June 2024 AARP Celebrity Cruise Gift Card Update

[TGfromTX]

On 7/31/2024 at 12:44 AM, wallyj said:

When I bought the cruise later deposits, I did not want them to automatically be assigned to the TA I used for the current sailing, so the bookings would be with Celebrity. 
[...]My bookings were eventually transferred to my requested TA.

I apologize if I'm overlooking the answer to my question - and hopefully you can make sense of my question.

As I understand it, you waited to transfer to a TA because you were watching deals across different TAs for which had the lowest price + benefits (likely most onboard credit or free packages) for an itinerary you liked - correct?  When you found the deal you preferred most, you transferred to a TA (which I'm assuming had an offer better than Celebrity at time).  And then you paid off remainder through TA with gift cards.

I'm missing what benefit you received by initially booking through Celebrity.  Was there additional onboard credit that transferred in addition to whatever the TA offered?

[wallyj]

@TGfromTX, I purchased a Cruise Later deposit on my Eclipse sailing November 2023, which was an open booking, meaning I did not have a ship or sail date assigned. Since I usually shop around to find the TA which will offer the most amenities if I book with them, I asked the Cruise later to be assigned to Celebrity so I could transfer to whichever TA I finally selected.

 

When I found a couple of sailings I wanted to book, I called Celebrity to book and use the Cruise later deposits as the full deposit required for the bookings and then requested them to be transferred to my selected TA.

 

If I had selected a sailing while I was on board, I would only have 30 days to transfer to a TA. I did not select my new sailings till April 2024 for November 2024 sailings.

 

The advantage of buying the Cruise later deposits on board the Eclipse was it gave me 6 months to book a future cruise and if I did, I would be given ‘bonus’ OBC depending on the length and category of cabin selected. In my case, I received $100 OBC for each booking. So using my $100 cruise next deposit within 6 months, gave me $100 OBC in ADDITION to the amenities offered by my TA.

 

My reply was to answer the post regarding someone wanting to know recent experience using a cruise later deposit and then using gift cards to pay balance.

 

My understanding as of 1/1/24, cruise later deposits are now non refundable, so if you do not use within 12 months, they expire and nothing is refunded. If you do not book a cruise within 6 months, you do not receive any ‘bonus’ OBC, but still can use the Cruise later as your full deposit, except for ‘suites’. Previously if not used, they would be refunded.

[deb18]

Hi.  I just tried to use the aarp gc for final payment.  Well, we are awaiting a response from celebrity as it was booked under a group cruise so it may or may not count. Be aware 

[Rick&Jeannie]

5 hours ago, deb18 said:

Hi.  I just tried to use the aarp gc for final payment.  Well, we are awaiting a response from celebrity as it was booked under a group cruise so it may or may not count. Be aware 

Did you apply the card yourself on the Celebrity website or did you have to go through the group?

[deb18]

19 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Did you apply the card yourself on the Celebrity website or did you have to go through the group?

I went through our TA, who the group was with She said they extended my final payment until Monday because they were working on it 

[InnaSky]

Ignore, dupe post

Edited September 10 by InnaSky
duplicate

[InnaSky]

On 6/14/2024 at 11:07 AM, ken987 said:

Hi,
Have not seen a new update so I figured I would share here. I recently took my entire family on a cruise .... once in a lifetime thing....cleaned my savings but it was worth it... The final bill was $20,000 BUT ...because of AARP I saved $2000 because I bought 40 $500 gift cards from AARP. My travel agent was so proud of me for thinking to do that. All he had to do was call the gift card number for Celebrity and submit the 40 codes. Took a few days to clear and he said he was gonna share this tip with his other customers.

 

So the current GC situation for Celebrity is as of today... YES you can buy as many Gift Cards... AARP Limits 25 per person so I just bought 20 and my other half bought the other 20... Most people won't owe that much so on a regular cruise for 2 people you can easily cover the balance in Gift Cards and save the 10%.

 

Simply Google AARP Gift Cards Celebrity and the AARP site comes up along with other sites that have the celebritygiftcertificateprogram at celebrity dot com email address and phone number for questions or redemption if you are working with Celebrity directly.

 

This is ONLY for use on payments. NOT deposits or to pay once on the ship. This is for final payment before the cruise.

 

Hope this helps...

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the update. Can you confirm this worked for port charges/taxes/fees for the reservation as well, not just the base price? This is all confusing because the T&Cs on the gift card say otherwise.

[ken987]

On 6/27/2024 at 8:20 AM, Cruzinram said:

In order to redeem any Gift Cards you must give them to your Travel Agent who will then contact the Gift Card Department at Celebrity. I have been using these for months and it is a learning curve. As a general rule, if you book with a Travel Agent Celebrity will ot discuss your booking at all. I have always been referred back to my Agent. You can contact gift cards to confirm the balance on the cards. 888.837.5676

Not true !  I have a TA and I emailed the email given directly to celebrity no problems at all  did that for a recent cruise this year. 

[ken987]

20 minutes ago, InnaSky said:

Thanks so much for the update. Can you confirm this worked for port charges/taxes/fees for the reservation as well, not just the base price? This is all confusing because the T&Cs on the gift card say otherwise.

I had to pay with CC initially so maybe they used that deposit for that .  All I know is after the initial deposit I paid the balance with AARP gift cards 

[kasowell2]

On 8/3/2024 at 3:42 PM, wallyj said:

@TGfromTX, I purchased a Cruise Later deposit on my Eclipse sailing November 2023, which was an open booking, meaning I did not have a ship or sail date assigned. Since I usually shop around to find the TA which will offer the most amenities if I book with them, I asked the Cruise later to be assigned to Celebrity so I could transfer to whichever TA I finally selected.

 

When I found a couple of sailings I wanted to book, I called Celebrity to book and use the Cruise later deposits as the full deposit required for the bookings and then requested them to be transferred to my selected TA.

 

If I had selected a sailing while I was on board, I would only have 30 days to transfer to a TA. 

If you choose the book later option now you only have 30 days to transfer to travel agent. Just learned that lesson the hard way 

[billc23]

5 minutes ago, kasowell2 said:

If you choose the book later option now you only have 30 days to transfer to travel agent. Just learned that lesson the hard way 

That is true. In my experience there was a short time period (fall of 2022) where they gave one 30 days to transfer to a TA from the time of booking the actual sailing - not the date of the book later form. There may be other time periods where the same deal existed. Otherwise, it has always been 30 days from the time the booking number was generated on the book later form. Some have disagreed with me on this but I had several book later forms that I book a cruise with Celebrity with well after the 30 day period and then transfer to a TA. The posters who disagreed said they made an exception - who knows? - but it worked for me.

[deb18]

recently used the gift cards to pay the balance of my cruises through my TA.   it took over a week for Celebrity to process it.  One of the cruises was a group cruise rate and they took it, but on the bottom of the card it said something to the effect it was not available to be used for a group cruise.  

[kasowell2]

Just paid off two cruise bookings with AARP cards. One through travel agency and the other one directly. My experience is this. If using a travel agent the agency will call in the numbers. Go ahead and email a pdf of the certificates to the email address on the page stating booking number and that the agency has already called them in. It took about 2-3 days for it to showed on agency’s account. If doing it directly just email them with the booking numbers and a pdf. Both scenarios took about 2-3 days and received emails from celebrity stating they had begun processing them. 
CAUTION do not purchase a card for greater than the balance no matter what the difference might be. Even one penny and they will reject the whole amount.

[JOVERNITE]

Good info kasowell2. Final payment is in Nov. I don't want to buy them too much before then just in case terms change. 

[wallyj]

On 9/12/2024 at 3:06 PM, kasowell2 said:

CAUTION do not purchase a card for greater than the balance no matter what the difference might be. Even one penny and they will reject the whole amount.

Last month I paid off remaining balance of just over $91. I booked with a travel agency. Celebrity had no problem using a $100 gift card to pay balance. Yes, I do not get the difference, but since it only cost me $90, I feel I still saved some $.

[kasowell2]

8 hours ago, wallyj said:

Last month I paid off remaining balance of just over $91. I booked with a travel agency. Celebrity had no problem using a $100 gift card to pay balance. Yes, I do not get the difference, but since it only cost me $90, I feel I still saved some $.

I think a gift card and the AARP gift certificate are two different things. The excess balance I had was $6 on a $500 gift certificate so I thought no big deal since I saved 10%. Luckily I had two bookings so I applied it to my other bookings. The redemption policy written on the actual certificate states no partial redemption.