The 4719th thread about AARP Gift Cards-help and guidance please needed really soon

[bladerunner6]

This has almost certainly discussed in another thread but after spending over an hour and a half of phone time with my TA today I don’t want to spend more time hunting threads down and search through them. Sorry if that is selfish.

 

I called up the TA today and they were able to process all of my gift cards but one.  It appears they were entering the right number but it didn’t take.  
 

I called AARP and they resent the gift card but it has the same number and pin.  I called my TA back and they said it takes 24 hours for them to process them so they want me to wait until tomorrow to try the gift card again.

 

I only have $158 to pay with the gift card so I tried explaining that they needed to only take $158 off the gift card and I will go to guest services when I get onboard and apply the rest.  I am hoping that is doable and that wasn’t the cause of the initial problem this morning.

 

Does anyone here have real world experience with having a dysfunctional gift card, AARP resending the same number and PIN and it working and applying just a part of the balance, please? Or with at least one of these issues.

 

If it doesn’t work soon I will just pay the balance with my Amex and as they say, marry in haste and repent at leisure and just deal with it later.  It is the Total Solar Eclipse Cruise on the Discovery so I want this positively resolved immediately. If I seem exasperated, I am!😩

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[upsmanclt]

Did you try checking the balance of the gift card? https://wbiprod.storedvalue.com/WBI/lookupservlet?language=en&host=princess.com

[bladerunner6]

8 minutes ago, upsmanclt said:

Did you try checking the balance of the gift card? https://wbiprod.storedvalue.com/WBI/lookupservlet?language=en&host=princess.com

The balance is $500, I just checked it. Thanks for the link.

Edited December 19, 2023 by bladerunner6

[upsmanclt]

2 minutes ago, bladerunner6 said:

The balance is $500, I just checked it. Thanks for the link.

Maybe you ask your TA to try again now that you have proof that the card is good.

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, upsmanclt said:

Maybe you ask your TA to try again now that you have proof that the card is good.

is a card all or nothing to apply?

[AZjohn]

I once used a gift card that had a larger balance than the final payment of the cruise.

The TA had to apply the remaining balance from gift card to OBC to make it stick.

 

Good luck!

[Thrak]

Easier to just pay the small balance due and then apply the entire gift card as OBC once on the ship.

[PacnGoNow]

15 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Easier to just pay the small balance due and then apply the entire gift card as OBC once on the ship.

Agreed, much simpler solution.

Mainly because of the PCL software regarding OBC pre cruise.

 

I would go to GS once OB too.

 

[bladerunner6]

1 hour ago, upsmanclt said:

Maybe you ask your TA to try again now that you have proof that the card is good.

I did and it worked.

 

Next time I will check the balances first, email the numbers to my TA and do it earlier.

 

Thanks to all those that helped me with useful information. 

[kstaffen]

I just (about 2 weeks ago) applied 20 gift cards to my 2 upcoming cruises. I only needed one partial one to pay off the first cruise, and I had no problem applying just what was needed. I am a TA, so I was doing this within the Princess booking system. It's good to know that sometimes things happen, and to always check the balances and pins.

 

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

is a card all or nothing to apply?

No it is not.

[beg3yrs]

36 minutes ago, bladerunner6 said:

I did and it worked.

 

Next time I will check the balances first, email the numbers to my TA and do it earlier.

 

Thanks to all those that helped me with useful information. 

There have been previous reports that when a TA starts submitting GCs quickly one after another this sometimes happens. Suddenly the cards show zero balance. Waiting for a while and then trying again seems to be the solution. This sounds like what happened in your case.

[PacnGoNow]

39 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

There have been previous reports that when a TA starts submitting GCs quickly one after another this sometimes happens. Suddenly the cards show zero balance. Waiting for a while and then trying again seems to be the solution. This sounds like what happened in your case.

Yes. This has happened twice.to me.  Others have also reported the same issue.  TA should enter about 8 GC’s, then wait an hour and another 8 max.

 

Seems to be a fraud type protection in the software.  Aarp

had to fix the card.  Didn’t take them very long.

[bladerunner6]

1 hour ago, PacnGoNow said:

Yes. This has happened twice.to me.  Others have also reported the same issue.  TA should enter about 8 GC’s, then wait an hour and another 8 max.

 

Seems to be a fraud type protection in the software.  Aarp

had to fix the card.  Didn’t take them very long.

AARP did fix my card pretty quickly with no significant hold time.