Originally Posted by
TravelNShop
I had $1200 in flight credit from a cancelled flight that was going to expire before I could use it. So I used it to buy a cheap $35 one way ticket and the remaining value was issued as trip credit that will expire one year from the date I purchased the cheap ticket. Now that expiration date for the trip credit is approaching. If I use the trip credit to buy another cheap ticket will the remaining value be issued as trip credit with a new expiration date another year out, or will the expiration date of the first trip credit remain in affect?
I tried this a few months ago with multiple trip credits. The way the system handles this situation has been changed from before, and is now as follows:
1. A new trip credit issued with residual value from an existing trip credit will carry the same expiration date as the original trip credit.
2. A new ticket you buy with trip credit has an expiration date that is 1 year from the issuance of that trip credit (which may be later than the expiration date of that trip credit, due to #1 above).
Example: Trip credit A issued in Nov 2021 for $1000 (expiring Nov 2022) is used in Jun 2022 to book a new ticket B for $50. Ticket B does NOT have an Jun 2023 expiration date (1 year from issuance) as usual; it now expires Nov 2022 (although I guess if the departure date of the ticket is later than Nov 2022 the system must handle it differently; this didn't apply in my case, so I don't know what happens). This results in a new trip credit C for the residual value of $950, which still expires Nov 2022 (rather than 1 year from the issuance date of Jun 2022). If this trip credit C is used to book another ticket in Sep 2022, this ticket D has an expiration date of Jun 2023, which is 1 year from the issuance of trip credit C in Jun 2022, later than the expiration of trip credit C in Nov 2022 but earlier than the usual expiration date of a new ticket (which would have been Sep 2023, 1 year from the issuance of ticket D). If this ticket D is canceled, it holds its value until Jun 2023.
So this tells me that in order to extend the life of our credits, we need to actually book tickets. The first ticket we book (a cheap one, ticket B) will not extend the life of the credit (although it might hold its own small value if the ticket is for a trip far away in the future). But if we take the new trip credit issued with the residual value (trip credit C) and go ahead and book a second ticket that is worth the entire value of the trip credit (say, ticket D costs $975), then this second ticket will preserve its entire value for a whole year.
Alternatively, perhaps if we just book a ticket for a departure date that is 1 year in the future, this ticket will just retain its value until the departure date. I have not tried this, but it seems reasonable to expect that it will work.