Princess gift card question

[Jetswdo]

  I have been using the AARP E discount Princess gift cards to pay for my next cruise.  I accidentally purchased one more $500 card (stupid me) that I needed to pay off that cruise.  So I have $191.06 left over.  So I figured that ok, I will treat myself for a spa treatment.  So I then found out that a gift card couldn't be used on line for this.  I called up Princess and was advised to just pay for the spa treatment on line with a credit card (so I can have the time slot and day that I want).  Then when I am on the ship to cancel and re book at the spa desk using the gift card.  So I went ahead and paid for the spa treatment with my credit card.  I was just wondering whether other people have done this.  Thanks, Anita

[Rick&Jeannie]

You can always just go to GS and purchase OBC there with the card.  That opens up all kinds of possibilities...not limited to the spa.

[Jetswdo]

I just want to make sure that I get refunded from my credit card for the spa booking and replaced with the e gift card money.

[Thrak]

18 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

You can always just go to GS and purchase OBC there with the card.  That opens up all kinds of possibilities...not limited to the spa.

 

This is what I plan to do with my "extra" $500 gift card when we sail in April. Like the OP I bought one too many but didn't end up applying any of the extra one to the cost of the cruise. I told my TA to put the unpaid portion of the cruise on my credit card but he just paid it himself.

 

55 minutes ago, Jetswdo said:

I just want to make sure that I get refunded from my credit card for the spa booking and replaced with the e gift card money.

 

Just take your gift card to Guest Services and use it to purchase OBC. Then tell them you want to cancel your spa booking and pay for it using the OBC. Shouldn't be a problem. Just be sure you have the gift card with the PIN available for them to check the balance.

[nasa1974]

I was going to use a Princess gift card to purchase OBC when I get on the ship. If I don't use all the OBC will it go back on the gift card, or will Princess send me a check for the balance?   Thanks.

[Thrak]

1 minute ago, nasa1974 said:

I was going to use a Princess gift card to purchase OBC when I get on the ship. If I don't use all the OBC will it go back on the gift card, or will Princess send me a check for the balance?   Thanks.

 

It's my thinking that once you have paid with the gift card they will consider it a "normal" type of payment and any leftover, refundable, OBC will be sent as a check after the cruise. I think the system will find it too cumbersome to refund the money back to the gift card. If you used the card to book the cruise and then cancelled I believe it would be refunded back to the card but I don't think that's how it will be handled in the case of OBC. Of course I could be wrong and I always keep a copy of my gift cards even after I have used them.

[nasa1974]

2 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

It's my thinking that once you have paid with the gift card they will consider it a "normal" type of payment and any leftover, refundable, OBC will be sent as a check after the cruise. I think the system will find it too cumbersome to refund the money back to the gift card. If you used the card to book the cruise and then cancelled I believe it would be refunded back to the card but I don't think that's how it will be handled in the case of OBC. Of course I could be wrong and I always keep a copy of my gift cards even after I have used them.

Thanks.

I know from prior experience that using gift cards to pay for a cruise that if the cruise is cancelled, covid 2020, it is refunded to the gift card. And yes, keep the used gift cards or copies of them until after the cruise has happened. Would be very unfortunate to lose a couple hundred dollars because you threw the gift card away too soon.

[Rick&Jeannie]

I would *think* (IDK...) that you could tell them how much of the gift card balance to use in the OBC purchase.  But in reality (at least in our case) you may as well apply it all to OBC because the casino's going to get it anyway! 😄

[wallyj]

On 2/4/2024 at 6:31 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

You can always just go to GS and purchase OBC there with the card.  That opens up all kinds of possibilities...not limited to the spa.

@Jetswdo, you should also plan for the ‘system’ that GS uses to apply gift cards may be down/not working as my sister found out on our recent Sapphire sailing last December. I do not know if she tried everyday, but she did tell me later, GS made a notation in her account that she attempted to try and redeem gift cards and the system was down, so Princess would charge her credit card and when she returned home, Princess would allow her to redeem gift cards towards her account balance and refund the corresponding amount to her credit card which is a hassle, but will allowed her to not to have gift card money leftover.

[Yehootu]

11 hours ago, nasa1974 said:

Thanks.

I know from prior experience that using gift cards to pay for a cruise that if the cruise is cancelled, covid 2020, it is refunded to the gift card. And yes, keep the used gift cards or copies of them until after the cruise has happened. Would be very unfortunate to lose a couple hundred dollars because you threw the gift card away too soon.

This is what happened to us. Covid cancelled cruises credited back to cards. All other times the balance on ship account used as OBC was returned by check.

[Jetswdo]

I still can't believe that I bought that extra gift card-- So I saved $400.00 by getting 10 gift cards (5 per month)  which left my balance of $2308---So without thinking, I bought 5 more ( forgetting that I  had less that $2500 left to pay fir cruise)  So  then I saw that I just had $328 for the last payment to Princess, I ended up with $171 left on the card.  I was just so used to purchasing 5 of the $500 gift cards per month (started in Dec)  doh!-- So as soon as I board the shio, I will head straight to GS with the print out of E card (pin is printed on it) and hope they will be able to purchase OBC- then replace the OBC instead of the credit card payment.  My own stupidity with this!

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 hours ago, Jetswdo said:

I still can't believe that I bought that extra gift card-- So I saved $400.00 by getting 10 gift cards (5 per month)  which left my balance of $2308---So without thinking, I bought 5 more ( forgetting that I  had less that $2500 left to pay fir cruise)  So  then I saw that I just had $328 for the last payment to Princess, I ended up with $171 left on the card.  I was just so used to purchasing 5 of the $500 gift cards per month (started in Dec)  doh!-- So as soon as I board the shio, I will head straight to GS with the print out of E card (pin is printed on it) and hope they will be able to purchase OBC- then replace the OBC instead of the credit card payment.  My own stupidity with this!

^^^^^ This is probably your best plan of action...

[cruzsnooze]

It doesn't seem logical that if you pay a discounted price for a gift card that Princess would refund the face value. It that worked we all would buy a thousands of dollars worth of gift cards for OBC to be refunded via  check. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

16 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

It doesn't seem logical that if you pay a discounted price for a gift card that Princess would refund the face value. It that worked we all would buy a thousands of dollars worth of gift cards for OBC to be refunded via  check. 

Princess has no idea how you may have obtained a gift card without some serious accounting forensics.  If it was a $500 card...then Princess views it as $500.  I would think that a transaction using gift cards (and needing a partial refund) would be treated basically the same as a CC transaction.  I admit that I have never faced this scenario...I just use GCs to pay my cruise fare up front.  I take them at their word when they say "returned to original form of payment".  I would NOT expect a cash refund.  That should "preserve" the process of a gift card.

[MacMadame]

On 2/6/2024 at 9:34 PM, cruzsnooze said:

It doesn't seem logical that if you pay a discounted price for a gift card that Princess would refund the face value. It that worked we all would buy a thousands of dollars worth of gift cards for OBC to be refunded via  check. 

Don't they limit how much OBC you can buy with Gift Cards? I heard they did and that would solve that problem.