Travel Solutions; Allstate Rewards gift card didn't work on my cruise

A Princess representative tried multiple times to identify and correct the problem. He determined that the vendor had not funded the cards, and that my wife and I needed to contact Allstate Rewards directly.

I called Allstate Rewards from the ship. An Allstate Rewards representative told me we needed to contact Princess guest services because “Princess Cruise Line is responsible for Princess gift cards.” Princess had told me the opposite — that Allstate was responsible.

Later on in the cruise, I received an email from Allstate Rewards stating, “Due to the amount of time since your order was placed, we are no longer able to assist with your order.” — David Marsh, Bonita Springs, Florida

A: Allstate Rewards are given to drivers who participate in Allstate’s Drivewise program. It’s an app that monitors your driving habits and rewards you for driving the speed limit and making no sudden stops.

So, what went wrong? Blame it on the pandemic. Princess canceled your first cruise, which was scheduled for 2021. According to Allstate, you would have had an opportunity to correct the problem if you had filed a complaint in 2021, but the problem didn’t arise until 2022, when you rescheduled your cruise.

Could you have avoided this? Probably not. You might have called Allstate Rewards before your cruise to verify the balance, but you couldn’t have known there would be a problem.

It would have been great if someone at Princess or Allstate Rewards would have taken ownership of this problem. A brief, polite email to one of the managers might have helped. I list executive contacts for Princess Cruises and Allstate on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.

I contacted Allstate. A company representative apologized for the nonworking cards. Allstate refunded you for the shipboard purchases that you had to pay for separately.