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Old Jan 27, 2011, 6:23 pm
  #22  
jlemon
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LFT
Programs: AA Plat, lots of AA, AS, DL, UA miles, former top level CO Elite (sigh...)
Posts: 10,795
Originally Posted by benFlys
They are only good "For travel within the 48 United States or from the 48 United States to Canada, Latin America or the Caribbean"

Further restrictions:

-Max discount of $20 to/from IAH, CLE or EWR
-Not valid Friday or Sunday. Blackout dates may apply.
-Round-trip purchase and a Saturday night stay are required.
-14 day advance purchase
-May not be combined with other offers
-May not be used on G/T/E/L/W/S or N class of service
-Not valid on codeshares.

These things are complete and absolute garbage. In 3 years of extensive travel I have not found one instance (hub, non-hub, etc.) in which using one of these certificates has offered any savings. In fact, entering the code forces the co.com to show only qualifying fare classes (or used to, not sure if it still does this) so that the fare available after the discount was HIGHER than the rack rate Economy fare.

Quite frankly, I would be surprised if someone hasn't tried to sue over these certificates. They are blatently used to to market the credit card by misleading people to believe that they will be receiving discounts of up to $200, but the fine print causes the value of these to be next to nothing (or even causes people not careful enough, or well-versed enough in the way fare classes work to pay more than they would without using a certificate) for an overwhelming majority of flyers.

I have every intention of returning my now expired 2010 certificates to Chase, thanking them for the dust-collection devices, and calmly requesting at $200 statement credit.
I think the inability to use these certificates on G/T/E/L/W/S and N fares is truly outrageous. It's also the primary reason I've never tried to use them. They are a ripoff.
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