Princess Gift Card Problem — AARP

[minnesotasisu]

31 minutes ago, jwattle said:

Then you are all set once you're onboard 😀

the thing is that they ONLY can be used for onboard services such as the spa, specialty restaurants, photos, flowers, etc. NONE of that stuff interests me. PLUS it is only in my name and they said only I can use it.

[minnesotasisu]

6 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Once you are on board you can simply have them applied to your account where they will cover *anything* you can purchase or pay for. It's just like handing them cash for pre-payment of services. 

I am not going to be buying $1000 worth of goods or services onboard. There is nothing that interests me (spa, drinks, flower, etc) so that money is going to sit idle. Friends of our told us about these gift cards and she called Princess and they allowed the use of the gift cards to pay for her and her husbands crew appreciation. Princess would not allow me to do the same.

 

I really want to cancel this cruise and be done with Princess but my wife tells me to settle down... 

[jwattle]

2 minutes ago, minnesotasisu said:

I am not going to be buying $1000 worth of goods or services onboard. There is nothing that interests me (spa, drinks, flower, etc) so that money is going to sit idle. Friends of our told us about these gift cards and she called Princess and they allowed the use of the gift cards to pay for her and her husbands crew appreciation. Princess would not allow me to do the same.

 

I really want to cancel this cruise and be done with Princess but my wife tells me to settle down... 

You were told wrong. It can be used for both of you for EVERYTHING onboard: crew appreciation,  casino,  excursions... EVERYTHING,  for BOTH of you. And, yes,  I'm positive,  I have done this many,  MANY times. I buy them,  put the onboard credit on in my name,  and we're both good for ALL onboard expenses. You do the crew appreciation when you're onboard,  not in advance. It takes it off of your total daily. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by jwattle

[SKCruiser007]

This week, I had some funds left on a gift card. I simply handed the printed copy of the PDF of the digital card to gift services. The card number and PIN were included. It showed up as a credit against my onboard purchases within an hour. Easy-peasy.

[minnesotasisu]

17 minutes ago, jwattle said:

You were told wrong. It can be used for both of you for EVERYTHING onboard: crew appreciation,  casino,  excursions... EVERYTHING,  for BOTH of you. And, yes,  I'm positive,  I have done this many,  MANY times. I buy them,  put the onboard credit on in my name,  and we're both good for ALL onboard expenses. You do the crew appreciation when you're onboard,  not in advance. It takes it off of your total daily. 

Thank you. I do hope you are correct. If so, then we should be fine and I can start backing away from the ledge I am standing on.

[AZjohn]

20 minutes ago, minnesotasisu said:

I am not going to be buying $1000 worth of goods or services onboard. There is nothing that interests me (spa, drinks, flower, etc) so that money is going to sit idle. Friends of our told us about these gift cards and she called Princess and they allowed the use of the gift cards to pay for her and her husbands crew appreciation. Princess would not allow me to do the same.

 

I really want to cancel this cruise and be done with Princess but my wife tells me to settle down... 

 

15 minutes ago, jwattle said:

You were told wrong. It can be used for both of you for EVERYTHING onboard: crew appreciation,  casino,  excursions... EVERYTHING,  for BOTH of you. And, yes,  I'm positive,  I have done this many,  MANY times. I buy them,  put the onboard credit on in my name,  and we're both good for ALL onboard expenses. You do the crew appreciation when you're onboard,  not in advance. It takes it off of your total daily. 

Agree, they (likely someone overseas that is inexperienced) told you incorrect info. We have used gift cards for everything you mentioned as well as additional items. ANYTHING you charge to room will be paid off first by cabin credit (aka: gift cards, OBC, etc.).

[jwattle]

9 minutes ago, minnesotasisu said:

Thank you. I do hope you are correct. If so, then we should be fine and I can start backing away from the ledge I am standing on.

I am positive. Step away from the ledge. I am on a cruise right now where I have done the exact same thing.  

[cruzsnooze]

I have bought a gift card while on a cruise (my laptop) and take your laptop to guest services and they will apply the credit. I obviously don't have a printer on board so this work around does the trick if I find I need more OBC.

[Daniel A]

13 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

I have already redeemed the gift cards to Princess and they put them in an account that is used to pay for onboard services.

 

20 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

so I was on the chat with Princess for over an hour this morning with no luck and tried calling them this afternoon to try and get this resolved. They would not allow me to transfer one of the $500 gift cards to my wife's name so she can use it. They also would not allow the gift cards to be used for crew appreciation, Wi-Fi, or to pay for excursions. The only thing I can to with them according to who I spoke to was using them for onboard services, such as the spa, specialty restaurants, etc. once onboard. There is no way I am going to spend $1000 on spa treatments, etc.

 

Has anyone been able to use them as I had intended? I am fuming mad right now and feel the only way I may get this money back is to cancel the cruise which wouldn't take much of a nudge from me to do so. I may never cruise with Princess again if this can't be resolved.

Here is a link from Princess which explains how to use on board credits to pay for excursions in advance of boarding:   Princess® Cruise Credits - What are Cruise Credits? - Princess Cruises  

 

[minnesotasisu]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

 

Here is a link from Princess which explains how to use on board credits to pay for excursions in advance of boarding:   Princess® Cruise Credits - What are Cruise Credits? - Princess Cruises  

 

my gift cards do not show up under my onboard credit account. They show up under the onboard services account so that is where I am having the issue. I requested they be put under my OBC but they were not.

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, minnesotasisu said:

my gift cards do not show up under my onboard credit account. They show up under the onboard services account so that is where I am having the issue. I requested they be put under my OBC but they were not.

I believe this is the protocol with Princess when you want to ‘add’ gift cards to your booking that is not going towards the cruisefare. The OBC account is funds/promos from your travel agent or other promos from Princess, shareholders, military, etc. It is these funds you are able to use pre cruise towards shore excursions. You will be able to use ALL of your onboard services account onboard as previous posters have noted for ANYTHING including daily gratuities, shore excursions, WiFi and the Casino.

 

What you have done has really only saved you from going to Guest services while on board and having them apply gift cards $ to your Folio. There have been instances where the on board system to connect to gift cards is not working and passengers could not get the gift cards added to their on board accounts, so you have that glitch to not worry about.

 

You were misled/misinformed if you thought your gift cards could be added pre cruise to your account and be used to book shore excursions, WiFi, prepay gratuities.

 

This has deviated from the original topic as your issue is not a problem with AARP gift cards, but how they are applied to a booking pre cruise if not being use towards cruisefare.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by wallyj

[minnesotasisu]

20 minutes ago, wallyj said:

You were misled/misinformed if you thought your gift cards could be added pre cruise to your account and be used to book shore excursions, WiFi, prepay gratuities.

The person that told me about these gift cards actually purchased some and called Princess and used them to pay for their gratuities for her and her husband pre-cruise so they did it so I thought I would be able to also do it.

[beg3yrs]

It is possible to use gift cards to pay for excursions ahead of boarding. First you must select the excursions online and place them in your cart. You have 24 hours to pay for them before they drop out of your cart. Once they are in your cart you must call Princess to have gift cards specifically applied to those excursion bookings. I have done it multiple times but sometimes I have had to hang-up-and-call-again (HUACA) to get a phone agent who is sufficiently knowledgeable to apply them to excursions in my cart.

 

As you and others have pointed out, gift cards can be used for OBC ($1500 per person max btw) but that OBC can not then be applied to excursions before boarding. Of course once on board you can book excursions and that OBC will apply.

[Daniel A]

23 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

It is possible to use gift cards to pay for excursions ahead of boarding. First you must select the excursions online and place them in your cart. You have 24 hours to pay for them before they drop out of your cart. Once they are in your cart you must call Princess to have gift cards specifically applied to those excursion bookings. I have done it multiple times but sometimes I have had to hang-up-and-call-again (HUACA) to get a phone agent who is sufficiently knowledgeable to apply them to excursions in my cart.

 

As you and others have pointed out, gift cards can be used for OBC ($1500 per person max btw) but that OBC can not then be applied to excursions before boarding. Of course once on board you can book excursions and that OBC will apply.

Another alternative is to book your wife's excursions now with a credit card, and once onboard you might be able to cancel the excursion and immediately rebook it using the OBC.  If the excursion is a 'must have,' make sure it isn't waitlisted first.  I recommend doing this as soon as you can once aboard so that the excursions don't fill up by people using their OBC to book popular excursions.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Just now, Daniel A said:

Another alternative is to book your wife's excursions now with a credit card, and once onboard you might be able to cancel the excursion and immediately rebook it using the OBC.  If the excursion is a 'must have,' make sure it isn't waitlisted first.  I recommend doing this as soon as you can once aboard so that the excursions don't fill up by people using their OBC to book popular excursions.

That's putting an awful lot of faith in  Princess IT process that you could immediately get that excursion back again!

[Daniel A]

11 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

That's putting an awful lot of faith in  Princess IT process that you could immediately get that excursion back again!

That's why I suggested doing it onboard.  If they are 'must haves.' then they should wait until they are onboard, but then they'll need to use a CC to confirm before boarding.  I ran into a similar problem with HAL earlier this year.  ☹️

[minnesotasisu]

I think everything is now worked out.

 

I did write an email to Princess customer relations and CC'd some VPs and the President to explain my issues with what I had been told when I redeemed my gift cards (they assured me they would show up on as OBC) and my frustrations with the conversations I had with the chat line and on the phone lines. I I also explained how I have always been one of PCL biggest cheerleaders and pointed them to the several website I created for the Princess Cruises we had sailed on hoping to attract our friends to join us (sample = https://sites.google.com/view/caribbean-cruise-2024/home )

 

Although I have not yet received a reply to my email, my gift cards amount do not show up under my OBC account but in the onboard services credit they do now show as "Onboard Credit" where I believe they were listed as Onboard Service Credit before. To test if this was truly OBC I booked about 4 excursions for both my wife and I and they were all paid for by OBC!

 

In addition, I suspect PCL is trying to soothe my ruffled feathers because for our first cruise I noticed we have a $110 Ultimate Balcony Dinner booked for us on the first night of the cruise with a message of "Bon Voyage".  We did not book this so I am assuming they (or a secret admirer) did it for us. This will be a bit of a strange balcony dinner since we have an interior room... but hey, I'm not turning it down.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease and I will be writing a heartful thank you email to PCL for listening and responding to my concerns. My trust in Princess Cruise Line has returned, I am not sitting on the ledge any more, and we are eagerly looking forward to our upcoming cruises.

[Ken the cruiser]

On 11/20/2023 at 9:34 PM, jwattle said:

You were told wrong. It can be used for both of you for EVERYTHING onboard: crew appreciation,  casino,  excursions... EVERYTHING,  for BOTH of you. And, yes,  I'm positive,  I have done this many,  MANY times. I buy them,  put the onboard credit on in my name,  and we're both good for ALL onboard expenses. You do the crew appreciation when you're onboard,  not in advance. It takes it off of your total daily. 

A couple of questions, if you know the answers. If you post a $500 Gift Card to your onboard account, is it earmarked as refundable or nonrefundable OBC? Also, it you combine it with $800 nonrefundable OBC already in your account and at the end of the cruise have a total of $350 left over in your account, does that $350 get put back on the Gift Card (if it was earmarked as refundable) to be used on a different cruise?

[Rick&Jeannie]

I have purchased *many* gift cards via AARP, but always with the intent of paying off the cruise fare. And...only because of the discount involved.   I don't see the point of "pre-purchasing" OBC when it's just a difference of when it actually hits your credit card. (Maybe it's just me...)

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[jwattle]

58 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

A couple of questions, if you know the answers. If you post a $500 Gift Card to your onboard account, is it earmarked as refundable or nonrefundable OBC? Also, it you combine it with $800 nonrefundable OBC already in your account and at the end of the cruise have a total of $350 left over in your account, does that $350 get put back on the Gift Card (if it was earmarked as refundable) to be used on a different cruise?

It is refundable as OBC, and not sure how it comes back if left over because we never have left over 

[jwattle]

5 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I have purchased *many* gift cards via AARP, but always with the intent of paying off the cruise fare. And...only because of the discount involved.   I don't see the point of "pre-purchasing" OBC when it's just a difference of when it actually hits your credit card. (Maybe it's just me...)

 

8 percent discount. 

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

A couple of questions, if you know the answers. If you post a $500 Gift Card to your onboard account, is it earmarked as refundable or nonrefundable OBC? Also, it you combine it with $800 nonrefundable OBC already in your account and at the end of the cruise have a total of $350 left over in your account, does that $350 get put back on the Gift Card (if it was earmarked as refundable) to be used on a different cruise?

 

As I understand it, Non-refundable OBC gets used before refundable OBC.  Thus, in your example, you spent $950 onboard during your cruise.  Princess will use up the $800 non-refundable OBC then start to dig into your refundable OBC.  In this case they would only be taking $150 of your refundable OBC leaving your account with a $350 surplus.  Generally, refundable OBC gets returned to the original form of payment which in this case would be your Gift card(s).  That being said, I have seen some people write that they were mailed a check for their refundable OBC.  But, given the discounted price of the cards, I don't see Princess refunding OBC that had the discount by giving cash or a check.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Daniel A

[Ken the cruiser]

25 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

 

As I understand it, Non-refundable OBC gets used before refundable OBC.  Thus, in your example, you spent $950 onboard during your cruise.  Princess will use up the $800 non-refundable OBC then start to dig into your refundable OBC.  In this case they would only be taking $150 of your refundable OBC leaving your account with a $350 surplus.  Generally, refundable OBC gets returned to the original form of payment which in this case would be your Gift card(s).  That being said, I have seen some people write that they were mailed a check for their refundable OBC.  But, given the discounted price of the cards, I don't see Princess refunding OBC that had the discount by giving cash or a check.

Thanks. Now here comes the twist. What happens if some of that original $800 in OBC was refundable Military OBC and/or from a cancelled excursion during the cruise paid for with a credit card prior to the start of the cruise? No need to answer, but I just wanted to make a point. Figuring out the priority of "refundable" OBC at the end of a cruise, especially when a Gift Card is included in the mix, can be super tricky on occasion. No wonder Princess sends it off to a third party to figure out who gets what in the form of a check 6 weeks or so later.

 

But just like @jwattle and others, we make sure all is spent before we leave the ship. Well, that is until we ran into our upcoming B2B issue I posted about on a different thread. 😂

Edited November 24, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[minnesotasisu]

48 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I have purchased *many* gift cards via AARP, but always with the intent of paying off the cruise fare. And...only because of the discount involved.   I don't see the point of "pre-purchasing" OBC when it's just a difference of when it actually hits your credit card. (Maybe it's just me...)

 

as @jwattle mentioned, it is an 8% discount plus the 1.5% from paying for it with our credit card... after awhile these things add up. The 8% alone equals $120 in cash we saved. Maybe you have so much money you don't even think about such things but us common folks do.

Edited November 24, 2023 by minnesotasisu

[Daniel A]

10 minutes ago, minnesotasisu said:

as @jwattle mentioned, it is an 8% discount plus the 1.5% from paying for it with our credit card... after awhile these things add up. The 8% alone equals $120 in cash we saved. Maybe you have so much money you don't even think about such things but us common folks do.

I think the point is that if you use the gift cards to pay off the cruise and worry about OBC later on, you are probably saving more by getting 8% off the cruise fare.  I know I'm spending that money, but I'm not sure what I'll end up spending onboard.  I just used $8600.00 in AARP cards to pay off my upcoming cruise fare which included my drink pkg, wifi and crew appreciation.  I saved $708 off the cruise fare and the discount AARP gift cards covered the bulk of what I might have spent while onboard.  ( Plus, I am getting $950.00 combination nonrefundable and refundable OBC from Princess, Travel Agent, Shareholder, and Casino)  I don't think this is a 'one size fits all' type of situation.