HAL Gift Cards

[Roz]

Carnival has had gift cards available for a few years.  In fact, I'm holding one I bought during a fuel points promotion, and will be using it to either pay for my upcoming Carnival Panama Canal cruise or put towards my onboard account.

 

Last week I purchased a gift card for a wine dinner I was attending at Fleming's Steakhouse, and noticed that besides Carnival, there are now HAL and Princess gift cards.  Anyone else see them?  My TA told me she has a client that purchases a Carnival card each month and pays for her cruises that way.

 

I would think they would make great stocking stuffers.  Hint, hint if you're wondering what to buy me for Christmas 🎄.

 

Roz

[VennDiagram]

Did you find them online?  I would ❤️ to buy some!

[jbecker6469]

So far, our local Publix and Walgreen's in Georgia don't have them.  Hoping to see the HAL cards soon.  Be much easier in the future to answer the "what do you want for BD, Christmas, Father's Day, etc."  question.  Sure is easy to say "a HAL gift card"  instead of "I don't know", "whatever", " I don't need anything".  

 

[Roz]

13 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

Did you find them online?  I would ❤️ to buy some!

 

They were at Kroger, which owns Ralph's, Fred Meyer, Fry's, and a few other grocery store chains.

 

5 minutes ago, jbecker6469 said:

So far, our local Publix and Walgreen's in Georgia don't have them.  Hoping to see the HAL cards soon.  Be much easier in the future to answer the "what do you want for BD, Christmas, Father's Day, etc."  question.  Sure is easy to say "a HAL gift card"  instead of "I don't know", "whatever", " I don't need anything".  

 

 

I didn't think to check at Publix....I was just there this morning. 

 

Roz

[jbecker6469]

2 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

They were at Kroger, which owns Ralph's, Fred Meyer, Fry's, and a few other grocery store chains.

 

 

I didn't think to check at Publix....I was just there this morning. 

 

Roz

I should have checked Kroger 

[VennDiagram]

6 minutes ago, Roz said:

They were at Kroger, which owns Ralph's, Fred Meyer, Fry's, and a few other grocery store chains.

 

Thanks!   I will ask a friend in the US to check for me 🙂

[puppycanducruise]

I wish they would sell them in Canada.🤞

[Roz]

5 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

 

Thanks!   I will ask a friend in the US to check for me 🙂

If they're a good friend they can buy you one for a birthday 🎂 gift.

 

Roz

[Roz]

I found this on the HAL website.  I think it's a blog entry from May 2019.

 

Looking to make Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or graduation extra special? With the new Holland America Line Gift Cards, it’s now easy and convenient to give the gift of a cruise and other memorable experiences on board. In addition to new cruise bookings, gift cards can also be applied to an existing cruise booking.

 

Holland America Line Gift Cards offer industry-leading flexibility to use and are great gifts for any special occasion like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, congratulations, the holiday season or just because. Printed gift cards began arriving in stores in early May at Kroger, Giant Eagle and Winn-Dixie across the United States, while digital cards will be featured on several popular e-commerce shopping websites. Holland America Line Gift Cards will also soon be available for sale on hollandamerica.com.

“The opportunity to travel is the greatest gift you can give someone as experiences are far more enriching than material things, and much more memorable,” said Orlando Ashford, Holland America Line’s president. “With more than 500 cruises annually and a wide variety of on board experiences to choose from, the new Holland America Line Gift Card is the best way to help someone take a dream cruise or enhance their already planned cruise vacation. And it’s certainly going to make the gift-giver very popular.”

Holland America Line Gift Cards will be available in preset denominations of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 and $2,000 or can be customized for any amount between a $25 minimum and $2,000 maximum per card. The digital cards will be available in several designs and can be delivered through an email that can be individualized with a personal photo and audio message. Digital gift cards can be scheduled to be electronically delivered at a later date.

When purchased to be used toward a Holland America Line cruise, the gift card can be redeemed on itineraries ranging in length from four to 128 days. The recipient can choose from global destinations such as Alaska — including overland Land+Sea Journeys — as well as Asia, Australia & New Zealand, the Caribbean and Cuba, Canada & New England, Europe, Hawaii, Mexico, the Panama Canal, South America and Antarctica, and the South Pacific.

Guests can use the gift card before cruising to purchase Shore EXCursions in port to make the most of each destination with knowledgeable guides and the convenience of having all touring arrangements already made. Gift cards can also be used on board for a variety of amenities, including specialty fine dining, beverage packages, pampering spa treatments, retail shop purchases, internet packages, photography, casino gaming and more.

Holland America Line Gift Cards can be purchased by U.S. residents and do not expire. Availability of printed gift cards may vary by retail location.

The new gift card offering is being offered through select retailers in partnership with branded payments provider Blackhawk Network.

[VennDiagram]

49 minutes ago, Roz said:

If they're a good friend they can buy you one for a birthday 🎂 gift.

 

Roz

 

I like how you think 😄  

[LAFFNVEGAS]

The cruise line Gift Cards are great and can be a big savings depending how you purchase them since many places offer them with a discount but the one thing many forget to think about when using them is to keep them even when they have used the card. If by chance sometime later you need to cancel that cruise the refund is always placed against the card pr cards that were used for payments. So if you have a refund coming back that credit will go back to the gift card, they see it like a credit card. If you throw away that card and a credit is given then you will have no way to access the credit.

[Roz]

28 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

 

I like how you think 😄  

 

Venn, it says they can be purchased by US residents, but it doesn't say anything about non-US residents USING them.  Best to check this out before asking someone to buy them for you.  How do other US gift cards work for Canadians?

 

Roz

[VennDiagram]

7 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

Venn, it says they can be purchased by US residents, but it doesn't say anything about non-US residents USING them.  Best to check this out before asking someone to buy them for you.  How do other US gift cards work for Canadians?

 

Roz

 

I will check, thanks!  I haven't ever used a US-only gift card previously.  I was thinking I could give DH a few but really, we buy OBCs ahead of time, and usually pay in Cdn $s for our cruise, so maybe I am needlessly excited about them 😉

[cruisin'mama]

I just bought one at our Ralph’s grocery store in California. I plan to give it to my husband to use in the casino.

[crystalspin]

Are people getting discounts/bonuses for buying the gift cards? Like the restaurant gift cards we can buy at that warehouse club that also has a travel agency are usually in the range of 'spend $80 for a $100 gift card'... which is a great discount for a restaurant you're going to eat at anyway.

 

Another, lower-rate promotion was Princess's Father's Day one: Buy a $500 card (physical or digital) and get a $25 one added on. 

[angela12345]

I know about getting Kroger Fuel Points for gift card purchases, and sometimes they even have an actual discount on the gift card in addition to the fuel points.  Sadly, all of our Krogers closed in our city last year. 

Does anyone know of any other ways to buy Holland gift cards at a discount or ways to get a bonus on a HAL gift card purchase ?  For example, Carnival cards can be gotten at 10% discount through AARP rewards & Allstate Drivewise, I think Citi Easy Deals, as well as using points on several credit cards to get "free" gift cards.
 

[CM1984]

 

This is great news, especially if we can purchase them at a discount!  I'll start checking for them.

[jbecker6469]

One can only hope that they could end up in the big hot dog store!  Big discount on cards they sell.  We get 4 25.00 gift cards for O'Charley's  restaurant for about 65.00.  

[richwmn]

Just saw this display today at Kroger. I don't know if there is any discount other than fuel points.

[kazu]

Have to say, I’m a tad jealous of our U.S. CC friends.

 

I’ve never seen them for sale in Canada and most likely they won’t be because of the exchange rate conundrum.  

[Roz]

Richwmn, you're correct.  The only discount at Kroger is you get fuel points.  I wait until they're running a 4X fuel points offer on gift cards to buy them.

 

Roz

[TiogaCruiser]

So if one were to use one of these gift cards to pay for PART of a cruise, then the remainder pay with a CC that provides travel insurance, I’m wondering if that invalidates the insurance......

[Big Dawg CC]

Celebrity limits the use of gift card redemptions:  "When booking, you may use/redeem up to $500 in gift cards per person/per sailing, $1,000 total per stateroom to pay for your cruise."  So, we'll need to keep an eye of HAL's terms to make sure there are (or become) no similar restrictions.

[kazu]

55 minutes ago, TiogaCruiser said:

So if one were to use one of these gift cards to pay for PART of a cruise, then the remainder pay with a CC that provides travel insurance, I’m wondering if that invalidates the insurance......

 

That’s a good question and you need to review your credit card insurance terms.

 

Mine says that I have to pay for the entire trip with my CC, however if you bought the gift card with the same CC, I would like to think that common sense would prevail.

 

But, I would address this with your credit card and get it in writing to cover your bases.

 

Insurance can be a tricky deal to say the least.

[DaveOKC]

Another thought on gift cards.  Buy them at your supermarket when your credit card company is running a 5 times points (basically 5%) promotion.  I have two cards that do this once a year for 3 months.