You can't buy tix with gift cards

[SCOTTOHIOCPA]

I am starting my vacation by being really mad at Universal. I bought $400 worth of gift cards to buy tickets. It says they can used for tickets right on the back of them. HOWEVER, I found out they can only be used in person, where the tix will cost $80 more (for 4 tix) than if I bought them online.

I am really,really mad about this.

 

[Disworldluv]

Sounds like a bait and switch maneuver. I would be irate too!

 

[damo]

It does clearly state on the website that the gift cards can only be used to buy tickets at the gate.

https://www.universalorlando.com/Gift-Card-FAQs.aspx

It also says in the terms and conditions that "A Gift Card cannot be used to make purchases online at www.universalorlando.com. "

I don't know what information came with your gift card, so I can't comment on that.

 

[bumbershoot]

What a bummer.

I looked around on their website, and in the T&C for the GCs it does say "A Gift Card cannot be used to make purchases online at www.universalorlando.com."


Any chance that money can be used for food and souvenirs instead of tickets?

 

[MaestroTK]

Sounds like a dumb policy to me. I can't think of any other business that does not allow gift cards to be used online.

 

[bumbershoot]

Sounds like a dumb policy to me. I can't think of any other business that does not allow gift cards to be used online.

They only recently got gift CARDS, though. This is new for them. And it's not just tickets that can't be bought online, but anything through universalorlando.com.


I hope the money can be used for other things. If it can, and then they just use a CC for tickets, the OP might want to check out undercovertourist.com (or a similar discount place) to see if tickets are a better rate there. I was noticing that 1 day base and 2 day base (which are actually 3 day tickets) are a bit less expensive on UCT than universalorlando.com, which means they would be cheaper than getting them once they are onsite.

The one day base were lower than $400 and the 2 day base tickets were more, so I wasn't sure which one the OP was going for.