Apple NEWSPLUS link/code not working

[Alison204]

Hello, I got an email to say I can get Apple NEWSPLUS free for 6 months. I’ve checked the T&C’s and it seems I’m eligible. I’m a new customer.

I text NEWSPLUS to 150 and got a link, which I click on using my phone. It takes me to a page where there’s a button that says REEDEM. When I click on this it opens a new page that just says ‘Not Found’.

How can I fix this please & get access to the 6 months free trial?

thank you 

[Chris_B]

@Alison204   Do you have Apple news installed in on your iPhone ?  as the link should open that. 

[Alison204]

Yes I’ve got the app. I just deleted & reinstalled it but the link still opens a page in safari instead?

[Christopher_G]

Thanks @Alison204

It may be worth speaking to our Technical Support team. They'll do their best to help.

Chris

[Alison204]

Morning, I did an online chat with EE technical support this morning but they couldn’t fix it so told me to contact Apple support.

I did an online chat with Apple and they also rang me.

They said it’s fine on their end but the link I got from EE is the problem. 

How can I get this resolved please.

[Christopher_G]

Thanks for speaking to Apple, @Alison204

Did they say what they thought the problem could be? What did they try to fix it?

Chris

[Alison204]

They just said the link doesn’t work properly and as the link comes from you I need to go back to EE to ‘get a link that works’......

[Christopher_G]

Thanks @Alison204

I've sent you a private message to get some information from you.

Please have a look and get back to me.

Thanks 🙂

Chris

[sam185]

Hi @Christopher_G 

I'm having a similar issue.

I've received the URL from EE. When I click on it, it opens a Safari page with a link to 'Redeem Now'.

When I click 'Redeem Now' it says 'This content is only available in Apple News'.

I have an iPhone running iOS 14.4 and I have the Apple News app downloaded, so I'm not sure why it's not working.

Thanks, Sam

[sam185 · Accepted solution]

@Christopher_G 

Just as an update to the below, I was able to resolve the issue after speaking to Apple Support.

For anyone with the same issue, once you click the 'Redeem Code' link, it will open the URL that displays the error message.

On the error screen, the URL includes your redemption code that you can use to activate the subscription manually. It will be in the format apple.news/redeem/?code= [string of letters] &campaign_id=amp_sms_ee

The string of letters is your redemption code, which you can just enter into the App Store on your Apple device to activate the 6 months free trial manually.

Sam