Beware of RCCL Gift Certificates (issued by third party, Verizon, AARP, etc.)

[clean1owner]

Had a similar experience when I cashed in a bunch of FlexPerks points for a $500 royal gift card. We had a large group sailing, and unbeknownst to me prior to cashing in the points, we had to go through a special booking process to use the card. I believe they called it a Maritz (sp?) certificate that could not be used when part of a group, or pretty much anything else. So we lost out on any of the group perks, because we were a single reservation, that couldn't be linked. 

 

Of course, it was completely non-refundable.

 

 

[sailor05]

On 3/8/2019 at 9:02 AM, zaherej said:

    I know this appears to be an old topic and I only happened across it because a neighbor offered me one of these with $350 face value for $250.  I was a little skeptical after reading the details on the certificate so I emailed the 'Shared Services"  address on the certificate and asked them some questions.

Background of my situation:

• Booked a cruise through a T/A up front a year in advance of the cruise (going in Oct 2019)
• Made the down payment on a cc.

 

One of my emails to RCCL (Summarized)

 Hello Whitley,

  Sorry for all of the information:  The certificate specifically states the following so I'm not sure you will accept it for a reservation.  My reservation # is: XXXXXXX

 

"Certificate must be used as a form of payment towards a new reservation made directly with Royal Caribbean. Once the gift certificate is applied to the reservation made, the reservation may be transferred to your preferred travel agent"

 

RCCL's reply to me.

Hello,

          The 'new reservation' term basically means that the reservation cannot have already sailed. This needs to be a reservation for an upcoming cruise and not a past cruise. It also doesn't matter if it's booked with a travel agent or not anymore, despite what the certificate terms say. That reservation is fine.

 

Thank you,

 

Whitley Bearden

Corporate Certificates Specialist

 

I was then going to buy the cert from my neighbor only to find out he sold it to someone else. I missed out but wanted to share my experience with others.

 

This seems odd to me. I just booked a cruise for May and paid in full then sent in $4500 in these GC's and they have been applied. No problem there. BUT, I tried to transfer to a TA and they said that the cruise comes back as a group booking named "Reward Program" and they will not receive a commission on it therefore are unable to give us any perks. So it seems strange that she said that these can be applied by a booking made through a TA??

Edited March 31, 2019 by sailor05