Carnival Gift Card payment through AARP Travel (Expedia)

[movtarget]

I could not find a definitive answer to my question through searches, but ended up trying and had success, so here is a summary:

 

Q: Can I use Carnival Gift Cards through my specific travel agency (AARP Travel powered by Expedia) after I have booked a cruise to make payments or final payment.

 

My Experience: I booked an ocean view cabin and paid $98 deposit (during their promo for low deposits), with < $700 balance due (don’t get too excited by that price, 5-night Ecstasy out of Jacksonville). This was just a few days ago. I then decided I wanted to move up 2 cabin categories (from Main to Empress, still Oceanview) for $40 more.

 

I called AARP Travel, They were able to book the upgrade without a penalty dollar hit (early saver has a lot of restrictions) by exploring a couple of different booking codes. Because we were past the promo period for reduced deposit, the new deposit was $300 (or $202 more than I had already deposited. 

 

I asked if they could take Carnival Gift cards for the new deposit amount, and later for final payment, and they said yes. I had acquired 2 $100 e-gift cards in late February and 2 in early March (AARP $90 for $100, one per member per month, my wife and I are on the same membership, but have separate logins, so two per month). They had me read off the e-gift number, the amount, and the PIN for each of 3 cards to apply $300 total ($98 more than necessary right now). Success!

 

I’ll continue to acquire $200/month from AARP to cover all “gift card eligible” expenses: Final Payment, prepaid Cheers Package, and gratuities (via Cruise Cash purchase). Luckily, I have enough time to build up the $200/month to exceed my needs.

 

Hopefully other searchers will find this info helpful.

 

Moving Target in NC

 

PS: Long time no post = long time no cruise - but I’m back!

[Joe817]

Several people on this board pays for their cruise with Carnival Gift Cards. In fact, I just paid off our upcoming cruise (on the Freedom) last Friday. 

 

It's a good way to save money. 

[bury me at sea]

Glad you got your upgrade!

 

My TA, Carnival, and the Fun Shops for pre-cruise purchases, and Guest Services all accept the Carnival gift cards for payment.  Ten percent off everything including your S&S account is significant to me.

 

If you haven't already done so check the Allstate thread.  You earn points but unlike AARP they don't limit the number of cards you can buy.

 

They do run out now and then but it's a good alternate source to research.

 

Happy sailing.

[13cheermom]

Word of caution here about the gift cards, yes in perfect world where your cruise goes on without a problem or care in the world, using those cards are great.  But if something happens and your trip doesn't get taken, refunds will be issued in the original form of payment to be used at a later date and time, so plan to re-book.  Especially with the uncertainty right now of what's going on, I kinda wished I had just paid with a credit card, so incase of cancellation I could receive a quick refund to my account.  Just something to think about right now in the current situation.  I have always been a big fan of the gift cards and used them faithfully over the years, but now I have stopped to think about it. 🤔

[Joe817]

10 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

Word of caution here about the gift cards, yes in perfect world where your cruise goes on without a problem or care in the world, using those cards are great.  But if something happens and your trip doesn't get taken, refunds will be issued in the original form of payment to be used at a later date and time, so plan to re-book.  Especially with the uncertainty right now of what's going on, I kinda wished I had just paid with a credit card, so incase of cancellation I could receive a quick refund to my account.  Just something to think about right now in the current situation.  I have always been a big fan of the gift cards and used them faithfully over the years, but now I have stopped to think about it. 🤔

Well, the flip side of that coin is, for me, if the cruise I've just paid in full using Carnival g.c.'s get cancelled, they will either send me a check, or give me future cc, or a full refund in gift cards. In any of those 3 scenarios, I will just turn around and book another cruise. I will not be denied! 😁

[13cheermom]

2 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Well, the flip side of that coin is, for me, if the cruise I've just paid in full using Carnival g.c.'s get cancelled, they will either send me a check, or give me future cc, or a full refund in gift cards. In any of those 3 scenarios, I will just turn around and book another cruise. I will not be denied! 😁

 

Yes, everything you said is true, as well as in our situation also, in this case about $10K worth for an Alaskan vacation (cruise, air, hotels, etc.) for a family of 4. 😱  But we will all still go in May unless Princess cancels us.  However it's difficult to get your adult children work schedules coordinated to plan this kind of trip, AKA -me as the designated planner.  Just wanted new cruisers to think about this option for payment with the current situations going on right now.  We have always insured our trips in the past 10+ years and will continue to do so. 

[Joe817]

1 minute ago, 13cheermom said:

 

Yes, everything you said is true, as well as in our situation also, in this case about $10K worth for an Alaskan vacation (cruise, air, hotels, etc.) for a family of 4. 😱  But we will all still go in May unless Princess cancels us.  However it's difficult to get your adult children work schedules coordinated to plan this kind of trip, AKA -me as the designated planner.  Just wanted new cruisers to think about this option for payment with the current situations going on right now.  We have always insured our trips in the past 10+ years and will continue to do so. 

Wow! Ouch! What a headache. Your situation is a lot more complicated than mine. Let's hope that no changes are made.

[cmukid87]

I know OP referenced "Expedia."  

 

This has me wondering if I can pay using gift cards and still claim cashback bonuses....hmmm.

[klfrodo]

I thought we couldn't talk about travel agencies or suppliers.

[Schoifmom]

31 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

I thought we couldn't talk about travel agencies or suppliers.

 

We can't. This thread will disappear soon 👻👻

[movtarget]

I will see if I can edit the topic/post to make it compliant. Long time away, hate to break rules, even if through ignorance. But probably explains why I couldn’t find an answer to my question, lol.

 

MovTarget

 

[movtarget]

Not evident to me that I can edit the original post. I will wait for it to die, then re-issue within compliance. Won’t be as helpful, but I also understand the business reason for the rule.

 

Movtarget

[Organized Chaos]

CC's guidelines state that we can discuss the "type of agency" as long as we don't make recommendations. TA's themselves aren't allowed to link to their business or give any specific info. about their agency. I don't think the OP was recommending the TA, they were just filling us in on some relevant info. about it.

 

OP, we can't edit thread titles at all and we can't edit our own posts after 10 or 15 minutes. You could click the "Report Post" link on your first post and include a message requesting that some of it be changed to prevent it from being completely deleted. Then again, there's a chance there's no problem with it and it won't be deleted. I'm not sure why anyone's so worried about it.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Organized Chaos

[Organized Chaos]

3 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

Word of caution here about the gift cards, yes in perfect world where your cruise goes on without a problem or care in the world, using those cards are great.  But if something happens and your trip doesn't get taken, refunds will be issued in the original form of payment to be used at a later date and time, so plan to re-book.  Especially with the uncertainty right now of what's going on, I kinda wished I had just paid with a credit card, so incase of cancellation I could receive a quick refund to my account.  Just something to think about right now in the current situation.  I have always been a big fan of the gift cards and used them faithfully over the years, but now I have stopped to think about it. 🤔

 

It's good advice overall. Since we usually book well in advance (a year or so), what we do is, we save up the money that we use to buy the gift cards. That way if something happens and we can't go, we don't have any money tied up in a stack of gift cards. Then at a certain point when we know we have enough time to purchase the amount of gift cards we need, we'll start buying them with that saved money. By then, we're almost certain we'll go. Yeah, there could still be unforeseen circumstances that pop up, and we'd deal with them if they came, but this method works best for us and still allows us to save a lot of money with the gift cards.

[Bostwick girl]

An interesting thing with the AARP gift cards I had happen for the first time ... I purchased one ecard, first one since the new rules. Got the ecard pretty quick. Next day I used it to apply $100 to my balance for November cruise. To my surprise, Carnival took $2 for a fee to apply the card to my balance!  So actually applied $98. Guess they're going to dollar us to death!

[Joe817]

36 minutes ago, Bostwick girl said:

An interesting thing with the AARP gift cards I had happen for the first time ... I purchased one ecard, first one since the new rules. Got the ecard pretty quick. Next day I used it to apply $100 to my balance for November cruise. To my surprise, Carnival took $2 for a fee to apply the card to my balance!  So actually applied $98. Guess they're going to dollar us to death!

It could be the result of a processing fee because of using an ecard vs. a hard plastic one. I dunno.....just speculating.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Joe817

[bury me at sea]

9 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

An interesting thing with the AARP gift cards I had happen for the first time ... I purchased one ecard, first one since the new rules. Got the ecard pretty quick. Next day I used it to apply $100 to my balance for November cruise. To my surprise, Carnival took $2 for a fee to apply the card to my balance!  So actually applied $98. Guess they're going to dollar us to death!

 

That is unsettling.  

[13cheermom]

13 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

An interesting thing with the AARP gift cards I had happen for the first time ... I purchased one ecard, first one since the new rules. Got the ecard pretty quick. Next day I used it to apply $100 to my balance for November cruise. To my surprise, Carnival took $2 for a fee to apply the card to my balance!  So actually applied $98. Guess they're going to dollar us to death!

 

Wow, that is very sad to hear.  Kind of defeats the purpose of using a discounted gift card IMO.  The whole concept of gift cards is getting more and more difficult to use and not worth the 10% off anymore.  Think I will just go back to using my rewards cc for all future cruises.  Have 2 Carnival ones planned for next year, so we shall see.

[klfrodo]

16 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

CC's guidelines state that we can discuss the "type of agency" as long as we don't make recommendations. TA's themselves aren't allowed to link to their business or give any specific info. about their agency. I don't think the OP was recommending the TA, they were just filling us in on some relevant info. about it.

 

OP, we can't edit thread titles at all and we can't edit our own posts after 10 or 15 minutes. You could click the "Report Post" link on your first post and include a message requesting that some of it be changed to prevent it from being completely deleted. Then again, there's a chance there's no problem with it and it won't be deleted. I'm not sure why anyone's so worried about it.

So, what your saying is,,, is that we can talk about https://www.*****.com/  or https://cruiseco.com/  and use the 10% gift card at these travel agencies also as long as I'm not recommending them?

 

well,,, not vacations 2 go I guess,,, but any others are okay

Edited March 3, 2020 by klfrodo

[Joe817]

1 minute ago, klfrodo said:

So, what your saying is,,, is that we can talk about https://www.*****.com/  or https://cruiseco.com/  and use the 10% gift card at these travel agencies also as long as I'm not recommending them?

Why don't you call them and ask them? That's the surest way to know. 

[Organized Chaos]

42 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

So, what your saying is,,, is that we can talk about https://www.*****.com/  or https://cruiseco.com/  and use the 10% gift card at these travel agencies also as long as I'm not recommending them?

 

well,,, not vacations 2 go I guess,,, but any others are okay

 

I've seen people talk about booking cruises through the big box chains, and name them specifically, on many occasions. The way I see it is that we can talk about them, but not promote or recommend them in any way. My guess is, linking to their sites is probably considered promoting them. Of course, I could be interpreting the rules wrong.

[Organized Chaos]

14 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

An interesting thing with the AARP gift cards I had happen for the first time ... I purchased one ecard, first one since the new rules. Got the ecard pretty quick. Next day I used it to apply $100 to my balance for November cruise. To my surprise, Carnival took $2 for a fee to apply the card to my balance!  So actually applied $98. Guess they're going to dollar us to death!

 

Was that recently? I used an e-card to put towards our balance late last year (November I think) and there wasn't a fee. Then I used a couple more e-cards to purchase Cruise Cash in Dec. or Jan. No fee there either. Very strange.

[n6uqqq]

I just bought 17 steakhouse reservations about a week ago with gift cards for my daughter's wedding cruise and no fees.

[Bostwick girl]

2 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Was that recently? I used an e-card to put towards our balance late last year (November I think) and there wasn't a fee. Then I used a couple more e-cards to purchase Cruise Cash in Dec. or Jan. No fee there either. Very strange.

 

2 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

I just bought 17 steakhouse reservations about a week ago with gift cards for my daughter's wedding cruise and no fees.

 

I bought the ecards  on the AARP Rewards site early last week, got the card within minutes. Waited about 24 hours to apply to my balance. Maybe it was because it was an ecard? Maybe that's Carnivals processing fee for using an ecard. I don't know. I have bought several thousands of dollars in gift cards, both hard and ecards, over the past few years and have never had this happen. I'll be interested to see if others have this happen now.

 

[n6uqqq]

Just now, Bostwick girl said:

 

 

I bought the ecards  on the AARP Rewards site early last week, got the card within minutes. Waited about 24 hours to apply to my balance. Maybe it was because it was an ecard? Maybe that's Carnivals processing fee for using an ecard. I don't know. I have bought several thousands of dollars in gift cards, both hard and ecards, over the past few years and have never had this happen. I'll be interested to see if others have this happen now.

 

Was your payment on the Carnival website? If so did it mention a fee? Per their giftcard website there are no service or dormancy fees.