AARP Raises Limit on Gift Card Purchases

[Rick&Jeannie]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Has anyone had any success using the gift card to pay for your cruise fare AND for any eZAir reservation costs included in your booking? From what we read in the T&C, you can't use them to pay for eZAir charges which kind of makes sense.

 

Q: Are there any restrictions in using the Princess Cruises Gift Card towards the payment of products and services offered by Princess Cruises?
A: The Princess Cruises Gift Card can be used for most Princess products and services, with the exception of payment towards Land Excursions and eZAir. 

 

Cruise Gift Cards – Princess Cruises - Princess Cruises

 

Strictly an opinion here...I have no first hand experience since we don't use EZAir...but if the EZAir cost is reflected in the total cruise fare I don't see why it would not work.  Again...have never tried.

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Strictly an opinion here...I have no first hand experience since we don't use EZAir...but if the EZAir cost is reflected in the total cruise fare I don't see why it would not work.  Again...have never tried.

Understand, except I would imagine the only way to book an eZAir flight would be if you already had a Princess cruise booked where the pending charges would be added to your booking. The reason I think you probably cannot is because Princess would in turn have to use those funds received from you to pay the air carrier and would then have to eat that 10% discount. I would hate to buy $2,000 worth of gift cards to cover airfare costs only to find out later about this "fine print" exemption.

[Rick&Jeannie]

27 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Understand, except I would imagine the only way to book an eZAir flight would be if you already had a Princess cruise booked where the pending charges would be added to your booking. The reason I think you probably cannot is because Princess would in turn have to use those funds received from you to pay the air carrier and would then have to eat that 10% discount. I would hate to buy $2,000 worth of gift cards to cover airfare costs only to find out later about this "fine print" exemption.

You are probably correct.  Like I said...I have no experience with EZAir.  A similar program with NCL totally turned me off of booking air in this manner.  I prefer to "make my own mistakes"! 😄

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Has anyone had any success using the gift card to pay for your cruise fare AND for any eZAir reservation costs included in your booking? From what we read in the T&C, you can't use them to pay for eZAir charges which kind of makes sense.

 

Q: Are there any restrictions in using the Princess Cruises Gift Card towards the payment of products and services offered by Princess Cruises?
A: The Princess Cruises Gift Card can be used for most Princess products and services, with the exception of payment towards Land Excursions and eZAir. 

 

Cruise Gift Cards – Princess Cruises - Princess Cruises

 

Yes! Paid cruise and eZair costs 100% using gift cards for our last two cruises and just paid in full for our June cruise (including eZAir) using gift cards. That said, it was done through our TA, not a Princess staff person.

[that]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Has anyone had any success using the gift card to pay for your cruise fare AND for any eZAir reservation costs included in your booking? From what we read in the T&C, you can't use them to pay for eZAir charges which kind of makes sense.

 

Q: Are there any restrictions in using the Princess Cruises Gift Card towards the payment of products and services offered by Princess Cruises?
A: The Princess Cruises Gift Card can be used for most Princess products and services, with the exception of payment towards Land Excursions and eZAir. 

 

Cruise Gift Cards – Princess Cruises - Princess Cruises

Thank you for sharing this FAQ, was unaware of this restriction.  Our most recent experience

in February online paid for May cruise and EZAir

with gift cards, so far accepted.  Stay tuned

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

Yes! Paid cruise and eZair costs 100% using gift cards for our last two cruises and just paid in full for our June cruise (including eZAir) using gift cards. That said, it was done through our TA, not a Princess staff person.

 

57 minutes ago, that said:

Thank you for sharing this FAQ, was unaware of this restriction.  Our most recent experience

in February online paid for May cruise and EZAir

with gift cards, so far accepted.  Stay tuned

Thanks everyone. This is good to know, and we will try paying for it all when the time comes! 😀

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

Yes! Paid cruise and eZair costs 100% using gift cards for our last two cruises and just paid in full for our June cruise (including eZAir) using gift cards. That said, it was done through our TA, not a Princess staff person.

 

Have done this also. The airline doesn't have to "absorb the discount" because the cards have the full value - not a discounted value.

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Have done this also. The airline doesn't have to "absorb the discount" because the cards have the full value - not a discounted value.

My assumption was that Princess would be absorbing the discount rather than the airlines. Same logic applies to the “fact” you supposedly can’t buy excursions with the gift cards either according to the T&C. But that’s probably not true either. 😂

[JimmyVWine]

19 hours ago, Thrak said:

Getting annoyed with AARP. My wife has tried several times now to purchase Princess gift cards and every time it says there is a problem with the purchase. I've purchased them 3 times (groups of 5 each time) using the same computer.

 

I called AARP and they said to be sure all Ad Blockers were disabled. (I don't have to do that when I buy gift cards.) They also said it the purchase has to be done on a credit card in her name and not one in my name. Been there, done that. (The first time I use a card with my name on it but when it bombed out I tried one with her name.) I've disabled both ad blockers, cleared her cart, cleared cookies for the site and it still gives the same error. (The lady on the phone said clearing things didn't matter but the ad blockers definitely did matter. I just cleared the cookies to be safe.)

 

I'm not sure what else to try. Perhaps I'll clear everything again and wait until Monday and then try again. We really would like to get more than 5 per month as we have enough cruises booked to use quite a few cards and when the amount owed gets that large getting a 10% discount is significant.

You are experiencing the exact same thing as me. Hours and hours on the phone with tech support all to no avail. There is clearly something wrong with my account and not my computer. No matter which computer I use, when I log in as me, I get an error. When I log out and log in with my wife’s account, works every time. The only problem is that I can then only buy things using one of her credit cards so that is a pain. Can’t surprise her. (But I also can’t buy anything sketchy either!). 

[JerseyExplora]

13 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

My assumption was that Princess would be absorbing the discount rather than the airlines. Same logic applies to the “fact” you supposedly can’t buy excursions with the gift cards either according to the T&C. But that’s probably not true either. 😂

I booked an excursion with gift cards. It was not easy, but it was possible.

 

The thing about gift cards is that not all of them get used. Princess likely profits from unused balances and entire cards that never get used. 

[Jadn13]

3 minutes ago, JerseyExplora said:

I booked an excursion with gift cards. It was not easy, but it was possible.

 

The thing about gift cards is that not all of them get used. Princess likely profits from unused balances and entire cards that never get used. 

Take out the balance in the casino

[Thrak]

Tried with Chrome. Still doesn't work. Most annoying. I have around $27k in bookings and my wife is making noises about adding another 31 days. I would really like to save 10%.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Thrak

[Jadn13]

26 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Tried with Chrome. Still doesn't work. Most annoying. I have around $27k in bookings and my wife is making noises about adding another 31 days. I would really like to save 10%.

Try your phone…😎

[Thrak]

13 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

Try your phone…😎

 

Using a browser or the app?

[CynCyn]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

You are experiencing the exact same thing as me. Hours and hours on the phone with tech support all to no avail. There is clearly something wrong with my account and not my computer. No matter which computer I use, when I log in as me, I get an error. When I log out and log in with my wife’s account, works every time. The only problem is that I can then only buy things using one of her credit cards so that is a pain. Can’t surprise her. (But I also can’t buy anything sketchy either!). 

I think it is AARP.  They had a problem for me a week ago and the bank debited my money but AARP had no record of it.  Eventually, the $$ came back but I am wary of trying again.  Disappointed that Allstate seems to be out of stock now.  

[Thrak]

41 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

Try your phone…😎

 

Okay. Bizarre but... It worked! Many thanks for the suggestion. My wife doesn't have the app installed so I just used a browser on my phone and logged in as her. I did a test for one card and it went through so I did it again for four more cards and that also went through. Guess I will have a bigger credit card bill this month. 😎

[Crystabel]

There aren’t many places you can get 10% on your money these days. 

[Thrak]

10 minutes ago, Crystabel said:

There aren’t many places you can get 10% on your money these days. 

 

When a store has a 10% off sale it's not really a big deal as I rarely make large purchases. So far, I've bought $10k in Princess gift cards and intend to get 10 every month. When you start getting up around $30k that 10% really adds up.

 

I remember maybe 40 (41?) years ago we were pretty poor and came into the "vast" amount of $5,000. We put it into a CD at 12% interest! We made $50/month interest on that little investment. If only I could find a rate like that now... 🤑

[beg3yrs]

5 hours ago, JerseyExplora said:

...

The thing about gift cards is that not all of them get used. Princess likely profits from unused balances and entire cards that never get used. 

I have heard the average redemption rate on gift cards is around 75%. So, selling them at a 90% of list is still a money making endeavor.

 

Of course I suppose members of Cruise Critic are blowing that rate up to near 95%.

[CM1984]

 

Do they send actual gift cards or can they email the gift card?  I don't want to enter my cc info unless I can get them emailed.

 

We are leaving on April 1 and if they are mailed, I am concerned they may not come soon enough!

 

Thanks for your help.  

 

Mimi

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, CM1984 said:

 

Do they send actual gift cards or can they email the gift card?  I don't want to enter my cc info unless I can get them emailed.

 

We are leaving on April 1 and if they are mailed, I am concerned they may not come soon enough!

 

Thanks for your help.  

 

Mimi

We usually get ours via email within about 3-5 minutes after ordering.

[CM1984]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We usually get ours via email within about 3-5 minutes after ordering.

 

That's exactly what I needed.  Thank you so much!

[Thrak]

5 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We usually get ours via email within about 3-5 minutes after ordering.

 

4 minutes ago, CM1984 said:

 

That's exactly what I needed.  Thank you so much!

 

What you receive in email is notification of your purchase. Then you click on a link that takes you to the actual "card".  On that page you can click to print them to a pdf. I also use the "snip" feature in Windows to outline the card which copies it as an image which I then paste into a Word document. I resize them so I can fit several on a page.

 

Since I'm paranoid I copy the file to a flash drive as well as my laptop, print the Word document, and keep both the printed document and the flash drive in the safe. There is no way I want to risk a computer crash risking thousands of dollars worth of gift cards.

[CM1984]

10 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

 

What you receive in email is notification of your purchase. Then you click on a link that takes you to the actual "card".  On that page you can click to print them to a pdf. I also use the "snip" feature in Windows to outline the card which copies it as an image which I then paste into a Word document. I resize them so I can fit several on a page.

 

Since I'm paranoid I copy the file to a flash drive as well as my laptop, print the Word document, and keep both the printed document and the flash drive in the safe. There is no way I want to risk a computer crash risking thousands of dollars worth of gift cards.

 

Thanks - paranoid?  I understand completely.

 

I just got my email - but my card info was directly on the email, I didn't have to click to go to it.  Technology!  

[Thrak]

17 minutes ago, CM1984 said:

 

Thanks - paranoid?  I understand completely.

 

I just got my email - but my card info was directly on the email, I didn't have to click to go to it.  Technology!  

 

Seriously?  You meant that actual card number and the PIN are directly on the email? That is definitely not how my email was...

Edited March 13, 2023 by Thrak