AARP Gift Card balance now shows Invalid Gift Card

[asalligo]

Good afternoon, has anyone dealt with this issue? I booked a cruise with two rooms for my family of four and the deposit was $350. I bought four $100 AARP gift cards and the first three applied just fine reducing the deposit by 100, but the last only applied $50 to the balance, but now when I try to apply the remaining $50 to the bill I get invalid gift card and the same occurs if I do a check the balance. There does not appear to be a credit for $50 on the account. 

 

Thanks

 

[wemjam]

1 minute ago, asalligo said:

Good afternoon, has anyone dealt with this issue? I booked a cruise with two rooms for my family of four and the deposit was $350. I bought four $100 AARP gift cards and the first three applied just fine reducing the deposit by 100, but the last only applied $50 to the balance, but now when I try to apply the remaining $50 to the bill I get invalid gift card and the same occurs if I do a check the balance. There does not appear to be a credit for $50 on the account. 

 

Thanks

 

Check your original deposits.  I have had something wonky happen where I thought I was only applying a partial amount, but it applied the entire amount of the card instead.

 

So perhaps instead of $350, you actually paid the full $400?

 

Also, how long ago did you use the card for the deposit as compared to now?  Only reason I ask is because I know there have been reports over the years here on CC where people have had their gift cards stolen.  Thieves are extremely adept at figuring these codes out.  That is why I try not to sit on my gift cards too long.

 

If the full $400 was not applied, I would be on the phone to Carnival right now, your PVP if you have one.  If not, I wouldn't waste my time with a general representative, I would go to the technical department first.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

If the card was used up it'll show a balance of $0. Invalid card means the number is incorrect. 

 

Double check that you aren't making a mistake with the number.  I did this once, when I copied them into a spreadsheet, the last number was cut off. 

 

If the number is right, call carnival.

[wemjam]

One final thought, log out, clear your cookies/history. 

 

Then go in and look at your booking to see if the full $400 was applied or just $350.  If only $350, try again once you have logged out and cleared all your history/cookies.

[ibarrio]

You can check your Carnival gift card balances here

 

https://carnival.ourgiftcards.com/checkbalance

[crooooze]

Call the toll free number on the back of the gift card. They can tell you the dates and amounts of all transactions against the card. As wemjam said, sometimes the full gift card balance is applied. This has happened to me many times.

 

[crooooze]

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

If the card was used up it'll show a balance of $0. Invalid card means the number is incorrect. 

 

Double check that you aren't making a mistake with the number.  I did this once, when I copied them into a spreadsheet, the last number was cut off. 

 

If the number is right, call carnival.

A used gift card will show a zero balance for a short time. After that, it does show up as invalid.

 

[CRUZBUDS]

We used AARP gift cards to purchase the Cheers package.  It left about $20 on one card.  I purchased a $25 OBC with the remainder adding the other $5.  I did not want to carry a balance on a gift card that I may lose or forget about.  

 

I know this is no help to the OP, but others might find it is a good tip.  

[ibarrio]

14 minutes ago, CRUZBUDS said:

We used AARP gift cards to purchase the Cheers package.  It left about $20 on one card.  I purchased a $25 OBC with the remainder adding the other $5.  I did not want to carry a balance on a gift card that I may lose or forget about.  

 

I know this is no help to the OP, but others might find it is a good tip.  

I also used AARP gift cards to purchase Cheers and used the left over balance for in room purchase/delivery of water and a 4 pack of their IPA beer. Yes, I ordered beer for the room even though we have Cheers...lol

[Schoifmom]

29 minutes ago, CRUZBUDS said:

We used AARP gift cards to purchase the Cheers package.  It left about $20 on one card.  I purchased a $25 OBC with the remainder adding the other $5.  I did not want to carry a balance on a gift card that I may lose or forget about.  

 

I know this is no help to the OP, but others might find it is a good tip.  

I always do the same thing with any left over gift card balances.

[bar1068]

22 hours ago, crooooze said:

A used gift card will show a zero balance for a short time. After that, it does show up as invalid.

 

We may have seen something very similar yesterday. Back in February we purchased several gift cards from both Allstate and AARP to pay the balance of our Celebration cruise in 2 weeks. They were all ecards and one had a balance left. I didn't indicate properly the one that had the balance so started searching one card at a time. The one with the balance, showed the balance....All the others came up as invalid on different devices, browsers, os's etc. We figured the hell with it, got the one with the balance...rest don't matter as they paid the cruise...thought they shoulda shown a zero balance..but didn't matter. 

[asalligo]

This morning the card worked again, I was able to charge the remaining $50 to the bill. No clue why, I never called anyone. 

 

 

[wemjam]

4 minutes ago, asalligo said:

This morning the card worked again, I was able to charge the remaining $50 to the bill. No clue why, I never called anyone. 

 

 

Wonder if it had something to do with the cookies.  I have had that issue before where it was being stupid for different reasons and once I cleared everything else out it would work

[Schoifmom]

On 5/11/2023 at 11:33 AM, asalligo said:

This morning the card worked again, I was able to charge the remaining $50 to the bill. No clue why, I never called anyone. 

 

 

I'm glad it all worked out for you.  How frustrating ...

[Avalon35]

Excuse me if this has been answered. But, if I get an AARP gift card and I want to put it on my booking now, how do I do that? 

[wemjam]

2 hours ago, Avalon35 said:

Excuse me if this has been answered. But, if I get an AARP gift card and I want to put it on my booking now, how do I do that? 

You need to clarify:

 

If you want to use it to make a payment on your cruise balance, you will need to go into the payment screens and select gift card as your payment method

 

If you want to add it as spending money (Onboard Credit  - OBC), you would want to buy cruise cash.  Look for the Funshops icon on the home screen when you log in.  Make sure you select the right kind of cruise cash.  Cruise Cash can be used for anything, other types are JUST for pictures, or just for bar purchases.

 

Keep in mind if you don't spend all your cruise cash you buy you will loose it.  You can cash it out though in the casino by uploading it to your players bank, then play a spin or two, then just cash out to your players bank and go to the cage to get your money.

[Avalon35]

Thank you for the info about OBC and cruise cash. That is what I am interested in. I did not know that is how you went about applying the gift card. I wanted to put it on the account before i prepaid any other options. 

[ibarrio]

18 minutes ago, Avalon35 said:

Thank you for the info about OBC and cruise cash. That is what I am interested in. I did not know that is how you went about applying the gift card. I wanted to put it on the account before i prepaid any other options. 

Cruise cash is capped at $500 per cabin. If you have more than that (gift card) you can add it once on board. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by ibarrio

[CruizinSusan70]

On 5/10/2023 at 1:57 PM, ibarrio said:

I also used AARP gift cards to purchase Cheers and used the left over balance for in room purchase/delivery of water and a 4 pack of their IPA beer. Yes, I ordered beer for the room even though we have Cheers...lol

You also double dipped and paid for bottled water for the cabin even though you can get all the bottled water you want for your cabin via Cheers.

[ibarrio]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

You also double dipped and paid for bottled water for the cabin even though you can get all the bottled water you want for your cabin via Cheers.

Yeah, I know.  I want don't the hassle of carrying 4 water bottles to the room or running out of water in the middle of the night. I'm not drinking sink water