AARP Gift Cards

[Hmdecor]

AARP now has $100 Carnival Gift Cards for $90. Members Only and you can only get 1 Carnival Card a month. Didn't see any $500 ones yet.

[Joe817]

2 hours ago, Hmdecor said:

AARP now has $100 Carnival Gift Cards for $90. Members Only and you can only get 1 Carnival Card a month. Didn't see any $500 ones yet.

Yup. And the only way you can buy the Gift Card if through PayPal. Uggghhhh. 

[TerReuv]

15 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Yup. And the only way you can buy the Gift Card if through PayPal. Uggghhhh. 

 

Yeah, I found that out too!  I was not happy about that at all.  Not sure what the deal is there.  Also, not happy about only being able to buy one a month.

[rix772]

4 hours ago, TerReuv said:

 

Yeah, I found that out too!  I was not happy about that at all.  Not sure what the deal is there.  Also, not happy about only being able to buy one a month.

I'm unhappy also and would like to purchase $500 or higher gift cards. Is there any thing that can be done to improve this program ,like it was before?

[deadmoney]

 AMEX offers them from time to time.

[cruisegus]

AARP is now a complete waste of time for any type of gift card, especially Carnival gift Cards.  On their own forum many complaints can be found, with no real answers.  Many may not renew membership, although cheap see no value in it any longer

[cmichael1279]

Check out Raise.com - you pay face value, but you get 10% back on Carnival.  Spent $1000, get $100 back in Raise.com credit, but a Southwest Airlines gift card to book your flight.  You can also usually get points on shopping portals for using Raise.com.

[UpstateCruizer]

On 12/19/2019 at 10:36 AM, cruisegus said:

AARP is now a complete waste of time for any type of gift card, especially Carnival gift Cards.  On their own forum many complaints can be found, with no real answers.  Many may not renew membership, although cheap see no value in it any longer

I agree! My membership was due for renewal in November. I opted to not renew as the only reason I even signed up for it was the value of the gift cards. I don’t want to deal with only being able to purchase one per month given that they only have the $100 cards. Now I’d be fine with one per month if they offered larger amounts. The rest of the gift cards available are a joke. I’m not interested in buying a restaurant type $40 gift card for $38 lol. There’s also so many issues people have had with buying them and the money not being on the card as well as the pins not working. If they improve the program I’ll revisit my membership but not the current program. 

[Ellaleah]

I agree on your AARP membership being worthless as far as gift cards go, but the price of membership is about the same as 1 day’s gratuities for 1 person on a ship.  AARP does a lot of good things such as lobbying for lower drug prices.  Let go of your $16.00 for  the team.

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, Ellaleah said:

I agree on your AARP membership being worthless as far as gift cards go, but the price of membership is about the same as 1 day’s gratuities for 1 person on a ship.  AARP does a lot of good things such as lobbying for lower drug prices.  Let go of your $16.00 for  the team.

 

So you think people should give an organization money even though they don't need anything the organization offers and no longer support what they've done to their new rewards program? Apparently, you don't have a problem spending other people's money. AARP realized that the Carnival cards were in very high demand and they took advantage of that by changing them to a members-only purchase. That change was underhanded, if you ask me. They were certainly only looking out for themselves when they made that decision.

[Organized Chaos]

3 hours ago, UpstateCruizer said:

I agree! My membership was due for renewal in November. I opted to not renew as the only reason I even signed up for it was the value of the gift cards. I don’t want to deal with only being able to purchase one per month given that they only have the $100 cards. Now I’d be fine with one per month if they offered larger amounts. The rest of the gift cards available are a joke. I’m not interested in buying a restaurant type $40 gift card for $38 lol. There’s also so many issues people have had with buying them and the money not being on the card as well as the pins not working. If they improve the program I’ll revisit my membership but not the current program. 

 

We were members for a couple years before they changed the rewards program. I find the new AARP Rewards program to be a complete joke. And they know a lot of their members aren't happy about it, but they refuse to admit it isn't as good as the old Rewards for Good. With that said, we do find value in some of the benefits they offer, so we keep our membership. If we only wanted the Carnival cards, I would definitely cancel our membership, but we do save enough through car rentals and hotels to make up for the membership fee, and then some, so we'll keep it..for now.

[Joe817]

8 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We were members for a couple years before they changed the rewards program. I find the new AARP Rewards program to be a complete joke. And they know a lot of their members aren't happy about it, but they refuse to admit it isn't as good as the old Rewards for Good. With that said, we do find value in some of the benefits they offer, so we keep our membership. If we only wanted the Carnival cards, I would definitely cancel our membership, but we do save enough through car rentals and hotels to make up for the membership fee, and then some, so we'll keep it..for now.

Well said O.C., our feelings exactly. We save a bunch of money, like you say, on car rentals, hotels, plus all of the 10% discounts they offer on just about every restaurant imaginable.  Well, not really, but a whole lot of them for sure. 

[Mary Louise]

Are they other companies that sell discounted Gift Cards?  I think in the past I was able to buy them from Verizon, but no longer.  

 

[coevan]

On 12/17/2019 at 9:15 PM, Joe817 said:

Yup. And the only way you can buy the Gift Card if through PayPal. Uggghhhh. 

 

 

Explain your ugg, PayPal is very secure, you can use any payment method you choose, any credit card, bank debit, checking account debit or PayPal's own payment system, easy peasy. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

That change was underhanded, if you ask me.

 

 

I thought they were very kind to allow non members. Being a member to use a service you are subscribed to is very reasonable. One hotel stay a year pays the membership and it's a good organization we are proud to support. We also get a discount on our cell phone bill which also pays for the year's membership. 

[ChinaShrek]

1 hour ago, Mary Louise said:

Are they other companies that sell discounted Gift Cards?  I think in the past I was able to buy them from Verizon, but no longer.  

 

PayPal sells them directly at 10% off.  However, you can only buy them in $100 increments.

[Organized Chaos]

6 minutes ago, coevan said:

Explain your ugg, PayPal is very secure, you can use any payment method you choose, any credit card, bank debit, checking account debit or PayPal's own payment system, easy peasy. 

 

I thought they were very kind to allow non members. Being a member to use a service you are subscribed to is very reasonable. One hotel stay a year pays the membership and it's a good organization we are proud to support. We also get a discount on our cell phone bill which also pays for the year's membership. 

 

Joe can offer his own input on his PayPal comments, but I see where he's coming from. I think what aggravates some people is that they didn't have a PayPal account, nor did they want to create a new account of some kind just to do something they could easily do without it, with just a credit card. Before, all we had to do was enter a credit card. No other account needed.

 

I thought it was very nice of them to allow non-members to purchase the cards before, with only the points required. They did it that way for years, so it's perfectly understandable that the change upsets some people. They realized just how in-demand the Carnival cards were and they decided to force people to become members to continue to buy them. I feel like it was an underhanded way done just to boost their membership numbers. Believe it or not, many people just want the Carnival cards and don't care about and don't find value in the other benefits AARP offers. That's their prerogative. The 1 per month limit severely hinders the way most people use Carnival cards and if someone's not interested in the other benefits, I understand why they don't appreciate the change to members-only cards.

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, coevan said:

 

 

Explain your ugg, PayPal is very secure, you can use any payment method you choose, any credit card, bank debit, checking account debit or PayPal's own payment system, easy peasy. 

 

Explain my uggghhh??? My dear boy, are you old enough to know that PayPal several years ago got hacked...a massive email scam ensued....bank accounts were closed on fears of massive online bank fraud??  PayPal has been hacked more times than ebay. And you say it's very secure? Explain your statement after you read through this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pay+pal+scams&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS757US758&oq=pay+pal+scams&aqs=chrome..69i57.5115j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

 

1 hour ago, coevan said:

 

 

I thought they were very kind to allow non members. Being a member to use a service you are subscribed to is very reasonable. One hotel stay a year pays the membership and it's a good organization we are proud to support. We also get a discount on our cell phone bill which also pays for the year's membership. 

 

[coevan]

aren't eBay and PayPal the same company?

[Joe817]

3 minutes ago, coevan said:

aren't eBay and PayPal the same company?

Since when, and please state your source. 

 

I haven't used either since the late 1980's.

[Organized Chaos]

eBay bought PayPal back in '02, but that doesn't have anything to do with AARP switching over to PayPal as the sole payment method. Actually, if I had to guess, I would think that particular change comes from the fact that the new AARP Rewards is now ran by a new rewards company, HelloWorld. My guess is they are the ones who require payment through PayPal since they're the ones who process the orders. I also suspect that they are the ones who limit the cards to 1/month. It's possible that they aren't set up to meet the demand that the former rewards company, Deluxe Rewards, is capable of handling. Allstate Rewards is still handled by Deluxe Rewards, which is why they're still a good rewards program.

[naxer]

Having to use PayPal is the deal breaker for me.  I know many people use it and like it, but I have not had good experiences with it, and I get regular scam email about it.  I just feel better knowing that no credit card numbers of mine reside in PayPals databanks.

[bury me at sea]

FYI one change in AARP gift cards.  Still major issue of only e-cards, only $100 denomination, and only one a month per member, but... 

 

I check once a week or so and just today was able to buy one using my credit card, NOT Paypal.

 

No where near as good as Rewards for Good used to be, but at least it's a step in the right direction.  

 

 

[Ak4n3]

Yes, AARP now accepts credit cards.

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, Ak4n3 said:

Yes, AARP now accepts credit cards.

Great news! Yes, a step in the right direction. 👍

[Organized Chaos]

That's one small step for Carnival cruisers, now let's see them take one giant leap and ditch the monthly limit. Oh, and $500 cards...we're gonna need those too. 😁