Gift Card Limit

[Ken the cruiser]

And now for the rest of the story. We decided to call the above number and spoke with a Gift Certificate Program representative to find out the average timeframe we should expect for the GCs to be posted to our booking once we email them, and I'm glad we did. 

 

In our initial test today, we emailed four $500 Celebrity GCs purchased through AARP to verify Celebrity would in fact now accept more than $1000 in GCs per stateroom, and they did.

 

First, the good news. If you call the "888" phone number, they will post the Celebrity GCs to your booking while you're on the phone. 

 

Now for the not so good news. When each of the $500 GCs was posted to our booking, $100 was subtracted off the Gross price of the cruise, with the remaining $400 being added to the total funds received. The point here is if you booked your cruise using a TA, their "commissionable" portion of the cruise fare was just decreased in this case by $100.

 

Now for the bad news. If you decide to cancel the booking for any reason, YOU WILL NOT BE REFUNDED any of the GC funds posted to your booking, regardless of whether it's before or after the Final Payment Due Date. However, the representative did mention that would not be the case if Celebrity canceled the cruise, just if you did. By the way I asked if this was noted anywhere in a set of Gift Card Terms and Conditions, and he said no. But he also said this "No Refund" rule has been in effect for quite some time and long before this recent unlimited GC rule change.

 

Anyway, that's what we learned at Show and Tell today! 🤔

 

If someone knows something different, please feel free to share.

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[NutsAboutGolf]

The one thing that scares me though is the could revert back to the $1K cap at any time.  Since AARP GC's are instant, I would call the day you plan to book to ensure there isn't a cap, buy the GCs and immediately book

[alyssamma]

42 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

And now for the rest of the story. We decided to call the above number and spoke with a Gift Certificate Program representative to find out the average timeframe we should expect for the GCs to be posted to our booking once we email them, and I'm glad we did. 

 

In our initial test today, we emailed four $500 Celebrity GCs purchased through AARP to verify Celebrity would in fact now accept more than $1000 in GCs per stateroom, and they did.

 

First, the good news. If you call the "888" phone number, they will post the Celebrity GCs to your booking while you're on the phone. 

 

Now for the not so good news. When each of the $500 GCs was posted to our booking, $100 was subtracted off the Gross price of the cruise, with the remaining $400 being added to the total funds received. The point here is if you booked your cruise using a TA, their "commissionable" portion of the cruise fare was just decreased in this case by $100.

 

Now for the bad news. If you decide to cancel the booking for any reason, YOU WILL NOT BE REFUNDED any of the GC funds posted to your booking, regardless of whether it's before or after the Final Payment Due Date. However, the representative did mention that would not be the case if Celebrity canceled the cruise, just if you did. By the way I asked if this was noted anywhere in a set of Gift Card Terms and Conditions, and he said no. But he also said this "No Refund" rule has been in effect for quite some time and long before this recent unlimited GC rule change.

 

Anyway, that's what we learned at Show and Tell today! 🤔

 

If someone knows something different, please feel free to share.

 

Wow...thanks so much for this! This explains something that my TA has been trying to figure out. I gave him $1K Sat and "only" $800 was applied...but they amount I owe decreased by $1K. It seems like you've figured it out.

 

As for the refund...wow. Not sure how that is legal, especially since it isn't in the T&C.

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

Wow...thanks so much for this! This explains something that my TA has been trying to figure out. I gave him $1K Sat and "only" $800 was applied...but they amount I owe decreased by $1K. It seems like you've figured it out.

 

As for the refund...wow. Not sure how that is legal, especially since it isn't in the T&C.

Here's a link that was listed in the fine print on the AARP Celebrity Gift Card.

 

Microsoft Word - GiftCardT&Cs.cleandocx.docx (celebritycorporatekit.com)

 

These are the only two items I could find that mention "no refund".

 

2) Certificate/Cards are not redeemable for cash and cannot be returned for a cash refund, except to the extent required by law. Gift certificate/card cash value is 1/10 of one cent. This Certificate/Card cannot be used to settle any ship board charges, including but not limited to gift shop purchases, casino debts, shore excursions or gratuities. This Certificate/Card is not valid on any other cruise line, including any affiliate or subsidiary of Celebrity Cruises In

 

7) Changes to the reservation may be permitted, subject to availability and any other restrictions and any applicable cancellation charges. No refunds after booking is made and paid in full.

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[alyssamma]

To close the loop on what @NorthStarStateCruiser said. First, thanks for bringing this up. Good to know this is potentially an issue people may run into.

 

Although I was pretty sure my contract didn't say anything about gift cards (it *does* exclude *certificates* which, like coupons or FF miles don't have a cash value (or a very small one)), I decided to make some calls. Of course, the rep telling you one thing before you buy the policy doesn't mean they will tell you the same thing afterwards 🙂

 

TravelGuard said as long as there is a monetary value, you will be reimbursed. So, in the case of AARP, you'll pay $450, get a $500 credit, but only $450 would be reimbursed.

 

NW wasn't sure. They did ask some more questions and wanted to make sure we could prove we bought them. They also wanted to make sure the GC were for the specific cruiseline.Ultimately they said if we can't prove we used it to pay for the cruise, they wouldn't cover it, but if we could then they would. Not sure what would constitute "proof"

 

Hopefully I'll never need to find out 🙂

 

Edit: Based on @Ken the cruiser's last post, maybe TG wouldn't reimburse either as they seem to not have a cash value...

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by alyssamma

[dreams_of_travel]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Now for the bad news. If you decide to cancel the booking for any reason, YOU WILL NOT BE REFUNDED any of the GC funds posted to your booking, regardless of whether it's before or after the Final Payment Due Date. However, the representative did mention that would not be the case if Celebrity canceled the cruise, just if you did. By the way I asked if this was noted anywhere in a set of Gift Card Terms and Conditions, and he said no. But he also said this "No Refund" rule has been in effect for quite some time and long before this recent unlimited GC rule change.

 

Anyway, that's what we learned at Show and Tell today! 🤔

 

If someone knows something different, please feel free to share.

 

 

That seems quite sketchy.  How can they legally NOT refund any of the GC funds?  If there is no method of returning the funds to the GCs, fine, and another type of funds should be available for you to use in the future.  They cannot just take the GC money, and keep it.  That just sounds like some made up stuff right there, and illegal.  I am truly concerned, and shocked all at the same time.   I currently have no Celebrity cruise/s booked, but if I did, and had considered buying discounted GCs, I would be quite hesitant.   I really hope them keeping the GC money without a chance of refund is not correct.

[alyssamma]

3 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

 

That seems quite sketchy.  How can they legally NOT refund any of the GC funds?  If there is no method of returning the funds to the GCs, fine, and another type of funds should be available for you to use in the future.  They cannot just take the GC money, and keep it.  That just sounds like some made up stuff right there, and illegal.  I am truly concerned, and shocked all at the same time.   I currently have no Celebrity cruise/s booked, but if I did, and had considered buying discounted GCs, I would be quite hesitant.   I really hope them keeping the GC money without a chance of refund is not correct.

I suspect the rep was misinformed. The way other lines do it is they issue a new GC for the amount that you paid with a GC. I think the rep confused not refunding to the *original* GC with not refunding to a *new* GC

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, dreams_of_travel said:

 

That seems quite sketchy.  How can they legally NOT refund any of the GC funds?  If there is no method of returning the funds to the GCs, fine, and another type of funds should be available for you to use in the future.  They cannot just take the GC money, and keep it.  That just sounds like some made up stuff right there, and illegal.  I am truly concerned, and shocked all at the same time.   I currently have no Celebrity cruise/s booked, but if I did, and had considered buying discounted GCs, I would be quite hesitant.   I really hope them keeping the GC money without a chance of refund is not correct.

What's funny is after the rep told us about the "no refund if WE cancel the cruise" penalty, he asked if we wanted to proceed. Well, since we can't get a refund from AARP for the $2000 of GCs we purchased, we really had no choice but to proceed. However, the chances of us buying any more is pretty remote. 😉

[dreams_of_travel]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

What's funny is after the rep told us about the "no refund if WE cancel the cruise" penalty, he asked if we wanted to proceed. Well, since we can't get a refund from AARP for the $2000 of GCs we purchased, we really had no choice but to proceed. However, the chances of us buying any more is pretty remote. 😉

 

True, you really didn't have a choice, sadly.  I wonder what the truth is with the gift cards. Seems a bit crazy to offer an option to use them, and then not offer a refund option.  I hope we get some clarity about this at some point.  Meanwhile, July is coming, and I will be buying more Princess GC (which in the past can be refunded to the original GC)  to pay off my 2024 Princess cruises. LOL!  

[alyssamma]

6 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

 

True, you really didn't have a choice, sadly.  I wonder what the truth is with the gift cards. Seems a bit crazy to offer an option to use them, and then not offer a refund option.  I hope we get some clarity about this at some point.  Meanwhile, July is coming, and I will be buying more Princess GC (which in the past can be refunded to the original GC)  to pay off my 2024 Princess cruises. LOL!  

So this is the rub. What is the truth?

 

It also seems confusing about getting a refund (from trip insurance) if you have to cancel the cruise.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, alyssamma said:

I suspect the rep was misinformed. The way other lines do it is they issue a new GC for the amount that you paid with a GC. I think the rep confused not refunding to the *original* GC with not refunding to a *new* GC

If you want to give them a call at the above "888" number and ask, I would very much enjoy hearing what the Gift Certificate Program rep you talk with has to say. The guy I talked with was pretty confident, especially since this "rule" had been in effect for quite some time. Now if someone reading this thread has actually had Celebrity refund $$$ to their Gift Cards when they personally had to cancel a cruise where they posted up to $1000, I would definitely appreciate that feedback as well.

 

But, in all reality, we're not going to buy $15,000 in Celebrity Gift Cards, which we were definitely planning on doing for our upcoming Galapagos cruise, and then stress over the potential of having to cancel the cruise for medical reasons and lose those funds. 

 

But you're right with regards to other cruise lines, especially Princess. Folks have posted on a similar thread over on the Princess forum that have personally experienced their AARP Gift Cards being "reinitialized" to their full value when they had to previously cancel cruises.

 

[alyssamma]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If you want to give them a call at the above "888" number and ask, I would very much enjoy hearing what the Gift Certificate Program rep you talk with has to say. The guy I talked with was pretty confident, especially since this "rule" had been in effect for quite some time. Now if someone reading this thread has actually had Celebrity refund $$$ to their Gift Cards when they personally had to cancel a cruise where they posted up to $1000, I would definitely appreciate that feedback as well.

 

But, in all reality, we're not going to buy $15,000 in Celebrity Gift Cards, which we were definitely planning on doing for our upcoming Galapagos cruise, and then stress over the potential of having to cancel the cruise for medical reasons and lose those funds. 

 

But you're right with regards to other cruise lines, especially Princess. Folks have posted on a similar thread over on the Princess forum that have personally experienced their AARP Gift Cards being "reinitialized" to their full value when they had to previously cancel cruises.

 

I need to step back and rethink my entire GC strategy. It kind of sucks because for expensive cruises you can save a lot. Your $15K would be $1500 in savings, for example.

 

But now I'm confused about X specifically and trip insurance in general and wondering what I want to do going forward. Even though the "math" is in my favor, the irrational part of my mind would go crazy if I lost my cruise fare.

[Ken the cruiser]

OK, I just couldn’t let it end like that. I just emailed the person I was originally communicating with and asked her if the “nonrefundable” rule is true. This just sounds wrong that Celebrity would keep the GC $$$, even if we decided to cancel a booking which had a refundable deposit prior to the Final Payment date. Hopefully she’ll reply with a more thorough response tomorrow.

[NutsAboutGolf]

17 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, I just couldn’t let it end like that. I just emailed the person I was originally communicating with and asked her if the “nonrefundable” rule is true. This just sounds wrong that Celebrity would keep the GC $$$, even if we decided to cancel a booking which had a refundable deposit prior to the Final Payment date. Hopefully she’ll reply with a more thorough response tomorrow.

 

I'm just pointing out they're not like regular GCs.  You buy carnivals GCs and you can use them for bookings, purchase pre-sail items like tours and also use them to pay for things on board.  RCI/X's GCs could be like a non-refundable "basic" airline fare

Edited June 26, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I'm just pointing out they're not like regular GCs.  You buy carnivals GCs and you can use them for bookings, purchase pre-sail items like tours and also use them to pay for things on board.  RCI/X's GCs could be like a non-refundable "basic" airline fare

I guess that’s why I’m hoping to get a more well defined definition. If not or it is what was explained to us, we just won’t buy AARP Celebrity GCs. But OTOH that just gives us one more $$$ reason to book with Princess rather than Celebrity if the itineraries are similar.

[tallyho8]

I booked my Celebrity cruise with 2 $500 AARP gift cards. Two days later my TA phoned me and said I had to make a $900 deposit on the cruise, that gift cards can only be used to pay off the balance of the cruise and not the deposit. So I had to use my credit card to pay the $900 deposit.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, tallyho8 said:

I booked my Celebrity cruise with 2 $500 AARP gift cards. Two days later my TA phoned me and said I had to make a $900 deposit on the cruise, that gift cards can only be used to pay off the balance of the cruise and not the deposit. So I had to use my credit card to pay the $900 deposit.

Did your TA tell you the $1000 posted from your gift cards were nonrefundable if you canceled your cruise prior to final payment? Probably not as most folks wouldn't think to even ask that question.

[tallyho8]

No I did not ask.

[Ken the cruiser]

21 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, I just couldn’t let it end like that. I just emailed the person I was originally communicating with and asked her if the “nonrefundable” rule is true. This just sounds wrong that Celebrity would keep the GC $$$, even if we decided to cancel a booking which had a refundable deposit prior to the Final Payment date. Hopefully she’ll reply with a more thorough response tomorrow.

OK, I just called the 888 number again and reconfirmed that the Celebrity Gift Cards do become nonrefundable once they are posted to a booking.

 

But there is some good news. If your booking has a refundable deposit and prior to the Final Payment Date you find you can't go on the cruise, you can change the booking's itinerary to a different cruise a little farther out and the GC funds will remain with the booking. 

 

However, for us that's not enough good news to motivate us to buy any more discounted Celebrity Gift Cards to help pay for the cruise. But at least we now have options just in case stuff happens and we find we can't go on the cruise prior to the Final Payment Date.

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[NutsAboutGolf]

So IF X changes the ship like it just did with the Beyond and the couple that booked with GC's elects to take the refund, they're just SOL?

[Ken the cruiser]

10 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

So IF X changes the ship like it just did with the Beyond and the couple that booked with GC's elects to take the refund, they're just SOL?

I did not ask what happens if Celebrity initiates the change/cancellation, like the example you referenced or when some company wants to charter a ship, which has happened with a few cruises we had booked in the past. But if you find out, please let us know.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[dreams_of_travel]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, I just called the 888 number again and reconfirmed that the Celebrity Gift Cards do become nonrefundable once they are posted to a booking.

 

But there is some good news. If your booking has a refundable deposit and prior to the Final Payment Date you find you can't go on the cruise, you can change the booking's itinerary to a different cruise a little farther out and the GC funds will remain with the booking. 

 

However, for us that's not enough good news to motivate us to buy any more discounted Celebrity Gift Cards to help pay for the cruise. But at least we now have options just in case stuff happens and we find we can't go on the cruise prior to the Final Payment Date.

 

 

That's a little bit better than what you are originally (incorrectly) told, but not by much.   I do not understand how a refundable cruise, meaning you could cancel and get it refunded, doesn't have a proper mechanism in place to make it truly refundable with GCs.  I don't blame you for choosing to not continue buying the Celebrity gift cards.   It would make me wary of the whole process.   

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

 

That's a little bit better than what you are originally (incorrectly) told, but not by much.   I do not understand how a refundable cruise, meaning you could cancel and get it refunded, doesn't have a proper mechanism in place to make it truly refundable with GCs.  I don't blame you for choosing to not continue buying the Celebrity gift cards.   It would make me wary of the whole process.   

We agree. But what can I say, that’s what I was able to uncover after talking with three different individuals over the past two days at the above 888 number, all of whom agreed none of the existing GC rules was documented anywhere on the Celebrity website.
 

Hopefully, one day the issue you mentioned above will get resolved, as getting up to 10% off the cost of the cruise (like we currently can with our Princess cruises) without worrying about inadvertently losing it if we were to cancel an applicable cruise, would definitely be a nice option to take advantage of.

[tschwa2]

I am not surprised that a non refundable form of payment is actually non refundable.  I am surprised that it doesn't convert to a non refundable (future) cruise credit and has to be immediately applied to another booking.  

[alyssamma]

1 minute ago, tschwa2 said:

I am not surprised that a non refundable form of payment is actually non refundable.  I am surprised that it doesn't convert to a non refundable (future) cruise credit and has to be immediately applied to another booking.  

I think the issue is...

 

1) Other cruise lines don't work this way and...

 

2) This isn't stated anywhere... @Ken the cruiser only knows because he called in and asked a rep.