But when is your flight? They are not processed in the order received, so it really does matter and really does vary significantly.

12/30/2014.

Im just quoting what the lady on the phone told me and repeated several times through the course of the conversation... I claim no additional information on the process. 3 weeks seems too long. They were also insisting that I take a photograph of the voucher.

Redeeming paper voucher from Belgium
 

Hello,

I have 2 paper transportation voucher from AA i want to redeem.
We want to book a flight around the 6th of december 2014.

I have dialed the Belgian customer service line. They told me to book the flight, put it on hold en dial back, then mail the tickets to Liverpool. This should take around 14 days they said.
Can i count on that?

The other possibility is to go to a ticket counter, i have found 2 in my 'area', Paris (Charles de Gaulles) and Dusseldorf.
I tried to call both of these, but got voicemail? Does anyone know how to contact them? Or if i can drive to these airports and book a flight? Does anyone has done it in Paris or Dusseldorf?

In Brussels airport i have found a phone number, but when i called it, i got the voicemail of US airways. AA doesn't have a ticket counter in Brussel.

Thanks,

Koen

If this helps, I can share my own experience with you.

I had paper vouchers and booked the flights as requested. I have been used to sending them to Dublin but they gave me the Liverpool address. I don't live far from there and, as the vouchers were quite high value, I asked the phone agent if I could take them there personally rather than put them in the mail.

The office turned out to be a US Airways call centre in a large office block in the city centre. There was no indication on the outside of the building that it even existed. The block receptionist allowed me to go up to the (8th?) floor and told me that the office was opposite the lift. The locked door had no sign but I could see through the glass insert that it had the US logo on the wall. Eventually, somebody opened the door and took the envelope from me. She said that they were receiving 150 of them every day although nobody had brought one in person before!.

The important point for you is that around 5 working days later the reservation was confirmed on aa.com. I understand that all they do in Liverpool is scan the vouchers and forward the details electronically to the office where the booking had been made.

I suppose if you can trust the mail then the system works. That said, I was more comfortable taking them in person. I realise that isn't an option for you but I'd do the same every time in future.

Just told by agent that it can take up to two months to apply voucher to my flight?
 

I have a voucher from AA due to a cancelled flight and recently mailed it to Florida to cover a flight that is being taken in February. I followed all instructions but took the extra step of tracking and insurance.

It's been a few days since the voucher was received in Milton, FL so I phoned to see if I could get the status. On line it says that, once the voucher is received, it takes one to three days for it to be applied to the flight. (In my case, my voucher will cover more than the cost of the flight so I did not have to pay anything when booking, and current status of the booking is listed as "unknown.") The agent told me that it can take months for the voucher to be applied to the flight. When I asked about the "one to three days" wording, she told me that "it's one to three days from the time it is *received* and it hasn't officially been "received* yet - it's just sitting in a hold box." She told me to call back two weeks before the flight to see if they had applied it. Makes no sense to me but wanted to check in with experienced FTers - I really don't want to wait two months and find out they have lost it or something and are now telling me that I should have called right away! What's the real story?

Thanks!!

As you may have seen, I recently posted another question/problem relating to paper vouchers. But in the process, I have asked the question you posed a few times to AA agents. The answers I have received have varied from "it should take a week or two" to "we process them in the order received" to "it should happen next month" to "it can take a couple of months" to "I don't know; I don't work in that department."

The lesson I have learned from this experience is that I should have gone to the airport and redeemed the vouchers in person.

One of these days, AA will enter the 21st century and switch entirely to electronic vouchers. That would save us -- and I suspect them -- a lot of hassle. It is hard for me to imagine any advantage to paper vouchers, other than the possibility that revenues might be enhanced if they are lost or not used....

Just told by agent that it can take up to two months to apply voucher to my flight?
 

My understanding with regards to how they are handled is different. It is important to put the flight number and date in the front, as that is how they are processed. Just because you sent it express mail does not mean it will be handled immediately, it just means that it was sent there faster. The key part is to keep copies of the voucher, and make sure that the addressing on the envelope is correct. The flight is in Feb, and you are getting another voucher for the balance, hence yours will take a bit longer.

If you are pending and upgrade, it is best to do this in person at the airport to minimize the loss of upgrade.

Just told by agent that it can take up to two months to apply voucher to my flight?
 

I was told once that they process them based on the departure date of the flight. Therefore, yours might take a couple weeks if your flight is not until February.

The correct time frame is 'some time before your flight'. If your flight isn't until February, earlier flights will be processed before yours. I once had 4 vouchers being processed, with the flights spread out from one month in the future to 4 months out. All were booked at the same time and all the vouchers were sent in at the same time. All were processed at different times and with different intervals before the flight.

Thanks to all. So I guess the answer is...who knows? And the other answer is "I should have done this at an airport."

P.S. I wrote the date and flight on the label of the overnight envelope, and also enclosed a second envelope with the date and flight written on it. What I did *not* do was write on the actual voucher itself. Should I have?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.0; Nexus 5 Build/LRX21O) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.2171.59 Mobile Safari/537.36)

FWIW, your residual voucher will be good for a year from the date they ticket your reservation, so you're at least getting some benefit from having to wait...

Personally, I would go to the airport to ticket with voucher if we do not have the 2 out of the 3 Travel Centers in our area. :p

While most would prefer this is an electronic process, one significant benefit would be forever lost if the paper voucher is no more - that is the reset of the clock on expiration on the residual voucher... Think about that...

Update,

I have sent the vouchers to AA in Liverpool. The status online is ticketed or confirmed (depends on wich website (Belgian or international AA.com) i look it up.

So i gues these are my E-tickets en we fly this saturday!

Thanks everybody for their input!

On more thing : i mentioned that the vouchers are exempt of taxes, but the lady on the phone didn't agree. I should recieve new vouchers of money that i haven't used. Can i do something of i see they made me pay the taxes?

The last thing : online on my booking i see : RESTRICTIONS APPLY C77-78
What does this mean?

Thanks,

Koen

I have some questions about using the voucher.

I understand you can use it to buy a ticket for someone else. If the ticket I want to buy for someone does not use the full value and I want to book a ticket for myself at the same time, do I have to pay two ticketing charges? The two itineraries would be different. AAA-BBB and CCC-BBB for example. I would plan to buy the tickets at a ticket counter to avoid having to mail the voucher.

Can I use remaining value in the voucher to pay for preferred or MCE seats? Based on the Wiki I would say it appears the answer is no. Please tell me I'm wrong!

Question (and I can't find an answer): used eVouchers for 2 tickets nearly 4 weeks ago. It's still "Ticket Pending," but there's now a much less expensive option. Am I able to change? Of course, the price difference per ticket is the same as the $200 change fee.