Classic wow tokens

So I played quite a bit of Cataclysm at Cata Classic launch, and ended up buying like 4-5 gametime tokens for gold. Now with the anniversary stuff out, I had the itch to play some Hardcore wow, and figured I'd put some of those tokens to use. But it seems like I'm unable to activate a subscription with those tokens, without already having a subscription? Is that correct? I know in Retail wow, it just tells you, that you have a token in your inventory at the login screen, and asks if you wanna use it to add gametime. Is my 5 tokens just being gatekept behind a paywall lol?