SuperG1955

I just attempted to make reservations for flights after 1/1/2009 with my VA discount code. There were no discounted fares offered.

On both the Preview and regular web sites, any itinerary with a flight segment on 1/1/2009 or later was not offered the discount for the entire booking. Any itinerary completed by 12/31/2008 was offered the 5% discount.

CO.com does not indicate any status change in the program. I have also asked for clarification from Veterans Advantage.

UA Insider

Hi SuperG1955, thanks for posting this. The Veterans Advantage program is not being discontinued and is indeed valid beyond 12/31/2008. We are looking into this issue now and will post an update as soon as we have one.

nzpilot

Curious why CO doesn't honor retired military ID cards for the discount instead of requiring people to buy into a cheesy $60/yr discount card program. If the intent of the program is to honor the vets with a good deal, why not just do that straight up? Anyone know?
Certainly not all vets have retired, but all have a DD214 discharge, & of course, CO could honor the Vets Advantage program card for those without the retired military ID card. Just curious......

PubliusTX

In some searches a few weeks ago, I noticed that some queries were reflecting the discount, and some were not. COInsider responded to my PM then that the discount should still be offered on all fares -- but for whatever reason, I've experienced the same problem as you.

I wasn't able to narrow it to any one thing (2008 vs 2009, international vs. domestic, etc), so I just figured I would probably have to call the support desk when I wanted to book a ticket that wasn't being discounted properly. It would be nice if the bug could be fixed, though.

UA Insider

Hi SuperG1955, we have found the cause of the issue, which had to do with the validity dates we had set up in our pricing system. This will be corrected in the next day. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

Hi nzpilot, worth clarifying, the 5% discount offer is fully subsidized by Veterans Advantage, not Continental. That is partly where your membership dues go. Our partnership with Veterans Advantage is win-win in that we're able to offer a meaningful benefit to our veterans at no cost to us, and without the burden of us having to validate eligibility.

Hi PubliusTX, good news - the issue you were experiencing has identified and resolved just this past week. It had to do with our inability to recognize certain flights as eligible for the discount. We appreciate you sending over the specific examples. They were very helpful.

PubliusTX

I just searched on IAH-Berlin flights in November, and am experiencing the same difficulty -- the discount simply isn't showing (no blue star), and I'm getting this message:

UA Insider

Thanks for catching this, PubliusTX. As it turns out, we didn't have the Veterans Advantage discount loaded for Berlin and three other markets. This will be corrected in the next day.

PubliusTX

I experienced the problem with a fare I booked last night, IAH-ATH.

I called the Electronic Support Desk, and they were able to apply the discount, although I was on hold for a little while.

So if anyone has this problem in the future, there's one solution. It hasn't bitten me in quite some time.

Now, fingers crossed that the refund back to my card actually takes...

UA Insider

Thanks PubliusTX. This was a discrepancy with our pricing system, and we'll get this corrected. In the mean time, calling our Electronic Support Desk at 800.300.1547, like you did, is the best workaround.

PubliusTX

I was just unable to use the discount on a weekend fare special (IAH-TUL).

I am pretty sure I have used it in the past on the weekend specials, and it still works on some of the weekend specials that were offered this time, but not that one.

Electronic Support Desk was unable to override and give the discount.

So it appears that some fares aren't eligible for it, even though it's not explicitly stated anywhere.

spainflyer

I have tried to get the Veterans' Advantage discount on all five of my last intineraries (all transatlantic, all BF) and invariably the fare comes back with the note that the discounted fare is the same as the regular fare (almost always Z in my case) -- i.e., no discount.

With Stops
from
2,958 EUR
Without Offer
from
2,958 EUR

Now with five transatlantic BF fares the missing 5% begins to add up.

Can it be that the VA discount applies [I]only[I] to full, unrestricted fares?

If not, how do I get my discount? I paid my $60 and expected to get something for it.

SuperG1955

I just booked with no trouble. L, N fares.

Remember, with the changes that CO made, you MUST use the 10 digit Travel Discount Code on your VA card.

SuperG1955

I just booked an L fare ticket and got the discount.

SuperG1955

I just tried a LIS-EWR and got no discount - same as you.

Call the ESD. Sounds like they loaded the fares incorrectly again.

4Health

I'm able to get a discount nearly every time I try, however, never have I once received a full 5% discount. For example, recently, for a $700 ticket, the discount was around $15 off the round trip price, which works out to ~2.5%. That would be fine and well if that were per way, but unfortunately it was for the roundtrip ticket.