Just spent 20 minutes on phone trying to redeem a $25 gift card.

[CineGraphic]

You would think that redeeming a gift card for some OBC would be an easy thing to do, but after 20 minutes of being on hold and then being asked for a second time by the same rep for the gift card number and pin, I gave up. The poor girl sounded lost. I’ll just take the card to guest services on board and let them explain that it may take a day or two to apply because everything has to go through the offices on the mainland. Surely there must be an easier way. 🤡

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

You would think that redeeming a gift card for some OBC would be an easy thing to do, but after 20 minutes of being on hold and then being asked for a second time by the same rep for the gift card number and pin, I gave up. The poor girl sounded lost. I’ll just take the card to guest services on board and let them explain that it may take a day or two to apply because everything has to go through the offices on the mainland. Surely there must be an easier way. 🤡

Another reason to use a good travel agent.  I regularly buy Princess gift cards, then use them to pay for my cruises.  The TA takes all of the numbers, and applies them to my outstanding balance...never a problem.

[Jezabel2924]

We just had 7 gift cards--that's what we tell the kids to give us for Christmas and I take advantage of the AX offers--applied last week to our cruise just before final payment.  I faxed the numbers and the pin numbers to our TA and it was taken care of.

[Jersey42]

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I’ll just take the card to guest services on board and let them explain that it may take a day or two to apply because everything has to go through the offices on the mainland. Surely there must be an easier way.

We have taken gift cards to the passenger services desk and had them applied against our onboard account with no problems.  For us it was very easy.  I have also used them with our TA to pay our final balance.  Again, no problem.  I have never tried purchasing OBC in advance of our sailing.

[CineGraphic]

Maybe I just had bad luck with a new phone rep. She sounded very unsure of herself.

 

Too bad Princess doesn’t allow you to redeem gift cards online. That would make things a lot easier.

[Ombud]

Yeah. Figured it was just easier to go online and use it as payment on the November cruise. After applying 2×1000 + 2×50 MOM50 freebie just owe $800. Took less than a minute. Can't buy OBC but Princess gives me a boatload of that

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Maybe I just had bad luck with a new phone rep. She sounded very unsure of herself.

 

Too bad Princess doesn’t allow you to redeem gift cards online. That would make things a lot easier.

 

I believe that was your problem. Some folks are clueless. I applied 3 $50 e-cards (from the recent MOM50 promo) by simply calling Princess. I gave the rep my booking number, the card numbers, and the PIN. She just went one card at a time and it was done very quickly. If you had called back and gotten a different person it's likely you would have had no problems at all. At this point though I agree with your decision - just take it on the ship and do it there. I couldn't do that as I was applying my e-cards to a cruise in October and they had to be used by the end of July.

[Host CJSKIDS]

My rep applies the gift card as credit on an already booked and fully paid for cruise that was leaving in a few days. 

It took quite a few phone calls to have them update it as OBC. 

[Thrak]

12 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

My rep applies the gift card as credit on an already booked and fully paid for cruise that was leaving in a few days. 

It took quite a few phone calls to have them update it as OBC. 

 

Weird. When I applied my bonus cards Princess did it right away and also sent me confirmation email.

[Host CJSKIDS]

49 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Weird. When I applied my bonus cards Princess did it right away and also sent me confirmation email.

The rep who did mine just made a mistake. 

[flutprop]

Our TA applied all our Mom50 gift cards to our balances and then charged the balance to our credit cards (PIF date is Tuesday, so she wanted everything by last week). Anyway, we ended up with an extra $100 gift card, so I called Princess to have it applied as OBC for my fathers room. Very simple and quick with the rep I got, and I have saved the email confirmation to bring on the cruise in case there are problems.

 

OP, sorry you encountered an incompetent rep.