Originally Posted by
missydarlin
Currently the only thing that can be deposited into your my Wallet are gift certificates. Its not meant for discount codes.
Think of it as the difference between a coupon and a gift card. One is a discount and one is a form of payment.
Say you go to the store and buy a $200 coat with a $25 coupon.. the cost of the coat is $175. You are taxed on $175 and If you return it, you get $175..and the coupon is gone. Thats similar to a discount code.
But say you go into the store and buy a $200 coat with a $25 gift card. The cost of the coat is still $200. You are taxed at $200 and if you return it, you'll get $200 back.
Unfortunately, the way AS has implemented this, it's a not entirely consistent distinction.
Coupons/discounts usually have "potential" value -- that is, they're not actual money, and you're not out anything if you don't use them.
What should be in My Wallet (which is a poor name which dates back to dot-com era naming conventions; it's really more like "Credits") really is actual stored value.
So anything for which hard dollars were already paid should be in My Wallet (or, as I might name it, "Credits"). That includes gift certificates, unused ticket value, and vouchers issued by AS Customer Care for tickets that have dropped in price. (This last now shows up under My Discount Codes -- yes, a code is needed to use them, but they're actually stored value.)
It's not currently implemented this way, which makes it confusing. The way it's implemented now is that it's really My Gift Certificates (in My Wallet) and My Other Credits/Discounts (in My Discount Codes). This seems more driven by programming limitations and inside-out accounting procedures than how it's perceived by customers. In reality, right now, My Wallet/My Discount Codes is one big bucket and it's not clear to a customer why something sloshes into one side and not the other.
I'm hoping eventually someone at AS gives it a facelift and renaming to make it less confusing and more useful.
(Thank you,
missydarlin, for giving me a soapbox.
)