Last month Luxury Escapes updated their terms to limit the use of gift cards purchased from elsewhere:
The maximum redemption value for Gift Cards not purchased directly through the Website is limited to $1,500 per order.
Wondering if anyone has tried to use the vouchers since the policy changed on 23 June? Is there a way of getting around it?
Extremely disappointing that they introduced this and am so lucky I noticed before purchasing 4K in unusable vouchers for my next booking.
I’ve heard about this. Wonder what lead them to change it, I mean a voucher is a voucher - why limit the amount your customers can use?
Oh another note, can’t answer your question sorry. I’d imagine this would upset a lot of their customers. Not like they are exactly an affordable travel agent.
why limit the amount your customers can use?
Free advertising on OzBargain.
It’s a ridiculous policy and I suspect it’s going to cause quite a bit of upset once people realise their vouchers are worthless. How is it even legal?
I have often purchased $3k to $4k of vouchers from Costco as it’s quite a saving (used to be 14% off now 10% off).
Yes and they just did the reduction to 10% in Jan or Feb. Clearly that wasn't enough for them. It makes purchasing gift cards fairly pointless given the risks and limitations of GCs in general and particularly for holidays where a few hundred on GC doesn't buy much.
Maybe they are preparing to float. Chemist Warehouse did this sort of thing (value erosion of postage, pricing) before their float where they are no longer the clear pricing leader.
All good things come to an end, as they say.
Wow, that is incredibly scummy. Is that even legal? Now I'm wondering if anyone else has similar conditions buried in their T&Cs
Given it transfers to credit if you cancel a booking, I wonder how you'd go using over $1500 in credit, vs gift card?
I think they’ve just closed the loophole for adding account credit via the android app. I could do it last week but the button was gone when I tried it today!
FYI for anyone thinking of purchasing more than $1500.
I've added all my gift cards to my account as credit using the app and it seems to let me redeem over 3k in credit for a booking. Haven't finished the booking yet but can get all the way to the end of checkout and seems fine. Maybe adding them as credit is a bit of a loophole right now. You can only do it on the app and not the website.
Looking for some more gift cards before I finish my booking. Hoping woolworths have them or the ultimate cards in the next week or so…
That’s good to know! I couldn’t find anywhere to load credits on the website and didn’t realise this was an option using the app. I’ll get the app.
Awesome. Yeah I was surprised too. I've loaded in over 3k of gift cards now and it lets me apply them at checkout. Will fully complete checkout in the next week or so but as far as I can tell it looks like it will be fine.
Confirming it works! Had no problems completing my booking with 3.5k credits pre loaded. Thanks so much.
Hi,
How do you load the cards in please. I’ve bought 3k worth and can’t use them
@Blues2219: You need to load them onto the gift card section of the luxury escapes app using an android phone.
Which section in the app should I be going to to redeem? I’m trying to see if I can do this now and add credit to the account before checking out
Account > Gift card > Redeem
Is it $1500 per person in total, or per booking? I need to make 2 bookings, was going to do it at once. May need to do one today, and one after a drink!
Anyone know if any discount code work too for 5% off or similar?
$1500 per booking but if you have an android phone I believe you can still pre load unlimited credit using the luxury escapes app.
Hello all,
Read online that you can only redeem up to $1,500 worth of gift card at Luxury Escapes when purchased outside of their website, anyone tried if you can stack with those purchased directly from them? E.g. $1500 worth from Costco, then $400 purchased directly from Luxury Escapes.
Question behind the question - I am lucky enough to be targeted with AmEx Statement Credit: 10% of Spend Back at Special Gift Cards (up to $20 Back One Time Only) on both the primary and secondary Amex, since Special Gift Cards are basically prepaid debit card, can I use that to purchase gift cards from Luxury Escapes website?
Thanks everyone :)
Sounds like the start of ADAGCHS?
Another Day Another Gift Card Humongous Saving?
how LE explained to me when I called is $1500 3rd party and then unlimited GC if purchased through LE
if you are lucky enough to have a card that can be used to buy GC from LE then it should work
Which special gc did you use? Outdoor?
Yes it did :) And staying true to the Ozbargain spirit, if you use Special Gift Card to purchase Luxury Escapes gift card, there’s no credit card handling fee. Then you can use that gift card for your regular Luxury Escapes above the $1500 third party gift card limit.
Thanks OP, did not realise this had changed, that's a big deal, have done thousands in a booking before. Would have been caught next time had you not mentioned this.