AARP gift cards

[Musky Ike]

19 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

Just got scammed for the $460 I charged on AARP for a Princess gift card. The card has a zero balance. I called AARP and they said call the merchant , Princess and see what happened. I called Princess and they said call who I bought it from because the numbers for the gift card don't exisit. Of course I put a dispute in with my visa and we'll see how it's handled. 

   The rewards came through in an email and the gift card had a number and a pin but said zero balance.

 

Had the same issue on with one our last batch. It took a couple weeks of dealing with it but AARP finally got it loaded correctly and applied it to our cruise.

[PacnGoNow]

3 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

You bought on the actual AARP website?  If you bought it from them, they need to correct it, not Princess.  Ask for a supervisor at AARP. 

 

You checked to see, right away to see the balance?  
 

Princess.com/giftcard

 

Or, was this a while ago?  Were you trying to pay for a cruise with a TA?

 

Watch out for a fake website. 
Did you call the number on that website, or compare the number separately?

I show the number:  

866-451-6305 Rewards

and the Customer care number:

(877) 579-9552

 

 

[PacnGoNow]

On 12/20/2023 at 6:56 PM, eaflorida said:

So I am on the Sapphire Princess since December 1st. Some of my gift cards were entered by guest services on day 1 of the cruise. However, I had a few of them left and have been unable to have these remaining cards entered by guest services for the last 6 days as the 3rd party software the ship uses has been down for several days. Very unfortunate but what can you do. I wonder if any of the other ships are currently having the same issues as Sapphire Princess is with the gift cards.

So, what happened?  Did they finally take them?  TIA

[Rick&Jeannie]

Looking forward to hearing the outcome here as well.

[eaflorida]

Thankfully I was able to apply the rest of my gift cards to my account at guest services on the sapphire princess. The gift card system was back up.

[red4u2]

thanks for the info!

Edited December 26, 2023 by red4u2
incorrect grammer

[cruzsnooze]

I have not been able to resolve this with AARP. Yes I bought the card on the AARP website after logging in and going to the rewards page. I bought the card while I was on board the Island Princess to add to my folio since the shore excursions and other purchases were higher then anticipated. 

   When the reward came through it showed a $500 balance immediately. Within 5 minutes the balance showed ZERO. I went to the Princess gift card inquiry page and it showed the card had a zero balance.  The charge pended and went through.  Visa tells me Jan 31 is the date the $460  will get reversed if AARP doesn't resolve the issue. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by cruzsnooze

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, cruzsnooze said:

I have not been able to resolve this with AARP. Yes I bought the card on the AARP website after logging in and going to the rewards page. I bought the card while I was on board the Island Princess to add to my folio since the shore excursions and other purchases were higher then anticipated. 

   When the reward came through it showed a $500 balance immediately. Within 5 minutes the balance showed ZERO. I went to the Princess gift card inquiry page and it showed the card had a zero balance.  The charge pended and went through.  Visa tells me Jan 31 is the date the $460  will get reversed if AARP doesn't resolve the issue. 

You are not the first person that has shared here on CC about this happening to them.  Personally, I've had excellent results in getting the cards that I have purchased through AARP applied to cruise fares.  (I don't use them for any other purpose other than to defray the cost of the fare...about 20 cards so far and totally paying off 2 cruises in full.)  I don't have any good suggestions for you other than what others have stated...they were very persistent in dealing directly with AARP in getting satisfaction...even though it may have taken much longer than it should have.  Sorry you're having to deal with something like this that should be just stupid simple!

[mk-ultra]

I really appreciate the info here -- and I totally get the "applying it once onboard" for OBC bit, but I'm still unclear about how to use the cards to apply them to a pending cruise that still has a balance due (instead of towards OBC).  Is there a Princess URL to do this yet, or is it a phone call?

 

Heck ya, on a $6K cruise, this could be a tidy sum ($480) applied towards the fare.

Edited December 27, 2023 by mk-ultra

[dreaminofcruisin]

48 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

I really appreciate the info here -- and I totally get the "applying it once onboard" for OBC bit, but I'm still unclear about how to use the cards to apply them to a pending cruise that still has a balance due (instead of towards OBC).  Is there a Princess URL to do this yet, or is it a phone call?

 

Heck ya, on a $6K cruise, this could be a tidy sum ($480) applied towards the fare.

 

If you are making a payment on the outstanding cruise balance online, there is an option for Gift Card that you can use---same area as using a Credit Card.

Assuming....you booked yourself. If you booked through a TA you'll need to have them do it.

[mk-ultra]

1 minute ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

If you are making a payment on the outstanding cruise balance online, there is an option for Gift Card that you can use---same area as using a Credit Card.

Assuming....you booked yourself. If you booked through a TA you'll need to have them do it.

 

Muchas gracias 🙂

[mk-ultra]

Yay... AARP IT trying to purchase a card (using any credit card).  Will try again later.

 

Something went wrong with your payment. Please try again or contact AARP Rewards Support at 1-866-451-6305

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, mk-ultra said:

Yay... AARP IT trying to purchase a card (using any credit card).  Will try again later.

 

Something went wrong with your payment. Please try again or contact AARP Rewards Support at 1-866-451-6305

 

When I bought my first cards from AARP I had the same issue. I tried a different browser (Chrome) and it went right through. After that I cleared all cookies, etc. from my normal browser (Firefox) and never had another issue.

[coco2/27]

I’m new to the AARP gift cards — how do I check the balance on the card — I just bought some through AARP and plan on using for onboard credit on upcoming cruise.  I’d hate to have a problem at the guest services desk, and don’t want to load to my account early, as at first I had our PVP add it, bit it didn’t convert to Australian dollars, so I had it taken off.  It’s still sitting in my Apple Wallet now.

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, coco2/27 said:

I’m new to the AARP gift cards — how do I check the balance on the card — I just bought some through AARP and plan on using for onboard credit on upcoming cruise.  I’d hate to have a problem at the guest services desk, and don’t want to load to my account early, as at first I had our PVP add it, bit it didn’t convert to Australian dollars, so I had it taken off.  It’s still sitting in my Apple Wallet now.

Go to princess.com/giftcard and scroll down which will have link where you can enter the gift card number and pin and the gift card balance will be shown. The link will go to wbiprod.storedvalue.com.

[beg3yrs]

6 hours ago, coco2/27 said:

I’m new to the AARP gift cards — how do I check the balance on the card — I just bought some through AARP and plan on using for onboard credit on upcoming cruise.  I’d hate to have a problem at the guest services desk, and don’t want to load to my account early, as at first I had our PVP add it, bit it didn’t convert to Australian dollars, so I had it taken off.  It’s still sitting in my Apple Wallet now.

First of all, these are not AARP gift cards, they are Princess gift cards purchased through AARP at a discount. This may seem like a minor distinction but it's important if you have problems with them as that will help determine who needs to be called.

 

Next, I'd be careful about expecting to use cards stored in your Apple Wallet at the guest services desk. Last time I used gift cards on board I was required to supply printouts of the original gift card document and provide them to guest services. The would not accept anything else, not even the detailed spreadsheet I had with numbers and PINs. I had to use a computer at the Internet cafe to access my email (thank goodness I had saved the original emails from AARP in the cloud) and print the cards at the cafe. I was grateful there was no charge for printing the cards. Now I just carry a stack of paper with the GCs already printed. I call them my $500 coupons.

[mk-ultra]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

When I bought my first cards from AARP I had the same issue. I tried a different browser (Chrome) and it went right through. After that I cleared all cookies, etc. from my normal browser (Firefox) and never had another issue.

 

Thanks.  Browser (Firefox) was definitely the issue.  For whatever reason it doesn't play well with the payment page.  Switched to Safari and it went straight through.  Will report back on applying my $500 credit to an upcoming cruise.

[mk-ultra]

8 hours ago, mk-ultra said:

 

Thanks.  Browser (Firefox) was definitely the issue.  For whatever reason it doesn't play well with the payment page.  Switched to Safari and it went straight through.  Will report back on applying my $500 credit to an upcoming cruise.

 

Applying the credit (using the card # and PIN) on Princess' web site was also sort of a PITA.  It really didn't like the card info being cut-and-pasted.  It kept rejecting it until I typed the numbers in myself.  In the end, it works.  🤷‍♂️

 

Whatever.  Free $40 for the trouble. Gonna rinse-and-repeat.

Edited December 28, 2023 by mk-ultra

[dreams_of_travel]

18 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

 

Applying the credit (using the card # and PIN) on Princess' web site was also sort of a PITA.  It really didn't like the card info being cut-and-pasted.  It kept rejecting it until I typed the numbers in myself.  In the end, it works.  🤷‍♂️

 

Whatever.  Free $40 for the trouble. Gonna rinse-and-repeat.

I've never been able to copy/paste the numbers into the Princess web site.  It is tedious to do each time, but saving some money is worth it.  YMMV

[Thrak]

10 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

First of all, these are not AARP gift cards, they are Princess gift cards purchased through AARP at a discount. This may seem like a minor distinction but it's important if you have problems with them as that will help determine who needs to be called.

 

Next, I'd be careful about expecting to use cards stored in your Apple Wallet at the guest services desk. Last time I used gift cards on board I was required to supply printouts of the original gift card document and provide them to guest services. The would not accept anything else, not even the detailed spreadsheet I had with numbers and PINs. I had to use a computer at the Internet cafe to access my email (thank goodness I had saved the original emails from AARP in the cloud) and print the cards at the cafe. I was grateful there was no charge for printing the cards. Now I just carry a stack of paper with the GCs already printed. I call them my $500 coupons.

 

Did they want the entire thing that includes a bunch of text that you get when you choose the "print" option or did you just print a copy of the gift card itself?

[Thrak]

1 minute ago, dreams_of_travel said:

I've never been able to copy/paste the numbers into the Princess web site.  It is tedious to do each time, but saving some money is worth it.  YMMV

 

When I get the gift cards I use the "snip" function in Windows to get a pic of the card to put into a Word document for my TA. I also use the "print the card" function on that page and print to PDF. When I pull up the PDF I can just double click on the number and it highlights it fully. I then just use Ctrl C to copy and Ctrl V to paste the number into the verification field. Very easy. I hate trying to enter long numbers and I usually transpose numbers along the way. Copy and paste is the way to go and having the doc as a PDF makes it easy.

[Thrak]

31 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

 

Applying the credit (using the card # and PIN) on Princess' web site was also sort of a PITA.  It really didn't like the card info being cut-and-pasted.  It kept rejecting it until I typed the numbers in myself.  In the end, it works.  🤷‍♂️

 

Whatever.  Free $40 for the trouble. Gonna rinse-and-repeat.

 

I've purchased 53 gift cards from AARP. Granted maybe 5 of them were only $100 but the rest were all $500 cards. It's saved me quite a bit of money as almost all of them were at the 10% discount.

[jwattle]

35 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Did they want the entire thing that includes a bunch of text that you get when you choose the "print" option or did you just print a copy of the gift card itself?

I did a screen print on my phone, saved a file: presto! No problem! 😄

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, jwattle said:

I did a screen print on my phone, saved a file: presto! No problem! 😄

 

I was just going to take a copy of the card itself but this discussion has made me a bit paranoid so I just printed the whole thing. I stuck it in "the folder" along with my flight info, transport info, Booking (showing paid in full), and Travel Summary. I really should use a new folder but this one has "character" and has been with us on every cruise but the first one.

[PacnGoNow]

9 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Did they want the entire thing that includes a bunch of text that you get when you choose the "print" option or did you just print a copy of the gift card itself?

I just print the copy of the gift card. It shows the card number and pin.  Never had a problem.

They do not need all the other info from AARP.  The same if you had the physical Princess gift card.