AARP e-gift card

[beg3yrs]

40 minutes ago, Thrak said:

The last couple of times I gave in and called Princess about something I spent a very long time on hold. When I finally got someone on the phone both times it was hard to understand them and there were children and TV in the background. One also had a dog that barked several times during the call. I had them on speaker and neither my wife nor I could understand a majority of what one Princess rep was saying. They were speaking English but with a pronounced accent that neither one of us could decipher.

....

My experience as well. The last time I called the representative had what I think is an accent from the Philippines. In the background was not a dog but a rooster. When I commented that we used to have roosters and our neighbor has one she seemed very embarrassed.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, no1racefan1 said:

The problem people are having is the gift card payment option doesn't show up online for excursions because they aren't technically allowed to be paid by gift cards, per Princess's terms. So they call to see if they can get somebody to finagle it. I understand, I have considered doing the same thing...but probably won't since I see how much of a hassle it is. I'll just use them to pay for my booking online.

Correct. When I tried to apply them to OBC and to excursions, I was on the phone with a very helpful and easy to understand agent. He walked me through what he was seeing on his end. He even said: “Are you familiar with the screen that appears when you make an online payment for your cruise balance?  It has three radio buttons, one of which is “Gift Card”?  And I said “yes” I was familiar with that. Then he said: “When I go to process either an OBC purchase or an excursion purchase, that third radio button is simply not there on the screen for me to select.”  The only option was for a credit card. He said that he would try to put the gift card number and PIN code into the cc fields to see if he could trick the system, but that failed. (Not unexpected). So he wasn’t untrained or incompetent. He simply had no way to process the payment with a GC. He put me on hold to speak with someone to see about a workaround but when he came back he said that he received confirmation that it couldn’t be done. 
 

So if it actually CAN be done, I would say that the agents who fail are not incompetent or untrained. They are typical. It must be that the agents who succeed are superheroes. 

[LAX-HKG]

Just want to report that I had no trouble using those gift cards.  I gave the Guest Service a printout and the cards were applied to my account.

 

One surprise though.  The specialty restaurant that I had reserved prior to the cruise was charged directly to my credit card.  I thought the credit card was just to hold my reservation and the actual charge would show up to my onboard account after dining at the restaurant.  Now I have a surplus of the credit that I hope would be going back to a gift card.

 

Since I used 3 gift cards, how do I know which one is the credit going back to?

[happy42cruise]

On 3/31/2023 at 5:51 PM, LAX-HKG said:

That’s fantastic news!  Thanks julie3fan.

I went before the last day when it wasn't busy and they applied them while I waited.  Some of the guest services attendants were unable to input them (system issue) but I got to know the gentleman who input mine.  They have to type in each card number & code which is time consuming. I had quite a few.

[Jadn13]

14 minutes ago, LAX-HKG said:

Just want to report that I had no trouble using those gift cards.  I gave the Guest Service a printout and the cards were applied to my account.

 

One surprise though.  The specialty restaurant that I had reserved prior to the cruise was charged directly to my credit card.  I thought the credit card was just to hold my reservation and the actual charge would show up to my onboard account after dining at the restaurant.  Now I have a surplus of the credit that I hope would be going back to a gift card.

 

Since I used 3 gift cards, how do I know which one is the credit going back to?

You can add that credit in the casino to your account and just cash out

[dreams_of_travel]

4 hours ago, LAX-HKG said:

Since I used 3 gift cards, how do I know which one is the credit going back to?

You would have to use the website "check your gift card balance" to see which card it was refunded to.  It is a step that isn't too hard to do.

[Bobbiegentry]

4 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

You can add that credit in the casino to your account and just cash out

Must you broadcast this? Great way to encourage changes. 😐

[Steelers36]

19 hours ago, that said:

our experience over the years is to enter the e gift cards online as payment ourselves

 

and we had no problems getting the balances returned back onto the gift cards when cruises cancelled during covid shutdown

 

the current payment screen below

 

All well and good if you self-book, but many of us use a TA in order to pay less for the cruise and all payments must go through the TA.  Mine had not troubles last time processing multiple GC's, including when there was a balance left from paying off B2B #1 that was then applied to B2B #2.

[Jadn13]

1 hour ago, Bobbiegentry said:

Must you broadcast this? Great way to encourage changes. 😐

Ha! I’ll be less helpful next time. 

[cruzsnooze]

I bought several E gift cards on AARP. I called my big box TA and they had them applied with no issue. I had a few dollars left over and it was applied to OBC which showed up instantly in my cruise personalizer.

[compozer]

I am not an AARP member so this is the first I have heard about these gift cards.

 

Are they discounted?

 

 What is the benefit of buying them from AARP?

 

Thanks

[Cobber76]

8 minutes ago, compozer said:

I am not an AARP member so this is the first I have heard about these gift cards.

 

Are they discounted?

 

 What is the benefit of buying them from AARP?

 

Thanks

There are two AARP gift cards options right now.  Pay $90 for a $100 gift card or pay $450 for a $500 gift card.  You can buy up to five gift cards per month.  You can use them to pay off some of the balance of a current Princess booking—or you can use it on board.  We are currently wrapping up our payments for a 14-day Norway cruise—and we’ve saved over $1,300 by using the gift cards.  The only downside I see is that if you cancel your cruise, the money gets refunded back to these same gift cards—so you have to make sure to hold onto the paperwork so you can apply the gift cards to your next Princess cruise.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Cobber76
Spelling error

[compozer]

Thanks Cobbler76.  I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.  That is a good deal!!   Even if you have to join AARP, it certainly would be worth the $16 a year.

 

I use my AMEX card for payment and receive a very nice OBC.   I wonder how many dollars I can put on these AARP cards and still get the OBC.    

 

Has anyone tried to pay just their EZ air with them?   Our flights total $16,000 so that would be a great savings.

 

Thanks again for your fast reply.  

[Ken the cruiser]

15 minutes ago, compozer said:

That is a good deal!!   Even if you have to join AARP, it certainly would be worth the $16 a year.

Or you could just register on the AARP Rewards website like I did for free.

 

https://www.aarp.org/rewards/discover/

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[julie3fan]

52 minutes ago, compozer said:

Has anyone tried to pay just their EZ air with them?   Our flights total $16,000 so that would be a great savings.

 

If you read upthread, you'll see discussion that the gift cards aren't supposed to be used for EZair, but that some folks have done it successfully.  I had my TA add my EZair tickets to my cruise booking, and I'm hoping I'll be able to have them pay the entire balance due with my GCs.

[GoDucksNation]

And you don’t have to join AARP 

[13cheermom]

12 hours ago, compozer said:

Thanks Cobbler76.  I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.  That is a good deal!!   Even if you have to join AARP, it certainly would be worth the $16 a year.

 

I use my AMEX card for payment and receive a very nice OBC.   I wonder how many dollars I can put on these AARP cards and still get the OBC.    

 

Has anyone tried to pay just their EZ air with them?   Our flights total $16,000 so that would be a great savings.

 

Thanks again for your fast reply.  

So you have to be careful and have EZ-Air added to your total booking and pay everything at one time.  One time I had my EZ-Air cancelled and I had already prepaid all with gift cards, so once it was cancelled it got refunded back to the gift cards automatically.  However when I went back in to add the new EZ-Air booking, it wouldn't allow me to use gift cards on just that purchase and I had to pay with a credit card.  

I just wish they would get this shore excursion thing figured out.  A payment is a payment in whatever form of card it is.

[bjkTX]

On 4/9/2023 at 10:35 AM, Steelers36 said:

All well and good if you self-book, but many of us use a TA in order to pay less for the cruise and all payments must go through the TA.  Mine had not troubles last time processing multiple GC's, including when there was a balance left from paying off B2B #1 that was then applied to B2B #2.

I paid for our cruise last Sep and another one in Dec using only gift cards (after the deposit) - and I use a TA.  There were no issues.  In fact I just saved $500 today buying more for a cruise in Nov.

[WeCruise23]

I asked if there is a 

On 4/9/2023 at 10:08 PM, compozer said:

Thanks Cobbler76.  I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.  That is a good deal!!   Even if you have to join AARP, it certainly would be worth the $16 a year.

 

I use my AMEX card for payment and receive a very nice OBC.   I wonder how many dollars I can put on these AARP cards and still get the OBC.    

 

Has anyone tried to pay just their EZ air with them?   Our flights total $16,000 so that would be a great savings.

 

Thanks again for your fast reply.  

On our cruise last month I asked at Guest Services if there was a $$ limit on how many gift cards you can turn into OBC at one time, or on one cruise, and was told there is not a limit.

[polmcs]

Anyone have any experience with using gift cards on a cruise that originates in Australia? Paying the cruise fare isn’t an issue as I’m paying in USD anyway, but what about trying to use as a pre payment towards OBC? 
 

I’ve been bitten before where $100 USD of OBC miraculously turns into S100 AUD of OBC when on board, which given the exchange rate, is not in my favor. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, polmcs said:

Anyone have any experience with using gift cards on a cruise that originates in Australia? Paying the cruise fare isn’t an issue as I’m paying in USD anyway, but what about trying to use as a pre payment towards OBC? 
 

I’ve been bitten before where $100 USD of OBC miraculously turns into S100 AUD of OBC when on board, which given the exchange rate, is not in my favor. 

 

That is what happens when Princess is providing the OBC such as the OBC associated with a FCD.

 

But if you give them a gift card in US$ it will be converted to Australia $ using whatever poor exchange rate Princess currently uses.

[BURNSMN]

As a warning, here is what happened to me with the AARP Rewards gift cards. On February 27th I purchased five $500 cards for $450 each. I received five separate emails with order numbers, card numbers, and pins. I immediately tried to use them against my June 2023 Sky Princess cruise. Four of the five cards worked fine but one card showed a ZERO balance. 

 

I began emailing and calling both Princess and AARP to find out what happened. I am still fighting this.

Princess says I was sold a card with no value on it.

AARP Rewards say Princess zeroed out the balance when trying to apply it.

Barclay Princess Visa, whom I bought the cards with say I can no longer dispute the charge because it shows as a charge of $2250 on my card and they won't accept partial disputes.

 

I am still fighting this but at this point I am out $450, so beware of these cards!

Edited April 12, 2023 by BURNSMN
spelling

[compozer]

Thanks for the heads up Don.    I was thinking of buying $15,000 worth for our flights but I still am having issues with refunds from Princess.   I was thinking of joining aarp to get the discount from AT&T.  Might be worth the $16 a year ,membership.  I called AT&T this morning and they said yes, there is a discount but it only on certain plans.  Then checked my account and said we already get a teacher discount and that is better than the AARP one.

 

SO, WHAT is the benefit for AARP to give these discounts on the cards??    Are they hoping people forget to turn them in?

 

Thanks   Sandy

[jwattle]

20 minutes ago, compozer said:

Thanks for the heads up Don.    I was thinking of buying $15,000 worth for our flights but I still am having issues with refunds from Princess.   I was thinking of joining aarp to get the discount from AT&T.  Might be worth the $16 a year ,membership.  I called AT&T this morning and they said yes, there is a discount but it only on certain plans.  Then checked my account and said we already get a teacher discount and that is better than the AARP one.

 

SO, WHAT is the benefit for AARP to give these discounts on the cards??    Are they hoping people forget to turn them in?

 

Thanks   Sandy

You don't have to do the paid membership, and AARP sells all sorts of gift cards at a discount. I don't think that they have a nefarious plan. They actually try to help seniors. I believe that they get the cards at a discount and sell them at that price, not positive.

[beg3yrs]

31 minutes ago, compozer said:

...

SO, WHAT is the benefit for AARP to give these discounts on the cards??    Are they hoping people forget to turn them in?

...

Historical usage rate for gift cards of all types is around 75% so there is still profit to be made selling them at a 10% discount. That said, I would expect usage of Princess GCs to be higher than 75% but unless we hear from the Princess accounting department or the discount diminishes or even disappears, we'll probably never have a clue.