Originally Posted by spc354
Hi,
I have been noticing a phenomenon over the last year or so... E-certificates that I have received for delayed flights or other reasons sometimes appear to be invalid, even though they have some time to go before expiry... I have verified that they strictly meet the ticketing requirements too...
Today I tried to use a PK065, PK036, and a PK039 and none of them were accepted... even though the earliest expiration was March 2007!
Is it possible that people may be trying successfully to use random numbers (maybe around one that they do have in hand) and using them up? I would like to hear if others have had a similar experience.
{self-edited for my own reasons}
UA vs NW posted the best response so far, much prettier then I would have ever posted.
I regards to your question, since you tried multiple certs... if you tried 3 certs, either you're very unlucky with someone else using them, or it really is a fare issue. Check the wording at the top of the resulting search page... I just tried to apply a known-good PK037 against a $98 DTW-CHI flight, and got "
Please note: some of the fares below may not match your requested promotional offer. This may be due to a lower fare in the marketplace or the seats for the certificate fare may not be available." Some of the results had an "E-Cert Fare (with discount)" icon, and some didn't. The cert won't apply to K-fares at all, would apply to V fares yesterday but not today, and today only to Q-fares or greater. But I can apply this cert to a K-fare on DTW-LAS.
You should always get an error or status message, of some sort. Once you tell us the erorr message, we might be able to figure out the reason. NW appears to be making up rules about what fares are usable with these certs, which is rather irritating. But check for three things... bad code, been used, and doesn't apply.
Steve B.