AARP gift cards: Max redemption per day?

[KarmaCruisers]

28 minutes ago, suzyed said:

 I think they were asking about applying gift cards onboard for OBC...not paying for the cruise.

Not for OBC; for actually paying my folio down/off.

[Host CJSKIDS]

23 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Not for OBC; for actually paying my folio down/off.

 

What happens if you win?!!

 

It states on the gift card that it can not be refunded to cash.  So if you win, perhaps it would be refunded/loaded back onto the gift card. 

 

 

[Host CJSKIDS]

3 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

I once went to guest services and added $7,500 worth of gift cards to my account. Of course the account was already "in the hole" from playing too much bingo so we ended up with a net balance of around $700.

 

did they refund you in cash or did it get loaded back onto the gift card?

 

And that's a lot of bingo!!!

[KarmaCruisers]

2 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

What happens if you win?!!

 

It states on the gift card that it can not be refunded to cash.  So if you win, perhaps it would be refunded/loaded back onto the gift card. 

 

 

Two separate banks

folio and casino account are separate. 
although if I do well..yes; I’d be taking home bricks of cash hahah (I’ve been gambling for 22 years and I’ve yet to take home those bricks of cash)

[beg3yrs]

4 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

did they refund you in cash or did it get loaded back onto the gift card?

 

And that's a lot of bingo!!!

Yes it is. 😱 If DW and I play both sea day sessions of bingo with the full package of electronic bingo games it doesn't take many sea days to incur a large folio charge. We personally know three Fortunas now! Nice kids once you get behind the 'corporate' personality. No refunds involved. As @KarmaCruisers said, games are charged to your folio, winnings are added to your casino account.

Edited February 13 by beg3yrs

[Host CJSKIDS]

5 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

Yes it is. 😱 If DW and I play both sea day sessions of bingo with the full package of electronic bingo games it doesn't take many sea days to incur a large folio charge. We personally know three Fortunas now! Nice kids once you get behind the 'corporate' personality. No refunds involved. As @KarmaCruisers said, games are charged to your folio, winnings are added to your casino account.

Sounds like fun!!! 

[Appaloosa1973]

Can my TA submit 5 AARP GC per month for payment or must they be submitted (15) all at the same time for final payment.

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, Appaloosa1973 said:

Can my TA submit 5 AARP GC per month for payment or must they be submitted (15) all at the same time for final payment.

I see no reason why that could not be done. After all it's OK to make multiple partial payments by credit card toward a cruise as long as you're all paid up before the final payment date.

 

Just because it's possible though, it may not be the most efficient way to make payment. You have to package up the gift card numbers and PINs in some secure manner and get the info to your TA each time you do this. Then your TA has to allocate time to unpack the information and then start entering numbers, hopefully a copy-and-paste operation. Anyway, I'm not a TA but if I were, my personal preference would be to do it all at once rather than piecemeal multiple times.

[alexand278]

On 2/12/2024 at 6:51 PM, Thrak said:

 

I recently paid for 63 days of cruising using nothing but Princess gift cards I purchased through AARP. Definitely much more than $6k.

How physically did you use the cards to pay for the cruise?  FedEx them or to they give you serial numbers?

 

thanks,

 

Alexandra

Edited March 29 by alexand278
Spelling

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, alexand278 said:

How physically did you use the cards to pay for the cruise?  FedEx them or to they give you serial numbers?

 

thanks,

 

Alexandra

 

When you buy the cards through AARP (they are actual Princess Cruises cards) you receive an email with a link. You click on the link and it takes you to the web page with the card. At that point I not only choose the "Print" option (I print to PDF and save it on my computer) I also use the "snip" function in Windows to outline the card and save it as a jpg. The card has a long number as well as a PIN. I always immediately go to the Princess site where I can check the balance to make sure all is well with the card. When I used them to pay for a cruise I could have emailed them to our TA but, instead, I printed them out and took them to his office as it's really close to our home. He called Princess and applied them to the balance of our cruises and flights.

 

I have an "extra" $500 card that I have printed out and will be taking on our upcoming cruise. I'll take it to Customer Service and have it applied as on board credit. As it will be "paid" OBC it will be completely refundable and any balance that I don't use on the cruise will be refunded.

 

The cards are available through AARP in $100 and $500 denominations and look like this:

 

[beg3yrs]

4 hours ago, alexand278 said:

How physically did you use the cards to pay for the cruise?  FedEx them or to they give you serial numbers?

 

thanks,

 

Alexandra

My TA is across the continent so unless we're visiting Florida, we can't run down the road and drop off the card printouts.

 

As @Thrak said, you don't get physical cards, rather you get an email for each card which contains a link to get the official "card" which is actually a couple of pages. You can print them out like Thrak does and take them to your TA.

 

OTOH in my situation I save each "card" in a dated and numbered PDF file and then cut and paste the numbers into a spreadsheet (warning: long strings of numbers don't paste well into Excel, place an apostrophe in front of the long number and then you're OK) including dates purchased, when and how redeemed and so on.

 

For each redemption I copy the just the numbers I'm redeeming into a separate spreadsheet, encrypt it and then email it to my TA. I send him the unlock password either by phone or text message (I'm kind of paranoid about sending information that's that valuable over email).

 

I also take printouts of the "cards" I will likely redeem onboard with me. I've had guest services refuse a list from a spreadsheet, they want the printouts.

[dickinson]

I am new to these gift cards.  I have a Mac.  Anyone know how to encript the numbers and pins?  Right now I have printed out the cards but still also have them in my email.  

[jeff74]

I’m having a hard time getting a straight answer from Princess of what can be purchased pre cruise using the gift cards.  I’ve been told 4 different answers ranging from “everything but specialty dinners” to “only the cruise fare”. I know that it’s not like Holland America where I can apply them to purchases straight from the website but I hoped that I could instead call Princess to have them manually apply them.

[damiross]

How can you print out the card?  I have the card numbers.  I plan on bringing the list of them to customer service to get OBC.  I was thinking that having something that looks like a card might be better than just a list of numbers and their PINs.

[beg3yrs]

2 hours ago, damiross said:

How can you print out the card?  I have the card numbers.  I plan on bringing the list of them to customer service to get OBC.  I was thinking that having something that looks like a card might be better than just a list of numbers and their PINs.

You should have received an email from AARP for each card you purchased. Each email has a link to the associated card. That link takes you to a webpage with your card number and PIN on it. On that same page is a link to "Print" the page. I always save to a PDF which is usually an option under the Print but may be on the same page. Anyway, you can print from the card page or print the PDF file you've saved.

 

I once tried to give customer service a simple list of card numbers and pins. They would not accept that. They wanted printed pages. I had to go to the Internet Cafe and go through my emails (again) and print the cards onboard.

[damiross]

10 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

You should have received an email from AARP for each card you purchased. Each email has a link to the associated card. That link takes you to a webpage with your card number and PIN on it. On that same page is a link to "Print" the page. I always save to a PDF which is usually an option under the Print but may be on the same page. Anyway, you can print from the card page or print the PDF file you've saved.

 

I once tried to give customer service a simple list of card numbers and pins. They would not accept that. They wanted printed pages. I had to go to the Internet Cafe and go through my emails (again) and print the cards onboard.

I either didn't see or ignored the print option. I still have the emails from July-September 2023 but the links on all of the emails have expired.  The emails I have do not have the gift card numbers.

[beg3yrs]

9 hours ago, damiross said:

I either didn't see or ignored the print option. I still have the emails from July-September 2023 but the links on all of the emails have expired.  The emails I have do not have the gift card numbers.

Well, that may make things more difficult on the ship. Be prepared to argue your case. Hopefully they'll accept the list. After all, demanding the original printout is kind of a belt-and-suspenders administrative procedure. Years ago I too simply used a list from and Excel spreadsheet and it was accepted. Heck, I recall handing them a handwritten paper with numbers which they used to credit my account. Things have changed so as I initially said, be prepared to make your case.

[KKB]

13 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

You should have received an email from AARP for each card you purchased. Each email has a link to the associated card. That link takes you to a webpage with your card number and PIN on it. On that same page is a link to "Print" the page. I always save to a PDF which is usually an option under the Print but may be on the same page. Anyway, you can print from the card page or print the PDF file you've saved.

 

I once tried to give customer service a simple list of card numbers and pins. They would not accept that. They wanted printed pages. I had to go to the Internet Cafe and go through my emails (again) and print the cards onboard.

 

12 hours ago, damiross said:

I either didn't see or ignored the print option. I still have the emails from July-September 2023 but the links on all of the emails have expired.  The emails I have do not have the gift card numbers.

Odd. Just bought 2 this week from AARP....when you open the gift card from the email, the gift card is on it.

I have just given my phone w/ the screenshot of the gift card to the rep at guest services; no one ever needed a printed copy.

Edited March 30 by KKB

[damiross]

51 minutes ago, KKB said:

 

Odd. Just bought 2 this week from AARP....when you open the gift card from the email, the gift card is on it.

I have just given my phone w/ the screenshot of the gift card to the rep at guest services; no one ever needed a printed copy.

This is what I have in my emails:  

When I click "get your reward", I get this:

 

[KKB]

7 minutes ago, damiross said:

This is what I have in my emails:  

When I click "get your reward", I get this:

 

Oooh...that's not good. You need to contact AARP.

I just opened mine & it went straight to it.

[beg3yrs]

Yes, you need to contact AARP.

 

Emails are NOT the gift cards. My emails look like this:

That order number is part of your gift card number but isn't complete. Nor does it have a PIN. You must go through to "Get your reward" for the complete information you can print/save to a file and so on.

[alexand278]

On 2/12/2024 at 11:54 AM, Rick&Jeannie said:

@KarmaCruisers

I'm not sure I follow exactly what it is you're asking about.  When purchasing AARP cards, they have a max limit of 5 cards per month, regardless of the card face value and where you are performing the purchase.  Princess is NOT going to sell you GCs via AARP.  You have to do that on your own.   You seem to be asking about purchasing cards while on board?  I would NEVER do that...if you feel you need those cards...get it done BEFORE you get on the ship so you can print out the card/pin information.  You're going to need that hardcopy; previous posters here on CC have stated that GS will not honor a gift card if you don't have the hardcopy.

 

I don't think Princess cares about how many cards you use.  You *should* be able to use as many cards as you like.  But then again...I have to ask the question "Why use gift cards on board for your fare?"  I have used GCs MANY times, but always *prior* to the cruise.  What in the world are you buying on board for $2000?

Maybe an GC newbie question, but how do we use them to pay off our cruise balance?  We booked directly with Princess. 
 

thanks,

 

Alexandra

[Thrak]

Like I said above in post #35 I use the "snip" function of Windows and just snip the image of the card. I then paste it into a Word document and that's what my TA gets. He calls Princess (which I could do on my own but I have him do it) and he gives them my booking info and the card numbers and pins. They apply the cards just like cash. As I booked my flights using EZ Air my booking shows the full amount of the cruise plus flights and he has no difficulty simply applying the cards to the full amount.

[dreaminofcruisin]

2 hours ago, alexand278 said:

Maybe an GC newbie question, but how do we use them to pay off our cruise balance?  We booked directly with Princess. 
 

thanks,

 

Alexandra

 

If you go to your online account, move to the cruise, click on "Payments", click on Booking Balance, under "Make a Payment" are 3 options:

Credit Card    Paypal and Gift Card

Click on Gift Card and fill in the number, pin and amount.

Click Apply.

Do this for each Gift Card.

However, don't be too quick. It seems sometimes it needs to catch up with itself....

[alexand278]

2 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

If you go to your online account, move to the cruise, click on "Payments", click on Booking Balance, under "Make a Payment" are 3 options:

Credit Card    Paypal and Gift Card

Click on Gift Card and fill in the number, pin and amount.

Click Apply.

Do this for each Gift Card.

However, don't be too quick. It seems sometimes it needs to catch up with itself....

Thanks so much!  I didn’t see this option. Since we owe a lot, my husband and I will both buy cards to try to get the whole balance done under the deadline.