Princess Gift Card Problem — AARP

[Daniel A]

19 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I think the point is that if you use the gift cards to pay off the cruise and worry about OBC later on, you are probably saving more by getting 8% off the cruise fare.  I know I'm spending that money, but I'm not sure what I'll end up spending onboard.  I just used $8600.00 in AARP cards to pay off my upcoming cruise fare which included my drink pkg, wifi and crew appreciation.  I saved $708 off the cruise fare and the discount AARP gift cards covered the bulk of what I might have spent while onboard.  ( Plus, I am getting $950.00 combination nonrefundable and refundable OBC from Princess, Travel Agent, Shareholder, and Casino)  I don't think this is a 'one size fits all' type of situation.

I'm just curious - Has anybody bought any AARP gift cards while onboard through their wi-fi and applied that as OBC?  One could then take their device down to the passenger services desk and apply the cards to their current account.  Would that work?

[TN-Mountains]

12 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I'm just curious - Has anybody bought any AARP gift cards while onboard through their wi-fi and applied that as OBC?  One could then take their device down to the passenger services desk and apply the cards to their current account.  Would that work?

Yes, my husband did this twice on our last cruise.  The first time it was processed quickly.  The 2nd time it took a while for my husband to receive the gift cards and then it took until the next day for Princess to credit them to our account because their systems were down. 

[minnesotasisu]

We did receive the following reply from Princess customer service:

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. We apologize for the difficulties you have had.

 

When Onboard credit is purchased, either with a credit card or gift card, it will show on the Cruise Personalizer under the Onboard Services page and not under the Payments page where your promotional Onboard Credits are listed. Any OBC that you purchase and don’t use is refunded to you after the cruise via a check.

 

OBC can be used pre cruise to pay for shore excursions. Once you are on the cruise, you can use it for anything except in the casino. It will show on your onboard folio as a credit and your daily charges will be subtracted from it.

 

We were able to separate the 2 $500 credits on your February 21, 2024 Caribbean cruise so one is applied under your name and the other under your wife’s name. If you both register the same credit card for your onboard account, the two accounts will combine at the end of the cruises.