Gift card payment online

[Nodakboiler]

Is anyone else having problems making partial payments online using only gift cards. I used to be able to do this easily, and now it seems to want credit card information as well. 

[Mary229]

What are you trying to pay for?  Things off invoice, that is, things in your cart must be purchased with one method or the other.  You cannot, for example, pay for shore excursions with both a gift card and a credit card.  

[cunnorl]

2 hours ago, Nodakboiler said:

Is anyone else having problems making partial payments online using only gift cards. I used to be able to do this easily, and now it seems to want credit card information as well. 

I have been using the gift cards to make payments online without difficulty until now. I have tried several times without success. Same experience as you.  I am going to try to call HAL today which I really dont want to do.

[keeponcruising]

1 hour ago, cunnorl said:

I have been using the gift cards to make payments online without difficulty until now. I have tried several times without success. Same experience as you.  I am going to try to call HAL today which I really dont want to do.

Someone else mentioned that they gave their credit card info when making a purchase with gift cards and the transaction went through on the credit card.

[Nodakboiler]

That was me before and I had to call HAL to cancel. This is making partial payment on the cruise total cost. It worked again for a while but now is back to wanting CC info. Have tried several different computers. Will have to wait until back in the states.

[Big Dawg CC]

I had the same problem last week.  Nothing worked.  Had to call HAL.  When you get to the payment stage, if the Full Pay and Partial Pay icons are side by side, it will work.  If the Partial Pay icon is at the bottom, it will not work as it will continually ask you for credit card info even though you are trying to pay with gift cards.  I have no idea why it will sometimes show up side by side and why at other times it shows at the bottom.  Tried different browsers, including incognito, and nothing worked that day.

[Sabbi39]

Having the same issue the last 2 days.  Emailed my Holland America TA waiting for her to get back to me.

I have also used the gift cards in the past.

[POA1]

Same thing happened to us. It's a programming issue on HAL's part. There are weird, "half the cart can only be paid for by one method" issues.

[Haljo1935]

Used HAL gift cards to pay for an excursion days before leaving on Oct 29 cruise. I had to remove the items I was paying for w/cc to complete the transaction w/gc then put them back in to use cc to pay for them. It was way after hours so nobody to call - it was a pain but I accomplished what I wanted to do.

[acsxfan1]

I'm getting the same issue -- Unable to make partial payment with Gift Card ..

[POA1]

I don't know if it's the way they have the items configured in the shopping engine or what, but some items are credit card only. I don't know if there is an actual reason or if just a misconfiguration. I'm leaning toward the latter.

[alwaysfrantic]

I read that one needs to call to have the gift cards applied, but I have an online travel agency.  I have a page I can make payments with a credit card.  Hal wouldn’t take a payment because I have a TA.  How does that work before I spend a lot on cards?

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, alwaysfrantic said:

I read that one needs to call to have the gift cards applied, but I have an online travel agency.  I have a page I can make payments with a credit card.  Hal wouldn’t take a payment because I have a TA.  How does that work before I spend a lot on cards?

You can pay for excursions, packages and other incidentals with gift cards on the website.  The website is notoriously glitchy but with patience and luck it can be done.  If you booked with a TA then yes all fare payments go through them.  Your TA can use your gift cards to pay.  I have done both things this past week 

[alwaysfrantic]

Do I email the TA the numbers and PNs? 

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, alwaysfrantic said:

Do I email the TA the numbers and PNs? 

I email mine to my TA.  Please be sure to keep a digital or physical record of your gift cards as even the best laid plans may go astray and any refunds will go back to those cards. 

[BermudaBound2014]

@Mary229 has offered some excellent advice again. If anything happens, HAL will refund to the gift card. If you no longer have access to the physical card, or the emailed version with number and pin, you maybe out of luck. It's always good habit to keep all gift cards until several weeks after they are spend (in the event of a return). Especially true with appliances where they come with a year warranty.

 

I just email my TA a screen shot of the gift cards w/pin and keep a spreadsheet of the giftcard number, pin, date, and item I spent on.

Edited November 25, 2023 by BermudaBound2014

[Tryingtocruise]

Still happening.  I thought maybe if I put a credit card # in, and only asked for the amount of the gift card to be paid it would take that first.  Nope - charged the card, which I really didn't want.   Left a message with HAL vacation planner.  Very annoying.

[Nodakboiler]

We do keep all our gift card numbers but when a port was cancelled on our last cruise, the HAL shore excursion which had been paid by AARP gift card was refunded to the onboard credit card which was more convenient. I would think onboard they wouldn't have access to the gift card info.

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Nodakboiler said:

We do keep all our gift card numbers but when a port was cancelled on our last cruise, the HAL shore excursion which had been paid by AARP gift card was refunded to the onboard credit card which was more convenient. I would think onboard they wouldn't have access to the gift card info.

Exactly.  The ship has no method of refunding a gift card, it says so in the fine print 

[Haljo1935]

13 hours ago, Nodakboiler said:

We do keep all our gift card numbers but when a port was cancelled on our last cruise, the HAL shore excursion which had been paid by AARP gift card was refunded to the onboard credit card which was more convenient. I would think onboard they wouldn't have access to the gift card info.

Correct - pre cruise refund goes back to the gift card. During a cruise (ie while onboard) refund goes to the onboard statement and ultimately if not used is refunded to the CC on file. Or you can collect it in cash, if you prefer.