Hal Gift Card Promotion

[PGCruiser2]

19 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.

Should use the bonus gift cards on sail away card when already on the ship :)

[Crusin-Suzan]

Can someone explain to me if we should buy gift cards thru HAL or AARP? What is the difference?

[Cailey53]

26 minutes ago, Crusin-Suzan said:

Can someone explain to me if we should buy gift cards thru HAL or AARP? What is the difference?

You can purchase either— the difference is you are limited to 5 gift cards/month through AARP, but the 10% “bonus” is netted off at the time of purchase (eg— purchase $2500 worth of cards for $2250). AARP cards do not expire. 
  The HAL cards also have the 10% bonus, but it comes in the form of a “bonus” card. The original gift card has no expiration but to bonus cards expire in approx 1 year. For $2500 worth of cards, you pay $2500, and you have $250 time limit bonus cards.

 

[IPB4IGO]

1 hour ago, Cailey53 said:

You can purchase either— the difference is you are limited to 5 gift cards/month through AARP, but the 10% “bonus” is netted off at the time of purchase (eg— purchase $2500 worth of cards for $2250). AARP cards do not expire. 
  The HAL cards also have the 10% bonus, but it comes in the form of a “bonus” card. The original gift card has no expiration but to bonus cards expire in approx 1 year. For $2500 worth of cards, you pay $2500, and you have $250 time limit bonus cards.

 

In addition, you can buy up to $10,000 in HAL cards per day, compared to the $2,500 per calendar month from AARP.

The HAL promo ends on May 8, 2022, while the AARP offer is good "while supplies last".

[Red Haired Lady]

Wondering if the gift cards can be used to pay for the government taxes or air part of the bill? Does anyone have experience with this? I don't see it in the T & C.

[Cailey53]

Just now, Red Haired Lady said:

Wondering if the gift cards can be used to pay for the government taxes or air part of the bill? Does anyone have experience with this? I don't see it in the T & C.

Yes, used gift cards to pay for all my remaining balance— flights,  port fees, insurance.

[Scrapnana]

10 hours ago, ron57nie said:

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.

I have only been asked to "pick the pictures" twice in all the cards I've tried to buy.  I wish someone could tell us what the problem is in "authentication".

[Gunther1]

I apologize if this has already been addressed:

 

We have purchased the actual (not the digital) gift cards and have received them.

 

However,, we have  not yet received the  bonus 10% cards .

 

Is there a delay between the gift card and the bonus cards ?  It’s been about a week since we got the gift cards via snail mail. 

[Cruise Suzy]

I had the "authentication" problem with 3 of my 6 orders - not asked to "pick the pictures" on any of them. Received the $25 bonus cards - ugh! That's 4 $500 cards and 8 $25 ones per order to track!

 

Today my TA tried to submit just a few of them. She was on hold for over an hour, then was hung up on when she said she had gift cards. Happened 3 times. If you are using a TA, be patient. Thank goodness, my final payment dates are several months away.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Cruise Suzy

[Lido - Lanai]

55 minutes ago, Gunther1 said:

I apologize if this has already been addressed:

 

We have purchased the actual (not the digital) gift cards and have received them.

 

However,, we have  not yet received the  bonus 10% cards .

 

Is there a delay between the gift card and the bonus cards ?  It’s been about a week since we got the gift cards via snail mail. 

Were your purchased gift cards in increments of $250.00 or $500.00 ?

All bonus cards get sent via email so I would think you would have received the email by now.

You can call the gift card company (Buyatab Online, Inc.) at 1 833-907-3080 and ask, they were fairly responsive when I've called them in the past.

[Vict0riann]

On 4/23/2022 at 6:11 PM, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

. 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!

 

 

For a couple of days, we've been trying to buy gift cards - even the US ones don't seem to be available to us.  It asks for a US address and postal code.  Doesn't like Canada!  When Pat went to Chat and asked, the response was they were not available to Canadians (although our PCC says they are....).  Any helpful hints?

Edited May 4, 2022 by Vict0riann

[Horizon chaser 1957]

58 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

 

 

For a couple of days, we've been trying to buy gift cards - even the US ones don't seem to be available to us.  It asks for a US address and postal code.  Doesn't like Canada!  When Pat went to Chat and asked, the response was they were not available to Canadians (although our PCC says they are....).  Any helpful hints?

It sounds like you’re trying to buy physical cards that they mail. We bought the electronic email cards. It goes through AND you get the 10% bonus even with a Canadian email address.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 4/28/2022 at 4:06 PM, kazu said:

 

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

Sorry, Jacqui, I just got home from a week on the Zuiderdam without Internet.

Yes, I purchased the electronic cards, no promo code needed. It doesn’t mention anything about getting bonus cards, but when you go into your basket, there they are. At the end of it all the bonus cards arrived in a separate email from the gift cards, but arrive they did!
It was almost suspiciously easy.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Horizon chaser 1957

[Vict0riann]

1 hour ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

It sounds like you’re trying to buy physical cards that they mail. We bought the electronic email cards. It goes through AND you get the 10% bonus even with a Canadian email address.

I was surprised, too, that they asked for a street address, but it was the digital cards we were looking at.  We’ll try again with a different computer.  

[Florida_gal_50]

I didn’t realize Canadians could buy the digital cards.  Good information.  Thanks.

[Bookited]

On 4/30/2022 at 6:38 PM, Scrapnana said:

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.

We have had similar issues with our purchases from HAL. Our first try went through with no problem, but after that it was no go, with multiple calls, and no resolve. All we can guess is that it may have something to do with us choosing to have our credit reports blocked.  We had no problem getting the AARP card.

[Scrapnana]

1 hour ago, Bookited said:

We have had similar issues with our purchases from HAL. Our first try went through with no problem, but after that it was no go, with multiple calls, and no resolve. All we can guess is that it may have something to do with us choosing to have our credit reports blocked.  We had no problem getting the AARP card.

I doubt it is because of having your credit reports blocked - I haven't done that and still the issues.  I am averaging about 25% going through the first time and for the others calling the support number and giving them the same information (phone, address, e-mail, etc.) from the original order.  On a brighter note, I had two go through today on the first try.😁

[amoba]

Using HAL gift cards to make the final payment for my cruise was quite an experience and if I ended up with a discount overall, it was well earned.  I’m glad to hear that they changed the $25 bonus cards to higher denominations as all those cards and numbers took plenty of time to enter (and manually remove the spaces between numbers).  It took me 7 days of attempting to purchase cards, calling “buyatab”, trying the “chat” option (no response), calling HAL, emailing HAL and “buyatab” (no response or help), and receiving hundreds of emails but it’s finally (mostly) complete (I hope).  As has been the case with many others who’ve posted, several times the transaction was canceled as they were “unable to authenticate” my order.  My credit card companies said it wasn’t them, it was a problem with the vendor.  Most of the phone numbers for “buyatab” did not work (fast busy signal) and when one of the phone numbers was answered, most staff didn’t know anything about HAL gift cards.  Eventually, I spoke to someone at “buyatab” who did know about them and how to “authenticate” my order.  She just verified my email address and said to wait 24 hours and I would get an another email.  The email stated “your order has been reassessed and is now active”.  This worked and I was able to continue with the previously canceled order(s).  Due to not getting all of the bonus cards that I’d calculated, I ended up having to buy extra cards and tried to move the excess to my on-board HAL account.  Although the correct amount shows in an email, it does not show anywhere in my HAL account, that I can find.  Does anyone know if it should show or where I can find it?  When calling HAL, they haven’t been able to find it or help.  In all of my attempts, successes and failures at purchasing these cards, at least I wasn’t subjected to having to select photos (ha ha, that’s little consolation but another wrinkle for some).  The very first HAL staff I spoke to about the gift cards recommended that I simply pay by credit card instead – maybe he was right.  Thanks for listening!  Vicki

[Cruising-along]

I just finished ordering and receiving (5) $2000 cards (the max dollar amount allowed each day).  At first I was worried because I thought I could do them all in one transaction, but it wouldn't let me.  I eventually realized I had to do them each separately, one at a time.  Will do one more tomorrow, this will pay for our next 3 cruises.  

 

Oh, also the first transaction wouldn't go through, said there was a problem -- and I immediately got a text from fraud alert from my credit card company.  That was quickly taken care of, and smooth sailing after that. 

Edited May 5, 2022 by Cruising-along

[Vict0riann]

I also managed to get a couple of gift cards today, plus one bonus one in US dollars.  I'm still hoping to be able to get some Canadian $ ones!

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 4/28/2022 at 5:18 PM, sandiego1 said:

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

I have 220 days of cruises coming up in the next 12 months, and prepaid crew incentive for ALL of it with gift cards. There was no problem. 
I must have picked a day when the HAL website was tormenting people for some other type of transaction.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 5/1/2022 at 9:10 AM, ron57nie said:

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.

 

 

Does anyone else find it ironic when a computer demands that you prove you aren’t a computer?

I don’t know about AI, but I do suspect they are developing a sense of humour.

[54Carol]

Went to the page to purchase.  Max gift card is $2,000.  Will I still get another gift card for $200?  or is there a limit to getting the 10%

[Lido - Lanai]

6 minutes ago, 54Carol said:

Went to the page to purchase.  Max gift card is $2,000.  Will I still get another gift card for $200?  or is there a limit to getting the 10%

$2,000 per transaction....... you can do multiple transactions. Yes, for each $2,000 card you'll receive a $200 digital bonus card. Promotion expires today, 5/8/2022 at 11:59pm PST.

[Cruising-along]

36 minutes ago, 54Carol said:

Went to the page to purchase.  Max gift card is $2,000.  Will I still get another gift card for $200?  or is there a limit to getting the 10%

 

28 minutes ago, Lido - Lanai said:

$2,000 per transaction....... you can do multiple transactions. Yes, for each $2,000 card you'll receive a $200 digital bonus card. Promotion expires today, 5/8/2022 at 11:59pm PST.

Up to $10,000/day.