Originally Posted by
todorovic
The way these certs work is that once used they're gone. If you carefully look at the price paid as listed in your PNR you'll see the the base fare is $250 less than was listed when you made the reservation.
Not true for an ETC. They are payment towards the fare like cash (unlike discount ecerts).
If you are sure that you'd use the $250 in the future on another ticket, I'd probably just buy the new ticket outright and save the $250 for later. I've had problems with getting 24 hour courtesy cancellation to play nice with ETC as well, so now I only use them if I am sure I won't be cancelling. As you have experienced, it can be a headache to get the value returned.