soccr

With all of UA's woes, I'm not really griping so much as letting people know: I was given a couple of $25. certificates from UA for being willing to take a later flight. But when I went to book on-line at United's site, I found I couldn't use them. Called UA and they said that I had to book by phone or in person to use the certs, although they said they were "working on" making them useable for on-line fares. Since the on-line fare was $30 less than the "telephone" fare, it wasn't worth trying to use the certs.

BeachBoi

It sounds as if this never happened to you,Soccr.I HATE seeing anyone being taken advantage of by any airline.Really by any biz at all.But if $25 is all you were offered to get off an oversold flite,be advised you can hold out for more.Its almost like an auction.Thursday in Miami the "bidding" started at $50.No takers.Up to $100.Finally at $250 a couple decided they really did not have to go right then.While United told you they are "working on" blah,blah,blah,I would guess it will never happen.

soccr

Well, the actual deal was that they didn't finally need to ask anyone to take a later flight but gave these out to anyone who volunteered anyway. I usually would have held out for more but there were several who volunteered, and it would have been a lowest-bidder situation if they'd needed to bump someone.

rb_travelerxATyahoo

That's too bad about the larger group. Now that we've all read what happened to you, I will be inclined to loudly ask if the certificates are "those ones with restrictions that hardly make them worth having" next time I'm on an overbooked flight. So far, the three times I've volunteered (on USAirways) the cert was for a free round-trip ... but there were problems using them when I wanted to fly... limited "non-rev" seats.

AAFrequentFlyer

Sorry to hear about your UA experience. With AA, one can make a reservation on line, put it on hold and then call AA.com web desk and inform them of the fact that a cert will be used. At which point the TA at AA.com will subtract the cert. value, charge your card for the difference and give you option of either going to the nearest airport, city office as soon as possible or if not close, mail them in to the ticket office in Dallas. Few days later a e-ticket confirmation is e-mailed once they receive the cert. Are you sure you can't do that wiyh UA? Don't call their regular ticket office, try to find if they have web help desk and call them.<BR>Good Luck!

KT

Wait a second. The certificates were simply for volunteering, not for actually being bumped. So, while it's a big pain not to be able to use them online, it's not like soccr actually gave up anything in order to get them. I've volunteered for bumping many times, and I've never received anything simply for volunteering.

soccr

Do please note that I said I wasn't really griping about this. There was actually a bit of shuffling of seat assignments, which could have been a sacrifice, more or less. But I just wanted to bring to others' attention the fact that they will have trouble using the certificates in conjunction with on-line fares. <BR><BR>AA-traveler, I'm not sure it's possible to &quot;hold&quot; online booking on United's website, didn't know you could on AA. Or do you just mean keeping it on your screen without clicking on &quot;purchase&quot; for final transaction?

KT

Sorry, soccr, I didn't mean to imply that you were griping. Your original post was quite gripe-free. I was really responding to some later posters who seemed to think you were being ripped off.

KT

Addendum : and I wasn't trying to criticize the other posters, either. I think some of them just thought that you'd actually been bumped.

jbrowne

I have air five check plus certs from AW. Now that I am ready to use them, I noticed that they are not dated, nor do they have my name on them. However,the instructions on the back say that the certs are only good one year from date issued and are non-transferable. Since my certs are not dated or signed I am wondering if I will have a problem. With AW you also can not book on-line or by phone. First you have to call the reservation line and give them all the info, then go directly to the airport to purchase the tickets. This is my first time using any type of discount certificates at an airline and am wondering is it common for them not to be completely filled out and is it any big deal.

soccr

My guess is that those certs aren't for very much $, otherwise they would be dated, etc. In my experience, they don't look too closely at the dates and here's why: you might want to check the fine print to see if you can combine more than one of those certs together to pay for passage -- often you can only use one $25 cert. for one leg or even one itinerary. In other words, even if you have 4 $50. certs., you couldn't use the $200 combined value on one ticket. But I've never dealt with AW, so I don't know if that's the case here.<BR><BR>In any case, all you can do is try to use them and see what happens. The worst that'll happen is that they'll say no.