AARP e-gift card

[bjkTX]

On 4/9/2023 at 10:08 PM, compozer said:

Thanks Cobbler76.  I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.  That is a good deal!!   Even if you have to join AARP, it certainly would be worth the $16 a year.

 

I use my AMEX card for payment and receive a very nice OBC.   I wonder how many dollars I can put on these AARP cards and still get the OBC.    

 

Has anyone tried to pay just their EZ air with them?   Our flights total $16,000 so that would be a great savings.

 

Thanks again for your fast reply.  

Just a quick side note - you don't have to join AARP - just sign up on their Rewards Page.  Also - it was noted there is a limit of 5 cards a month - that is per person!  Yesterday I bought 5 and my DW bought 5 - so if you are running out of time that can come in handy 🙂

[Thrak]

Taking 22 cards into my TA today. (Not making him pay for everything all at once...) Just went to the Princess site and verified the balance on each card. How exciting... Enter card number, Enter PIN, do the "I am not a robot" thing, get balance. Repeat for 22 cards. At least I know the balance is there for the cards I'm taking in. Still have some left and lots more to buy.

[compozer]

Yes, I know I do not have to join AARP to get the cards.   MAny people have posted that over the last few weeks.

I was talking about joining to get the AT&T discount - I just wanted to share what AT&T said about the discount.

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, BURNSMN said:

As a warning, here is what happened to me with the AARP Rewards gift cards. On February 27th I purchased five $500 cards for $450 each. I received five separate emails with order numbers, card numbers, and pins. I immediately tried to use them against my June 2023 Sky Princess cruise. Four of the five cards worked fine but one card showed a ZERO balance. 

 

I began emailing and calling both Princess and AARP to find out what happened. I am still fighting this.

Princess says I was sold a card with no value on it.

AARP Rewards say Princess zeroed out the balance when trying to apply it.

Barclay Princess Visa, whom I bought the cards with say I can no longer dispute the charge because it shows as a charge of $2250 on my card and they won't accept partial disputes.

 

I am still fighting this but at this point I am out $450, so beware of these cards!

The exact same thing happened to me, and it took me a little over a month to get it straightened out.  I had an unbelievably helpful advocate from AARP working with me and she went above and beyond in her attempts to help me.  In the end, it the problem was found to be on the Princess end.  Eventually Princess could see that I had tried to redeem the card (24 times!! as I thought I was doing something wrong.)  They could see that at no point was the card redeemed for its value, and they credited my account the $500.  But if hadn't been for the person at AARP, I don't know what I would have done.  So my advice is to continue to work with them and ask them to escalate this if possible, and let them know that you are aware of this issue happening in the past, and that it can be fixed if the right people get involved.  Also, I think it helped when I send a very detailed email with documentation showing all of my purchases, the amount of my outstanding balance before I used each card, and the amount of the current balance.  Had everything gone as planned, I would have had a $600 balance after using the cards that I bought, and my balance clearly showed $1,100 remaining.  I was able to get it sorted out about 3 weeks before final payment.  The email address I was instructed to send the detailed information to was customerrelations@princesscruises.com.  I was told that the people manning this email box have far more ability to fix problems than anyone on the phone. I wish that I could give you the name and email address of the person at AARP who helped me, but I don't think that would be fair to her, as she would probably have a full-time job dealing with people from Cruise Critic.  

 

Edit to add one more fact.  The people in Princess accounting can see when you tried to use your gift card.  To the minute.  Included in the information that I sent to them in my email was a printout showing the confirmation email from AARP confirming my purchase as well as the email that had the e-card link in it.  For me, it was literally only seconds between my purchase and my first failed attempt to use the card.  Well, maybe a minute or two.  But from this they could see that I bought the card at time "x", received the e-card at "x+20 seconds", and tried to redeem it at "x+one minute".  So they could tell that the card was an immediate failure and that I wasn't trying to defraud them by having already used the card value. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[13cheermom]

Just a quick reminder that you CAN use Princess gift cards to purchase excursions before you sail.  I know it says somewhere that you can't, however we have in the past and did so again this morning.  You do have to inquire with the rep. you get if they know how to do this.  It is a different part of system than the regular credit card screen.  But don't let them tell you no, some are not trained and familiar with how to do this.  Also EZ-Air can also be paid with gift cards as long as it is paid at the same time as your final payment for your cruise payment.  Can't be added after cruise is paid for though.  It can be frustrating trying to get rid of gift cards to redeem when not all employees are trained to do so.  

[PacnGoNow]

Anyone have problems recently purchasing GC’s through AARP website?

 

Showing not purchased, but it did charge the CC immediately.  
 

 

 

[Dee_Jay]

I just bought 5 this morning.  Got the emails with the GC links within a few minutes.

[PacnGoNow]

24 minutes ago, Dee_Jay said:

I just bought 5 this morning.  Got the emails with the GC links within a few minutes.

Good to hear.  Should’ve waited till today.  Not on a weekend. 

 

[Cruisin Broad]

For those of you who go to Guest Services to have the gift card amount applied to your account, it's not an actual card, it's the e-gift card number and PIN printed on a piece of paper, correct?  I have purchased one gift card thus far because I wanted to make sure it would be received and that I could apply it to my balance due.  It worked perfectly.  I would like to buy a few extra to use onboard, but I want to make sure if I'm presenting to Guest Services that I don't need a physical card, just the card number and PIN that comes to my email account.  Thanks.

 

[julie3fan]

1 hour ago, Cruisin Broad said:

I don't need a physical card, just the card number and PIN that comes to my email account.  Thanks.

 

There's never a physical card, just the emailed link to the printable card.  That's all that's needed by GS to apply that amount to your account.

[Buckeye10640]

2 hours ago, Cruisin Broad said:

For those of you who go to Guest Services to have the gift card amount applied to your account, it's not an actual card, it's the e-gift card number and PIN printed on a piece of paper, correct?  I have purchased one gift card thus far because I wanted to make sure it would be received and that I could apply it to my balance due.  It worked perfectly.  I would like to buy a few extra to use onboard, but I want to make sure if I'm presenting to Guest Services that I don't need a physical card, just the card number and PIN that comes to my email account.  Thanks.

 

I just did this yesterday. I took a printed copy of the email showing the card number, pin, and balance to the front desk and asked to have it applied to my account. They took the printout and said it would be applied within 24 hours. I received a call a few hours later in my stateroom informing me it had been applied and I confirmed it by checking my account. I actually took with me 2 printed copies of that email, one to give to the desk and one to keep for myself (just in case of a problem).

[Thrak]

Make sure you follow up with the email that is sent since that doesn't contain the actual card info. You need to click on the link that then takes you to the card info. I realize this may be totally obvious to you  but it has been the case that it wasn't obvious to all.

[Cruisin Broad]

Thank you, Buckeye 10640 and Thrak for the responses.  I'll carry both the email and the card info just to be safe.  For anyone reading this, the link Thrak is referring to is the "Get Your Reward" link in red beneath the order #, date ordered, etc.  Whenever you're cruising, have a fantastic time!

[Cruisin Broad]

Thank you, julie3fan, I had missed seeing your response earlier.

  

[PacnGoNow]

22 hours ago, Cruisin Broad said:

For those of you who go to Guest Services to have the gift card amount applied to your account, it's not an actual card, it's the e-gift card number and PIN printed on a piece of paper, correct?  I have purchased one gift card thus far because I wanted to make sure it would be received and that I could apply it to my balance due.  It worked perfectly.  I would like to buy a few extra to use onboard, but I want to make sure if I'm presenting to Guest Services that I don't need a physical card, just the card number and PIN that comes to my email account.  Thanks.

 

Yes, that’s all you need, as others have posted.  GS will want a printed copy of the ecard with Pin.  
 

After I get the cards, I go to 

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-gifts-celebrations/overview/gift-cards/

 

Move down to balance inquiry…check balance on each new card.  Because once a poster said, he had one of his that had a 0 balance.  So, never happened to me, but since I was taking them to the ship, wanted to make sure.

Also, hold onto your PCL egift card info until after the cruise is completed, in case you have to cancel or any unused cards.

 

 

[Yehootu]

11 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Yes, that’s all you need, as others have posted.  GS will want a printed copy of the ecard with Pin.  
 

After I get the cards, I go to 

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-gifts-celebrations/overview/gift-cards/

 

Move down to balance inquiry…check balance on each new card.  Because once a poster said, he had one of his that had a 0 balance.  So, never happened to me, but since I was taking them to the ship, wanted to make sure.

Also, hold onto your PCL egift card info until after the cruise is completed, in case you have to cancel or any unused cards.

 

 

I had never done this but after reading posts about the cards I got mine out and checked the balances. Now I'll do it as soon as I get them. I've used them for several cruises and was very pleased at the time it took to return the $$ amount to the cards for a cancelled Covid cruise.

 On buying excursions, is it better to put them down for OBC and use that to purchase excursion, or to just purchase the excursion directly.

[PacnGoNow]

20 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

I had never done this but after reading posts about the cards I got mine out and checked the balances. Now I'll do it as soon as I get them. I've used them for several cruises and was very pleased at the time it took to return the $$ amount to the cards for a cancelled Covid cruise.

 On buying excursions, is it better to put them down for OBC and use that to purchase excursion, or to just purchase the excursion directly.

If you have a TA/CVP that can enter the egift cards as OBC, then go ahead.

 

I’ve had a heck of a time adding them as OBC through a PCL agent.  I’m just not doing it again.  I use mine mostly just to pay off a cruise at FP and then take some along to turn in at GS once OB.

 

Works best for us.  

[Buckeye10640]

On 5/18/2023 at 10:10 PM, Thrak said:

Make sure you follow up with the email that is sent since that doesn't contain the actual card info. You need to click on the link that then takes you to the card info. I realize this may be totally obvious to you  but it has been the case that it wasn't obvious to all.

Thanks for clarifying, I forgot about that little detail! Yes I clicked the red box with the link in the email and took the copy of the card to guest services and they applied it. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Buckeye10640

[suzyed]

On 4/12/2023 at 3:14 PM, Thrak said:

Taking 22 cards into my TA today. (Not making him pay for everything all at once...) Just went to the Princess site and verified the balance on each card. How exciting... Enter card number, Enter PIN, do the "I am not a robot" thing, get balance. Repeat for 22 cards. At least I know the balance is there for the cards I'm taking in. Still have some left and lots more to buy.

Where on the Princess site is that?

[milolii]

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-gifts-celebrations/overview/gift-cards/

[PacnGoNow]

57 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Where on the Princess site is that?

See my post 190.

[tidecat]

Is it possible to use a gift card to make the initial deposit on a cruise? It looks like I have to book a cruise first using a different payment method and then load them to my princess.com account.

[stephenjstrong1972]

7 hours ago, tidecat said:

Is it possible to use a gift card to make the initial deposit on a cruise? It looks like I have to book a cruise first using a different payment method and then load them to my princess.com account.

If you are doing it online, put the cruise on a courtesy hold, then bring it up under you account under saved cruises and you can then use gift cards to pay.

 

[theloo]

I have never bought large gift certificates before, but this looks like a great deal.  I would like to buy one $500 card to put on my account (mostly to pay crew gratuities).  That sounds pretty easy to do on board, or possibly through my TA.  Next, I have a second cruise booked with final payment due in September.  Since I owe more than $5k, it sounds like I will have to buy 5 gift cards in July, August, and September.  I can use these to make final payment through my TA also?  Thanks for the explicit instructions.

[Thrak]

If I have figured it right (always questionable, believe me...) I need to buy 10 more $500 gift cards and 3 more $100 gift cards to pay off our cruises in October/November.

 

Of course I might well want to buy more for OBC or for our April cruise next year which has only a piddling $100 OBC.  That one has more time though. I am soooooooooooooo very glad I found out about these discounted cards. I like this discount much better than the one Princess used to offer where you bought gift cards and then got a "bonus" e-card that expired if not used within a certain time. When Covid hit I got a couple of those extra cards extended but also had two  $250 cards simply go "Poof!".