Used this for the cruise I just booked, and my Amex had a special deal going on where I got 20% back on Paypal purchases. Yes, TWENTY. My cruise fare went from right at $1500 to $1080 just from that. Add in the $550 in OBC with the offer Carnival gave me and my 6-night cruise for 2 in a balcony cabin is costing me just $530.
WANT SOME CONTEXT? Here's the problem...Paypal discount is an offer for NEW card members only, AMEX Blue Cash card, and it is CAPPED AT $150.00!!!! So your math is incorrect and if this is what you were expecting, you'll be mighty disappointed.
I signed up for a Princess Visa that was offering $150 ledger credit when you spend $500 in the first 90 days. I used it to pay for the AARP gift cards for my cruise and saved $250. I also own 100 shares of Carnival stock so I get $250 obc share holder benefit for my 14 night cruise. With the discounts and on board credits I was able to get an inside cabin for about $400.
thanks for this tip. all we have left to pay for our upcoming cruise with HAL is the gratuities. we can't pay online using the gift card but they'll honor it once we're onboard!
I remember when COVID first started and there were a lot of cancellations and refunds people had a hard time because they had purchased their crews with gift cards and then did not have the gift cards anymore. Carnival will refund your money on to the original method of payment so if you don't have your copy of the gift card and something happens it could cause a problem.
UK cruisers who work for the NHS can get a 10% reduction on Celebrity Cruises if they have the Blue Light card. The basic Amex cashback card also frequently has offers and if you time it right with the offers you can get £150 off twice if you split payments and wait for the offer to come up again - or else if you're a couple and both have Amex you can split payment over two cards and save double.
RC cards do not even show up on AARP at this moment. And although it sounds great, it really isn't if you can only use on a new booking. Kinda bummed about that! Oh well.
Thank you so much for the great tip - I just saved $250!! (And you were right - the HAL ones were incredibly difficult to find). AARP/HAL allows you to purchase 5/$500 gift cards per month and I was just able to apply them to my booking. Hoping I will be able to purchase another 5 next month.
@@TheYankmchain there’s an information page I would suggest reading, but I believe they don’t expire. Mainly it said that HAL could refuse to honor them if they believed that fraud was involved.
So here's a question for you regarding the AARP Royal Caribbean gift cards. You mentioned they can only be used on new bookings, however I book through a travel agent. Can they be used then? Also, can they be used to purchase anything on Royal Caribbean's website after booking - like excursions, drink packages etc. Since I don't yet have an AARP membership, I couldn't really look up this info. Hope you can help!
Please be careful with Royal Caribbean gift cards. They are a giant pain to even get applied, and then when you do if you need to cancel the reservation for any reason you lose the gift card.
Agreed! I will never buy another RCCL gift card again. It took over 4 months to finally get the RCCL gift card applied, thankfully the cruise was booked over a year out so there was time to deal with it, but it was not worth the hassle.
We paid $65 for 5 years for aarp the last three cruises booked have been exclusively purchased with gift cards. We purchased our cheers package as well.
Great info. QUESTION: With the gift cards, do you have to book through the cruise line website? My cruise for next month was booked through AAA. Thanks
Carnival takes up to five gift cards at one time. Of course you can make an unlimited number of progress payments on your balance. If you have funds left over, you can add them to your account onboard, just bring the printout of the e-gifr card, or do it while you have Internet access on embarkation day if you're not going to buy an Internet package. The only catch with Princess is that you will need to put a cruise on courtesy hold, add gift cards to your Cruise Personalizer, then you can apply the gift card funds as the deposit on the cruise.
This is by no means guaranteed, but we have several Amex cards that get fairly frequent cruise offers, most commonly from NCL and RC. We recently booked an NCL cruise, and because they allow split payments, we effectively got 25% off. Granted, the cards have hefty annual fees, so it only makes sense if you already have the cards for other perks.
The Royal Caribbean is not a card it's a gift certificate. To redeem read the fine print then you have to email RCCL to get it applied. There are restrictions like booked thru RC. Can only be used for cruise fare not other thingsike excursion, specialty dining etc.
Great job, man! This is one of the best tips I have seen on how to save money on cruises. I have one question, though: At 6:30 you display terms and conditions of redemption for RCCL. 12th term reads that we do not get our gift card back if the cruise is cancelled. Is that true even if RCCL is the one who cancels the cruise? I have heard that that does happen sometimes... Many thanks!
Can maybe travel insurance kick in and refund you if this happens? Just wondering since this is kind of a deal breaker for most, including myself but trying to find a solution since I carry travel insurance anyway for medical reasons.
Thanks for those tips! A question though; when you showed on the AARP website to purchase the cards, it said that you are redeeming points. How do you get the points to redeem?
What's the full list of Cruise Lines they support? I can't find the list without having to sign up first. I have an Oceania cruise coming up next year.
The statements the cards must be used at initial booking and only through the cruise line are incorrect. i checked with my travel agent and confirmed by calling AARP Rewards, the travel agent can apply purchased gift cards to the remaining balance a a cruise, even one purchased 2 years ago through a travel agent.
I've done the AARP with the Carnival before and it does take some time for it to show up in your inbox. After how well it went I thought it was the same process with the Royal Caribbean gift cards as well and I was wrong. Royal makes you jump through hoops in order to redeem it. I wasn't able to use to for a deposit on booking and in order to get it applied I had to have a booking already and contact them and have them apply it to the booking. Won't do it for them no more.
So did they refund you the extra back to your credit card? I have a 4000 cruise, on hold, and I have been told to pay everything first, then send an email with the gift card, and i will get refunded, it seems like a lot, can you please confirm this? thanks
Are there any issues using multiple gift cards when buying a cruise? The example of $2500 cruise. It required 5 gift cards. Any issues with using all 5 in a single transaction?
A great tip, Tanner. Is there any limit to the number of gift cards you can purchase on the AARP website? If I want 50 $100 cards would they let me buy them? There is still the matter of travel insurance. I usually buy my cruise on my credit card which provides good travel cancellation/interuption coverage automatically. Paying with these cards would seem to forfeit that even if you bought the gift cards on the same credit card. You'd probably still need to get a policy (another 5-10% of the trip cost) and that could eat into your savings.
I just looked at my rewards because I have an upcoming celebrity cruise and the gift card can only be used for a new booking and max 500 person 1000 cabin for a max savings of 100. I'm assuming that the card can only be used directly with celebrity so you are losing any credit from booking through aarp or another. Sounds like a wash to me. But this is another tool.
There is a mention of redeeming AARP Rewards points. How does that mesh with purchasing gift cards on the site? Do I need to collect a certain amount of points to be eligible to get the gift card discounts?
Thanks for all the great cruise content... Anybody know if you can use a RC gift card to pay for a cruise through a travel website? (I'm trying to double dip so i can cruise more often 😂). Thx
This is a good video but real cruise savings actually comes from finding a travel agent like mine and getting unpublished rates. I always save at least 50% off my cruises just by using a travel agent. If you are booking through the cruiseline or a website you are doing it all wrong.
Used this for the cruise I just booked, and my Amex had a special deal going on where I got 20% back on Paypal purchases. Yes, TWENTY. My cruise fare went from right at $1500 to $1080 just from that. Add in the $550 in OBC with the offer Carnival gave me and my 6-night cruise for 2 in a balcony cabin is costing me just $530.
WANT SOME CONTEXT? Here's the problem...Paypal discount is an offer for NEW card members only, AMEX Blue Cash card, and it is CAPPED AT $150.00!!!! So your math is incorrect and if this is what you were expecting, you'll be mighty disappointed.
@TheYankmchain thanks for the clarification
DUDE you just saved me $300 for a cruise I was already planning! Thank you so much! Worked for Carnival, Super Easy!
I signed up for a Princess Visa that was offering $150 ledger credit when you spend $500 in the first 90 days. I used it to pay for the AARP gift cards for my cruise and saved $250. I also own 100 shares of Carnival stock so I get $250 obc share holder benefit for my 14 night cruise. With the discounts and on board credits I was able to get an inside cabin for about $400.
Thanks for the tip….I love your channel always good info.
This is THE BEST money saving tip I’ve ever seen!!! Thank you so much 😊
Thanks! Great savings advice on cruisee, something we can start using immediately.
thanks for this tip. all we have left to pay for our upcoming cruise with HAL is the gratuities. we can't pay online using the gift card but they'll honor it once we're onboard!
Thank you!! My hubby and I are big fans of your channel and content like is is why. You are fabulous!
I remember when COVID first started and there were a lot of cancellations and refunds people had a hard time because they had purchased their crews with gift cards and then did not have the gift cards anymore. Carnival will refund your money on to the original method of payment so if you don't have your copy of the gift card and something happens it could cause a problem.
AARP isn’t offering the discount for Carnival Cruise cards right now.
I just went onto AARP and both Carnival Cruise gift cards is at 10% discount and Princess at 8%,
UK cruisers who work for the NHS can get a 10% reduction on Celebrity Cruises if they have the Blue Light card. The basic Amex cashback card also frequently has offers and if you time it right with the offers you can get £150 off twice if you split payments and wait for the offer to come up again - or else if you're a couple and both have Amex you can split payment over two cards and save double.
RC cards do not even show up on AARP at this moment. And although it sounds great, it really isn't if you can only use on a new booking. Kinda bummed about that! Oh well.
Great information.
Thank you so much for the great tip - I just saved $250!! (And you were right - the HAL ones were incredibly difficult to find). AARP/HAL allows you to purchase 5/$500 gift cards per month and I was just able to apply them to my booking. Hoping I will be able to purchase another 5 next month.
Are there redemption restrictions on those?
@@TheYankmchain there’s an information page I would suggest reading, but I believe they don’t expire. Mainly it said that HAL could refuse to honor them if they believed that fraud was involved.
So here's a question for you regarding the AARP Royal Caribbean gift cards. You mentioned they can only be used on new bookings, however I book through a travel agent. Can they be used then? Also, can they be used to purchase anything on Royal Caribbean's website after booking - like excursions, drink packages etc. Since I don't yet have an AARP membership, I couldn't really look up this info. Hope you can help!
Ask your TA. Mine said no problem so I just forwarded her the emails with the cards (I bought 4 $500 cards so 4 emails) and she took it from there.
AARP is having a Memorial Day sale on membership- $9 a year when you sign up for 5 years.
Yay! I have BOTH an AARP card AND the Citi Double Cash card you have! $aving$ !!
Thank you! I wished someone would have shared this 8 years / 12+ cruises ago.
Please be careful with Royal Caribbean gift cards. They are a giant pain to even get applied, and then when you do if you need to cancel the reservation for any reason you lose the gift card.
Agreed! I will never buy another RCCL gift card again. It took over 4 months to finally get the RCCL gift card applied, thankfully the cruise was booked over a year out so there was time to deal with it, but it was not worth the hassle.
4 months? 😬. How long ago was this?
Wow! Wonderful tips. TFS.
I buy cruise gift cards at Kroger when they offer a coupon for 4x fuel points. I can purchase those cards and save up to $1 a gallon on my gas.
You have to do the math as 10% off is a great deal
We paid $65 for 5 years for aarp the last three cruises booked have been exclusively purchased with gift cards. We purchased our cheers package as well.
Great info. QUESTION: With the gift cards, do you have to book through the cruise line website? My cruise for next month was booked through AAA. Thanks
We'd like an answer Mr Cruzely
I'm having trouble finding the cruise gift cards on my iPad. I might try on my laptop. I don't see the rewards page...
I did find it, but found that the AARP site is best used on an iPad in landscape orientation
Great tips!!!! I just want to confirm that you can use multiple gift cards when making a payment for your cruise online?
Carnival takes up to five gift cards at one time. Of course you can make an unlimited number of progress payments on your balance. If you have funds left over, you can add them to your account onboard, just bring the printout of the e-gifr card, or do it while you have Internet access on embarkation day if you're not going to buy an Internet package.
The only catch with Princess is that you will need to put a cruise on courtesy hold, add gift cards to your Cruise Personalizer, then you can apply the gift card funds as the deposit on the cruise.
Am a new subscriber and really enjoying your content.
You can possibly get more savings by using rakuten during the purchase process, too ... 😂
What's that?
This is by no means guaranteed, but we have several Amex cards that get fairly frequent cruise offers, most commonly from NCL and RC. We recently booked an NCL cruise, and because they allow split payments, we effectively got 25% off. Granted, the cards have hefty annual fees, so it only makes sense if you already have the cards for other perks.
I could not find the link to redeem. Been trying for an hour. HELP!!
I couldn't find them either
Um, the rewards is only open to citizens living the USA.
The Royal Caribbean is not a card it's a gift certificate. To redeem read the fine print then you have to email RCCL to get it applied.
There are restrictions like booked thru RC. Can only be used for cruise fare not other thingsike excursion, specialty dining etc.
Call a travel advisor that specializes in cruises, they most likely have lower rates.
Great job, man! This is one of the best tips I have seen on how to save money on cruises. I have one question, though: At 6:30 you display terms and conditions of redemption for RCCL. 12th term reads that we do not get our gift card back if the cruise is cancelled. Is that true even if RCCL is the one who cancels the cruise? I have heard that that does happen sometimes... Many thanks!
That happened to my parents. Royal cancelled the cruise and they didn’t give back the gift cards. Lost $400
@@bjoegday409 I am sorry to know that. I was tempted to join AARP because of this tip, but now following this tip feels too risky.
Can maybe travel insurance kick in and refund you if this happens? Just wondering since this is kind of a deal breaker for most, including myself but trying to find a solution since I carry travel insurance anyway for medical reasons.
Thanks for those tips! A question though; when you showed on the AARP website to purchase the cards, it said that you are redeeming points. How do you get the points to redeem?
What's the full list of Cruise Lines they support? I can't find the list without having to sign up first. I have an Oceania cruise coming up next year.
Thank you for this info!!!
Here’s a question do you have to book directly with the cruise line with these gift cards or can you use an outside travel agent?
bought the cards. No cards arrived after several hours. AARP now saying it will take 24 hrs. ITS SUCKS!!!!
The statements the cards must be used at initial booking and only through the cruise line are incorrect. i checked with my travel agent and confirmed by calling AARP Rewards, the travel agent can apply purchased gift cards to the remaining balance a a cruise, even one purchased 2 years ago through a travel agent.
I've done the AARP with the Carnival before and it does take some time for it to show up in your inbox. After how well it went I thought it was the same process with the Royal Caribbean gift cards as well and I was wrong. Royal makes you jump through hoops in order to redeem it. I wasn't able to use to for a deposit on booking and in order to get it applied I had to have a booking already and contact them and have them apply it to the booking. Won't do it for them no more.
So did they refund you the extra back to your credit card? I have a 4000 cruise, on hold, and I have been told to pay everything first, then send an email with the gift card, and i will get refunded, it seems like a lot, can you please confirm this? thanks
Are there any issues using multiple gift cards when buying a cruise? The example of $2500 cruise. It required 5 gift cards. Any issues with using all 5 in a single transaction?
A great tip, Tanner. Is there any limit to the number of gift cards you can purchase on the AARP website? If I want 50 $100 cards would they let me buy them? There is still the matter of travel insurance. I usually buy my cruise on my credit card which provides good travel cancellation/interuption coverage automatically. Paying with these cards would seem to forfeit that even if you bought the gift cards on the same credit card. You'd probably still need to get a policy (another 5-10% of the trip cost) and that could eat into your savings.
Most cards have a monthly limit of 25.
What credit card do you use?
You can add the gift cards to your Apple wallet as well
I had no problem purchasing aarp cards. My problem is how do I pay for my Princess Cruise with the aarp card. I was told I could pay online with it.
I just looked at my rewards because I have an upcoming celebrity cruise and the gift card can only be used for a new booking and max 500 person 1000 cabin for a max savings of 100. I'm assuming that the card can only be used directly with celebrity so you are losing any credit from booking through aarp or another. Sounds like a wash to me. But this is another tool.
There is a mention of redeeming AARP Rewards points. How does that mesh with purchasing gift cards on the site? Do I need to collect a certain amount of points to be eligible to get the gift card discounts?
No, it's separate. The gift cards are bought using cash. The rewards points can be redeemed for sweepstakes or small value cards.
Cannot find the AARP rewards page!
How many gift cards can I use per cabin?
Well done...thank you
The only issue with all these is you lose the travel protection when buying the gift cards instead of using your CC to pay for the trip.
Do you know if there is something similar for Canadian?
Thanks for all the great cruise content... Anybody know if you can use a RC gift card to pay for a cruise through a travel website? (I'm trying to double dip so i can cruise more often 😂). Thx
AARP card discount is now 8%
The $500 card is $450
This is a good video but real cruise savings actually comes from finding a travel agent like mine and getting unpublished rates. I always save at least 50% off my cruises just by using a travel agent. If you are booking through the cruiseline or a website you are doing it all wrong.
Most credit cards do not allow points or cash back on gift cards.
I do this via Allstate Rewards.
Fine print says it is only for international sailings
Cannot find these gift cards on AARP rewards
It’s kinda hard to find em. I search “members only” rewards to find em.
Wow!
We canceled AARP because they canceled our insurance for no reason.
I use Kroger to get a discount on fuel for my car
AARP’s type-0
Great advice!