FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Using refund credit for future flights - Question
Old Jan 9, 2006, 9:07 am
  #2  
Syzygies
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: NYC and SFO
Programs: UA 1MM (former 1K, Delta Platinum))
Posts: 1,244
Why not "Continental Store Credit"?

The new ticket inherits the provenance of the old ticket -- a 100% EQM cheapie bought on CO.com is still the same kind of ticket, if reissued over the phone. You pay the $100 (or whatever) penalty at that time, to free up the full value of your ticket as a credit. You then make any additional payment needed to offset any fare increase. You don't get any partial refund for future use.

So just scout fares and availability, then give them a call.

That said, I still haven't managed to claim a credit from last June. Something always comes up, like they can't find the same fare or flights I'm looking at. You want to unload this credit at the earliest convenient opportunity.

As for the 500 miles bonus, aren't you trying to claim them twice here? Small potatoes, focus on unloading your credit successfully.

This all strikes me as needlessly Byzantine. I understand the need for cancellation penalty disincentives, but why make the customer and CO jump through painful hoops, why not just make the residual value of the ticket a "Continental Store Credit" that expires after a year?

My all-time favorite bumber sticker is Money Talks -- Mine Says Goodbye. Put the cancellation penalty teeth in the penalty value itself, but make the logistics of using the residual value as straightforward as possible. I'd see CO making money on more cheap tickets bought on spec, by people like me who can't afford full fare.

Last edited by Syzygies; Jan 9, 2006 at 9:24 am
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