Question about using AARP GIt cards

[trbarton]

17 hours ago, takevtr1 said:

Yes, I just did it for my upcoming cruise. I have 3 cabins booked and handed my TA a total of 18 gift cards. While it is a bit more work for the TA, they should/will take them. They can apply it to your final payment via the travel agent portal that they use.

Thank you very much!

 

What's the process to convert my credits into a gift card?

 

Thanks again!

 

Tom😁👍

Edited February 20 by trbarton

[KarmaCruisers]

Anyone know if there’s a limit per day I can take to guest services?

ie: my folio is -$2500 at the end of the first day (bad day in the casino)

can I go give them five $500 gift cards to “zero out” my folio?

if so..,could I do that each day?

Carnival lets you do $2000 a day for sure (using their kiosk)..just curious about princess 

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 hours ago, trbarton said:

What's the process to convert my credits into a gift card?

Credits?  What credits?  AARP charges for the gift cards.  Are you speaking of the AARP "points"?  I don't think there is a way to do that...

[Musky Ike]

30 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Credits?  What credits?  AARP charges for the gift cards.  Are you speaking of the AARP "points"?  I don't think there is a way to do that...

There are a few select gift cards (store or restaurant mainly) that can be purchases with points but not Princess or any travel gift cards that I have seen. 

[beg3yrs]

4 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Anyone know if there’s a limit per day I can take to guest services?

ie: my folio is -$2500 at the end of the first day (bad day in the casino)

can I go give them five $500 gift cards to “zero out” my folio?

if so..,could I do that each day?

Carnival lets you do $2000 a day for sure (using their kiosk)..just curious about princess 

Once cruise I gave $4500 in GCs on a single day. On another cruise, $7500. The only issue I had was on the $7500 submission where a supervisor came over and wanted to be sure I wasn't going to leave a large credit balance on my folio as it's difficult for them to refund large amounts. I assured him with our planned bingo playing we'd have it negative again pretty soon. He was good with that.

 

Anyway, we try to redeem our GCs near the end of the voyage so we have a good idea where we sit and not over-redeem. Usually only do that once a voyage but I seem to recall one voyage where we redeemed twice with no issues.

[Thrak]

5 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Anyone know if there’s a limit per day I can take to guest services?

ie: my folio is -$2500 at the end of the first day (bad day in the casino)

can I go give them five $500 gift cards to “zero out” my folio?

if so..,could I do that each day?

Carnival lets you do $2000 a day for sure (using their kiosk)..just curious about princess 

 

You have asked similar questions multiple times. It seems you are asking hypothetical questions and have received multiple responses saying there would be no problem. Just accept the answers and, if you find yourself in this situation, rest assured that the gift cards will indeed be accepted to cover your gambling losses.

[KarmaCruisers]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

You have asked similar questions multiple times. It seems you are asking hypothetical questions and have received multiple responses saying there would be no problem. Just accept the answers and, if you find yourself in this situation, rest assured that the gift cards will indeed be accepted to cover your gambling losses.

I wondered if I did..just worried I may be stuck holding on to $15,000 of useless paper.

[Yehootu]

7 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

Anyway, we try to redeem our GCs near the end of the voyage so we have a good idea where we sit and not over-redeem. Usually only do that once a voyage but I seem to recall one voyage where we redeemed twice with no issues.

This is what we do. Next cruise we'll wait till the onboard currency changes from AUD to USD to apply our GCs

[Yehootu]

4 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

I wondered if I did..just worried I may be stuck holding on to $15,000 of useless paper.

They get their money no matter what. Your folio doesn't close out till the end of your cruise, so you can keep paying it down. You won't be able to deposit them via kiosk but will have to take them to GS desk to do it. Think positive, after 1st 5k you'll hit it big and keep 10k for next comp cruise😀 I used to live in Las Vegas and when people asked me if I gambled, I say "Yes I got married a second time and Saturday makes 36yrs and I'm still trying to figure out if I won or lost".

[kpgibbs]

Where do you get AARP gift cards?  I looked on their website and couldn't find them.  

[beg3yrs]

47 minutes ago, kpgibbs said:

Where do you get AARP gift cards?  I looked on their website and couldn't find them.  

First of all, they are Princess gift cards sold by AARP. AARP sells lots of gift cards for all sorts of businesses and none of them say AARP on them, just the name of the business for which they are for.

 

Go to the AARP.org website and log in if you're a member. If not, don't worry, you don't have to be.

 

In the upper right you'll see this:

That's a link, click on it. If you're not logged in, you can now "Get Started". There you can register for a free AARP Rewards account. From there you can get to the main rewards page.

 

Here's the tricky part that trips up many first timers. You have to keep scrolling down until you get to a link that says:

Once there you can either search for "Princess" or just scroll down until you see the cards. They sell two kinds, a $100 card and a $500 card. You can only purchase 5 cards a month of any kind, i.e. if you buy 5 Home Depot cards, you can't buy any other kind of card until the next calendar month. People often register a spouse or significant other and then double their monthly allotment (we do).

 

It's also not completely obvious but the way to purchase multiple cards at once is to add a card to your "Cart" and then go to your cart where you can increase the quantity.

 

I hope that helps.

[kpgibbs]

5 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

First of all, they are Princess gift cards sold by AARP. AARP sells lots of gift cards for all sorts of businesses and none of them say AARP on them, just the name of the business for which they are for.

 

Go to the AARP.org website and log in if you're a member. If not, don't worry, you don't have to be.

 

In the upper right you'll see this:

That's a link, click on it. If you're not logged in, you can now "Get Started". There you can register for a free AARP Rewards account. From there you can get to the main rewards page.

 

Here's the tricky part that trips up many first timers. You have to keep scrolling down until you get to a link that says:

Once there you can either search for "Princess" or just scroll down until you see the cards. They sell two kinds, a $100 card and a $500 card. You can only purchase 5 cards a month of any kind, i.e. if you buy 5 Home Depot cards, you can't buy any other kind of card until the next calendar month. People often register a spouse or significant other and then double their monthly allotment (we do).

 

It's also not completely obvious but the way to purchase multiple cards at once is to add a card to your "Cart" and then go to your cart where you can increase the quantity.

 

I hope that helps.

You the bestest!  Thank you!

[KarmaCruisers]

7 hours ago, Yehootu said:

They get their money no matter what. Your folio doesn't close out till the end of your cruise, so you can keep paying it down. You won't be able to deposit them via kiosk but will have to take them to GS desk to do it. Think positive, after 1st 5k you'll hit it big and keep 10k for next comp cruise😀 I used to live in Las Vegas and when people asked me if I gambled, I say "Yes I got married a second time and Saturday makes 36yrs and I'm still trying to figure out if I won or lost".

It’s not about winning or losing; it’s about saving 8% and using that 8% to get comped cruises.

[Thrak]

7 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

It's also not completely obvious but the way to purchase multiple cards at once is to add a card to your "Cart" and then go to your cart where you can increase the quantity.

 

 

This is a biggie. Soooooo much easier than adding cards to the cart one at a time.

[Buddysmom10]

I've never done this but I won't turn down an 8% discount. 

Are these electronic gift cards that I can use pretty much immediately?

I've got my final payment due soon.  

[CruisingSandgroper]

1 hour ago, Buddysmom10 said:

I've never done this but I won't turn down an 8% discount. 

Are these electronic gift cards that I can use pretty much immediately?

I've got my final payment due soon.  

Yes, they are electronic and are available to use as soon as you receive them from AARP. I’ve always received them a few minutes after purchase and I always check the balance of each one on the Princess website as soon as they are received.

[dreaminofcruisin]

At one time, someone indicated that you couldn't use the AARP gift cards for the EZ Air part of the cruise balance. Is that true? Anyone having any experience to confirm or deny?

Thanks!

[Dee_Jay]

7 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

At one time, someone indicated that you couldn't use the AARP gift cards for the EZ Air part of the cruise balance. Is that true? Anyone having any experience to confirm or deny?

Thanks!

I used gift cards to pay my entire fare, including EZAir, for an April 2024 cruise.

[dickinson]

4 hours ago, CruisingSandgroper said:

Yes, they are electronic and are available to use as soon as you receive them from AARP. I’ve always received them a few minutes after purchase and I always check the balance of each one on the Princess website as soon as they are received.

Where on the Princess website do you check the balance of each gift card?  We are going to buy them for the first time.

[Thrak]

13 minutes ago, dickinson said:

Where on the Princess website do you check the balance of each gift card?  We are going to buy them for the first time.

HERE

 

 

[dickinson]

@Thrak Thanks.  However, how do I find it myself on the website.  I could only find it by searching with the words gift cards.  

[Musky Ike]

28 minutes ago, dickinson said:

@Thrak Thanks.  However, how do I find it myself on the website.  I could only find it by searching with the words gift cards.  

On the bottom of the home page of the Princess website. Under celebrations click on gift cards. Below that will be the option of balance inquiry. 

[dickinson]

@Musky Ike Thank you.  I was looking at the top and couldn't find it.  Didn't think to go to the bottom!

[Ken the cruiser]

We encountered our first “insufficient funds” issue today when our TA tried to upload 10 AARP Princess gift cards and one of them rejected with zero funds on the card. Up until today, we had had zero issues purchasing our max number of gift cards every month for over a year now. We then verified the bad GC had zero funds using the link provided at post 45. Thanks @Thrak!
 

We subsequently contacted AARP, who in turn said we needed to contact Princess to verify the funds from the gift card in question had not been applied anywhere, to include recording the person’s name in case AARP had to subsequently open up a trouble ticket to figure out what happened to the missing funds.
 

We contacted Princess and their rep confirmed the funds from the gift card had not been applied anywhere and reconfirmed the card had zero funds. We then recontacted AARP, who then proceeded to open a trouble ticket. And now we wait for the 3-5 days for AARP to determine what happened. I’ll let you know what happens. 

Edited February 23 by Ken the cruiser

[scooter6139]

These AARP Cruise Gift cards are a great way to save on 5 of the main cruise lines, if you don't mind trying other lines out.

 

Princess - 8% 

Holland - 10%

Carnival - 10%

Royal - 10%

Celebrity - 10%

 

I do not know if those discounts change or not.