eGift Cards - refundable in cash or with a new eGift Card =

[damiross]

I had to cancel my cruise.  I paid about $1300 via credit cards and the balance ($5000) in gift cards. I cancelled before final payment date.

 

I did a Bing search regarding gift cards issued in California:  "According to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, any gift certificate sold after January 1, 1997, is redeemable in cash for its cash value, or subject to replacement with a new gift certificate at no cost to the purchaser or holder. Effective January 1, 2008, any gift certificate with a cash value of less than $10 is redeemable in cash. California laws governing gift cards and gift certificates cannot be waived."

 

The Princess passage contract says, "Any refunds will be made directly to the method of payment."   

 

Here's my questions:

1. Will the refund be $1300 to the credit card and the balance to the gift card or is cash an option? The PVP said my refund would be to my credit card.  This doesn't sound right.  (It could be she didn't look at the payment type when cancelling the cruise.)
2. If gift cards, would it be one $5000 or multiple cards or multiple cards? (I used 14 credits in amounts of $100 and $500)
3. The gift cards were purchased on the AARP site with discounts of 8% and 10%.  The total for the $5000 cards was $4600.  I only expect to get back what I paid.  Would Princess give back just the purchase amount, even though the received the full amount of each card?

 

Thanks in advance for all comments.

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by damiross
added thanks

[cr8tiv1]

Credit card will be refunded $1300.  The $5000 will be put back on your AARP gift cards.  I sure hope you still have the “cards” or account numbers. 

[damiross]

Just now, cr8tiv1 said:

Credit card will be refunded $1300.  The $5000 will be put back on your AARP gift cards.  I sure hope you still have the “cards” or account numbers. 

I do have the numbers and the PIN.  

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

7 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The $5000 will be put back on your AARP gift cards.  I sure hope you still have the “cards” or account numbers. 

I have experience with this. In 2020, I had a cruise canceled on me and the refund was returned to three physical gift cards. I only retained one of them. Luckily, I went through Princess' gift card department and they sent replacements for the two others. I thought that was nice of them. 😍 It took a few weeks, but there wasn't any urgent need at that time.

[SCX22]

Not sure what Princess' turn around time time for refunds these days are, but after 10 business days, check the balance of each gift card on the Princess gift card website to make sure that the refund went through.  If you're lucky, the backoffice accounting department refunded the balance due to gift cards on a single gift card instead of parsing the refund back to all gift cards used in the original denomination.

[Host CJSKIDS]

My CVP told me today when I upgraded my booking to premier fare to save the gift card info. To print out my emails with the card numbers and pin and hold onto it. 

 

And thank you @Thrak for the info about the gift cards after final payment for the upgrade of my fare. 

[damiross]

Well, I did get $5000 back to the original 14 gift cards.  

I applied some to a cruise in April 2024.  After paying my fare with the cards, I checked the balances.  All showed $0.00 (as expected).  I used $327.78 of a $500 gift card.  I checked the balance on this one - it showed $672.22! That's $500 plus the balance of $500-$327.78.  

 

I wonder if Princess actually does reward people for using only part of a gift card?  (Just kidding)

[Steelers36]

On 9/20/2023 at 12:28 AM, Host CJSKIDS said:

My CVP told me today when I upgraded my booking to premier fare to save the gift card info. To print out my emails with the card numbers and pin and hold onto it. 

 

And thank you @Thrak for the info about the gift cards after final payment for the upgrade of my fare. 

Speaking of @Thrak, how about opening a thread and letting us know how the Pacific crossing is going?

[jwattle]

There is one on the Aus/NZ boards 😊

 

 

[c-boy]

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Speaking of @Thrak, how about opening a thread and letting us know how the Pacific crossing is going?

I was thinking the same thing. He's gone native on us. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 hours ago, c-boy said:

I was thinking the same thing. He's gone native on us. 

I'd say he's having fun and doesn't want to even *think* about us poor landlubbers!

[damiross]

20 hours ago, damiross said:

I wonder if Princess actually does reward people for using only part of a gift card?  (Just kidding)

Day 2 and the balance on the used $500 gift card that I used #327.78 still shows a balance of $672.22.

 

My plan had originally been to OBC.  However, that is limited to $1500.  I was also going to use the cards to buy excursions. Unfortunately, the website wants to use my current OBC to purchase excursions.  

[Thrak]

Haven't been using the laptop much as I only have the one device plan and the Patter stuff is on the phone. They keep telling us to use Journey View as some things don't make it into the printed Patter. My books are also on the phone.

 

It's been a bit of a pain to get connected on the laptop. "Usually" when I open a browser it gives me a link for a network login page but sometimes it simply refuses to offer the link. Bookmarking the login link doesn't seem to make any difference. For this first 31 days we are in an inside cabin and don't really spend a lot of time in the room.

 

Good cruise so far and the CD staff have all been excellent. We've been surprised by the quality of the entertainers on the ship - they have mostly been excellent. We like the current comedian but he's leaving the ship in Sydney. There is a phenomenal guitarist who has done one show so far. All he does is play the guitar but wowie zowie he is good.

 

We're heading into our "dry spell" as we have no beverage package for the 7 days starting when we his Sydney tomorrow. My wife has snagged maybe 8 beers in the refrigerator and has been pleased there was still some Alaska Brewing Company beers available. I'll probably leave them all for her as I haven't been drinking beer much.

 

The food has been nothing to brag about but I'm not eating much these days anyway so it's no big deal. We've done a load of laundry but have been sending most stuff out. My wife sent one of my Tommy Bahama shirts and forgot to check the "no starch" box. When the laundry came back the shirt could just about stand up on it's own. We definitely won't make that mistake again!

 

We turn the clocks back an hour tonight. I think this is the 5th time we've set them back and we also lost an entire day when we crossed the International Date Line. I'm fine with setting the clocks back and am really happy it's not going the other way.

[Rick&Jeannie]

20 hours ago, Thrak said:

There is a phenomenal guitarist who has done one show so far. All he does is play the guitar but wowie zowie he is good.

Dan Austin by any chance?  We've crossed paths with him twice now...he's really good but I don't think they have him on tap for the theater, just the various bars & such.

 

(Great to hear from you...)

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie