Purchasing and using gift cards while aboard

[IPB4IGO]

I used HAL gift cards (purchased at a 10% discount from AARP) to make final payment, purchase an excursion, and purchase some onboard credit for our next cruise, in October.

 

Assuming that AARP is still selling them at a discount in October, is there any reason I can't buy and use them online while aboard, paying down our account as it grows?

[Mary229]

I assume you are having electronic delivery, so no there is no reason.  They are good as soon as they are purchased.  I am hoping we might get a July 4 sale

[ewildcat7]

I bought a bunch of them when HAL had a 10% bonus for Mothers' Day.  Last week I called and was told that I can a) convert them to onboard credit or b) bring a printout of the numbers and PINs.  Either way, they can absolutely be used for onboard purchases.  The only advantage to not converting them to onboard credit is, if you don't spend it all, it might be a hassle to get the balance refunded.  BY just keeping them as gift cards and bringing the numbers, any unused balance will remain as gift cards for future use.

[IPB4IGO]

22 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I assume you are having electronic delivery, so no there is no reason.  They are good as soon as they are purchased.  I am hoping we might get a July 4 sale

AARP still has them, but unlike HAL they are not available in denominations greater than $500, and you can buy only five each calendar month. OTOH, it's a straight 10% discount: $450 for a $500 card, no "bonus card" with an expiration date involved as HAL does.

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, IPB4IGO said:

AARP still has them, but unlike HAL they are not available in denominations greater than $500, and you can buy only five each calendar month. OTOH, it's a straight 10% discount: $450 for a $500 card, no "bonus card" with an expiration date involved as HAL does.

I looked at those cards and couldn’t figure out what the points thing was about and how much effort was needed.  

[IPB4IGO]

8 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I looked at those cards and couldn’t figure out what the points thing was about and how much effort was needed.  

You simply have to sign up for their "rewards" program for the offer to appear. It doesn't generate any spam or junk mail. The "points" aren't good for anything that I use, so I ignore them.

You do have to join AARP (something like $16/year), but they make it easy to opt out of all their junk mail.

[rodndonna]

A couple of things we learned about HAL gift cards (from HAL site) on-board using then on our recent cruise - 

 

1) you do need to provide a cope of the "card' or "email" for the card. The numbers and PINS themselves are not sufficient. We had a simple text file with all our numbers, but had to find the emails before we could apply them to our account on-line.

 

2) you can redeem your card amount(s)  as a credit to your on-board account, and any remaining balance at the end of the cruise will refund to your credit card on file. This really surprised me and to be honest I didn't believe guest services and thought it would go back to the gift card. It was however refunded back to our credit card with a week after our cruise. 

 

 

[ewildcat7]

14 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

you do need to provide a cope of the "card' or "email" for the card. The numbers and PINS themselves are not sufficient. We had a simple text file with all our numbers, but had to find the emails before we could apply them to our account on-line.

 

This is very helpful as I was NOT told that over the phone!  However, when I looked at the emails, they don't show a number, just that a card was sent and received.  Do they want the purchase receipt for the gift cards?

[Mary229]

31 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

2) you can redeem your card amount(s)  as a credit to your on-board account, and any remaining balance at the end of the cruise will refund to your credit card on file. This really surprised me and to be honest I didn't believe guest services and thought it would go back to the gift card. It was however refunded back to our credit card with a week after our cruise

That is interesting.  So the gift cards are refundable through a back door.  

[rodndonna]

14 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

That is interesting.  So the gift cards are refundable through a back door.  

 

It would appear so .. I really thought she was mistaken....but no.

 

Perhaps this is/was new, a lot of gift cards from the last couple of years which have been used and refunded a number of times with all the cancellations. Maybe just trying to simplify and get more of them off the books like FCC.

[richwmn]

It might depend on how the gift card was issued. A purchased gift card might be refundable to cash/credit card where the 'bonus' 10% gift card would have to be refunded to the card.

[foggyphils]

2 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

You simply have to sign up for their "rewards" program for the offer to appear. It doesn't generate any spam or junk mail. The "points" aren't good for anything that I use, so I ignore them.

You do have to join AARP (something like $16/year), but they make it easy to opt out of all their junk mail.

I didn’t have to buy  the AARP membership to purchase HAL cards, only signed up for the free rewards program. HAL gift cards are available to anyone. There were some other cruise line gift cards that do require membership. (I think Carnival and Princess). I also like you dont have to collect points to purchase like Allstate does.

[Mary229]

Thank you guys.  I signed up. Now this is what I will do.  Starting July 1 if I use my discover card through my PayPal account I get another 5% off.  Sweet!

[highscar]

In Canada where can you get gift cards.   

[rodndonna]

1 hour ago, highscar said:

In Canada where can you get gift cards.   

 

I went down the AARP (Canadian version) once but didn't get anywhere.

 

The HAL gift card promotion comes out periodically (not on now) , is only in US dollars (so can only pay for cruises booked in USD). The last time they came out, they geo-blocked Canadian IP so you have to get around that to purchase. We do that and book our cruises in USD (we are also in Ontario). If your cruise is in Canadian, you can still use the cards on-board or for excursions and such since it will all be USD.

 

When the promo is out, if you follow this board you will hear about it.

[richwmn]

3 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

The HAL gift card promotion comes out periodically (not on now)

I just checked on my AARP Rewards account and the Holland America Gift Card is still offered in $500 (for $450) and $100 (for $90) amounts.

[Caribbean Chris]

4 hours ago, ewildcat7 said:

 

This is very helpful as I was NOT told that over the phone!  However, when I looked at the emails, they don't show a number, just that a card was sent and received.  Do they want the purchase receipt for the gift cards?

We bought HAL gift cards through AARP and received e-mails with attachments to print out that show a picture of a HAL gift card. It has the card number and a PIN number you must provide to use it whenever you redeem it, it advance or onboard.

[rodndonna]

37 minutes ago, richwmn said:

I just checked on my AARP Rewards account and the Holland America Gift Card is still offered in $500 (for $450) and $100 (for $90) amounts.

 

I was referring to the ones offered through HAL itself (not associated with AARP). It sounds like the AARP ones are ongoing.

[IPB4IGO]

3 hours ago, foggyphils said:

I didn’t have to buy  the AARP membership to purchase HAL cards, only signed up for the free rewards program. HAL gift cards are available to anyone.

That is great information. Thanks.

[ewildcat7]

41 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

We bought HAL gift cards through AARP and received e-mails with attachments to print out that show a picture of a HAL gift card. It has the card number and a PIN number you must provide to use it whenever you redeem it, it advance or onboard.

The emails that I got have a link to a webpage that shows the card number and PIN.  I guess I can print out those individual pages.  But there is no information in the emails, other than a link.

[highscar]

@rodndonna Thank you 

[NCTribeFan]

The original email showing the purchase is not what you need.  You need to use the link and, as noted, will be taken to the actual e-card.  That's what you need to print out and take with you.

 

I used cards I'd redeemed from AARP as well as cards I'd redeemed using credit card points on my Zuiderdam B2B ealier this month.

 

Note that it seemed to take forever at Guest Services to get them applied.  It appeared that only a couple of the folks working the desk had the needed info to do the redemption and had to wait for someone else (who was helping another passenger) to take care of it.  And then you have to sign a bunch of times.  More paper waste.

[Cruisercl]

15 hours ago, richwmn said:

I just checked on my AARP Rewards account and the Holland America Gift Card is still offered in $500 (for $450) and $100 (for $90) amounts.

Another thing which I thought is helpful to know, the AARP GC never expire.

Not sure if the HAL reward part of the discount do. I believe they have in the past. 

Someone correct me please, if I am spreading misinformation...😎

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

Another thing which I thought is helpful to know, the AARP GC never expire.

Not sure if the HAL reward part of the discount do. I believe they have in the past. 

Someone correct me please, if I am spreading misinformation...😎

In the past the bonus card was only good for one year. 

[AFNavigator]

21 hours ago, foggyphils said:

I didn’t have to buy  the AARP membership to purchase HAL cards, only signed up for the free rewards program. HAL gift cards are available to anyone. There were some other cruise line gift cards that do require membership. (I think Carnival and Princess). I also like you dont have to collect points to purchase like Allstate does.

The AARP deal is actually marginally better than HAL's $50 bonus card per $500 card purchase.  Let's say you buy $4,500 through AARP to get $5,000 face value.  If you invest the same $4,500 in HAL's 10% bonus offer (if they offer that deal again), you would get $450 in bonus cards for a total of $4,950, $50 less than through AARP.

During the COVID shutdown, HAL had a short time offer of $100 bonus per $500 purchase...now that was a good deal!