I passed one up today in CLT for a flight to Nashville. I've had bad experiences with the free tickets for being bumped; not being able to use them specifically due to restrictions. I asked for $300 in voucher form but they turned me down. Should I have taken the free ticket? What is the experience with using these?

I think I remember Beckles saying that the alternative to the award ticket is either a $200 or $250 voucher.

The free ticket for being bumped is taken out of award inventory. So any experience would be the same as anyone trying to redeem a coach award ticket for that specific route.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
I think I remember Beckles saying that the alternative to the award ticket is either a $200 or $250 voucher.

The free ticket for being bumped is taken out of award inventory. So any experience would be the same as anyone trying to redeem a coach award ticket for that specific route.</font>

That and (1) you get no miles for your trip, and (2) you can't upgrade the free trip...

Wife and I used free tickets from a bump to fly FAY-DFW over xmas--no problem other than the fact that they are absolutely un-upgradeable. "If you were the only two on the airplane, you'll fly in the back with free tickets." And unfortunately the gate agents were all over the free coding on the tickets. Oh, no FFM's for free tickets either. No prob booking or using, though.

I've used one a couple months back to fly to Dallas and had no problems at all. In fact, it was much easier than I thought.

I agree. Hwever, they are a good present to give to someone who isn't used to being upfront and is not addicted to miles.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mileshound:
I agree. Hwever, they are a good present to give to someone who isn't used to being upfront and is not addicted to miles.

</font>

Can ya sell them on Ebay?

I got two of these over Christmas.

I think these tickets are good to have when cases of unexpected travel arise.

Yes, the seats are limited for confirmed seating (taken out of the same inventory as the award tickets), but you can go standby on these vouchers for any open coach seat.

They usually put you in FC for the flight you are bumped to without requiring any upgrade coupons. On one of my trips they even put me in F inventory instead of G, so I got the extra miles.

When I took a bump a few months ago they said they can give you a $200 voucher instead, but some agents are reluctant to do this (as I found out the next day). Even the customer service supervisor who was helping with the flight had to call someone else to figure out how to issue the voucher. Make sure to ask for this specifically before taking the bump.

I ended up taking two $200 vouchers ($400 total) in LGA on my way from BOS to ERI for the holidays. The agents there messed up by not confirming a seat for me on the alternative flight before I left my seat on the original flight. So, I got to the gate counter and was told that the flight I had been promised was oversold, and that the best they could do was a flight 8 hours later. Bad situation. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Fortunately, Barbara at the Express gate was wonderful and spent a lot of time with me trying to make it right. She found some other flights (with an extra connection) that got me to my destination only 4 hours late, and they gave me an extra voucher for the trouble. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif She had no problem giving me the $200 vouchers in place of the roundtrip flight credit.

I usually give away my free ticket to relatives flying to expensive places. I will start having to ask for $200 vouchers.

I take bumps whenever I can so I send my mom on trips she couldn't go on otherwise (since she's retired, she can travel just about any time). It's generally cheaper for me to use the free tix than get a voucher to send her where ever she feels like going, and she rarely sits upfront like I do (I'm spoiled), so for me a free ticket is better than the $200.

Living out here in the Bay Area, the free ticket is more worthwhile to me than credits. (Unless some cheapo $198 fares pop up)

Just a bit of advice regarding RTFC's. The most difficult destination is always going to be LAS. Always a convention or something going on there. As an alternative, I will usually offer LAX and look a roundtrip airfares on either HP/WN and try to build decent connecting schedules. Roundtrip LAX to LAS is about 78$ with 7 day advance reservation. Same terminal conx is a plus at LAX.
Flights to and from Florida are hard to book unless date and time are flexible as well.

I've used about a dozen US RTFC over the past few years and even had some I had to let expire when I couldn't use them. They are now transferable, a big plus from years past, but I still would take the $200 or $250 voucher anyday. Unless you have no status, the RTFC is a waste of a trip.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BWI2MCO97:
Just a bit of advice regarding RTFC's. The most difficult destination is always going to be LAS. Always a convention or something going on there</font>
Strange, my wife and I didn't have any problem getting LAS on bump vouchers for Super Bowl weekend (our first choice of flights in fact). Just lucky I guess (or maybe it was because we booked the tickets in November).

Has anyone had any luck with retroactive conversion of bump vouchers to cash vouchers or miles? I'm moving overseas in a few weeks (albeit to a market served by US), so the domestic US RT is not particularly useful--but a cash voucher or equivalent miles would be very useful. I explained this to the USE agent in BWI, but she said that she was "not authorized" to issue anything other than the free RT. I thought that a letter to DM customer service explaining the situation couldn't hurt.

Has anyone tried or had any success with this?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chalf:
Has anyone had any luck with retroactive conversion of bump vouchers to cash vouchers or miles? I'm moving overseas in a few weeks (albeit to a market served by US), so the domestic US RT is not particularly useful--but a cash voucher or equivalent miles would be very useful. I explained this to the USE agent in BWI, but she said that she was "not authorized" to issue anything other than the free RT. I thought that a letter to DM customer service explaining the situation couldn't hurt.

Has anyone tried or had any success with this?</font>


You can sell the voucher on ebay.

Good Question. I havefour of these and can't use any. Every time I call USAIRways Chairman's desk, I am told that seats are not available for these vouchers but am 'encouraged' to use the Premium award which starts at 40K.

C'mon USAir give us a break :-(

I tried to get one traded for a cash value coupon and was shot down. It's very difficult to get a flight out of Tampa. Have been told there's nothing available the few times I've tried to use mine.

How can you sell it on Ebay?

If you are referring to a Round Trip Flight Credit.....I wouldn't rush to sell on ebay. The voucher can only be exchanged for a ticket by the person named on the voucher. Once the ticket is issued it is not transferrable. The ticket / reservation may be in anyone's name, but to sell it and have to go to all the trouble....I would give it to a friend or relative and tell them to call US Airways to book the flight and then you take it for the exchange.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Qwert:


How can you sell it on Ebay?</font>

List it as a rt voucher, tell people that space is limited and to call US to see if dates/places are available for when they would like to travel. They go for $200 to $250 on ebay. Once it is sold and you get the money, go to either a city ticket office or the airport and sign over the certificate and get it ticketed in the buyer's name for the flights he wants to take. The buyer does not need to be there. It will be an e-ticket.



[This message has been edited by Alysia (edited 03-07-2003).]

Just a couple additional thoughts on RTFCs.

Never say never - as for "absolutely not upgradable", I've flown first on two of them in the last year.

Example 1: Flight delayed for mechanical with annoucement " blah blah blah .. we won't have an update until 7:45pm (30 minutes later) - don't go to far away ..." Cell phone battery died so I went down to the payphones about 2 gates away - made a 3 minute call to relay the update to my ride on the other end - got back and the plane was GONE -- My total elapsed time away from gate couldn't have been more than 8 minutes tops. I was a bit miffed as things had been late all day - they nicely put me on a new itin in first with a PHL hop - was PIT-DCA - ended up PIT-PHL-DCA.

Example 2: Problems on trip to Australia - had to get ANOTHER ticket (used RTFC - CKB-IND-CKB) on TOP of my award mileage ticket to make connections (long story, but due to a US schedule change) -- International Awards was kind enough to upgrade the the RTFC)

Additionally, these are great for highway robbery fares that are all RJs or 340s or 1900s ... example - CKB-PIT, PIT-FWA round trip -- a 1900 CKB-PIT / a 340 PIT-FWA ... $348 withOUT taxes (or in that ballpark) most of the time (and that's the SUPER restricted dates / times) -- wouldn't have been upgraded ANYWAY ... RTFC is perfect for those.

I always have issues getting out of CKB as the 1900 usually has 1 Z seat per flight, but a quick call to the Express carrier usually gets a seat released ...