Ilovetotravel18

Last December, my DH, 21 yo son and I traveled from Mpls. to Denver and back. Upon arriving back home, the zipper on my son's suitcase had broken and there was a bunch of tape wrapped around the middle of the case. Needless to say, his entire shaving bag had fallen out and was nowhere to be found. Long story short, I called the airlines (Frontier, to be exact) and they sent us a $75 voucher. Well, fast forward to today and I have had a heck of a time trying to use that voucher!! Ugh!! It can only be used by a travel agent (which one, I have NOT been able to find out), the airlines directly (oh, you have to mail it certified mail and a bunch of other stuff), or maybe elsewhere, but after MANY, MANY, MANY hours on the phone and driving MANY, MANY miles, I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO USE IT!!! I am absolutely frustrated and wondered if anyone else has had this experience with trying to use an airline voucher? Don't worry - I am writing a letter to Frontier and they won't hear the end of me until this thing is resolved, if I have to go clear to the top.

Margo

I don't know if this will help, but this is my experience. I had a voucher for $106 from United. I had bought a ticket and a few weeks later found that the price had fallen by $106. So I called UA ticket reservations and stated the facts and was told that I would get a voucher for the difference. It took about 2 months.

I was then instructed to call UA reservations for the next ticket that I needed to purchase (voucher good for 1 year), make the reservations, put them on hold, and within 24 hours pick up the ticket and pay at the airport. I gave them the voucher and had the 106 subtracted from the current ticket price.

You only have 24 hours after you make the "held" reservation to pick up the ticket at the airport. As it was, that was convenient for me as I did that when leaving on one trip to get the ticket for the next trip.

I hope this is not too confusing but it does take some planning. I hope this works for you.
Margo

BoniseA

I have used a lot of vouchers.

With Delta, I called and made the reservation on the phone. Then, I had 24 hours to drive to the airport and pick up the ticket.

With Southwest, the voucher has a number on it. You can purchase the ticket with the voucher online. Their website offers a way to enter the number.

Jen

My experience is the same as others: that you must redeem the voucher in person through the airline, so at the airport. You can put a reservation on hold for 24 hours online (at least on United), but to purchase the flight using the voucher, you must present it to the airline in person.

Ilovetotravel18

Thanks for the responses. The Frontier voucher cannot be used online. Even the three travel agents I talked with tried and said they don't know why Frontier hasn't gotten up to speed with the other airlines in this regard. I live in rural Wisconsin usually make all my reservations online, but this has just been a total frustration to me. I live about 100 miles from the nearest airport also, so would have to make a special trip to the airport to pick up the ticket. Not in my every day plans, if you know what I mean.

Travelnut

For American Airlines, I selected a flight online, put it on 'hold' and then mailed my voucher to some handling location and, after about 10 days, my 'hold' was changed to 'ticketed'. A few more days later I got a new voucher for the remaining balance to use in the next year.

scatcat

No problems for me using AA voucher. I once went to Paris for $57 total after redeeming vouchers for volunteer bumps.

monicapileggi

I received a voucher ($115) from USAirways from my Paris ticket (this past May) and made reservations to see my Mom in FL in July. I didn't know I had to pick up my tickets in person at the airport until I was ready to give my credit card number for the difference. Not knowing this rule (which I think is nuts - don't they have a way of tracking these vouchers?!) I was so angry because I would have had to take time off from my job and drive over an hour to get to the airport within that 24 hour timeframe and have to pay for parking. FORTUNATELY, my husband was going to be near BWI. If he hadn't picked it up, I might have just paid the ticket in full and told them they could keep their voucher.

Monica

Ilovetotravel18

I also know other airlines that you can use vouchers online or use them to put a ticket on "hold." My sister said she recently used one for Northwest Airlines and was able to use it to book a ticket online with no problems without using it as a "hold" for her ticket (she said there is a place on NWA website to type in the voucher number). Maybe my first problem was flying Frontier? We also travel internationally and have used many airlines within Europe, but have never had this much trouble with any other airline. It just bugs me to think that I have to pay for certified mail to use it to mail it to the airline in Denver, etc. By the time I get done, it will be worth a few measley bucks! One travel agent (who ended up not being able to use it for me anyway!) was also going to charge me a $29 fee to use the voucher!! Live and learn, I guess...