just make sure to use them immediately so that if necessary, I could file a claim immediately.  So far I have been lucky and never had an issue with them being drained.

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, tensixmom said:

I am not an expert, but I frequently purchase Carnival cards from that other site... I love that Carnival makes it easy for me to use them.

I have my booking up on one screen, and the card website on the other, and I purchase and immediately apply them to pay for my cruise fare etc.  I just make sure to use them immediately so that if necessary, I could file a claim immediately.  So far I have been lucky and never had an issue with them being drained.

 

I see that they source gift cards from merchants as well as individual sellers, but I didn't see a way to tell where each one comes from. But it does say they offer a 1-year money back guarantee, so that's good. I didn't know they did that.

 

A few years ago, they had such a problem with invalid cards that they instituted a verification policy onboard. If you wanted to add a gift card to your S&S, they had to verify its authenticity first, and for some reason they processed it through HQ, so it'd take up to 24 hours to verify. Thankfully, they didn't do it for long. I ran into it once and it was a pain.

[tensixmom]

43 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I see that they source gift cards from merchants as well as individual sellers, but I didn't see a way to tell where each one comes from. But it does say they offer a 1-year money back guarantee, so that's good. I didn't know they did that.

 

A few years ago, they had such a problem with invalid cards that they instituted a verification policy onboard. If you wanted to add a gift card to your S&S, they had to verify its authenticity first, and for some reason they processed it through HQ, so it'd take up to 24 hours to verify. Thankfully, they didn't do it for long. I ran into it once and it was a pain.

Gosh that would definitely be a pain!  

I had a GC to use on RC once... THAT was a pain.  No place to enter them on their website... IIRC, I had to email a very specific email address to get them to apply it.  Not worth the hassle!  But Carnival does make it easy, at least to pay cruise fare and any shore excursions purchased in advance.  I don't think I would bring a card to add to my account on board.

[ngrund]

7 hours ago, tensixmom said:

Gosh that would definitely be a pain!  

I had a GC to use on RC once... THAT was a pain.  No place to enter them on their website... IIRC, I had to email a very specific email address to get them to apply it.  Not worth the hassle!  But Carnival does make it easy, at least to pay cruise fare and any shore excursions purchased in advance.  I don't think I would bring a card to add to my account on board.

I also didn't like having to e-mail the RCL gift card, but didn't feel it was a deal breaker to save 10%.

 

I just happened to be checking just now and noticd a change to the RCL gift card terms, looks like we can now just make a call to apply the cards:

 

Have questions about your Royal Caribbean gift card? Call Royal Caribbean Customer Support: 

866-504-3941 for immediate assistance including card transactions and application of gift cards towards reservations.

[CruizinSusan70]

7 hours ago, tensixmom said:

But Carnival does make it easy, at least to pay cruise fare and any shore excursions purchased in advance.  I don't think I would bring a card to add to my account on board.

Why not?  Are you against saving 10%?  The GC can be used for everything associated with your cruise.  Deposit, balance, shore excursions prior or during cruise, Cheers, specialty dining, gratuities, any gift shop purchases.  The list is endless.  If you prepay everything, bring 300 in GC, apply them on board and only spend 145  the remaining 155 is sent to you as a new gift card. 

The same exact things are able to be applied using the Princess or HAL gift cards as well.  We have first hand experience with the Princess cards and currently have over 10,000 worth.  Have never sailed on HAL, but through reading posts on CC have found out they work the same.  

Celebrity cards are only good for 2,000 max per cabin and on your initial deposit only.

[tw67]

From the Carnival web site:

 

Once activated, Gift Cards may not be resold; resale or attempted resale is grounds for seizure and cancellation of the Gift Card without compensation.

Carnival Cruise Lines is not responsible for any Gift Cards bought or sold through Craigslist.com, giftcardZen.com or any website facilitating aftermarket sales of pre-gifted or pre-owned items.

 

Please do not buy gift cards that have previously been issued to someone else. It caused hell on a cruise I took. I bought cards for a cruise from a third party site.  This was a number of years ago.  I paid my final payment with it, and found my cruise cancelled a few days later. The cards had been marked as stolen. I had a hard time proving to Carnival that I was a victim of buying the card, not the person who stole the cards. I was reimbursed through the site I bought them from, but had to fight Carnival to let me cruise again. After that I still booked all my cruises using gift cards, but only ones through Allstate or AARP. A few years later I was applying GC to my account while on a cruise (please note I had cruised a bunch of times since then, used GC for all of them and had success using cards on the ship). All the sudden the person told me she could not accept them, that accounting had flagged my account. Said that I had previously used fraudulent cards. This took 2 days of my time to clear up. I wrote on John Heald's fb page, and he got someone to straighten it out. I had various notes left for me in my cabin from guest services, finally they told me they had permission to accept them this time and this time only. 

 

I still purchase all my cruises through gift cards, but I do not use them on board. I do buy cruise cash with gift cards before I sail, but I am careful to use it all up. I won't try to post GC to my account while on board. 

 

So watch buying gift cards on a third party site. 

[CruizinSusan70]

4 minutes ago, tw67 said:

From the Carnival web site:

 

Once activated, Gift Cards may not be resold; resale or attempted resale is grounds for seizure and cancellation of the Gift Card without compensation.

Carnival Cruise Lines is not responsible for any Gift Cards bought or sold through Craigslist.com, giftcardZen.com or any website facilitating aftermarket sales of pre-gifted or pre-owned items.

 

Please do not buy gift cards that have previously been issued to someone else. It caused hell on a cruise I took. I bought cards for a cruise from a third party site.  This was a number of years ago.  I paid my final payment with it, and found my cruise cancelled a few days later. The cards had been marked as stolen. I had a hard time proving to Carnival that I was a victim of buying the card, not the person who stole the cards. I was reimbursed through the site I bought them from, but had to fight Carnival to let me cruise again. After that I still booked all my cruises using gift cards, but only ones through Allstate or AARP. A few years later I was applying GC to my account while on a cruise (please note I had cruised a bunch of times since then, used GC for all of them and had success using cards on the ship). All the sudden the person told me she could not accept them, that accounting had flagged my account. Said that I had previously used fraudulent cards. This took 2 days of my time to clear up. I wrote on John Heald's fb page, and he got someone to straighten it out. I had various notes left for me in my cabin from guest services, finally they told me they had permission to accept them this time and this time only. 

 

I still purchase all my cruises through gift cards, but I do not use them on board. I do buy cruise cash with gift cards before I sail, but I am careful to use it all up. I won't try to post GC to my account while on board. 

 

So watch buying gift cards on a third party site. 

Besides Allstate, the only place I have ever bought Carnival GC's was once on Newegg.  They had $200.00 cards for sale and you could only buy one.  Had no trouble redeeming it since I would infer that Newegg obtained it directly from Carnival so there were no problems with the redemption.

[tw67]

Just now, CruizinSusan70 said:

Besides Allstate, the only place I have ever bought Carnival GC's was once on Newegg.  They had $200.00 cards for sale and you could only buy one.  Had no trouble redeeming it since I would infer that Newegg obtained it directly from Carnival so there were no problems with the redemption.

Yes, I have read that Newegg are also good to use.  

[tensixmom]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Why not?  Are you against saving 10%?  The GC can be used for everything associated with your cruise.  Deposit, balance, shore excursions prior or during cruise, Cheers, specialty dining, gratuities, any gift shop purchases.  The list is endless. 

No, but I am against the potential for those 'drained' GC's being an issue and it being too late (too long from date of purchase) to "do anything" about them by the time I get on the ship. 

[tw67]

8 minutes ago, tensixmom said:

No, but I am against the potential for those 'drained' GC's being an issue and it being too late (too long from date of purchase) to "do anything" about them by the time I get on the ship. 

Then I recommend buying Cruise Cash with the gift cards before you cruise.  You can buy them at any time after you book your cruise.  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I cancelled our November Pride cruise earlier this week. I had pre-paid for dining and excursions using the AARP cards.

 

I just received 9 emails this morning, with a refund (new gift card) for each individual charge - so now I have a slew of $84 cards, right up to almost $400... money to burn !

 

Tom

[ninjacat123]

On my May 2023 cruise I asked to pay my Sign and Sail card with a GC from AARP.  The Guest Services person said they couldn't see a balance on it but that they would run it through and HomeOffice would check it.  I said I would check with them later but by the end of day it was applied to my account.  Now I know why this happened.  👍

[ninjacat123]

2 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I cancelled our November Pride cruise earlier this week. I had pre-paid for dining and excursions using the AARP cards.

 

I just received 9 emails this morning, with a refund (new gift card) for each individual charge - so now I have a slew of $84 cards, right up to almost $400... money to burn !

 

Tom

Sorry to hear you had to cancel.  DH and I will be on Pride this October, hopefully with no propulsion issues🤞 If I had to cancel I would be getting a boatload of GCs as well!

[Denverdonkeys]

19 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I cancelled our November Pride cruise earlier this week. I had pre-paid for dining and excursions using the AARP cards.

 

I just received 9 emails this morning, with a refund (new gift card) for each individual charge - so now I have a slew of $84 cards, right up to almost $400... money to burn !

 

Tom

Why are all your refunds in $84 increments? I would think they would all match the various amounts of your refunded items. I wish carnival would be able to aggregate those refunds when they go to the next step of issuing a new gift card.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

2 minutes ago, Denverdonkeys said:

Why are all your refunds in $84 increments? I would think they would all match the various amounts of your refunded items. I wish carnival would be able to aggregate those refunds when they go to the next step of issuing a new gift card.

 

We had 7 nights in the steakhouse, for two - thus seven @ $84.

 

as well as an internet package... and a cabana rental at Mahogany Bay.

 

Tom