starjunkie

I had some bad luck with both segments of an upgraded business flight to Australia. All I really wanted was a "refund" of my SWU. For some reason, Customer Relations sent me *two* "$200 Discount Travel Certificates." According the T&Cs, only one can be used per ticket, they are only valid for domestic flights, and they both expire in December.

Unfortunately, although I attend college on the East Coast my "home base" is Sydney. I purchase all my flights in Australia and they're always some form of Star RTW (although the first flights and ticket stock are usually on United).

Strictly by the rules, I'm not sure I can make use of them at all. I'm not sure how else I could benefit from them, or what I might be able to bargain for:

(i) Can they be transferred or sold? eBay??
(ii) Would I have any luck asking customer relations to permit the certificates to be
(a) used for iinternational tickets
(b) used for tickets originating outside the US
(c) used on Star Alliance fares on United ticket stock
(iii) Might I be able to convince customer relations to allow them to be combined, or to extend their expiry dates?
(iv) Could I (through Customer Relations, or even Coupon Connection) seek to trade them for an SWU? Two SWUs? (I'm not sure what a fair exchange rate would be.)

Thanks for any advice or ideas!
Starjunkie.

vdb seeker

(b) is your best bet. I'm surprised that's not what they gave you if you live outside the U.S.

GoingAway

I don't think they offer the intl version without specific requests, but there have been multiple threads on FT where people have had success calling MP and converting them into versions that can be used internationally (but not necessarily combined).

Good Luck.

starjunkie

Thanks, but this still doesn't help me if it can't be used on a Star Alliance (RTW) ticket (albeit on United ticket stock). And even then, they'd expire before I could use both if they can't be comibned. I'd be very interested if anyone had success or suggestions with some of the other options.

unagi1

I've gotten these three times in the last two or three years, in denominations from $100-250.

In all cases, the issue that gave rise to the cert happened on an Intl flight and in each case, I called and pointed out that better than 90% of my travel is Int'l and that since the *incident* happened on an Intl flight could they please allow use that way.

Each time they agreed to mail or fax me a letter, referencing the cert number, stating that the cert could be used on an international routing.

khkchan

those certs?? the net value is $5 OR $10 less than $200.. since you HAVE to ticket via phone or airport agent. Also, the postage (if mail) or airport parking.. so I would say it's worth $180.

Also, if you found a lower fare after you have ticketed using those certs, they will not issue a fare difference voucher because you have used a voucher already. I had one from 2003 due to a 21 hr delay from ORD-HKG. and the actual value of my $200 cert is about $130 (not counting the time and creativity that I needed to find a routing on UA metal to use the cert)

In this age of electronic, don't you think they have a reason to issue a paper cert that needed to be delivered by hand?

VPescado

Another downside is that the CS200's (or other denominations) are only good for the fare, and none of the taxes or fees.

V60t

You could always trade it on coupon connection...

travelchick72

I am not sure if the certs I had are the same as what this thread is referring to, but I had 4-$25 certs from an irregular ops issue last year. I used them towards an international flight, ATL-ZRH, then the price went down, so I got another $46 voucher to make up that difference. It didn't matter at all that I had used the certs towards this ticket, they treated it as normal and I got the difference in fare back.

Really a sweet deal actually.