Use extreme caution when redeeming Carnival gift cards

[shiner6]

Let me preface by stating that I have been booking my own cruises for 20 years. This is my first time using a TA and my first Carnival cruise.

 

I am putting my experience on here to help others avoid the pitfalls which I fell into. I purchased over $6,000 worth of gift cards on AARP to help pay for my Carnival cruises.  I used a TA to book the cruises but purchased all the extras myself on the Carnival manage your booking site.   I had 2 b2b cruises to Norway and Baltic. I had to cancel one of the cruises. This is when I discovered that my TA had failed to properly deposit my gift cards.   My new TA spent hours trying to get my money refunded.

  Be aware that your gift cards do not automatically have the money refunded to them.  Save all the cards and document dates and times you use them. (I saved everything, thanks to advice on this board, and glad I did).

  Carnival representatives had many different excuses for delay in refund.... It is almost comical, but my $$$$$ is involved, so I am not laughing.

 

What I have learned so far is this:  1. Be extremely careful when choosing a TA,and monitor what they do. 2. Do NOT ever book an excursion or any extras through the Fun shops on the Carnival Website with Gift cards (have your TA do it).  I have spent a total of 8 hours on different dates on the phone trying to straighten this out.  Bottom line is, I have to do a conference call with my TA on the line in order to get my money returned to a gift card. I asked for Carnival to email me a copy of their accounting form/ they refused.  My next step, if this doesn"t work, is to see if my Travel insurance will cover the loss.  What a mess!

 

Just so sorry I ever got involved in this mess.  I will update this thread as I go along......

 

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Carnival can never issue a gift card to the same gift cards that you originally used. When I purchased cheers packages and paid with gift cards online, once I canceled that for a refund I called Carnival online shop support and after a couple minutes Carnival sent me a refund via a new gift card that came via fedex. Sorry it's taking so long to get a Carnival rep to just issue a new gift card to "refund" you. 

[mz-s]

Carnival's refunding process is so backwards. Good luck to you.

[Drazil65]

First thing, I am sorry you had to go through this and there are some lessons in this case for sure.  I also book all our travel (cruise, domestic and all aspects out of country), been doing it for well over 20 years and have learned a lot so I really only trust myself to get it right (at least I have only myself to blame).  

 

That being said,  I have used gift cards many times along the way for cruising.  Anytime there has been a change of plans or needed to cancel something originating with a gift card, they always put the refund on another gift card and mail it out to me.  I have always dealt directly with CCL as I did not use a third party (like a TA) to book my cruise.  I have heard from many people that if you use a TA or PVP then that is who needs to make the calls etc.  It is possible that maybe the TA should have been involved and made the calls to get the refund from the beginning?   Especially if the TA applied the gift cards incorrectly or not according to your instructions.  Hopefully they will get it figured out soon.  

[Kellyann]

I sympathize with you in trying to get anyone at Carnival to respond.  It took me over 4 months to get credit for an excursion that they cancelled due to bad weather.  Finally, after many e-mails, then trying to reach a live person and untold stress, they finally agreed to give me an onboard credit.  The only reason I will be sailing on CCL again is because they are holding $225 hostage by not issuing a refund but making me book another cruise.  They really should be ashamed to conduct business in such a shoddy fashion and that was my 10th Carnival cruise.  For all of you who plan to jump right on this thread and tell me how you received whatever you were asking for in minutes, don't rub salt in the wounds of those who weren't so fortunate.

Shiner 6, I hope you reach someone who cares and can help you quickly.

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 hours ago, Kellyann said:

I sympathize with you in trying to get anyone at Carnival to respond.  It took me over 4 months to get credit for an excursion that they cancelled due to bad weather.  Finally, after many e-mails, then trying to reach a live person and untold stress, they finally agreed to give me an onboard credit.  The only reason I will be sailing on CCL again is because they are holding $225 hostage by not issuing a refund but making me book another cruise.  They really should be ashamed to conduct business in such a shoddy fashion and that was my 10th Carnival cruise.  For all of you who plan to jump right on this thread and tell me how you received whatever you were asking for in minutes, don't rub salt in the wounds of those who weren't so fortunate.

Shiner 6, I hope you reach someone who cares and can help you quickly.

Unless you purchased the excursion with OBC I would think that you should receive a credit to your credit card if that's how you paid. That sounds messed up.

[staceyglow]

Based on all the problems I have seen people have with Carnival gift cards, I don't think I will ever purchase any.  It seems to be a lot of hassle for a 10% discount.

[1cruisingal]

3 hours ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

Carnival can never issue a gift card to the same gift cards that you originally used. When I purchased cheers packages and paid with gift cards online, once I canceled that for a refund I called Carnival online shop support and after a couple minutes Carnival sent me a refund via a new gift card that came via fedex. Sorry it's taking so long to get a Carnival rep to just issue a new gift card to "refund" you. 

I recently had to cancel a cruise that I had paid for with Carnival gift cards. Carnival did in fact refund me the amount back onto the original gift cards that I had paid with. They did not issue me a new card.

[BlerkOne]

Never had a problem with using them. Perhaps the issue was using a TA.

[zipper1]

5 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Based on all the problems I have seen people have with Carnival gift cards, I don't think I will ever purchase any.  It seems to be a lot of hassle for a 10% discount.

We have saved hundreds of dollars on our last 3 cruises. Well worth it!!

[Kellyann]

36 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

Unless you purchased the excursion with OBC I would think that you should receive a credit to your credit card if that's how you paid. That sounds messed up.

Exactly,  I bought it beforehand using my VISA card.  Capital One would send CCL asking about the charge and CCL would respond to Capital One "all goods received in good order".  Capital One continually took CCL's rote statement.  If only I had kept the note under my cabin door the night before our sailboat ride, stating that it was cancelled due to unclement weather.  Who knew?

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 minutes ago, Kellyann said:

Exactly,  I bought it beforehand using my VISA card.  Capital One would send CCL asking about the charge and CCL would respond to Capital One "all goods received in good order".  Capital One continually took CCL's rote statement.  If only I had kept the note under my cabin door the night before our sailboat ride, stating that it was cancelled due to unclement weather.  Who knew?

I'm sure a competent CCL rep should be able to check if the excursion was cancelled on the day they inquired about.

 

Total BS!

[Lee Cruiser]

I hate to say I agree with Blerk 😀, but I do.  It sounds like the problem was the TA not doing them correctly.  I prefer to do my booking myself.  I recently had to cancel a cruise and I received an email with a link to the e-gift card withing two weeks.  I have already used it for our next cruise.

[shiner6]

2 hours ago, 1cruisingal said:

I recently had to cancel a cruise that I had paid for with Carnival gift cards. Carnival did in fact refund me the amount back onto the original gift cards that I had paid with. They did not issue me a new card.

Well, Everyone seems to have a different experience using the gift cards. I have used gift cards in the past on HAL and Princess-so I thought the process would be the same with parent company Carnival.  Wrong.... My TA did use quite a bit of my gift cards and that got really screwed up and took a very long time to sort out. Good thing that I kept records with gift card numbers and pins . tHE PROBLEM ACTUALLY TOOK A FEW MONTHS TO SOLVE, BUT FINALLY I RECIEVED A GIFT CARD VIA E-MAIL FOR THAT FIASCO.

 

The new problem has to do with the gift cards which I applied myself for wi-fi and Chef's table on 2 B2B cruises.  These are gift cards-not credit purchases. They cannot seem to find a way to refund them.  I waited 2 hours to talk with someone then another 2 hours getting the run around. Still no resolution.  The total is almost $500.  They said it will take 90 days to refund my money to a new gift card. My cruise is in 60 days.  Quite a conundrum. I have already wasted more time on the phone than the 10% savings warrants.

 

I know I am screwed, but I am putting this out there to warn others to be careful.  Maybe I can save some other unsuspecting individual from falling prey to the gift card scam.

 

Oh, did I mention that I own quite a bit of Carnival stock , more than is required for the OBC.  I can see why the stock is tanking.

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by shiner6

[mz-s]

It became clear during COVID that Carnival has very poor refund procedures in place. They've gotten no better.

[lazydayz]

35 minutes ago, mz-s said:

It became clear during COVID that Carnival has very poor refund procedures in place. They've gotten no better.

This.  I think Carnival is just trying to hold onto any $ it gets to service its debts.  
 

 Not directed to mz-s, but to anyone who is going to cruise Carnival again because they have $250 or less of your money, there is a point where that doesn’t make sense.  Won’t you spend a multiple of that booking a new cruise and then all the extra expenses, like tips, taxes, parking, drinks, etc.?  I get that it is annoying, and I feel for you, but at some point I just cut my losses and move on.  But I usually self insure for cheap cruises, and so far, that has worked out for me.  

[BlerkOne]

56 minutes ago, shiner6 said:

 Maybe I can save some other unsuspecting individual from falling prey to the gift card scam.

 

The gift cards are not a scam. Even through all of the COVID cancellations and rebookings, Carnival was able to tell me to the penny the source of all the funds on a booking. I will be purchasing more when my next Carnival cruise final payment is due.

 

56 minutes ago, shiner6 said:

 

[DebJ14]

3 hours ago, 1cruisingal said:

I recently had to cancel a cruise that I had paid for with Carnival gift cards. Carnival did in fact refund me the amount back onto the original gift cards that I had paid with. They did not issue me a new card.

I used a TA and applied a gift card to the deposit.  We had to cancel the cruise.  I received my deposit refunded as an E Gift card.  It was emailed to me within a few days of canceling the cruise, and seemed much faster than any credit card refunds in the past.

 

[Eli_6]

There is something going on with the excursions, etc. for sure.  I canceled an excursion I paid for with a gift card about 3 weeks ago and still nothing.  I kept thinking I would get a gift card in the mail...and nothing. 

[trummy]

7 hours ago, Kellyann said:

I sympathize with you in trying to get anyone at Carnival to respond.  It took me over 4 months to get credit for an excursion that they cancelled due to bad weather.  Finally, after many e-mails, then trying to reach a live person and untold stress, they finally agreed to give me an onboard credit.  The only reason I will be sailing on CCL again is because they are holding $225 hostage by not issuing a refund but making me book another cruise.  They really should be ashamed to conduct business in such a shoddy fashion and that was my 10th Carnival cruise.  For all of you who plan to jump right on this thread and tell me how you received whatever you were asking for in minutes, don't rub salt in the wounds of those who weren't so fortunate.

Shiner 6, I hope you reach someone who cares and can help you quickly.

So you are going to spend hundreds more to get back $225?

 

I think I would just take the $225 loss and be done with Carnival. They are evidently holding your money "hostage" in order to get you to spend more. Why go along with their plan?

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by trummy

[BlerkOne]

19 minutes ago, trummy said:

So you are going to spend hundreds more to get back $225?

 

I think I would just take the $225 loss and be done with Carnival. They are evidently holding your money "hostage" in order to get you to spend more. Why go along with their plan?

 

I stii see the TA to blame in case one, and I would dump Capital One in case two.

[lazydayz]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

What nonsense. Any customer payments are still a liability to the company on the books.

Sure, but not if the person never cruises and Carnival doesn’t have to refund it. Then it’s just free money. 

 

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

 

 

I do it all the time. I even paid a $100 change fee the other day to switch a cruise off of a casino rate to a non-casino rate on a different ship.

Agreed.  I don’t mind losing a few hundred dollars. But when the numbers get big, I buy insurance.  

[BlerkOne]

1 minute ago, lazydayz said:

Sure, but not if the person never cruises and Carnival doesn’t have to refund it. Then it’s just free money. 

 

I suppose at some point it expires and becomes free money, just as the $600 OBC for COVID cancellations did (sort of).

 

1 minute ago, lazydayz said:

 

Agreed.  I don’t mind losing a few hundred dollars. But when the numbers get big, I buy insurance.  

All I had was a deposit - I think $200. But it was from a cruise I decided I wasn't going to take to one I'm going on hell or high water. At no time did I consider my money being held hostage. I booked a cruise I should have thought twice about. The blame is on me. I'm not going to whine about it or look to shift blame elsewhere.

[Illbcruzn4life]

46 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I stii see the TA to blame in case one, and I would dump Capital One in case two.

The OP already said it was the TA in the first post.

[SeaShark]

3 hours ago, shiner6 said:

I have used gift cards in the past on HAL and Princess-so I thought the process would be the same with parent company Carnival. 

 

But you aren't using the gift cards with the parent company (Carnival Corporation), you are using them with Carnival Cruise Line...which is a subsidiary of the parent company just like HAL and Princess.

 

3 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Oh, did I mention that I own quite a bit of Carnival stock , more than is required for the OBC.  I can see why the stock is tanking.

 

As a stock holder, you should be aware of which company's stock you own.