Gift Card Refunds?

[cruzsnooze]

On 5/14/2020 at 2:42 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

I don't believe I will purchase any gift cards in the future ... unless cruising is back in swing and they offer me a 50% bonus.  They may do well to offer a smoking good deal on gift cards right now ... at least they could bring in some much needed cash.  

I know Holland was giving a 10% discount if you paid for your cruise in full.  Again, not enough for me at the present time but, if I wasn't waiting on a few refunds, I might have gone for a deal like that but only if it was offering a much better discount.  

AARP has $500 carnival gift cards for $448.  Not enticing to me  I don't use carnival but they hopefully will sell enough to get me my refunds.

[Cruise Raider]

49 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

AARP has $500 carnival gift cards for $448.  Not enticing to me  I don't use carnival but they hopefully will sell enough to get me my refunds.

 I’m not enticed by that either.  I still have a couple grand in Princess ones to use up.  When I bought them, I was oh so sure I’d use them.  Unfortunately, I applied them to cruises and their value is stuck out there somewhere in lala land.  

[13cheermom]

16 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 I’m not enticed by that either.  I still have a couple grand in Princess ones to use up.  When I bought them, I was oh so sure I’d use them.  Unfortunately, I applied them to cruises and their value is stuck out there somewhere in lala land.  

 

I totally agree!  Someone on the Carnival board mentioned about those Carnival cards, and I cautioned to think twice about investing any more money into them regardless of the savings.  I have about $10K tied up in Princess cards just sitting out in "Lala land" as you put it.  Getting impatient with this refund process when I keep reading about other gettings refunds after my sail date. 😡

[mbglib]

On 6/2/2020 at 1:26 PM, mbglib said:

Update:  I received an email from gift card support at Princess today that said I would be received a digital gift card in refund of the $500 "in a few days".  I thought this was odd, so I went back and checked the balance on the one that had $500 yesterday and it was back to $0 !

So, frustrated again!

Another update:  I received the digital gift card today.  I has a $500 balance as it should, but after what happened with the other balance, I am still skeptical.

[Cruise Raider]

I just had the balance of one of my gift card balances reinstated for a canceled May sailing.  I still have an outstanding one for August and hate to think how long that is going to take.  Happy to see they are working on these cancellations and the balance was reinstated just as they claimed they would be.  Some were saying they were sending out new cards, others said they reinstate the balance to the numbers first assigned.  I called and they said it would go back out on the same card number ... and it did.  One down, one to go.  

 

 

[13cheermom]

37 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I just had the balance of one of my gift card balances reinstated for a canceled May sailing.  I still have an outstanding one for August and hate to think how long that is going to take.  Happy to see they are working on these cancellations and the balance was reinstated just as they claimed they would be.  Some were saying they were sending out new cards, others said they reinstate the balance to the numbers first assigned.  I called and they said it would go back out on the same card number ... and it did.  One down, one to go.  

 

 

Curious if you received any written correspondence about the funds being added back. I also have a lot of refunds due on gift cards for a May cruise and still haven't heard anything From a March cancellation. 

[Cruise Raider]

13 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

Curious if you received any written correspondence about the funds being added back. I also have a lot of refunds due on gift cards for a May cruise and still haven't heard anything From a March cancellation. 

 

No, I did not receive any notification. 

I've taken it upon myself to check the balance periodically (about once every week or so). I noticed the FCD applied to a canceled sailing, that also had a gift card applied to it, had been deposited back into my account.  It wasn't there a few days ago.  This prompted me to check into the gift card balance and saw it was reinstated.  

Sorry to say it, but it looks like people with March sailings that were canceled really got the short end of the stick.  My May cruise has been refunded in full now.  Believe me, I'm not trying to gloat ... I'm as irritated as anyone as I still have two canceled cruises for which I need to be reimbursed and two other future sailings that are in jeopardy of the same fate.   

BTW, they are having a gift card sale with a bonus right now but, I will never buy one again.  Some people will but, their risk tolerance must be much higher than mine.  

 

 

[13cheermom]

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

BTW, they are having a gift card sale with a bonus right now but, I will never buy one again.  Some people will but, their risk tolerance must be much higher than mine.  

 

 

Thanks for the update!  I totally agree about the gift card situation. After so many years of purchasing them and reaping the savings we are also done with them. Guess I will have to start checking card balances  again since we are at the 90 day mark. Congrats on your one refund and good luck with the future ones. We dont gave anything scheduled until next May & October, who knows what next year will be like. 🤷‍♀️ 

[Criusewanderlust]

Cruise - June 14, 2020 Alaska Cruise on the Emerald
Cancelled - April 14th by Princess
Cancellation Notice - April 14th 
We originally opted for #1 and moved our cruise to August 2nd, 2020.  We were given an extended deadline to put down a deposit since Princess knew we they our money.  We were informed on May 6th that the August cruise was a no go.  We then opted for 100% refund.  
Refund - 6/18, got an email from Paypal that $547 in shore excursions was being refunded from Princess.  Checked the 6 gift cards totaling $3,357.84 and those had been refilled.  Waiting on $4,465.18 still to be refunded to my 2 debit cards.   

 

At least seeing something.  It is interesting that last week I emailed our Princess TA and talk to her and now I am seeing some progress.  

[Yehootu]

Checked my cards and my 8K has been added back to the cards. Now to get back my points on my Princess card.

[Cruise Raider]

My gift cards, one for a May cruise and one for an August sailing, have both been fully reinstated back to the original gift card numbers.  I am now just missing one FCD, which was purportedly expired.   I guess that might be coming back as a check through Bottomline Technologies as I don't see it listed under my personalizer.  If I don't see it by the end of the month, I think I will call to find out what's up.  

 

[Cruise Raider]

On 6/24/2020 at 5:04 PM, Cruise Raider said:

My gift cards, one for a May cruise and one for an August sailing, have both been fully reinstated back to the original gift card numbers.  I am now just missing one FCD, which was purportedly expired.   I guess that might be coming back as a check through Bottomline Technologies as I don't see it listed under my personalizer.  If I don't see it by the end of the month, I think I will call to find out what's up.  

 

 

Update ... my expired FCDs just came back to my credit card.  Whew!!  All done with the refund process for now.  

[merryjewelhound]

I kept my original gift cards that I printed out when I purchased them. I have received my refunds from a Back to Back cruise, part was refunded to my credit card and the rest were on the gift cards. I have a cruise booked for late next year and I reused the gift cards and pin numbers on that. All that was owed to my by Princess has been returned.

[OC SeaPA]

45 minutes ago, merryjewelhound said:

I kept my original gift cards that I printed out when I purchased them. I have received my refunds from a Back to Back cruise, part was refunded to my credit card and the rest were on the gift cards. I have a cruise booked for late next year and I reused the gift cards and pin numbers on that. All that was owed to my by Princess has been returned.

My TA told me back in March when our May cruise was cancelled that we could get the cash back on our gift cards ($2000 + $100 bonus).  Now 90 days later we are on our third set of excuses.  Told that refund was "in process" by a 3rd party vendor?  After issuing a credit card dispute we finally got the first $3k refund back to our credit card (took 90 days, we filed for full refund on day 1 of the cancellation period!).  After hearing stories of how the gift cards are finally being replaced maybe I should try that route?  We have a future booking for May 2021, depending upon DH health. 

 

Good for those who have finally manuevered out of this maze! 

[Ombud]

AFAIK Princess broke their 'agreement' with me. I had drunk the koolaid and was in their corner ..... no more. I can't even file a dispute with my Visa bc I'm waiting for FCC & my gift cards to be refunded. Even though Princess cancelled me I'm not 'officially' part of a Pause so I can't go there. My PVP sympathizes but that won't pay off a cruise that I owe on. I'm just SOL 

 

change my name to 'dejected'

[Thrak]

UPDATE:  As I said previously, I had five of the $50 "bonus" gift cards from purchasing $5k in regular cards. Princess had applied them to one of my cruises this winter and it is pretty much a given that the cruises will be cancelled so I asked to have the OBC moved to a cruise next May. Princess didn't want to do that and said they would extend the expiration date of the bonus cards and refund them. That was quite a while ago.

 

I just got email from Princess and they have issued a new e-card in the full amount of $250 and it doesn't show any expiration date at all. Wahoo! They came through and made good on things. I'm not totally surprised they covered the cards but I am surprised they did it "so soon" since they haven't even cancelled the cruise(s) yet. Very cool. 😎

[Cruise Raider]

16 hours ago, Thrak said:

UPDATE:  As I said previously, I had five of the $50 "bonus" gift cards from purchasing $5k in regular cards. Princess had applied them to one of my cruises this winter and it is pretty much a given that the cruises will be cancelled so I asked to have the OBC moved to a cruise next May. Princess didn't want to do that and said they would extend the expiration date of the bonus cards and refund them. That was quite a while ago.

 

I just got email from Princess and they have issued a new e-card in the full amount of $250 and it doesn't show any expiration date at all. Wahoo! They came through and made good on things. I'm not totally surprised they covered the cards but I am surprised they did it "so soon" since they haven't even cancelled the cruise(s) yet. Very cool. 😎

 

I only have $100 in gift card bonuses ... I had no idea they would restore their value past the expiry.  Thanks for posting.  I'm 99% sure the cruise they are applied to will also be canceled.  I wouldn't mind getting that back as a gift card without any expiration date if they will do that.  Sounds like they will ... if they are consistent.  

 

[Thrak]

8 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

I only have $100 in gift card bonuses ... I had no idea they would restore their value past the expiry.  Thanks for posting.  I'm 99% sure the cruise they are applied to will also be canceled.  I wouldn't mind getting that back as a gift card without any expiration date if they will do that.  Sounds like they will ... if they are consistent.  

 

 

Perhaps this info may be of assistance. I didn't have much luck with the phone number but the email eventually worked for me.

 

Princess Gift Card support agents  1-855-426-0168
giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com

 

[Cruise Raider]

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Perhaps this info may be of assistance. I didn't have much luck with the phone number but the email eventually worked for me.

 

Princess Gift Card support agents  1-855-426-0168
giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com

 

 

I will try that contact!  Thanks for the info!  

As I may have mentioned, I'm probably going to cancel that one sailing anyway, before Princess does.  I'm 99% sure they will be cancelling in the not so distant future anyway.  I'm not going for any additional FCCs anyway.  I just want to get through this relatively unscathed on the booking end...by that, I mean, I need to use up the money I have invested in gift cards and future cruise deposits.   I'm not really looking to get anything out of the stock I purchased.  That was my decision and a risk I was willing to take. 

Thanks again ... I will check into this. 

[RebeccatheGeek]

Wow! So glad people posted in this topic. Our Alaskan cruise set for July was cancelled April 14th, and I looked today and they had put the money back on my individual gift cards. Well, they put money back on the first 9 cards, but when trying to check the other 4 cards the website seems to not be working. 

 

In April, I had called and emailed to ask that they put the amount on one new gift card, which they obviously didn't do. Will try the last 4 at another time and hope their website is fixed at that point. 

 

They have also refunded $300 of the $400 we paid with credit cards. 

 

Now if I could just sell these gift cards without losing a ton of money, I'll be happy. 

[Ombud]

On 6/27/2020 at 9:07 PM, Thrak said:

 

Perhaps this info may be of assistance. I didn't have much luck with the phone number but the email eventually worked for me.

 

Princess Gift Card support agents  1-855-426-0168
giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com

 

Thanks again! I will try calling 1st as I hate to send my screenshots of the digital cards to someone I don't know. I have a total of 8 cards. 1 just received a refund of $202.15. 3 are for $1000 & 4 are those $50 ones (3 bonus cards, 1 regular) and they all say to check the # again. Maybe this means I'm almost done with this mess?? Just waiting on FCC from March cancelation 

[Cruise Raider]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

Thanks again! I will try calling 1st as I hate to send my screenshots of the digital cards to someone I don't know. I have a total of 8 cards. 1 just received a refund of $202.15. 3 are for $1000 & 4 are those $50 ones (3 bonus cards, 1 regular) and they all say to check the # again. Maybe this means I'm almost done with this mess?? Just waiting on FCC from March cancelation 

 

There may be a bit of time on hold if you call down to gift card support but, those associates are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful to say the least.  I hope they bring you some joy!!  

BTW, I just had another sailing canceled, one of which had a bonus gift card attached.  Gift Card Support explained to me that because I accepted the double your deposit offer, it would be honored, even though it had expired.  

[Ombud]

I was only on hold 20 minutes. Spoke to a very nice lady in the gift card department and she said she can see that they are working on my September cancelation but to not do ANYTHING yet and give it a week. Problem is she's reading off gift card numbers that are different from what I've got. And I've got my screenshots. She stated once it's on the 2#s I've got, they can reissue the rest if necessary . 

 

And bonus card expiration dates will be extended through 2020

[cacruiser54]

On 5/15/2020 at 9:27 AM, RebeccatheGeek said:

I emailed to ask for them to send it back to me on a new gift card after talking on the phone with a couple of reps. I had used about 12 electronic giftcards and had thousands paid on them. Just crossing my fingers they actually send me a physical card (or two) at some point. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that all that money is gone. 😞

Rebecca, I also emailed the appropriate department to request one card for all refunds. However, today I received an email back that one card for my Deceased Husband has been credited, and a separate Bonus card has been refunded.  They advised that my gift card refunds are still in process.

 

Just happy to see that some of the gift cards are being refunded!

 

BTW, our cruise was originally scheduled for early May.

Stay healthy all!

[Ombud]

1 minute ago, cacruiser54 said:

 

 

On 6/28/2020 at 10:23 AM, RebeccatheGeek said:

 

Are you experiencing a delay in getting the funds put on the cards or a delay in getting a replacement card once it is refunded to a card you do not have access to?