Hal Gift Card Promotion

[Lido - Lanai]

3 minutes ago, Mandalay1903 said:

Has anyone had the experience of using gift cards and bonus gift cards to pay for cruises or purchase shore excursions in advance, and then the cruise is cancelled by HAL? If HAL cancels the cruise and I take the refund option, does the gift card value return to the gift card or to my original form of payment (my credit card)?

 

What if I cancel the shore excursion before the sailing date?

In both cases, funds are returned to the gift card(s) originally used.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Lido - Lanai

[john the pick]

Does anyone know what happens with the AARP gift cards if used to pay for a cruise and either the cruise is canceled or we have to cancel for some reason?   We have cruise insurance   Is there a circumstance that AARP refunds the gift card?  We have an $8,000 pp cruise in June 2023;  final payment not due until March 2023 but this sounds like it might be a good deal if we are protected in case of issues.

 

Appreciate your thoughts on our situation

[zgscl]

6 hours ago, Lido - Lanai said:

In both cases, funds are returned to the gift card(s) originally used.

Well that is good to know…I usually don’t save gift cards after using (not with HAL necessarily but just in general). Guess I will have to start a file of HAL gift cards just in case. 

[Caribbean Chris]

8 hours ago, john the pick said:

Does anyone know what happens with the AARP gift cards if used to pay for a cruise and either the cruise is canceled or we have to cancel for some reason?   We have cruise insurance   Is there a circumstance that AARP refunds the gift card?  We have an $8,000 pp cruise in June 2023;  final payment not due until March 2023 but this sounds like it might be a good deal if we are protected in case of issues.

 

Appreciate your thoughts on our situation

The terms & conditions with AARP are the same as purchasing directly from HAL. There is a link directly to the HAL website from the AARP rewards website to answer such question. It states that the gift card is not refundable or redeemable for cash except where required by law. You also cannot sell the cards.
 

So if you get money credited back to the card due to cancellation as people mentioned in above posts, sounds like you’ll need to apply that balance to another cruise to use it.

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/legal-privacy/gift-card-terms-and-conditions.html

[kazu]

On 4/23/2022 at 10:11 PM, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

The ‘Canada at par’ was a promotion aimed at select sailings, meaning the base fare on those sailings only. HOWEVER, although the gift card bonus was never mentioned, is available in Canada. I just went online and bought $2000 worth of gift cards. When I went into the cart, there were $200 worth of bonus cards as well!

 

Thanks for posting this.  So you just purchased?  No need to enter a promo code?  Much appreciated if you can confirm.

 

On 4/24/2022 at 2:11 AM, john2003 said:

The issue, I have is these are only usable for purchases In US $$s. So if one books in Canadian $$s they are of no use for the cruise fare. I find this frustrating although I realise other non- US clients have much more to complain about. We seldom use HAL shore excursions.

 

You can use them for much more than shore excursions - anything pre-cruise or even on board.  If the exchange rate suits it can be better than being subject to the exchange rate at the time you cruise.

 

On 4/25/2022 at 3:32 PM, Mandalay1903 said:

Has anyone had the experience of using gift cards and bonus gift cards to pay for cruises or purchase shore excursions in advance, and then the cruise is cancelled by HAL? If HAL cancels the cruise and I take the refund option, does the gift card value return to the gift card or to my original form of payment (my credit card)?

 

What if I cancel the shore excursion before the sailing date?

 

I can assure you it’s refunded to the gift card.  I cancelled and rebooked and the funds were refunded.

[sandiego1]

I tried to use the gift cards to prepay crew incentive. It is not allowed - only a credit card for that.

[Cruise Suzy]

32 minutes ago, sandiego1 said:

I tried to use the gift cards to prepay crew incentive. It is not allowed - only a credit card for that.

 

The instructions say they can be used at Guest Services. That would cover crew incentive.

 

Did you try purchasing OBC? Then the OBC could be used for crew incentive.

[sandiego1]

Yes. I am purchasing OBC now which will be used for crew incentive once on the ship.  Just can't use it to pre-pay crew incentive.

 

Also, I just discovered that a max of 10 gift cards can be used for a single purchase. Since we have many $25 bonus cards, I will need to do multiple OBC purchase transactions.

[FlaMariner]

11 hours ago, sandiego1 said:

Yes. I am purchasing OBC now which will be used for crew incentive once on the ship.  Just can't use it to pre-pay crew incentive.

 

Also, I just discovered that a max of 10 gift cards can be used for a single purchase. Since we have many $25 bonus cards, I will need to do multiple OBC purchase transactions.

 

In December, we waited until we were onboard and then went to Guest Services and they applied our gift cards with no problem.  

 

We had a bunch and the nice lady made copies of them for us and then entered them later so no-one had to to wait.  We saw them later on our TV/onboard account.

 

Easy

[CM1984]

Thanks so much for this!  We cruise in September and still owe about $800.00; every little bit helps!

[IPB4IGO]

FYI: While the gift card I bought today at the HAL site never expires, the bonus card that I received expires 6/30/23.

[PigsCanFly]

On 4/25/2022 at 2:32 PM, Mandalay1903 said:

Has anyone had the experience of using gift cards and bonus gift cards to pay for cruises or purchase shore excursions in advance, and then the cruise is cancelled by HAL? If HAL cancels the cruise and I take the refund option, does the gift card value return to the gift card or to my original form of payment (my credit card)?

 

What if I cancel the shore excursion before the sailing date?

We recently cancelled a booked HAL cruise prior to final payment due time.  We had paid ~half of the cruise with cc and gift cards and bonus gift cards.  The refund to the gift cards was all that we had used them for, but the Bonus gift cards did not get refunded.  We ended up rolling the cc refund into 2 new bookings.  It was not HAL that cancelled, but I believe that the bonus gift card did say non-refundable.

[Scrapnana]

The latest card ($2000) that I tried to buy (more on that in a bit), came with a $200 gift card instead of the 8 $25 ones.  Someone realized what an effort it was going to be to key in all those $25 cards.

 

From reading this thread it sounds as if most of you are having a much better time purchasing the cards than I am (and some others on my roll call).  I have attempted to make 10 purchases.  Only 2 of them have gone through on the first try - the others need more "authentication".  None of the reps from the support center can tell me what they are using to "authenticate" the information you give them.  I have had the credit cards for over 9 years and the same address and phone number for 45.  What else are they looking at?

 

I am trying to find an e-mail to let Holland America know what I feel about the company they are using for the gift cards.

[Nancy&Frank]

@Scrapnana I bet if you send Gus and/or Seth Wayne an email you will get a quick response.

[Scrapnana]

11 minutes ago, Nancy&Frank said:

@Scrapnana I bet if you send Gus and/or Seth Wayne an email you will get a quick response.

I just sent one off to Guest Relations.  I'll copy it to both of them.  Thanks for the idea.

[Cruise Suzy]

41 minutes ago, Scrapnana said:

I have attempted to make 10 purchases.  Only 2 of them have gone through on the first try - the others need more "authentication".

 

You are NOT alone. I made 4 of the $2,00 purchases without problems. (HAL says you can order up to $10,000 per day but the company limits each order to $2,000.) Waited until the next day to place another order, and it couldn't be authenticated. Called and the next day I got an e-mail that it had been authenticated and received the cards. Waited another day to place my final order and again had to ask someone to intervene. It has been 48 hours since I was sent a case ticket number but have heard nothing since.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Cruise Suzy

[Hygge!]

U are not alone on this.  I spoke with these folks everyday. The coding on their authentication is screwy. I asked to speak to a manager and they said there isn’t anyone to speak to. I feel for these employees! The company should never be used again by HAL. Thank goodness they are now issuing in $200 denominations for the bonus cards but I’m finished at this point.  Have sent a spreadsheet with all card numbers, PIN numbers, amounts and where to use them to my TA. I feel for her also!!! Wish I could do this tedious work for her. I think I will use AARP from now on since their bonus cards don’t expire and I didn’t have any issue with “authentication” with them. 

[Nancy&Frank]

Does anyone know if there is a maximum amount per day one can buy with AARP.

Thanks much.

[Hygge!]

23 minutes ago, Nancy&Frank said:

Does anyone know if there is a maximum amount per day one can buy with AARP.

Thanks much.

limit is per month not per day with AARP - I bought $2500 - paid $2250. 

 

[twodjs]

You can make up to $10,000 in giftcard purchases per day but each transaction is limited to $2000 (no need to space over multiple days). The only issue I had was the first purchase prompted an immediate fraud inquiry email to me from my credit card company. As soon as I acknowledged that it was me making the purchase, it was approved with no further issues. We requested the virtual cards - which arrive in your email within about 10 minutes - both the one with the purchased price and a separate one with the 10% bonus. The process was very easy. Don't overthink it.

Edited May 1, 2022 by twodjs

[Lido - Lanai]

7 hours ago, Nancy&Frank said:

Does anyone know if there is a maximum amount per day one can buy with AARP.

Thanks much.

AARP gift cards are sold in $100 and $500 denominations. A maximum of five cards may be purchased per month. No "bonus cards", you pay $90 for the $100 card and $450 for the $500 card. All cards are digital (not physical plastic cards).

[IPB4IGO]

11 hours ago, Hygge! said:

[snip]

I think I will use AARP from now on since their bonus cards don’t expire and I didn’t have any issue with “authentication” with them. 

AARP does not issue bonus cards. They simply discount the $100 cards to $90 and the $500 cards to $450.

[IPB4IGO]

17 hours ago, PigsCanFly said:

We recently cancelled a booked HAL cruise prior to final payment due time.  We had paid ~half of the cruise with cc and gift cards and bonus gift cards.  The refund to the gift cards was all that we had used them for, but the Bonus gift cards did not get refunded.  We ended up rolling the cc refund into 2 new bookings.  It was not HAL that cancelled, but I believe that the bonus gift card did say non-refundable.

That is very important information.  I won't buy those cards from HAL if the bonus cards are nonrefundable in case of a cruise cancellation.

 

[ron57nie]

One thing I felt more than know was there is a series of those pick the pictures with XXX in them. I felt if that did not show up when I said I was not a robot the card did not go through, I think THIS was the authentication. I had 3-4 days of buy some get some, buy some don't get them, eventually I got them all but it wasn't pleasant trying to figure out how many I really got.

 

Glad they figured out the $25 gift certificates.

[twodjs]

46 minutes ago, IPB4IGO said:

That is very important information.  I won't buy those cards from HAL if the bonus cards are nonrefundable in case of a cruise cancellation.

 

Seriously? The bonus cards were not yours to cash out. If you cancel your cruise, why should HAL pay you more than you paid? You SHOULD only benefit if you take the cruise. It's like buying something on sale - then returning it and expecting to paid back for the sale price you paid PLUS the difference between the sale price and the full price. Who does that?