Carnival gift cards

[arby70]

I know I may be "hanging crepe" so to speak, but I paid for my February 2021 cruise with Carnival gift cards I purchased.  Along with what I paid for the cruise and what I have remaining in gift cards, they have $1200 dollars of hard earned money.  I know there are many others out there in the same situation.  If they cancel this cruise again (same cruise was cancelled before back in March) I would like them to give me cash.  Right now they have the policy that they return monies back to the original form of payment.  I am starting to wonder how much longer the cruise industry can deal with this, and I am not sure if getting a gift card back will be like getting confederate money.  I am thinking that the cruise industry will scale back as we are currently seeing, so choices to spend the gift cards will be less.  Do you think that Carnival Corp will allow Carnival gift cards to go towards purchasing a cruise with one of the other lines within their corporation?  I don't know how their bookkeeping works, so may not even be possible.  But it would be nice to have other choice s as the cruise lines are scaling back.

[Cruisesfun65]

The simple answer is no.

Gift card payments definitely will always go back to a new gift card. Only to be applied to a Carnival cruise or Fun Shop purchases.

You might want to offer them at a discounted price on Ebay or to friends if you want to convert into cash.

[arby70]

I do know that I will definitely never buy gift cards again.  I would buy them here and there as I would have the money to use when I'd find a cruise I'd like.  Not an option  now with such uncertain times.  

[evandbob]

In this COVID induced economic recession, gift cards of many companies can easily wind up being worthless.  How many formerly dependable clothing and other retail stores have gone into re-organization or bankruptcy, leaving consumers holding worthless branded gift cards?

 

Very few purchasers of gift cards could have predicted this outcome.

[rondalynn83]

I was just looking to see what would be happening to the gift cards I used to pay off my cancelled cruise. Im forever optimistic eventually I will cruise onboard a carnival ship. 

 

Now how will they refund my $$ from gift card, will they send me a new gift card? 

 

It looks like I got the cash part back of one of my cancelled cruises, but not the gift card part. Also, how will I see my cruise credit for the cruise I rolled over for future cruise credit & onboard credit?

 

Thanks,

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, rondalynn83 said:

I was just looking to see what would be happening to the gift cards I used to pay off my cancelled cruise. Im forever optimistic eventually I will cruise onboard a carnival ship. 

 

Now how will they refund my $$ from gift card, will they send me a new gift card? 

 

It looks like I got the cash part back of one of my cancelled cruises, but not the gift card part. Also, how will I see my cruise credit for the cruise I rolled over for future cruise credit & onboard credit?

 

Thanks,

 

I can tell you what they've done for me. I paid for my entire cruise with gift cards and selected the FCC + OBC option. In my case they're only making my FCC the amount that would've been the cancellation fee had I canceled. The rest of the amount I paid comes in a new gift card. I like that because you aren't limited to booking cruises that cost as much or more than your canceled cruise.

[Joebucks]

This is one of the few reasons I always thought the whole gift card thing was dumb. Not bad for some on board spending, but for any large purchase, buying gift cards for it is a huge risk.

 

My chase card gives 4.5% rewards and included travel insurance. Right there, you're basically already at the 10%, with much better protections. You can also often go through various cash back portals and 3rd party booking sites to get another 2-5% cash back on top of that.

[Saint Greg]

16 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

This is one of the few reasons I always thought the whole gift card thing was dumb. Not bad for some on board spending, but for any large purchase, buying gift cards for it is a huge risk.

 

My chase card gives 4.5% rewards and included travel insurance. Right there, you're basically already at the 10%, with much better protections. You can also often go through various cash back portals and 3rd party booking sites to get another 2-5% cash back on top of that.

 

It's only a risk when there's a once in a hundred years global pandemic. Use your chase card to buy your gift card and you just upped it to 14.5%...16.5 right now.

[arby70]

I think the future for cruising may look different at least for awhile.  I am hopeful that Carnival can recover, so I am not really worried at present.  It may take a bit of time, but as popular as cruising is, I can't imagine it will disappear.  Carnival is the biggest cruising company in the world.  If only one survives, I would think it would be this one.  But as I said, cruising is too popular for the companies not to hang on and restructure.  And I think it will not return until we have a vaccine😢

[Saint Greg]

3 hours ago, arby70 said:

I think the future for cruising may look different at least for awhile.  I am hopeful that Carnival can recover, so I am not really worried at present.  It may take a bit of time, but as popular as cruising is, I can't imagine it will disappear.  Carnival is the biggest cruising company in the world.  If only one survives, I would think it would be this one.  But as I said, cruising is too popular for the companies not to hang on and restructure.  And I think it will not return until we have a vaccine😢

 

Yes. I think NCL would go down before Carnival. And if NCL did go down I think Carnival would gain most of their customers.

[Roz]

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2020 at 2:00 PM, arby70 said:

Do you think that Carnival Corp will allow Carnival gift cards to go towards purchasing a cruise with one of the other lines within their corporation?  

 

I've wondered the same thing.  I'm sitting here with $1,260 worth of HAL gift cards.  Final payment is in November and the cruise is in January.  I doubt the cruise is going to happen.  

 

I think Princess and HAL are prime candidates for a consolidation.  If that were to happen, it would be great if my HAL cards could be used on Carnival, Princess, or Costa.  Guess we'll see what happens.  No one could have predicted the situation we find ourselves in with this pandemic.

[Derbie]

9 hours ago, Roz said:

 

I've wondered the same thing.  I'm sitting here with $1,260 worth of HAL gift cards.  Final payment is in November and the cruise is in January.  I doubt the cruise is going to happen.  

 

I think Princess and HAL are prime candidates for a consolidation.  If that were to happen, it would be great if my HAL cards could be used on Carnival, Princess, or Costa.  Guess we'll see what happens.  No one could have predicted the situation we find ourselves in with this pandemic.

I am like the both of you, in regards to gift cards.  Not only did I pay for a cruise with cards, that have been cancelled twice now, I have probably $500 worth of gift cards, to use for OBC. I also have HAL cards as well from a cancelled Alaska cruise and land trip.  So, I feel like I am stuck.  We have a cruise that is scheduled for last week of Nov and first week of December with NCL, and I am sure this one will cancel.  Just waiting for the announcement.  This one we will only risk the deposit.  We rebooked a cruise and paid for our son and family to go with us on a Oct. cruise, which of course has been cancelled.  I believe we paid for a a good bit of theirs with a CC, but I feel like we are screwed one way or the other.  We will probably just gamble for a future cruise.  I mean what else can you do?  If you choose a refund, you get gift cards maybe 6 months down the road, or you hope for a future cruise. Very sad time for all involved in the travel industry, and those who love to travel. One thing is for sure, I will be highly selective on which type of gift cards I purchase in the future. 

[buckeyefrank]

We're in the same boat with $1300 of OBC paid for by gift cards.  After 4 cancelled cruises, at this point, I wish they would allow me to purchase a bunch of alcohol from the funship store and deliver it to my home instead of my stateroom.  I know I'd be way overpaying, but at least I'll get something for it.

[Joebucks]

17 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

It's only a risk when there's a once in a hundred years global pandemic. Use your chase card to buy your gift card and you just upped it to 14.5%...16.5 right now.

 

Obviously, a pandemic doesn't always happen. I worked for a larger retailer where people would buy gift cards because they would receive sizable fuel discounts. Oh the amount of times I had to fight with people who believed they should get their refund in cash because of X reason.

 

And the Chase card doesn't have a bonus category when buying gift cards. Plus again, no travel insurance. Depending on circumstances, you could probably get either scenario within a few percent of each other.

[Saint Greg]

54 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

Obviously, a pandemic doesn't always happen. I worked for a larger retailer where people would buy gift cards because they would receive sizable fuel discounts. Oh the amount of times I had to fight with people who believed they should get their refund in cash because of X reason.

 

And the Chase card doesn't have a bonus category when buying gift cards. Plus again, no travel insurance. Depending on circumstances, you could probably get either scenario within a few percent of each other.

 

Surely you get something for all purchases on chase right? 2%? Make it 12-14% total. Whatever it is it will be significantly more than your 4%. Anyone who thinks they can/should get a cash refund on a gift card shouldn't be buying them.

[Bevv]

I have a similar issue. My cruises were partially paid for by gift cards and partially from credit cards.  We decided to not go on our Feb 2021 cruise and have requested a refund that will be split between gift cards and credit card credits.  We have a Sept 2021 cruise booked and will be cashing out the $200. cards we have in our possession and any refunded gift cards on that cruise.  We will have roughly $1000 in gift cards total.

I will be using the Casino to cash the gift cards, put it all in the slot maching, play a little and cash out at the end of the cruise.

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Bevv

[13cheermom]

3 hours ago, Bevv said:

I have a similar issue. My cruises were partially paid for by gift cards and partially from credit cards.  We decided to not go on our Feb 2021 cruise and have requested a refund that will be split between gift cards and credit card credits.  We have a Sept 2021 cruise booked and will be cashing out the $200. cards we have in our possession and any refunded gift cards on that cruise.  We will have roughly $1000 in gift cards total.

I will be using the Casino to cash the gift cards, put it all in the slot maching, play a little and cash out at the end of the cruise.

 

I'm wondering if they will allow anyone to continue doing the cash-out method in the casino.  I know in the past when we applied them to our sail & sign account any balance was sent to us in a check in the mail a couple of weeks after our cruise.  Bet they won't be doing that anymore either. 😕  We also have a lot of gift cards for Carnival  & Princess to try and use before anything unforeseen happens.  We booked a really nice suite on Princess with all the perks already added, want to try and use all the cards we can if we actually do get to cruise in 2022.  

[Bevv]

2 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

I'm wondering if they will allow anyone to continue doing the cash-out method in the casino.  I know in the past when we applied them to our sail & sign account any balance was sent to us in a check in the mail a couple of weeks after our cruise.  Bet they won't be doing that anymore either. 😕  We also have a lot of gift cards for Carnival  & Princess to try and use before anything unforeseen happens.  We booked a really nice suite on Princess with all the perks already added, want to try and use all the cards we can if we actually do get to cruise in 2022.  

Good point. Like everything else in the future of cruising all we can do is wait and see what happens. 

 

[simmingdenise]

I'm curious that if I'm holding a gift card and Carnival files a Chapter 11 reorganization I'm pretty sure my cards will be pretty useless. BUT if I apply them to future cruises will the value hold? It seems as if their goal is to cruise and create revenue so anyone with future cruises paid in full should be protected. Am I logical in my thinking? Does anyone have experience with this?

[jetsfan58]

Please help me understand how this episode differs from the usual and standard item purchase returns (retail, grocery, etc.)? Usually the method of exchange, cancellation and/or payment is always reimbursed via the same payment method. I realize that the purchase return or cancellation period may have expired and in that case you are highly likely to be given a form of "credit" to be utilized immediately or at a later date.   

[sarmat1]

On 8/12/2020 at 12:12 PM, simmingdenise said:

I'm curious that if I'm holding a gift card and Carnival files a Chapter 11 reorganization I'm pretty sure my cards will be pretty useless. BUT if I apply them to future cruises will the value hold? It seems as if their goal is to cruise and create revenue so anyone with future cruises paid in full should be protected. Am I logical in my thinking? Does anyone have experience with this?

 

I thought about that as well.  In a Ch 11 reorg, clearly the FCC's and gift cards are unsecured debt likely wiping them out.  Does putting them on an actual booking help?  I certainly thought so as that's exactly what I did.  I'm hoping that converted me from an unsecured creditor to a booked customer and a bankruptcy court would see that current bookings represent future revenue. However, IANAL, so I don't know if that will hold true or not.  Regardless, I had nothing to lose doing an actual booking over allowing those credits to just hang out there. 

Edited August 17, 2020 by sarmat1