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NCL gift cards don't work

jimmm

By jimmm,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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jimmm

jimmm

Posted
Posted

We had booked another NCL Cruise which unfortunately happened during COVID so it was canceled and rebooked for the past 2 weeks.  Our daughter had sent us a gift card she purchased directly from NCL for us to use on board, and as it was attempted to be used today on the getaway staff indicated it could not be honored.  One possibility is NCL never activated it when it was purchased and the other is that a dishonest employee stole the numbers and used it sometime in the past couple years.

 

Be vigilant if you purchase or have someone purchase for you and NCL gift cards for use a board.

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cruiserbear55

cruiserbear55

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, jimmm said:

We had booked another NCL Cruise which unfortunately happened during COVID so it was canceled and rebooked for the past 2 weeks.  Our daughter had sent us a gift card she purchased directly from NCL for us to use on board, and as it was attempted to be used today on the getaway staff indicated it could not be honored.  One possibility is NCL never activated it when it was purchased and the other is that a dishonest employee stole the numbers and used it sometime in the past couple years.

 

Be vigilant if you purchase or have someone purchase for you and NCL gift cards for use a board.

 

  The best part of the NCL gift card program is it was discontinued on 12/31/21. Have never had an experience like I had on the Dawn trying to use a gift card. The folks at customer service were completely clueless as to how to process the card. It took three days of back and forth with Miami before they finally decided the card was legit and credited my account. All for $50.00!.

  As stated above , after a year they deduct $3.00 a month in dormancy fees.So, if you had received one issued in December of 2021 for , let's say, $50.00, you've now lost $30.00 to fees , and your card is now worth $20.00.

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BirdTravels "Live from...." Rare

BirdTravels

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, cruiserbear55 said:

As stated above , after a year they deduct $3.00 a month in dormancy fees. So, if you had received one issued in December of 2021 for , let's say, $50.00, you've now lost $30.00 to fees , and your card is now worth $20.00.

 

4 hours ago, jimmm said:

Be vigilant if you purchase or have someone purchase for you and NCL gift cards for use a board.

 

If a card was purchased in December 2019 prior to the pandemic, started incurring charges in December 2020, 34 months of dormancy = $102 penalty, the cards are probably emptied due to non-use. 

Edited by BirdTravels
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ChiefMateJRK

ChiefMateJRK

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 10/20/2023 at 5:03 AM, cruiserbear55 said:

 

   Not your best subject, Chief Mate? (JK)

Actually, it was!!*  I missed the "after a year fine print."  Apparently, so did the other poster. 🤣

 

IOW: the Chief screwed up!!  It's okay.  I'll have another Scotch and it will just fade into a lifetime of screwups.  That said, I'm still alive and kicking!!  People who screw up and can laugh it off are generally happier than the "others". 😎

 

*Do I need to integrate x squared or something trivial like that to prove it?

Edited by ChiefMateJRK
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Barb Nahoumi

Barb Nahoumi

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, laudergayle said:

TRUTH. 😎

Do gift cards from other places have a monthly dormancy fee?  I have never run into anything like that.

If cruises were canceled because of the pandemic, leaving passengers unable to use the gift card onboard, the monthly dormancy fee is an unfair money grab.

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laudergayle Holiday Sharing Rare

laudergayle

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Posted (edited)
40 minutes ago, Barb Nahoumi said:

Do gift cards from other places have a monthly dormancy fee?  I have never run into anything like that.

If cruises were canceled because of the pandemic, leaving passengers unable to use the gift card onboard, the monthly dormancy fee is an unfair money grab.

Dormancy fees are very common with gift cards.  A card can be considered dormant after one year of non-use.  A gift card sits on a company’s balance sheet as a revenue liability until it is redeemed. Each state as different laws for dormant cards, with many treating them as unclaimed property, which the value ultimately reverts to the state. By clawing back fees each month, the company is reducing their liability and keeping it from going to the state.  I have seen companies re-issue cards that have gone dormant down to zero value, but obviously that is up to the company.  

Edited by laudergayle
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ChiefMateJRK

ChiefMateJRK

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Barb Nahoumi said:

Do gift cards from other places have a monthly dormancy fee? 

I know that some restaurants do.  Back at Megacorp, some genius in HR decided that handing out gift cards from time to time would improve moral.  Each Director's secretary got a stack at the beginning of the year.  Communication happened like it always did.  They sat around forever because the bosses were too busy keeping the ship afloat to mess with requesting gift cards (they/we had to write something up saying "the Chief saved the company last month, give him a free dinner at Olive Garden.")  So, I did take the family to Olive Garden shortly after receiving the card and was informed that my $50 card was worth about a buck ninety-five.  Improved moral indeed!!  💩  

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MoCruiseFan

MoCruiseFan

Posted
Posted
On 10/19/2023 at 6:59 PM, jimmm said:

We had booked another NCL Cruise which unfortunately happened during COVID so it was canceled and rebooked for the past 2 weeks.  Our daughter had sent us a gift card she purchased directly from NCL for us to use on board, and as it was attempted to be used today on the getaway staff indicated it could not be honored.  One possibility is NCL never activated it when it was purchased and the other is that a dishonest employee stole the numbers and used it sometime in the past couple years.

 

Be vigilant if you purchase or have someone purchase for you and NCL gift cards for use a board.

Or it could be the card expitrsed or it could be any number of other things.  NCL does not issue those cards.  They are from Discover and they have not been sold for a number of years now.  They had/have a monthly dormancy fee applied and it is quite possibel it had zero value when you finally tried to use it.

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Daniel A

Daniel A

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I just found a $500 NCL Gift Card I forgot I had.  I have already lost $45.00 in dormancy fees making the card worth $455 as of today and likely $452 next week.  I called the 800 number that came with the documentation to enquire what I would need to do to transfer the card to another person.  On the recording on the web site, it says I can use the card at any location that accepts Visa cards, but the documentation that came with the card it says I can only use it at NCL.

 

I plan to either apply it to my next cruise if it can be accepted by my TA for a Princess cruise or if not, I'll see if I can apply it to my upcoming Oceania cruise as "O" is owned by NCL Holdings.  Barring that, I may try to sell it on eBay.

 

Has anybody else dealt with this issue?  As of now, I don't see any NCL sailings in my future.

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