mduell

I got a $50 GC for Christmas, tried to use it for an all-UA(X) transborder flight yesterday... errors all the way down. Didn't have time to fark with web support for an hour so I paid for the ticket without the GC.

What are these stinkin GCs usable on? Domestic-only UA-only over-the-phone bookings that take an hour?

Mats

I just booked a domestic itinerary with one. No problems. I had hoped to get a refund from Amex, but that only works with the Gift Registry. So I booked one way with the gift certificate, one way with the gift registry. I knew in advance that it had to be UA/UX only. No problems. I got the $200 back from AMEX for the Gift Registry (and bought another $200 at the first of the year.)

I think the gift certificates are actually easier to put in the system than an ETC. I just used one, and I always get errors and have to call in web support at the India Call Center. It took four or five tries to get it to go through.

Fortunately, all of my tickets are okay, and RPUs confirmed for each leg.

MatthewLAX

These certs are really screwed up. When you buy one, look at the certificate number--it is a six character PNR followed by a ticket number beginning in 016.

The problem comes when you don't use the cert all in one shot--say I bought a $159 ticket with a $200 cert and had $41 in residual credit. If I try to use the same cert number next time around, I always encounter an error message.

Why? Because a new ticket number is issued for the residual credit. The problem? UA doesn't send out an e-mail with the new certificate number! So you have to call and ask for it.

What a pain. At least the travel credits don't have that problem.

hobo13

Who is the best to call? 1K? Web support? Passenger refunds?

tlawrence85

I made a reservation with a $200 GC last night (about 12 hours ago), and I checked again this morning but my ticket hasn't yet been issued. I called the 1K line who transferred me to web support, who told me this ticket had to be manually issue by a "different department" who is backed up because of the "winter storm in the northeast". She said I should check in a week's time and call back if my ticket hasn't been issued then.

I feel like my reservation has a good chance of being cancelled later today if the ticket isn't issued - should I call back a little later instead of waiting a week?

LilAbner

Everything you were informed may or may not be true as agents are trained to say anything that pops into their head, if they don't know an answer, which is often the case.

One thing is for certain, the one week call back statement was manufactured to get you off the phone.

I'd call back and insist on having this itin ticketed muy pronto.

I can guarantee you that you will receive info and totally different solutions, but don't volunteer anything told to you during a previous encounter, or they'll run with that.

Good luck!

WineCountryUA

there is a grain of truth in the agent's statement. Tickets making use of certs / GC /.... are process differently and may be manual verified / audited. It is not unusually (but not universal) for these will take longer to ticket.


as other posters have mentioned, you can call and strongly encourage manual ticketing.

plc44

I have a UA GC that I purchased in 01/2013. I was told that I need to call them before booking my itinerary because the certificate is no longer in their system after one-year form the date of issue passes.

tlawrence85

Thanks for the advice LilAbner and WineCountryUA.

I called and spoke with a representative who tried her best to help me, but after she called the department that's supposed to do ticketing, she said they were having trouble with gift certificates today, so they're going to convert it into an ETC, apply it and ticket. She said it shouldn't take longer than 24 hours, so I'm going to check tomorrow and call back if it's not done. Not ideal, but certainly better than a week.

mduell

Finally decided to make the effort to use it today. Website errored, called web support as instructed, they had a hard time understanding it wasn't an unused ticket, after a while on hold the call dropped. Called the elite desk for reservations, they read a lot of stuff, put me on hold a while, talked to other desks, we tried it a few times, transferred to another desk, at the end of the 30 minutes they said they had it done but it would have to be ticketed by someone manually in another department.

Doing all this changed the expiration time on the held reservation from Sunday night to Friday night, so I hope it works out.

r6vo

It was an absolute disaster trying to use the united.com gift certificates - its an unmitigated cluster bomb. SO I had two gift certificates of $200 each which I tried to use on two different tickets. Ofcourse, like others have faced,the option to pay with the gift certificate was showing an error and popped up a web support phone number to call. The first phone support person in Philippines started saying that the number is invalid and he cannot do anything and hung up on me. I called back and seemed to get a person who knew a little bit more. She told me that I have to generate a code for payment over the phone since they are having some issues with gift certificates and asked me for that code and the gift certificate number. I generated the code (its an option on the page near the SSL verbiage) and gave the gift certificate number. She told me she had to talk to some other support team and after being on hold for almost 30-35 minutes she said everything is fine and I will get an email within twenty minutes. So I hung up and called back to book the second ticket on the exact same route and same itinerary with went through the same song and dance. After couple of reps with absolutely no clue and I found one who again seemed to know about the GC process, and after another 45 minutes of torture I was told the second ticket is good to go too. I started around 11:30 PM and it was around 2:00 AM when I went to bed. Cut to today and I have received the confirmation email for the second ticket but the first ticket hasn't ticketed yet. I am just so tired of this but I soldiered on and after going through one clueless rep been on hold for the last 45 minutes trying to ticket the first reservation. Even this rep who is helping me tried to brush me aside saying that they are really backed up and only processing GCs for tickets which are within the next 72 hours. I said BS and told her about my second ticket that got processed immediately and only then she started trying to ticket my first reservation. She's popping back ever so often and telling me that the support team is working on my ticket. On second thoughts I would not even send these certs to my mother-in-law I am never going to buy an united.com gift certificate again. Like everything else with united they are really the worst at everything they do.

WineCountryUA

Why would you buy GC for yourself?? Is this MS thing?

r6vo

Amex platinum

updawg

I am using this website to check a balance for a gift certificate for which I know has a balance on it.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...ckBalance.aspx

I keep receiving "The Gift Certificate Number entered is invalid."

Anyone else?

IAHtraveler

Anyone know how to resolve issues trying to redeem a gift cert online? I have a relatively large gift cert and after the 1st use, it won't go through online. Usually 1-2 calls to web support and they get it pushed through. Trying to book a ticket for next Thursday with the gift cert, I held it online.

Call 1 to Web Support to ticket it:
Agent: "Gift certs are only valid on United operated flights. Select only United flights and it will work."
Me: "They are only United Operated flights."
Agent: "Oh, you probably selected elite seats or exit rows, you must only select the economy seats."
After back and forth, I did this and it still didn't work. I had to give her the value and gift cert info 4x before she got it.
Agent: "Our gift certificate processing is down. You need to just keep trying until it's back."
Me: "I booked the ticket yesterday and tried a few times online, without success since then."
Agent: "Keep trying. Your ticket expires tonight at midnight local time, so get it in before then."

HUCA

Agent: "This is a gift certificate; these must be run through our Group Reservations desk. I'll transfer you there."
Me: "It's only a reservation for 1 person. Why would it need to go through Group Reservations?"
Agent: "That's how our system is set-up. Please stay on the line while I transfer you."
At 10PM on a Friday, the Group Reservations was closed.

HUCA

Agent: "It won't work online because we still are trying to resolve issues with the merger. IT has been notified of this many times, but they won't do anything about it."

She "pushed it to ticketing" and extended the hold for an extra 24 hours.

I called today (20 hours later, as the ticket expires in 5.5 hours). Agent said that it takes "7-10 days to process by the e-ticketing desk". He extended the ticketing until 11/6, the day of the flight.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?