I found an interesting offer for a $50.00 instant rebate on a major U.S. airline. They are offering them for $3.50 at www.tradeout.com under excess capacity. I haven't gotten a bid accepted but maybe someone can tell me if they were successful. I will buy 1000's of these. The link is: http://www.tradeout.com/product/deta...5736&AuID=5255

I'd need some more specifics to feel comfortable with this deal. The only information I could find on the site was that these certificates are valid on "major USA airline" - could be any of them, and no word on combining them or other restrictions.

[This message has been edited by golden girl (edited 01-25-2000).]

I don't think you have to buy them sight unseen. they also mention St. Louis which makes me think TWA

In the posting , it says:

"$50.00 Instant rebate on domestic travel aboard major USA airline. 60 gateway cities available except St. Louis. Travel must be round trip and agent will guarantee lowest available fare first then deduct additional $50.00."

When I have a discount certificate for United, it excludes travel to/from DEN. Continental certificates exclude travel to/from Houston. I strongly suspect this is a TWA product. Also, I once recall hearing about a travel agency chain owned by the former CEO of TWA (Carl Icahn?) who automatically discounted travel on TWA 20%. I have a feeling this is through that same channel since the info above states that an agent will automatically make the deduction. That means it is not a coupon to be used directly with the airline. I don't know for sure but feel suspicious.

This is one offer I am definetly going to pass on.

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If this is Ichan's group (Lowestfare.com), then fares are good -- BUT tickets are considered not "published" and therefore there are some disadvantages. You do get miles, but I think they restricted upgrades, etc. (anything that says must be with a published fare).

I will pass unless more info is forthcoming.

So many incredible offers touted. Is there,finally, a free lunch ? If one can truly buy $50 worth of TWA "voucher" (or discount) for $3.50, it would indeed pay to buy "thousands".

I hope I'm not being overly cynical, and I don't want to single out this particular offer. Right now there are at least seven on our bulletin board, and in fact we are being swamped by these "deals". Free fleece. 1,000 Points. $50 Rebate AA. Point Click Free Airline Ticket. Easy 175 Mypoints. Volumebuy.
The real challenge now is how to sort this stuff out, how to identify the genuine.

Identifying the genuine is difficult enough when all the offers have to do with flying. I would prefer to see them limited to that for this bulletin board for just that reason.
In that one area, at least, I think we can help each other sort out the offers.

The writeup says "best fares and then $50.00 discount". Therefore only ONE discount per tickets. There are lots of other discount coupons available that offer better deals (I think). Also, the MINIMUM purchase is 100 coupons for $350.00.

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"Free" without charge or cost, having no obligation.

I agree with SAPMAN that this appears to be Icahn's operation. Remember, as a part of giving up his equity interest in the airline, he got a bunch of ticket stock and the right to sell it at 20% off. This says $50 off best ticket price of the "agent", which suggests to me that you may have to go through one agent, and I'm guessing it's lowestfares.com. Sounds like only one discount per ticket also. Nonetheless, if one really did fly TWA a lot, it might make sense. But I don't fly them that much, so I'll pass.

A word of advice since I had flown with L.F. a # of times last yr only in June did things get ugly. The fares are "PUBLISHED FARES" however they are NOT upgradeable!!! unless you pay TWA the disc you got on the tkt. If you are willing then you save nothing and don't need L.F. It's a bit of legal jingle- since TWA is not suppose to change LF's tkts (its as if LF is a seprate airline) although the contact bet them allows ups since it can't be done till after you're tkted TWA legal dept. got their loop-hole by saying once tkted they can't do anything but if you pay them the diff they are allowed to reissue your tkt...... One way around it but you won't get the extra $50 disc is find a reg travel agent who will get the tkt from LF but 1st make a res with TWA and then give the record locater to your agent. It shows up on TWA's computer with the name of your agent who took it over for tkting even though LF tkts it. Most of the time the res people don't scroll down low enough to see that in fact you're on an Ichan tkt and they up you.
I have to admitt I still might have to take LF to court cause they screwed up on a tkt that I am at fault on but so is TWA. At present it was charged back to them for a second time and its sticking due to what we said(the cc comp & me)was their negligence for allowing TWA to confiscate the tkt. I SUGGEST HIGHLY ONLY!!! BUY A TKT WITH A CC YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU'LL NEED THEIR LEGAL DEPT AT THEIR EXPENSE besides the miles you'll earn.

[This message has been edited by craz (edited 01-26-2000).]