How is a $25 discount really $14? [Resolved]
 

I recently claimed a baggage guarantee, and since we have so many miles I opted to take the $25.

I'm looking at a fare of $79, so I figured the $25 discount would bring the fare down to $54.

Wrong.

When I "shop" using the discount code, the $79 fare shows as a $65 fare, so only a savings of $14.

Why?

That's odd. I generally get additional value from E-certs because they seem to lower the taxes associated with the ticket as well.

Even if you have a lot of miles, 2,500 miles is generally considered to be worth more than $25 :) I think of it this way...would I rather have $25 or the amount of miles a non-elite flyer would earn (almost) on a trans con flight from PDX to EWR?

Well my math was a little off (I fixed it) but it's still not a $25 discount.

The discount is off the base fare, which is $59.53 in my example. So,you take the $25 off the base fare and add the taxes and fees (which are slighly less on the discounted ticket). It says right on the summary 'Discount does not apply to taxes, fees and charges'. So look at your fare breakdown for the base fare. For example:

Prorated on a round trip or two fares?

Interesting... I always take the cash. I can't fly on miles - I need as many as I can for status!

In full disclosure I figured out what I did wrong - what an idiot I am. :rolleyes:

Yes, it was a case of using the $25 certificate on 2 tickets...that's it! So it divided it up between the two, $14 should have been $28 (not sure how that worked, but I think someone else mentioned they also got more).

I just used it for one ticket that was $99 (including tax) and it brought it down to $72 (including tax), so a savings of $27 (don't know why, but not complaining).

Then I used the other one for the other person.

Since we have so many miles stockpiled, if it happened again (late luggage) I would again take the cash - less cash out of my pocket, the better I like it.

But I have a question...if the fare should go down, can I claim the Best Price Guarantee? I mean, does the fare have to go below $72, or just below $99?

In my experience it has to go below $72. I also take the cash over the miles.

Oh poop. I hoped it would be the "fare" went down, not how much I paid went down. But that's ok, I got a good price for that route from here.

I just did a low fare claim on a cert. Its what the original fare is prior to using the cert. So in your case if the fare dropped to $80 you would get $19 back, effectively making your ticket about $50.

There are other uses for miles. Don't have to use them for flying.

Perhaps, but they're rarely worth more than a penny in those scenarios.

I had $50 get bumped up closer to $60, my gf had $200 get beefed up too.

Glad this got straightened out ^

I go back and forth on this, sometimes cash, sometimes miles. I've been collecting a few vouchers recently, so lately it's been miles. I also find miles easy to claim via an email.

As long as the base of your airfare is above the discount voucher, you should get $ back with a GARR.