moondog

I've had good experiences with DL vouchers. They can effectively be used to book anything you find on either website (DL and NW) and aren't laden with too many restrictions (unlike NW vouchers which are supposed to be used in one shot).

bostonbali

Are you suggesting that one can use a DL 006 credit voucher on NWA's website? I don't think this can be done. NWA's website will only accept 012 ticket stock vouchers.

moondog

When that need arises, you can call the web support number and get it booked manually (sans phone booking fee).

discountsae

Overall what is the best airline to have a voucher for (the most destinations and usually cometitive prices). As I mentioned before I want to do some international travel (New Zealand, Australia, India). Can I use vouchers to obtain codeshare flights.

Airlines to consider booking my 140,000 TY points with
Delta
American
United
U.S. Air
Continental
NWA (They are now out because of all of your experiences)

If anyone has specific itineraries that would maximize my 140,000 points, and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks a million (well actually thanks 140,000)

-DiscountSAE

P.S.

I just found the following itinerary: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddn6str6_2gtf5vnf9

It looks like there are a lot of ticket change penalities mentioned in the previous link and even more rules in the following link: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddn6str6_1tngt4bg3

PLEASE ADVISE!

moondog

Most people I know in the game stick with one or two airlines and, therefore, aren't positioned to make sweeping comparisons. Having gotten that out of the way, DL would probably work well for you (liberal rules wrt code shares and these are often reasonably priced,... unlike some of AA's code shares to Asia).

discountsae

So I have talked to a few airlines CSR's over the phone the past few days. I am a bit confused on who issues a voucher when there are multiple airlines involved, such as in the previous itinerary I posted. Some CSR's say that the airline the handles the first segement of an itinerary is responsible (in the previous itinerary AA). Other CSR's say whichever airline is handling the over the water portion of the itinerary (this might only apply to international flights, they weren't sure).

Can someone please clarify? Thanks moondog for all your responses and help!

Happy

Have you spent some time to read and understand the very first post of this Wiki? Someone has put in tremendous effort to pull information together, most rules are still the same rules stated.

Read that, and then decide WHICH airline you want to get your voucher from, then book something that the FIRST segment of the itinerary started with THAT AIRLINE, as well as the Majority of the itinerary is on That Airline's own flights. Since your hope is to use the value to book some itineraries that most likely would involve codeshare flights, you need to make sure your targeted airline(s) allow cancelled ticket value to be used on codeshare flights. Each airline is unique in its policy. The worst mistake you can make is to Generalize rules accross airlines, as demonstrated by the case of a NW voucher.

Most airlines have Rules displayed on their websites - they are not the easiest to be found - but if you do site search, using some keywords such as Refund, Change Ticket, Cancelled Ticket Credit, etc. you would most likely pull up the rule page and then you can read through it. NW has its rules clearly spelled out on its website - if it is learned by experiences (as you typed), it would be a very SAD experience for whoever learned it the hard way. I believe back in July 2007 a couple persons did learn it the hard way, ditto for the Alaska Airlines.

The voucher in general, comes out from the airline whose ticket stock is used to issue your ticket.

The most restrict fare rules applied for the entire ticket. The goal is to use as little code-share flights as possible, as some airlines (CO comes to mind) would charge you change fee on the code share flight segments, on top of the change fee specified in the fare rule. You need to make the itinerary as least complicated as possible because you are NOT going to fly the itinerary booked, so just find something that meets the $ value of whatever level you are going to redeem. Dont be surprised that TYP does not honor its promise of letting you redeem a fixed point option as technically, such option is purged from its system. They may need manual override to do it. Good Luck.

You have to do lots of legwork on Expedia to try to find your most optimal routing for the award you are going to redeem. Because all the information used by others during the Jan/Feb is no longer good, naturally, no one here can suggest to you what would work for your intent - let alone you dont even know what is your intent. I dont know if anyone would spend HOURS to search for something that has nothing to do with him/her own need. You just have to do it yourself.

Happy

I wonder if this would give a new 12 months "life" of the original value?

Huh, talk about that, do we hear back from the father about his daughter said CO would refund back to her credit card instead of to TYN's card?

fti

I am not so lucky. I used TYP to book a flight for a friend with AA. Long story, but the original ticket was then rebooked into two transatlantic tickets plus a voucher for the balance. After ticketing, the mother of one traveler passed away so they had to cancel their plans. AA issued a credit for one ticket but insisted for some reason on refunding the other ticket. Of course the refund went back to Citi's credit card.

Any ideas how to proceed?

Thanks.

John

Xyzzy

Call Citi and have them return the appropriate number of points (based on the amount of the refund) to your account. Hope they give you some. Spend them at the new, imprved reward levels.

discountsae

Here is an idea... Let me know if it would not work.

Purchase a fully refundable fare with ThankYou points. Exchange that ticket for another fully refundable fare that costs MORE than the first original ticket. Ask for a refund of the second ticket back to your CC you used to pay the fare difference between ticket 1 and ticket 2.

I was thinking this may work if the airline issues a new ticket/reference number for the second ticket, and you had a nice customer service rep at an airport.

-DiscountSAE

moondog

I wouldn't chance it. Some people have pulled off variations of what you describe, but others have been burned.

discountsae

Do you recall what airlines it worked with. I thought would be to utilize the NWA and Delta merger to my advantage. I also found a good CO flight.

My thought would be to book a fully-refundable fare using Northwest, change the time of the flight to get the ticket reissued (see the fare rules link attached). Try to have an agent at the airport use the NWA ticket to buy a fully refundable ticket that is more expensive on Delta, and then get a refund to my credit card.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dchsk2pc_9hpfj88rp

moondog

Not off hand, but I'm simply going to restate my advice that you refrain from entering those waters.

Bikeguy

I tried this.

After an hour of research, NW stated they would refund the difference I had paid to the second credit card and the initial amount (99%) to the original CC.

That was my experience.

I plan on trying when everything is Delta, and hope the original records for the original CC are inaccessible, due to incompatibility between the Delta IT system and NW.

I believe this has a chance of working.

If it does, I'll post it here.