Question about using AARP GIt cards

[chubbypiggy]

I purchased five $500 Princess cards at 11 a.m. (PT) this morning and now it is 5:30 p.m. and I still haven't received the emails with the e-cards.  I have purchased many Princess cards in the past and have always received the emails within 10 minutes.  For this purchase, I used my new Amex Delta credit card (first time using this card), I wonder if that caused the delay.  I went to my Amex account, and it shows $2,300 has been charged by AARP.  

[red4u2]

Well, I did it!   bought ten $500 gift cards 9 $460 a piece) and applied toward our final payment. Princess said only ten cards can be applied.

 We received all cards within 10 minutes!  thanks everyone!😁

[beg3yrs]

8 hours ago, red4u2 said:

Well, I did it!   bought ten $500 gift cards 9 $460 a piece) and applied toward our final payment. Princess said only ten cards can be applied.

 We received all cards within 10 minutes!  thanks everyone!😁

I don't know who at Princess told you that there was a ten card limit but my personal experience is quite different. I've recently sent my TA almost twenty nine GCs for an upcoming booking. They were applied without any issues.

[red4u2]

On 3/22/2024 at 7:06 AM, beg3yrs said:

I don't know who at Princess told you that there was a ten card limit but my personal experience is quite different. I've recently sent my TA almost twenty nine GCs for an upcoming booking. They were applied without any issues.

WOW!! that's wonderful!   i used the chat feature twice to contact customer service at Princess and they both told me a limit of 10.    another example of the failing customer service at Princess then!  thank you for letting me know!

[AZjohn]

24 minutes ago, red4u2 said:

WOW!! that's wonderful!   i used the chat feature twice to contact customer service at Princess and they both told me a limit of 10.    another example of the failing customer service at Princess then!  thank you for letting me know!

If you read enough threads here on CC you will see that trying to get a question answered by a factual response by either calling Princess or doing the chat function is impossible. The people at the call/chat center are extremely inexperienced people in a foreign country who have no idea what they are talking about 90+% of the time. But yet, so many people believe them because they don’t know better. 
 

The stories here make it sound like they really just start making up their own answers without actually knowing the truth. I personally have never had to call them because I always use a TA that inexperienced and knows the true facts.

 

Regardless of my little rant, I’m glad you took advantage of the AARP gift cards. They have saved us a lot of $ throughout the years once I read about them on CC.

 

Cheers

[nanarena]

I bought a $500 gift card. I've done it several times now. This time, however, I did not receive my email rewards card. I went to the AARP help topics and checked the process. It said to wait 24 hours and to let them know if I had not received it.

 

I waited and called. I worked with a very nice service agent. She saw my purchase transaction and re-generated the email. I got it within a minute. Made my payment to Princess with no more issues.

[CRUISEWITHH]

What is the benefit of using AARP gift cards?  Are they discounted if you buy them from AARP?  How much of a discount can you buy them for?   At target I get a 5% discount when I make a purchase.  Is there any other way to get discounted gift cards?

[dreaminofcruisin]

3 minutes ago, CRUISEWITHH said:

What is the benefit of using AARP gift cards?  Are they discounted if you buy them from AARP?  How much of a discount can you buy them for?   At target I get a 5% discount when I make a purchase.  Is there any other way to get discounted gift cards?

 

8% - if you buy a $500 gift card, you pay $460

It's thru AARP rewards, so for the Princess gift cards, you need to join AARP Rewards (free), but you don't need to join AARP.

[chubbypiggy]

I logged in to my Princess account and applied my Princess gift cards to pay my final payment.

I entered 9 cards with $500 per card, everything went fine.  After that, I have a remaining balance of $21.87.  Then I applied my 10^th card, card balance is $500.  So, I entered $500 in the “amount” box.  Then I got the message “Amount is required” above the Amount box.  Am I not supposed to enter $500 (the balance on my card)?  Am I supposed to enter just “$21.87”, my remaining balance due?  I didn’t enter $21.87 because I am afraid my $500 card will be zero out after it deducted the $21.87.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

[chubbypiggy]

This is the picture I referred to in my last post. 

[JimmyVWine]

24 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

Am I supposed to enter just “$21.87

Yes.  Just enter the final balance. The card will not zero out and instead will carry the difference which you can use on board by going to Guest Services and have them upload that amount as OBC. Or you can just hold on to the card and use it for a future cruise payment.

[chubbypiggy]

2 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Yes.  Just enter the final balance. The card will not zero out and instead will carry the difference which you can use on board by going to Guest Services and have them upload that amount as OBC. Or you can just hold on to the card and use it for a future cruise payment.

Thank you. I will use the remaining balance of that card on the other cruises I need to pay. 

[CRUISEWITHH]

Once I get onboard can I take my GC to Passenger Services and have it added to my existing OBC to cover upgrading to Princess Plus?  Then can I just leave a credit card to cover the remaining balance?

 

[that]

@CRUISEWITHH

 

yes

[JamieLogical]

Please, for the love of God, PRINT out your gift card before bringing them to guest services. I had to wait in line for literally 45 minutes while a father and daughter searched their emails for their gift card with all sorts of varying balances and then forward them one by one to the ONE and only guest services rep onboard who could process gift cards. At the end of all that, my five printed gift cards literally took 7 minutes to process.

 

Edited Sunday at 10:52 PM by JamieLogical

[bunzini]

I am new to this.  So if I buy Princess gift cards through AARP rewards, then I can apply them to my final balance even if I booked through a TA?

[jwattle]

24 minutes ago, bunzini said:

I am new to this.  So if I buy Princess gift cards through AARP rewards, then I can apply them to my final balance even if I booked through a TA?

Yes