Use extreme caution when redeeming Carnival gift cards

[n6uqqq]

Once you have a TA make and/or takeover a booking, Carnival will not discuss anything about the booking with you. If you choose a bad TA, then the sky is the limit with problems you may encounter. I tend to book my own cruises for shorter less expensive cruises, and book the bigger ones myself and have my big box TA takeover the booking. In both cases I pay for the entire cruise with gift cards and have been doing so for years. Even through all the covid cancellations, I ended up with the proper amount back in new gift cards, it just took a long time to do so. When some of the 14 day journeys cruises are north of $5K the 10 percent plus another 3 percent for using my BofA visa for online purchases adds up to at least $650 dollars in savings, not exactly chump change. 

[shiner6]

6 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

Once you have a TA make and/or takeover a booking, Carnival will not discuss anything about the booking with you. If you choose a bad TA, then the sky is the limit with problems you may encounter. I tend to book my own cruises for shorter less expensive cruises, and book the bigger ones myself and have my big box TA takeover the booking. In both cases I pay for the entire cruise with gift cards and have been doing so for years. Even through all the covid cancellations, I ended up with the proper amount back in new gift cards, it just took a long time to do so. When some of the 14 day journeys cruises are north of $5K the 10 percent plus another 3 percent for using my BofA visa for online purchases adds up to at least $650 dollars in savings, not exactly chump change. 

The savings for me was $660 using the gift cards, you are right "not exactly chump change", that is why I used them.  I have no qualms with the "promise" of the discount. My problem is in the terms of refunding. I will return to my previous practice of making my own travel plans and skipping the TA.  My new TA has been quite good--it is not her fault that she inherited a problematic booking.  The point some appear to be missing is this:  Carnival needs to improve their customer service (we are all aware of this). I am sure they have ways developed to deal with these issues.  They are not training or empowering employees in solving these issues, so the customer is left with dissatisfaction.  It is quite obvious that the employees are operating from a script by using the same "corporate generated Muss" over and over.  They could improve things by offering a written way to communicate. If you have an address for me to address these concerns, plaese post it.

Edited April 4, 2023 by shiner6
Blerkone is stalking this forum

[shiner6]

Good news!! My TA was able to help!  I received gift cards just now.   I stand by my experience.  Not all TA's make mistakes of this magnitude.  We are all human and as such, subject to errors now and then.  A business is not human---they have practices and protocols set in place to handle situations.  I personally believe that Carnival's response was less than satisfactory and hope that they improve the process going forward.  Covid exposed many corporations shortcomings (I am a bedside RN and no group was treated worse than us), so I am well versed in management avoiding taking the blame and using employees as screens. Carnival's customer service problems stem from management IMHO.

[Illbcruzn4life]

25 minutes ago, shiner6 said:

Good news!! My TA was able to help!  I received gift cards just now.   I stand by my experience.  Not all TA's make mistakes of this magnitude.  We are all human and as such, subject to errors now and then.  A business is not human---they have practices and protocols set in place to handle situations.  I personally believe that Carnival's response was less than satisfactory and hope that they improve the process going forward.  Covid exposed many corporations shortcomings (I am a bedside RN and no group was treated worse than us), so I am well versed in management avoiding taking the blame and using employees as screens. Carnival's customer service problems stem from management IMHO.

Glad to hear that your problem is rectified. Sounds like TA #2 is a keeper. Agree with you 100 % about the lack of training.

[teknoge3k]

19 hours 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.

 

This year alone, I have saved over $1,000 simply by using gift cards. There's no hassle at all. I order the gift cards, pay for my cruises and keep the number saved for on-board use. The only difference is, I would never in a million years use a travel agent. I run as far away from travel agents as humanly possible. 

[BoozinCroozin]

My experience was completely the opposite. Contacted my TA, told them I had gift cards to pay for the cruise. They can only process on GC at a time, but that is easy. I gave her the number, she processed it in the system, Amount Due went down by $500. Did this 5x in a row. Cruise was paid off and drink package. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

 

I do get your frustration on the refunds. Carnival cannot and will not refund to the gc used to pay. They will mail a new gc to you.

[n6uqqq]

10 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

My experience was completely the opposite. Contacted my TA, told them I had gift cards to pay for the cruise. They can only process on GC at a time, but that is easy. I gave her the number, she processed it in the system, Amount Due went down by $500. Did this 5x in a row. Cruise was paid off and drink package. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

 

I do get your frustration on the refunds. Carnival cannot and will not refund to the gc used to pay. They will mail a new gc to you.

It is better imho that they issue new cards, reloading old ones could become messy. Hopefully they start using ecards only for refunds, much more cost efficient for Carnival and safer for the recipient. Mail theft is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. My big box, while impersonal, does a very good job and their reps are more knowledgeable than the Carnival reps they have to talk to. They can apply gift cards right on the spot now without having to contact Carnival and then send an immediate email confirmation. On top of the gift card savings, the journeys cruises typically yield another 3 to 4 hundred in savings with their shopcard rebate plus another 2 percent off with the executive membership. And last but not least sometimes they offer 200 in OBC on top of all this that I can't find on Carnival's website. 

[BlerkOne]

Next time consider using the free Carnival branded credit card which gets you discounts on shore excursions.

[Eli_6]

3 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Next time consider using the free Carnival branded credit card which gets you discounts on shore excursions.

How much of a discount?  

 

[BlerkOne]

8 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

How much of a discount?  

 

10% when booked online before the cruise.

[davemy]

Glad everything worked out for you. I had a similar experience, cancelled an excursion for our upcoming cruise and wanted to book another excursion at the same time. The Carnival website won't allow that. I had to refund the first excursion which I had paid for mostly by gift card. I received the CC refund in less than a week (under $5) but never received the gift card refund. After 4 weeks, I called Carnival and was told it had been sent to my TA. Contacted them and they were able to get me the information in less than 48 hours. Then I was finally able to book the excursion I wanted. Would have saved everyone work if Carnival would allow you to use the cancelled funds during the same transaction.

[Jeafl]

On 4/3/2023 at 8:53 PM, Eli_6 said:

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. 

It took us several months and many, many hours on the phone to get refunded for an excursion that CARNIVAL canceled due to flipping the itinerary. All because we paid with a gift card.  What was infuriating is that all we wanted to do was change the excursion to 2 days later so that it actually coincided with the day we were actually in that port!  They refused to switch it and made us wait months for a new gift card.

[BlerkOne]

Check the other boards. Royal also has issues.

 

Gift cards are not cash or credit cards and are handled differently, including accounting. Everybody wants a discount and it sometimes comes with a price. Gift cards are issued by a different entity, so an extra middleman to deal with.

 

Just for general info...

https://carnival.ourgiftcards.com/terms

 

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

3 hours ago, Jeafl said:

It took us several months and many, many hours on the phone to get refunded for an excursion that CARNIVAL canceled due to flipping the itinerary. All because we paid with a gift card.  What was infuriating is that all we wanted to do was change the excursion to 2 days later so that it actually coincided with the day we were actually in that port!  They refused to switch it and made us wait months for a new gift card.

Guest services wasn't just being difficult. They just don't have the accounting tools needed to accomplish that (though, they obviously should have it).

 

The problem they face is that Carnival (like many others, including Disney) subcontracts out their gift card operations.  When you need a refund for something paid for with a gift card, Carnival has to submit the refund request to the gift card contractor, and then the contractor sends the new gift card back to the customer. No money is actually exchanged during the refund request, as the gift card contractor has already paid Carnival the money for the previously sold gift card.

 

Guest services just has no way of circumventing that accounting process to use the gift card credit for a different expenditure than the original purchase. I think the reason they don't is that while it would be relatively easy if identical priced items were being exchanged (as was in your case), but if the new items cost more or less than the original, and then those items needed a refund as well, trying to track back the original forms of payment for a refund or partial refund could get tricky.

 

 

[crooooze]

I’ve personally experienced this exact nonsense several times and it is 100% consistent.
 

Book the cruise through a TA, but purchase anything else (excursion, dining, etc) on your own through the cruise planner using a GC… If that purchase is cancelled for whatever reason, your refund will 100% guaranteed go into limbo.  For some reason, Carnival processes the refund to the TA. But the TA doesn’t get it either. I’ve had many 3-way calls between Carnival and TA, hunting this crap down. Eventually, with enough back-and-forth and months later, you’ll get the refund. I have noticed it’s a little quicker now that refunds are no longer through physical card replacement.

 

Why on earth Carnival doesn’t process the GC refunds through the email and contact details you provide when making the purchase is beyond me.

I have never had this issue when using a credit card for the purchase. (Not counting the initial Covid fiasco with 2020 cancellations)

[BlerkOne]

17 minutes ago, crooooze said:

I’ve personally experienced this exact nonsense several times and it is 100% consistent.
 

Book the cruise through a TA, but purchase anything else (excursion, dining, etc) on your own through the cruise planner using a GC… If that purchase is cancelled for whatever reason, your refund will 100% guaranteed go into limbo.  For some reason, Carnival processes the refund to the TA. But the TA doesn’t get it either. I’ve had many 3-way calls between Carnival and TA, hunting this crap down. Eventually, with enough back-and-forth and months later, you’ll get the refund. I have noticed it’s a little quicker now that refunds are no longer through physical card replacement.

 

Why on earth Carnival doesn’t process the GC refunds through the email and contact details you provide when making the purchase is beyond me.

I have never had this issue when using a credit card for the purchase. (Not counting the initial Covid fiasco with 2020 cancellations)

Carnival doesn't issue the gift cards, and you are correct - GC are not credit cards - they are a different product. They aren't for everyone.

[n6uqqq]

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Carnival doesn't issue the gift cards, and you are correct - GC are not credit cards - they are a different product. They aren't for everyone.

Technically you are correct but CCL Gifts, LLC is owned by parent Carnival. The cards definitely aren't for everyone. 

[shiner6]

Thanks everyone for your assistance in clearing up the use of Gift Cards. I have definitely learned quite a bit from this forum.   Now, going forward, hope others who have questions may also benefit from your expertise.  Thanks again!

[Joebucks]

On 4/3/2023 at 5:05 PM, 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.

 

On 4/3/2023 at 5:12 PM, zipper1 said:

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

 

Large gift card purchases ANYWHERE carry a risk. Physical cards can get lost. Digital cards can be intercepted or cracked. There is little recourse. Obviously, we also saw what happened here.

 

My travel credit card is 4.5% back, and includes travel insurance. Not to mention all of the other purchaser protections. Also not to mention that some cash back portals may have additional cash back if you purchase through qualified web sites or credit card cash back offers (also make sure to compare the bottom price offered elsewhere). In the end, the difference of savings can be very small, or not there at all. Just because people can throw out that they "saved $600" doesn't tell the whole story.

 

With that said, I often buy a few hundred to cover my gratuities and onboard spending. 

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

 

Large gift card purchases ANYWHERE carry a risk. Physical cards can get lost. Digital cards can be intercepted or cracked. There is little recourse. Obviously, we also saw what happened here.

 

My travel credit card is 4.5% back, and includes travel insurance. Not to mention all of the other purchaser protections. Also not to mention that some cash back portals may have additional cash back if you purchase through qualified web sites or credit card cash back offers (also make sure to compare the bottom price offered elsewhere). In the end, the difference of savings can be very small, or not there at all. Just because people can throw out that they "saved $600" doesn't tell the whole story.

 

With that said, I often buy a few hundred to cover my gratuities and onboard spending. 

 

Sure but we're not talking about loss or theft here.

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

 

Sure but we're not talking about loss or theft here.

But you can certainly add those to the pile of reasons one should think carefully before buying gift cards.

[mz-s]

53 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

But you can certainly add those to the pile of reasons one should think carefully before buying gift cards.

 

Loss and theft I can protect myself against to some extent. But Carnival's incompetence, I have no way of protecting myself against.

 

There are reports of people waiting months for refunds on their super fancy travel credit cards too. So the logic doesn't follow.

[Joebucks]

17 hours ago, mz-s said:

There are reports of people waiting months for refunds on their super fancy travel credit cards too. So the logic doesn't follow.

 

I can find any problem I'd like on the internet. 

[mz-s]

17 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

I can find any problem I'd like on the internet. 

 

The point is "just use a credit card" doesn't help when the problem isn't necessarily the gift card, it's Carnival's incompetence when it comes to processing refunds.

[cruizinisthebest]

This is definitely an example of a learning curve and also using a TA that knows what they are doing. We use gift cards almost exclusively, and I know how to get a refunds for any purchase made with them if need be. Sorry you had a hard time.