Cruise paid using Gift Cards, Bonus Cards then cancelled with Cruise with Confidence

[Therese S.]

We were scheduled to sail on the Ruby Princess Feb 10 on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii,  but due to Omicron and elderly mother in law's sudden decline in health we cancelled under the Cruise with Confidence on January 5, before the 30 day requirement.  Our cruise was paid for using FCD's for deposit, Princess Gift Cards and Bonus Gift Cards from the summer 2021 promotion and a very small amount to our VISA.

 

After many back and forth emails with our TA we finally have received all out of pocket funds back except for the $300 in Bonus Gift Cards. 

The bonus gift cards had an expiration date of 5/1/2022 and I hope they will be restored as they should still have value until 5/1/2022 and we're hoping to book  a short cruise for this April. 

 

We each received 1/2 of the cruise fare plus the cost of our platinum princess insurance as a future cruise credit that expires 12/31/2022.  Our Visa was credited and the remaining out of pocket amounts were reloaded back to our Gift Cards that do not expire, including the FCD.  FCD was not returned to our Princess account so we lose the future onboard credit when you use a FCD,  but now it also does not expire.  So I am satisfied that all funds have been returned except the $300 in bonus cards. 

 

Question - Has anyone cancelled who used Bonus Gift Cards as part of the payment, was the value of your Bonus Cards restored by Princess? 

I plan to call the gift card center on Monday, but was curious if anyone has experience with this type of issue. 

[Cruise Raider]

11 minutes ago, Therese S. said:

We were scheduled to sail on the Ruby Princess Feb 10 on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii,  but due to Omicron and elderly mother in law's sudden decline in health we cancelled under the Cruise with Confidence on January 5, before the 30 day requirement.  Our cruise was paid for using FCD's for deposit, Princess Gift Cards and Bonus Gift Cards from the summer 2021 promotion and a very small amount to our VISA.

 

After many back and forth emails with our TA we finally have received all out of pocket funds back except for the $300 in Bonus Gift Cards. 

The bonus gift cards had an expiration date of 5/1/2022 and I hope they will be restored as they should still have value until 5/1/2022 and we're hoping to book  a short cruise for this April. 

 

We each received 1/2 of the cruise fare plus the cost of our platinum princess insurance as a future cruise credit that expires 12/31/2022.  Our Visa was credited and the remaining out of pocket amounts were reloaded back to our Gift Cards that do not expire, including the FCD.  FCD was not returned to our Princess account so we lose the future onboard credit when you use a FCD,  but now it also does not expire.  So I am satisfied that all funds have been returned except the $300 in bonus cards. 

 

Question - Has anyone cancelled who used Bonus Gift Cards as part of the payment, was the value of your Bonus Cards restored by Princess? 

I plan to call the gift card center on Monday, but was curious if anyone has experience with this type of issue. 

My situation was slightly different in that Princess canceled the cruise.  I was allowed to place the value of the bonus gift cards onto another sailing that I had booked.  

[Ombud]

35 minutes ago, Therese S. said:

Question - Has anyone cancelled who used Bonus Gift Cards as part of the payment, was the value of your Bonus Cards restored by Princess? 

Yes BUT mine was a Pause 2 (or 3, definitely not Pause 1 as that was Visa refund & FCC) cancelation. Gift Card Services lumped them all together on 1 gift card without an expiration date. Took about 2 weeks but it was a large scale cancelation 

[PacnGoNow]

41 minutes ago, Therese S. said:

We were scheduled to sail on the Ruby Princess Feb 10 on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii,  but due to Omicron and elderly mother in law's sudden decline in health we cancelled under the Cruise with Confidence on January 5, before the 30 day requirement.  Our cruise was paid for using FCD's for deposit, Princess Gift Cards and Bonus Gift Cards from the summer 2021 promotion and a very small amount to our VISA.

 

After many back and forth emails with our TA we finally have received all out of pocket funds back except for the $300 in Bonus Gift Cards. 

The bonus gift cards had an expiration date of 5/1/2022 and I hope they will be restored as they should still have value until 5/1/2022 and we're hoping to book  a short cruise for this April. 

 

We each received 1/2 of the cruise fare plus the cost of our platinum princess insurance as a future cruise credit that expires 12/31/2022.  Our Visa was credited and the remaining out of pocket amounts were reloaded back to our Gift Cards that do not expire, including the FCD.  FCD was not returned to our Princess account so we lose the future onboard credit when you use a FCD,  but now it also does not expire.  So I am satisfied that all funds have been returned except the $300 in bonus cards. 

 

Question - Has anyone cancelled who used Bonus Gift Cards as part of the payment, was the value of your Bonus Cards restored by Princess? 

I plan to call the gift card center on Monday, but was curious if anyone has experience with this type of issue. 

Did you save a copy of the gift card, so you have the number?  If not, you can call the gift card dept to look it up.

Here’s the info from the website;

Q:  If I have used my Princess Cruises Gift Card to pay for my cruise and I cancel my cruise and am entitled to a refund, how can I receive my refund?
A:  If you have your original Princess Cruises Gift Card, a credit will be added back to your original card so please keep your card even after you use the entire value of the card.  If you do not have the original card, contact Princess Cruises Gift Card Customer service at 1-833-907-3079 and a new Princess Cruises Gift Card will be sent to you.
 

 

[Dock B]

We cancelled a cruise that was paid for with credit card and regular gift cards. I had two $50 bonus cards set up as OBC.

 

We got money back on credit card and most of regular gift card back…no problems with that at all.

 

However, the two $50 bonus cards have seemed to disappear as I tried to have my Princess TA apply them to an upcoming cruise. He said he’d check into it but I’ve left a few voice mails and sent 1 email and I’m still waiting to hear. I have both the original electronic gift card and the print outs; hoping for the best.

[PacnGoNow]

11 minutes ago, Dock B said:

We cancelled a cruise that was paid for with credit card and regular gift cards. I had two $50 bonus cards set up as OBC.

 

We got money back on credit card and most of regular gift card back…no problems with that at all.

 

However, the two $50 bonus cards have seemed to disappear as I tried to have my Princess TA apply them to an upcoming cruise. He said he’d check into it but I’ve left a few voice mails and sent 1 email and I’m still waiting to hear. I have both the original electronic gift card and the print outs; hoping for the best.

What is a bonus gift card?

[Dock B]

5 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

What is a bonus gift card?

Occasionally Princess will have a special. In my case: buy $500 in gift cards and get a bonus $50 gift card. 
 

It’s the bonus cards that the OP used to pay for their cruise and that I used to buy OBC on cancelled cruises, that we’re having trouble being able to use on a future cruise, even though the bonus cards haven’t expired.

[PacnGoNow]

1 minute ago, Dock B said:

Occasionally Princess will have a special. In my case: buy $500 in gift cards and get a bonus $50 gift card. 
 

It’s the bonus cards that the OP used to pay for their cruise and that I used to buy OBC on cancelled cruises, that we’re having trouble being able to use on a future cruise, even though the bonus cards haven’t expired.

Okay, got it. Thanks 

[jat1977]

18 hours ago, Therese S. said:

Question - Has anyone cancelled who used Bonus Gift Cards as part of the payment, was the value of your Bonus Cards restored by Princess? 

I plan to call the gift card center on Monday, but was curious if anyone has experience with this type of issue. 

Our cruise in 2020 was cancelled by Princess as part of Pause 1.  We had used a bonus gift card to either pay part of the fare or towards a pre-booked excursion (I can't remember which).  It had an expiration date in 2020, but Princess refunded it to that original card and apparently removed the expiration date because when we rebooked last Summer for an upcoming cruise, we used it towards the fare.  

[AZjohn]

We had $800 in bonus cards we used for a 2021 Australian cruise. Princess did not cancel the cruise before we knew it was never going to happen because of Covid. We cancelled the cruise ourselves before the expiration of bonus cards and booked a replacement cruise for 2023 reusing those bonus cards (plus the gift cards we used).

 

We know we are gambling losing these bonus cards if the 2023 cruise does not happen. It's nice to basically get a 10% discount on a cruise but this damn Covid situation has really put some risk in purchasing those gift cards with bonus cards (not worried about losing gift cards because they do not have an expiration).

 

To OP, best of luck resolving this situation.

[Therese S.]

On 1/29/2022 at 2:00 PM, PacnGoNow said:

Did you save a copy of the gift card, so you have the number?  If not, you can call the gift card dept to look it up.

Here’s the info from the website;

Q:  If I have used my Princess Cruises Gift Card to pay for my cruise and I cancel my cruise and am entitled to a refund, how can I receive my refund?
A:  If you have your original Princess Cruises Gift Card, a credit will be added back to your original card so please keep your card even after you use the entire value of the card.  If you do not have the original card, contact Princess Cruises Gift Card Customer service at 1-833-907-3079 and a new Princess Cruises Gift Card will be sent to you.
 

 

Thank you.   I do have all my Gift Cards and Pin numbers.  Ive read the fine print, just dont know if the credit back to gift cards includes the bonus cards or are they a one time use type of thing.  I'll know more tomorrow

[Therese S.]

On 1/29/2022 at 3:25 PM, Dock B said:

We cancelled a cruise that was paid for with credit card and regular gift cards. I had two $50 bonus cards set up as OBC.

 

We got money back on credit card and most of regular gift card back…no problems with that at all.

 

However, the two $50 bonus cards have seemed to disappear as I tried to have my Princess TA apply them to an upcoming cruise. He said he’d check into it but I’ve left a few voice mails and sent 1 email and I’m still waiting to hear. I have both the original electronic gift card and the print outs; hoping for the best.

Good luck sounds like we are in the same sort of situation.  It seems there was no problem loading amounts back to the regular gift cards and when I check balances using the gift card center, the bonus card numbers dont pop up.  Please report back on what happens.  My TA suggested I call the gift card center myself, which I plan to do. 

[Therese S.]

14 hours ago, jat1977 said:

Our cruise in 2020 was cancelled by Princess as part of Pause 1.  We had used a bonus gift card to either pay part of the fare or towards a pre-booked excursion (I can't remember which).  It had an expiration date in 2020, but Princess refunded it to that original card and apparently removed the expiration date because when we rebooked last Summer for an upcoming cruise, we used it towards the fare.  

Maybe the difference in your situation was that you didn't cancel your cruise Princess did.  I would love it if my bonus cards had no expiration date.  I just hope I get the value back

[Therese S.]

13 hours ago, AZjohn said:

We had $800 in bonus cards we used for a 2021 Australian cruise. Princess did not cancel the cruise before we knew it was never going to happen because of Covid. We cancelled the cruise ourselves before the expiration of bonus cards and booked a replacement cruise for 2023 reusing those bonus cards (plus the gift cards we used).

 

We know we are gambling losing these bonus cards if the 2023 cruise does not happen. It's nice to basically get a 10% discount on a cruise but this damn Covid situation has really put some risk in purchasing those gift cards with bonus cards (not worried about losing gift cards because they do not have an expiration).

 

To OP, best of luck resolving this situation.

Oh its good to hear someone who cancelled their cruise received funds back to the bonus cards.  I dont think I will ever purchase gift cards again until cruising and the world gets back to normal, yes too risky and a pain for my TA and myself to deal with. 

[Dock B]

Here is an update on my two seemingly “missing” $50 Promotional Gift Cards. I had previously applied them as OBC to a cruise I cancelled under Cruise with Confidence and these promo cards were not refunded even though they haven’t expired.

 

—my Princess travel advisor tried to help so I can get these applied as OBC to a cruise; he had to find out how to apply them as OBC; they didn’t go through and he checked further and saw they had already “been used”. Of course, not actually “used” in reality, but had been applied to the cancelled cruise

—he gave me the phone number to the 3rd party company who generates gift cards for Princess, to see about getting the funds reinstated to the promo cards

—Gift Card Services (the 3rd party company) said they only issue the regular gift cards and that it is Princess who issues the Promotional Gift Cards and it would be Princess who needs to refund and reinstate the promo cards

—as instructed by my travel advisor, I have contacted him again to let him know the results of the call to Gift Card Services; I’m waiting to her back on his further research into this (with my fingers crossed!)

 

If/when I get more information, I’ll post it.

[Therese S.]

2 hours ago, Dock B said:

Here is an update on my two seemingly “missing” $50 Promotional Gift Cards. I had previously applied them as OBC to a cruise I cancelled under Cruise with Confidence and these promo cards were not refunded even though they haven’t expired.

 

—my Princess travel advisor tried to help so I can get these applied as OBC to a cruise; he had to find out how to apply them as OBC; they didn’t go through and he checked further and saw they had already “been used”. Of course, not actually “used” in reality, but had been applied to the cancelled cruise

—he gave me the phone number to the 3rd party company who generates gift cards for Princess, to see about getting the funds reinstated to the promo cards

—Gift Card Services (the 3rd party company) said they only issue the regular gift cards and that it is Princess who issues the Promotional Gift Cards and it would be Princess who needs to refund and reinstate the promo cards

—as instructed by my travel advisor, I have contacted him again to let him know the results of the call to Gift Card Services; I’m waiting to her back on his further research into this (with my fingers crossed!)

 

If/when I get more information, I’ll post it.

Thank you for your response.  I tried earlier today but was on hold too long and gave up, I finally just now got through and was told essentially the same thing.  The Gift Card center said they are simply a 3rd party card support and any refund concerns need to go through Princess.  So back to the beginning of the circle.  Unfortunately my TA is on a cruise escorting guests. 

Edited February 1, 2022 by Therese S.

[Dock B]

I’ve tried to keep the following post succinct but I’ve also tried to give enough reference back to my previous posts (#7 & 15) so the story can make some sense. Apologies for the length but I hope it can help others prepare if they need to fight for their bonus/promo card refunds.

 

Heard back from my Princess agent last night. He spoke with someone who told him my two $50 promo/bonus gift cards were actually refunded into my FCC from my cancelled cruise—WRONG!!

 

I had previously written down all the payment amounts and did the math to account for the monies paid for my cancelled cruise. I reviewed all those numbers with him and he could then see that the person he spoke with was definitely wrong—yay! However, she had also told him that the cards are “non-refundable”, which, she said, is noted in the fine print. [[What I found interesting, is this person also told my agent I could phone Guest Card Services to see what they could do…of course, I had already called and was told it is Princess who issues the promo/bonus cards and only Princess who could refund to them]]

 

I then read the fine print to my agent concerning refunds and transfers—both of which are allowed until the expiration date 5/1/22. He agreed that the money should have been refunded to the two bonus cards that had been applied toward OBC on the cruise I cancelled.

 

But, he is now left with only one option: emailing his “bulldog” boss who, he said, has many contacts. He hopes the boss will be able to push this through but it may not happen before I sail on 2/5. He suggested I take the paper versions with me in the event they are able to reinstate/refund the bonus cards so that I’ll have the account numbers & pins and can use the cards.

[Therese S.]

6 hours ago, Dock B said:

I’ve tried to keep the following post succinct but I’ve also tried to give enough reference back to my previous posts (#7 & 15) so the story can make some sense. Apologies for the length but I hope it can help others prepare if they need to fight for their bonus/promo card refunds.

 

Heard back from my Princess agent last night. He spoke with someone who told him my two $50 promo/bonus gift cards were actually refunded into my FCC from my cancelled cruise—WRONG!!

 

I had previously written down all the payment amounts and did the math to account for the monies paid for my cancelled cruise. I reviewed all those numbers with him and he could then see that the person he spoke with was definitely wrong—yay! However, she had also told him that the cards are “non-refundable”, which, she said, is noted in the fine print. [[What I found interesting, is this person also told my agent I could phone Guest Card Services to see what they could do…of course, I had already called and was told it is Princess who issues the promo/bonus cards and only Princess who could refund to them]]

 

I then read the fine print to my agent concerning refunds and transfers—both of which are allowed until the expiration date 5/1/22. He agreed that the money should have been refunded to the two bonus cards that had been applied toward OBC on the cruise I cancelled.

 

But, he is now left with only one option: emailing his “bulldog” boss who, he said, has many contacts. He hopes the boss will be able to push this through but it may not happen before I sail on 2/5. He suggested I take the paper versions with me in the event they are able to reinstate/refund the bonus cards so that I’ll have the account numbers & pins and can use the cards.

Thank you for your update and I'm very sorry to hear of your struggle in regards to the promo cards.  I hope to hear good news that the "bulldog" was successful and your promo cards were reinstated. 

 

I emailed my TA the promo/bonus card numbers and pins for my $300.  Like you, I've kept track of how much I rec'd back in FCC, credit to VISA and amounts back to regular gift cards.  Difference between total cost of cruise and amount rec'd back equals the $300 bonus cards.  I hope I have better success and will keep you posted.  I kept the original Princess promo gift card email dated 7/2/2021.  It does not say anything about promo cards are a one time use only. 

 

From email:  Bonus gift cards are non-refundable or transferable after 5/1/2022.

 

[Dock B]

Back from our cruise—here is what happened with the saga of the two not-refunded $50 promo gift cards.

 

Refresher: booked a cruise, had the two promo gift cards applied as OBC, cancelled cruise, promo card amounts weren’t reinstated even though they had not expired. My Princess vacation planner worked on this, to no avail (full story on that can be found in my earlier posts).

 

So once onboard, I took the printouts of the two bonus cards to Guest Services and explained the whole story. She took the printouts so she could discuss it with the finance folks onboard. With it being such a convoluted story, I didn’t hold much hope they’d be able to sort things out.

 

I received a phone call the next day where she told me they could see everything I said, but what they could not see is a date where the cards were ever used. So they gave us two $50 ‘good will’ credits (OBC) as replacement for the promo cards!!! Wow!!

 

And to make things even more unbelievable, it was refundable OBC (which didn’t matter as we used our OBC)!! But what a gracious thing to do as a kind gesture for all the time & trouble I went through to get back what should have been an automatic refund to the promo cards.

 

As an aside in this story: our PVC had also re-fared our cruise just a few days before sailing, as the price had dropped. This re-fare caused the CCL OBC to drop off the cruise. My PVC contacted the department who puts the OBC onto a cruise and also had me re-fax the document, which I did along with a note stating what had occurred.

 

I brought the document, the original and second-time fax confirmations with me. The same Guest Service person scanned those documents and returned my copies. She was able to also get that $100 OBC applied to my onboard account!!

 

Of course, we have both praised her, the finance people, and the Guest Service department on our post-cruise survey.

 

Those with similar situations may or may not have as much luck getting things resolved as we did but it helps to have all your paperwork with you and to be kind; also keep your expectations low, as we did, so as not to be too disappointed if things don’t work out as desired.