PDX-RDM-AVL-TPA

Two days ago I used a Customer Care Discount Code to book a round trip for my wife and me in December. Then today I got my birthday discount good for December 1 through January 1. My wife and I are both MVP Gold so I thought I might be able to cancel the ticket and rebook with the 5% discount (which I've never managed to use before). But then I realized that I'm not sure how that would work with the discount code I already used. I did a bit of searching and some posts state that if I cancel the ticket I'll lose the discount code.

Can someone confirm that this is indeed the case? Any other thoughts on how I might be able to get both the value from my birthday discount (about $40 in this case) and the value from my customer care discount ($75)?

pcoll

One discount code per PNR. them’s the rules. You could try to call MVP line and see if they are willing to help. Put one code on your’s and one for wife. If you ask nicely, perhaps, they can help.

PDX-RDM-AVL-TPA

Perhaps i should have been more clear. What I was hoping to do was to cancel the ticket and instead use the birthday discount, saving the other discount for a future trip.

ASA_1

Well the discount code probably won’t be returned. But the funds of the trip will be returned to your Alaska wallet. So you’ll get the discounted amount you spent returned to you. So it doesn’t really matter that the discount code is not returned to you. Cancel and rebook with your 5% code. You’ll save 5%, and have some money in your wallet for a future flight!

twitch76

Except that their Birthday discount ($40) is less than their Customer Service Discount ($75). I’d just call reservations and ask if they can return the CS code. The worst they can do is say no.

ASA_1

I understand that. But you purchased a ticket minus $75. So cancelling the ticket still saved you $75. The $75 need not be returned to you for you to have a net savings of $75. It’s like buying a shirt that cost $20 that you got on sale for $15. If your return it later, you get a refund of $15. You got back what you spent, which was discounted. You don’t get $20 back. The system doesn’t owe you money, since you never spent it in the first place. Cancelling a discounted ticket is the same thing as getting the $75 back since they never spent the $75 to begin with because they purchased their ticket at a discount.

twitch76

Errmmm... sure. 🤔

Except that the initial question was

ASA_1

Which I addressed in my first reply, saying no, you can't do both and can't get $75 back.

bmvaughn

I've had experience calling Mileage Plan CS and asking them BEFORE I cancel... "hi, I think I need to cancel a booked flight, would you be able to re-instate the discount code I previously used and add it back to my account?" I've always gotten an exception from the posted rules (though a new code is added back, not the old one).

YMMV

azepine00

Change you existing ticket to some placeholder reservation for the value exceeding voucher amount. Later you can change it again to smth you need while preserving csr discount value.
Book another ticket with bday discount for the upcoming trip.

bmvaughn

That's even better than my suggestion, I'd never considered that!