HAL gift card

[cruisin'mama]

When HAL had their 10% bonus gift card promotion, I bought enough to cover my final payment. Since then, my awesome TA was able to apply another promo to our reservation and save us an additional $1000! I made our final payment today but still have a $1000 gift card leftover. Is there a way to apply it as OBC and get the money back that we don’t use at the end of our cruise? We already have HIA, the 150th Anniversary pkg, and quite a bit of OBC so I doubt that we’ll use an additional $1000 onboard.

Thanks!

[Arizona Wildcat]

2 minutes ago, cruisin'mama said:

When HAL had their 10% bonus gift card promotion, I bought enough to cover my final payment. Since then, my awesome TA was able to apply another promo to our reservation and save us an additional $1000! I made our final payment today but still have a $1000 gift card leftover. Is there a way to apply it as OBC and get the money back that we don’t use at the end of our cruise? We already have HIA, the 150th Anniversary pkg, and quite a bit of OBC so I doubt that we’ll use an additional $1000 onboard.

Thanks!

What were the terms when you bought the cards?   The HAL website says the cards are not refundable.  They can certainly be used on another cruise or family or friends.  Good news is no expiration or dormancy fees.

[rodndonna]

Unless things have changed since our last HAL cruise (Dec 2022), if you apply the card to your account when on board, whatever balance you have at the end of your cruise is refunded to the credit card you have assigned for the cruise. Seems very odd, but we were able to do that on 2 cruises last year.

 

They have changed the gift card company in the last year, so maybe they were just trying to get them flushed out, it seems hard to believe they do that though.

[cruisin'mama]

Only the bonus cards have expiration dates and my husband already claimed those to use in the casino.

 

My next booked cruise is a Windstar with a friend so I can’t use it there…

[cruisin'mama]

2 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

Unless things have changed since our last HAL cruise (Dec 2022), if you apply the card to your account when on board, whatever balance you have at the end of your cruise is refunded to the credit card you have assigned for the cruise. Seems very odd, but we were able to do that on 2 cruises last year.

 

They have changed the gift card company in the last year, so maybe they were just trying to get them flushed out, it seems hard to believe they do that though.

This is what I’m hoping to be able to do!  I hope they will still refund it to my credit card! ( same card used to buy the cards as will be the card on file for the cruise)

[Native Floridian 26]

I was thinking any refund would be to your original form of payment, which was the gift card? Would be nice if someone has first hand knowledge.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Last cruise I ran $500 in OBC through the slot machine, playing the $1 machine at max, and cashed out the balance.  Luckily ended with $720.

[rodndonna]

9 hours ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

I was thinking any refund would be to your original form of payment, which was the gift card? Would be nice if someone has first hand knowledge.

 

That is what is stated in the terms. On our June and Dec cruises last year, our gift card balance was refunded to our credit card and not our gift cards. I still wonder if that was something they were doing to clear out the large balance of gift cards purchased before the restart. They have also changed companies doing the gift cards, so may have wanted to get the old ones cleared out.

 

From my experience - it happened fot us (twice) but I wouldn't count on it in the future.

[brovol]

I thought the two times I had leftover gift card balances they just went back to the gift card; not the credit card I used to buy the gift cards with.  Bonus cards are different, and must be used within the year I believe, so applying the bonus cards first is good practice.  All of the gift cards can be used for anything, and in that respect they are better than OBC.

[Native Floridian 26]

Also, there may be a difference when you pay for a cruise with gift cards and then cancel during a period when you can get some money back.  Maybe that's when you get refunded in gift cards, not this situation where you are on the ship with OBC.

[rodndonna]

9 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Also, there may be a difference when you pay for a cruise with gift cards and then cancel during a period when you can get some money back.  Maybe that's when you get refunded in gift cards, not this situation where you are on the ship with OBC.

 

That is what happened with us. Any refunds for canceled cruise costs went back to our gift cards (and not always the original one - got quite complicated.

 

After we were onboard a cruise and applied gift cards to our account, any unused balance went to the Credit Card assigned for the room account (based on 2 cruises last year, but may not be the case going forward)