how do I redeem an e-mail gift

Howdy Tom,

Use the steps in this article to redeem your iTunes gift - Redeem and use iTunes Gift Cards and content codes.

If you have an issue with redeeming it, get help using the resources on this page - If you can't redeem your iTunes Gift Card or code.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Best to you.

I had this same problem - link in gift e-mail sent to me just took me to iTunes store, but did not credit the gift card to my account.

A good solution I discovered is to right click on the "Redeem" button in the e-mail, then copy the hyperlink. The code for your gift card is embedded in the link. Copy down that code, then go to redeem in the pull down menu after logging in to your iTunes account. Enter the code manually and submit.

Doing this worked for me and credited the gift card I received by e-mail to my account properly.

More steps than it should take, but it works. Having the sender resend the gift didn't work, so I discovered this trick to work around the problem.