AARP e-gift card

[lamasusa]

On 3/16/2023 at 5:29 PM, that said:

Yes

how about using the gift card to pay for shore excursions?  Do I need to call the "?" for crediting the charges instead of payment by cc?

Thanks.

[beg3yrs]

14 hours ago, lamasusa said:

how about using the gift card to pay for shore excursions?  Do I need to call the "?" for crediting the charges instead of payment by cc?

Thanks.

My experience is that you need to call and that's fraught with peril. If you don't get an agent who knows how to apply GCs to excursions, HUACA (hang up and call again). My first call was with an agent who did not apply the GCs correctly and I ended up being overcharged. On my second call when I discovered the error, the agent almost got it right. On my third call I got an agent who knew what to do and fixed everything. I don't bother paying for excursions ahead of time with GCs anymore. In the big scheme of things, for me, the big savings are paying for the cruise and air (yes I know they're not for air but my TA has always applied them). The hassle of calling for excursion payments isn't worth the savings, especially as we already get 10% for our CC level.

 

All that said, sometimes if I want an excursion that I'm confident won't sell out by embarkation, I'll just book it on the ship and pay with GCs there. Caveat that excursions often increase in price as the sailing date approaches.

[cjpj]

On 12/5/2022 at 9:45 PM, Steelers36 said:

Is this a new change, because you did not need to be a paid member of AARP in order to purchase cards.  You just had to be registered with AARP Rewards.  I did so and went through umpteen hoops trying to order (needed to get around being in Canada and was trying to use our Florida address).  Even a VPN did not seem to help.  I might try it again when we are down in FL this Winter (but I will stop short as I don't want any GC's at all right now - no idea when might cruise PCL again).

 

I couldn't even register from Canada and did note Rewards for US residents only.  I did register but was unable to validate the account.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, cjpj said:

I couldn't even register from Canada and did note Rewards for US residents only.  I did register but was unable to validate the account.

We have a FL address (own a condo since last Winter), but their software is using location identity which is beyond what most organizations do.

[cjpj]

5 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

We have a FL address (own a condo since last Winter), but their software is using location identity which is beyond what most organizations do.

Good luck. I contacted their support and I forget what he told me, but the bottom line e for me was didn't have US phone number. And it says only for US residents, so I gave up. But you should be able to with US phone and address.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, cjpj said:

Good luck. I contacted their support and I forget what he told me, but the bottom line e for me was didn't have US phone number. And it says only for US residents, so I gave up. But you should be able to with US phone and address.

Sorry.  I forgot to mention I have a US cell nbr.

[LAX-HKG]

Thanks for this thread I got 5 gift cards at 10% off to be used on my upcoming Princess cruise!

[LAX-HKG]

I forgot to ask.  Does it matter when I utilize those gift cards?  Do I have to present them to the Guest Service on board on the first day?  Can I use them to settle my account towards the end of my cruise?  Try to avoid going to the Guest Service on the first day if I can. 😉 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, LAX-HKG said:

I forgot to ask.  Does it matter when I utilize those gift cards?  Do I have to present them to the Guest Service on board on the first day?  Can I use them to settle my account towards the end of my cruise?  Try to avoid going to the Guest Service on the first day if I can. 😉 

We email the 10 GCs we purchase each month (5 for my DW and 5 for me) to our TA for her to subsequently apply to our next cruise.

[LAX-HKG]

My cruise starts tomorrow….😅

 

That’s why I want to find out if I need to queue in a long line to apply my gift cards tomorrow or I can wait till later in the cruise.

[julie3fan]

2 minutes ago, LAX-HKG said:

My cruise starts tomorrow….😅

 

That’s why I want to find out if I need to queue in a long line to apply my gift cards tomorrow or I can wait till later in the cruise.

 

There's no need to apply them at guest services right away, but I personally wouldn't wait too many days.  If you're an early riser or up late in the evening, that's when the lines tend to be shorter.  When I presented mine, they asked that I leave it with them so they could do it at their leisure.

[LAX-HKG]

That’s fantastic news!  Thanks julie3fan.

[Shelly97060]

1 hour ago, LAX-HKG said:

My cruise starts tomorrow….😅

 

That’s why I want to find out if I need to queue in a long line to apply my gift cards tomorrow or I can wait till later in the cruise.

You can visit guest services anytime during your cruise. One tip is to print out copies of the gift cards to give to Guest Services. They like to have that for their records.  Having the printouts will save you the trouble of emailing them screenshots and waiting for the email to come through to them. 

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, LAX-HKG said:

My cruise starts tomorrow….😅

 

That’s why I want to find out if I need to queue in a long line to apply my gift cards tomorrow or I can wait till later in the cruise.

No, you do not have to

go on the first day.  I went on the 2nd day to guest services and added my GC.

No problem.  Just recently. 

[LAX-HKG]

1 hour ago, Shelly97060 said:

You can visit guest services anytime during your cruise. One tip is to print out copies of the gift cards to give to Guest Services. They like to have that for their records.  Having the printouts will save you the trouble of emailing them screenshots and waiting for the email to come through to them. 

 

58 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

No, you do not have to

go on the first day.  I went on the 2nd day to guest services and added my GC.

No problem.  Just recently. 

Thanks!  I can now just order the Princess Plus once onboard, start enjoying it, and worry about the gift cards later.

[Crystabel]

Just purchased our tenth $500 gift card, five in each of our names. Saving 10% is a pretty good return on our $. 

[Thrak]

17 minutes ago, Crystabel said:

Just purchased our tenth $500 gift card, five in each of our names. Saving 10% is a pretty good return on our $. 

 

We have 20 but haven't purchased for April yet. We will either buy another 5 or another 10 this month.

[Ken the cruiser]

We also had no issues purchasing 5 each on April 1. However, I will say my stress level was slightly elevated during the process after reading about some negative issues a few folks on this thread encountered. 😁

[13cheermom]

On 3/28/2023 at 10:54 AM, beg3yrs said:

My experience is that you need to call and that's fraught with peril. If you don't get an agent who knows how to apply GCs to excursions, HUACA (hang up and call again). My first call was with an agent who did not apply the GCs correctly and I ended up being overcharged. On my second call when I discovered the error, the agent almost got it right. On my third call I got an agent who knew what to do and fixed everything. I don't bother paying for excursions ahead of time with GCs anymore. In the big scheme of things, for me, the big savings are paying for the cruise and air (yes I know they're not for air but my TA has always applied them). The hassle of calling for excursion payments isn't worth the savings, especially as we already get 10% for our CC level.

 

All that said, sometimes if I want an excursion that I'm confident won't sell out by embarkation, I'll just book it on the ship and pay with GCs there. Caveat that excursions often increase in price as the sailing date approaches.

So why is it that some don't have a clue how to process the gift cards.  I mean it should be on of the steps in taking any form of payment for any services that Princess offers.  I called yesterday and said that I had several excursions in my personifier that needed to be paid with gift cards.  The guys response to me "Well I am sorry unfortunately we only accept gift cards branded by the Princess name", which I then responded "Yes these are Princess Gift Cards", I mean what other kind of cards did he think I would be using??   Then he preceded to ask for expiration dates for the first card, of course there are no expiration dates on Princess Gift cards, so I knew he didn't have a clue of how to process them.  I finally asked him if he wanted the 4 digit code, and his response oh sure will try that.  He then proceeded to tell me that weren't going through.  He then puts me on hold for like 10. minutes and says well according to his research, excursions can't be paid with gift cards as well as EZ-Air either.  So I knew he was clueless, and told him he was incorrect and I would call back and talk to someone else.  Can't Princess train their employees on simple things like taking payments, after all isn't the what they need now is more revenue coming in????  It shouldn't be that difficult to do simple transactions like this and so frustrating and time consuming.

[PacnGoNow]

6 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

So why is it that some don't have a clue how to process the gift cards.  I mean it should be on of the steps in taking any form of payment for any services that Princess offers.  I called yesterday and said that I had several excursions in my personifier that needed to be paid with gift cards.  The guys response to me "Well I am sorry unfortunately we only accept gift cards branded by the Princess name", which I then responded "Yes these are Princess Gift Cards", I mean what other kind of cards did he think I would be using??   Then he preceded to ask for expiration dates for the first card, of course there are no expiration dates on Princess Gift cards, so I knew he didn't have a clue of how to process them.  I finally asked him if he wanted the 4 digit code, and his response oh sure will try that.  He then proceeded to tell me that weren't going through.  He then puts me on hold for like 10. minutes and says well according to his research, excursions can't be paid with gift cards as well as EZ-Air either.  So I knew he was clueless, and told him he was incorrect and I would call back and talk to someone else.  Can't Princess train their employees on simple things like taking payments, after all isn't the what they need now is more revenue coming in????  It shouldn't be that difficult to do simple transactions like this and so frustrating and time consuming.

Unfortunately, even with trained employees, they say it is not an easy task for them to enter the numbers, as they have to go into a different program on the computer.  They don’t seem to get the coding right.  That is why, I just give them to my TA to enter. Or, take them to GS once OB if I need OBC.

 

 

[Thrak]

The last couple of times I gave in and called Princess about something I spent a very long time on hold. When I finally got someone on the phone both times it was hard to understand them and there were children and TV in the background. One also had a dog that barked several times during the call. I had them on speaker and neither my wife nor I could understand a majority of what one Princess rep was saying. They were speaking English but with a pronounced accent that neither one of us could decipher.

 

Back when I was working I had Princess on speed dial in my office. I would get through pretty quickly and never had a problem understanding them nor did I ever hear children or TV in the background. When I got an unsatisfactory answer it was no problem to call back and get another person as there was no long wait involved.

[that]

our experience over the years is to enter the e gift cards online as payment ourselves

 

and we had no problems getting the balances returned back onto the gift cards when cruises cancelled during covid shutdown

 

the current payment screen below

[no1racefan1]

33 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

So why is it that some don't have a clue how to process the gift cards.  I mean it should be on of the steps in taking any form of payment for any services that Princess offers.  I called yesterday and said that I had several excursions in my personifier that needed to be paid with gift cards.  The guys response to me "Well I am sorry unfortunately we only accept gift cards branded by the Princess name", which I then responded "Yes these are Princess Gift Cards", I mean what other kind of cards did he think I would be using??   Then he preceded to ask for expiration dates for the first card, of course there are no expiration dates on Princess Gift cards, so I knew he didn't have a clue of how to process them.  I finally asked him if he wanted the 4 digit code, and his response oh sure will try that.  He then proceeded to tell me that weren't going through.  He then puts me on hold for like 10. minutes and says well according to his research, excursions can't be paid with gift cards as well as EZ-Air either.  So I knew he was clueless, and told him he was incorrect and I would call back and talk to someone else.  Can't Princess train their employees on simple things like taking payments, after all isn't the what they need now is more revenue coming in????  It shouldn't be that difficult to do simple transactions like this and so frustrating and time consuming.

Technically the Princess gift cards terms state 'Gift Cards are only redeemable for purchases onboard Princess’® ships or applied as payment to a Princess® booking' so I don't think it's fair to say he was clueless because he said they can't be used for shore excursions. There are plenty of cases where people report they were able to get them applied to shore excursions, and just as many people are not able to. It's not 'technically' allowed. It does sound like he didn't know how to process gift cards in general, though. 

[no1racefan1]

4 minutes ago, that said:

our experience over the years is to enter the e gift cards online as payment ourselves

 

and we had no problems getting the balances returned back onto the gift cards when cruises cancelled during covid shutdown

 

the current payment screen below

The problem people are having is the gift card payment option doesn't show up online for excursions because they aren't technically allowed to be paid by gift cards, per Princess's terms. So they call to see if they can get somebody to finagle it. I understand, I have considered doing the same thing...but probably won't since I see how much of a hassle it is. I'll just use them to pay for my booking online.

[lots-of-km2]

On 3/28/2023 at 7:21 PM, cjpj said:

But you should be able to with US phone and address.

Not sufficient, unfortunately.  I have both, and have tried. One also needs a US-bank issued credit card, otherwise the purchase gets rejected.  AARP makes it almost impossible for Canadians to buy those gift certificates.