zenexplorer

I have just discovered (long story involving use of vouchers as bookmarks and other stupid human tricks) 5 AA vouchers totaling approximately $1500 of value. They were issued on various dates between 2001 and 2007, but all are definitely past their 1 year shelf life. I remember reading once that vouchers issued before some date in 2002 do not expire. In any case, does anyone have experience in requesting a replacement or some credit from AA customer relations for expired vouchers? I haven't contacted customer relations in many years. Should I "save it" or try to see what they'll do for me?

I don't expect anything but would of course be grateful for some credit. I am a 2 million flown miles lifetime Platinum. Any thoughts, experiences, advice? Thanks so much.

iluv2fly

You have some serious issues:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=832424

What the heck is really going on...?

CloudCoder

Maybe this applies to some other airline but I think it does not apply to AA vouchers.You might get some kind of exception, but the chances are extremely small.

This problem can probably be solved right here on FlyerTalk. Perhaps you can visit the blowhard lawyer thread and ask those folks to throw some big words around to try to scare people. Or perhaps the folks in the outright theft thread are willing to steal you some new vouchers.

zenexplorer

What is "really going on" is that I discovered a trove of UA tickets, these AA vouchers and, for that matter, a NW ticket, that had been, to use a simple term, forgotten about. Some had already expired (small amounts) because I simply didn't have occasion to use them, some expired while being "saved" for the "best" use, and then lost/forgotten about. I acknowledged in my 2 posts (one here in regard to the AA vouchers, and one on the UA board in regard to the UA tix) that it was really, really stupid of me (though when one buys tens and tens of e-tickets, travelling constantly, and deals with the distraction of a remitting and relapsing chronic illness, it's not so absolutely impossible to be inattentive to a pile of 7 or 8 ticket/voucher documents. When I discovered these, I sought the perspective of others on flyertalk for the most appropriate and productive course of action.

Thus, I found the earlier post declaring that I "had issues" and asking, in an implicitly and implying that I was somehow hiding something (what I can't imagine and why I don't know- I just lost / forgot about a bunch of valuable stuff - to be somewhat gratuitous and inconsistent with the spirit of community on flyertalk. I'd like to think I misinterpreted the intention and tone of the comments.

skylady

I had an employee discount ticket that was more than a year old. Sorry, they said, expired. I am sorry to hear of your health issues, but expired really means expired in this industry. You are the customer that the airline hopes for when issuing vouchers. Sad fact in this day and age.

zenexplorer

Thanks skylady for your helpful perspective. "Breakage" is indeed at the heart of the economics of vouchers and I do suspect that, especially nowadays, expiration really means expiration. While I might question the increasingly undifferentiated obsession with penalty and fee revenue (not that I question the need for increasing revenues in a myriad of ways, but rather the attendant lack of attention to the value of a customer asset) - it is indeed, as you rightly say, the reality of the US industry these days.

ckpeter

On the bright side, consider that you never thought of the vouchers for so many years, you probably didn't need them. So, while this was a loss in numeric terms, don't let it affect your happiness. You are no different today than the day before your discovered your expired vouchers.