Discounted AA certificates
 

volumebuy.com is offering AA certificates at discounted prices right now (~15% off). They have $50, $100, and $250 certs. The higher priced certs are at a fixed 15% off (if you can wait two weeks). The cool part is that as more people buy $50 certs the price drops. Right now they're at $43.75 but could go as low as $37.50 (25% off!). This particular deal ends at 1pm today but may be back.

$50 certs: http://www.volumebuy.com/ then click on the Volume $$$ tab.

Can these be used on any price fare and can they be combined?

Yes and yes, according to the VolumeBuy fine print. I'm also getting free shipping. Customer service was also quite helpful (877) 345-9896.

Great find golden girl! Looks like I and others just bought a bunch of AA certs at 25% discount.
yabba dabba doo

[This message has been edited by flymetothemoon (edited 01-11-2000).]

Great! Thanks, golden girl!

You can also buy DL shuttle tickets from DCA to LGA or BOS at steep discounts ($105 - $187 off). Those tickets are completely changeable with no fee. Very good site!

PS - This is a CA firm so the 1pm deadline is PST. Enjoy!

FWIW it still seems to be available at 5:00 EST time. Marketing?

They also have a 5k sweepstakes entry with their registration. Best of luck to all. Thanks GG.

Thank you again! This was a great find and a good bookmark for me now.
Thanks!

Golden Girl you are now the Golden Child! Great find. I have a AA trip to Japan coming up and the RT fare is $961, ouch! 20 $50 certs for $750 plus I will have $39 left over.

I just used these certificates to book a flight and I didn't have to pay the Federal Excise Tax - so I got another 8% off! These are too good to be true.

Sounds great -- but can I use them when I reserve on AA website?? Hate to not get that booking bonus!!

You can call AA (then send in the coupons), go to a ticket office, or use an authorized travel agent (if they can print tickets on AA ticket stock they can handle these certificates). But for ~25% off, I'm willing to lose the booking bonus http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Correction! SNA_Flyer (in the AA Forum) has a way to get the online bonus as well. Perfect.

[This message has been edited by golden girl (edited 01-13-2000).]

It was my impression that you have to call the number in the back of the certificate (the meeting department?) so that you don't have to pay the 8% tax. If you book the flight through the web site you might not get this additional discount. If you have use these certificates, please let us know of your experiences.

I recently purchased some of these certificates and applied them to a flight I had booked. The agent only charged me tax on the remaining balance which added to the savings.

Very Cool.

The $50 certificates are back at VolumeBuy (Volume $$$), but I think they noticed our interest. There are now more increments to get to the best deal, and the most we can get is a 20% discount. Still a bargain, especially with no FET, but I'm glad I picked up a bunch last time!

Volumebuy.com rocks! Thanks for the tip! I fly over 75k miles per year on AA and these certificates are awesome! I haven't seen anything like it as far as the lack of blackout dates and other restrictions. I just loaded up on a variety of certificates so I can have them on hand when I book flights and get the max (30 day Volumebuy$$$) discount. I also checked out other items on Volumebuy and the discounts seem as good as on AA! Thanks again!

THIS THREAD IS SPAM!!!!!

GOLDENGIRL AND PRICEBUSTER ARE OBVIOUSLY WORKING FOR VOLUMEBUY.

Please everyone let this thread die, goldengirl and pricebuster arrange for some commission to be sent to flyertalk and an apology. If you want to post your service on this board, be upfront about it and pay for your advertising.

This is not such a great deal. One can buy AA certificates from giftcertificates.com using their $10 off supercertificates or $10 promo codes at any time, they have AA in $100, making the savings 10%. Also, they have promos to receive $25 gift cert free with $100 dollars of purchases. think SPECIAL3 is the code, there may be others. Also, you can accumulate points for orders, believe $500 gets you another $25 free. DO a search on supercertificates or giftcertificates.com for more details on codes and getting the free supercertificates.

Also, giftpoint.com has AA certs, but at the moment no coupons, but in the past there have been $10 and $20 off $50 coupons.

Also Sparks.com as listed in another of my posts, but they are currently out of AA certs.

I don't think this is such a great deal and seems to be obvious advertising.

tummyg

[This message has been edited by tummyg (edited 01-13-2000).]

Wow, what Chase employee started that TC thread? Geez!

I could not count the amount of posts I have read here that have nothing to do with FF, at least this one did.
Thanks --

Tummyg - I think you should stick to writing about frequent flyer deals in Thailand. This post and most others on this site are very helpful. I happened to use volumebuy and had a very good experience. Why don't you stop whining and provide something we can all use here.

I found this forum a week ago and was very impressed by the useful info on ways to save money and accumulate miles. As a student I could certainly use more of that! When I found the VolumeBuy deal I was pleased to have something to contribute, and I hope it's been helpful (as tummyg's Sparks deal was). I don't work for VolumeBuy, but I do know their discounts will help me with that RTW trip I've been after.

[This message has been edited by golden girl (edited 01-14-2000).]

Pricebuster,

I don't know whether you work for volumebuy.com or not; I have to admit the thought occurred to me as well, and I'm sure other people on this board may have entertained such a thought. I think if there is a suspicion of spamming, it should be discussed and verified. This board has a clearly anti-spamming policy. At any rate, I believe the first one who posted about volumebuy was Golden Girl.

As for tummyg, s/he (?) has been posting for a long time, many of her (?) posts are extremely useful, and not just for Thailand travelers. I want to thank her (?) for them, and hope that the posting will indeed continue.

Regards

honu

Who is REAL SPAMER????
I think I know the answer.
tummyg, I am sure that you are working for giftcertificates.com.
Only REAL SPAMER will try to convince others that 10% discount is better then 25%
Goldenm girl, thanks! You saved me additional $150 on $1000 certificates from volumebuy.com.
Be aware that REAL SPAMER is tummyg!

Come on Golden Girl/Price Buster/ Prudentbuyer, give us a break. Do you really think that Prudent Buyer's VERY FIRST post on this board which JUST HAPPENS to support Golden Girl and Price Buster, (neither of whom list real e-mail addresses either) would fool anyone with more than a third-grade education? If you want to pay to advertise on this site, contact Randy Peterson at Webflyer. Otherwise, please take your transparently obvious self-promotion and go home. As for your attempted flame of Tummyg, who is one of our regulars, check your lighter, because your butane seems to be empty.

I agree djlawman. It sure looks like golden girl, pricebuster, and prudentbuyer (most of all) are trying to pull a fast one here. TummyG has been a regular contributor to these boards for quite some time and has posted on a number of different things unrelated to giftcerticate.com. Take your ads elsewhere, folks!

I understand the concern about blatantly commercial postings on a community forum like this. I've been on the Internet long enough to remember a time when the commercial use of the Internet was actually prohibited. And I still mourn the fact that spammers made the Usenet newsgroups practically useless.

Having said that, I really don't care if golden girl and Price Buster do work for VolumeBuy. The site seems legitimate enough, and it looks to be a really good deal to me. And the very nature of this site requires many people to purchase the same product in order to get a better discount. Telling other people about the offer gives everybody to chance to get a better price.

Given that the entire purpose of the FlyerTalk community is to alert other people to good travel deals, I don't see any problem with postings of this nature in this forum. I was actually hoping someone would post a notice of the next "FlexPower" discount on American Airline certificates; I missed the first offer and wanted to take advantage of the next one. And I would appreciate hearing about future pools if they should come available.

Blackfur--I generally agree with you. I have no problem with ONE post to let us know of an opportunity. It is the disguised ones, and the followup fake glowing recommendations that are a little hard to take. A little honesty from these folks would be appreciated.

Djlawman

I for one would like it if it was like what happens with the stock mkt. Over there anyone who recomends a stock either to buy or sell has to say if they themselves are short or long the stock. It's true that in the chat rooms that is not the rule and it's via those chat-rooms that the most abuse and wheeling&dealing take place(re;ripoffs although not all the time but the chances are the greatest) So let anybody post what they want but if they have a material role of any type let them say so..

My gosh, its not like Golden Girl has asked us to put her e-mail address somewhere to get credit. Its not like we are being ripped off and paying higher prices.

With that said, GG said she doesn't work for them, let it go! Here is someone who has taken the timne to let us all know about a great offer, an offer that will/has saved all the people that responded to it. Let's not jump to conclusions and make assumptions. Golly, its like some people are out there just waiting for something to complain about.

To all those that have been discouraged, that are actually flyers like the rest of us, keep those good tips coming.

Goldengirl, you deserve thanks (and apologies from some?). I've been away and returned to read postings giving you a hard time since you first VB AA posting. I've also read posts with tales of saving hundreds (thousands?) of dollars because of your posting. You brought forth a legitimate deal--no loophole or scam--that benefited the FT community.

FT should be free of spam. But it should also be free of irresponsible mob-baiting. So far, at least 5 FTers have been branded as VB employees because of their positive postings. If that is all it takes, who's next? You said you didn't work for VB and your other FT posts show evidence that you are a straight shooter. That's enough for me. Unfortunately, a few flam'n, stone-throw'n, storm troop'n, tar and feather'n, witch-hunt'n, scarlet-letter'n goons tried to gag you with unsubstantiated allegations. I'd bet that they too jumped into the VB pool, although that wouldn't wash off the egg on their faces and sticky keyboards! They should have shown gratitude and hospitality instead of intolerance and paranoia.

Credit is due to those members who helped build the FT community through their generosity, hospitality, and openness. However, some FTers think they can sit high and holy on their pile of posts and decree who is worthy and what posts are legitimate. Thankfully, that's not how it works. They are entitled to their opinions and postings. So is everyone else. People shouldn't have to feel guilted, blamed, or coerced into revealing any more about themselves than they want or feel safe about. There are lots of psychos lurking. Even among apparently respectable members! What matters here is sharing FF info about money-saving and mileage-accruing.

So, goldengirl, at the risk of being tagged a VB stooge, I say bring on the deals. Show me the money! Show me the miles!

I live in Canada and definately are not connected in any way with VolumeBuy.

GoldenGirl: I would like to thank you for you post. I have just purchase a CD-RW for about $40.00 less than it is available elsewhere and $100.00 less than the manufacturer site.

I will also buy some $50 AA certs. when there are available again. (missed it this time around).

I believe that a SINGLE post about a "good" deal should ALWAYS be allowed on this board.

GG, Please ignore the negative comments direct at you.

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"Free" without charge or cost, having no obligation.

Thank you Golden Girl for the post.

I missed the first purchase on the American Airline $50 certificates but paid attention to the next heads up on this board!!!

Bought a bunch.

I wsa just amazed at the nasty things said on the various posts. Some people take them selves a little too seriously!

Now that the fighting is over, can someone explain exactly how these AA certs work? Do you charge the cost at volumebuy? Do you pay a discounted price and get face value - like EE savings bonds? Can they be used with AA travel certificates? Do you use them like cash?

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DtG

You're welcome, and thanks for the encouragement.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I called American Airlines to see if there were any limitations on the gift certificates and she told me that you were not allowed to combine gift certificates with frequent flyer awards, other than electronic upgrades (these will only upgrade in the US). You cannot use the certs to pay for a coach class ticket and use FF miles to upgrade to business class if flying international. She originally said that if you were gold or platinum, you could upgrade with FF miles, and after talking to the supervisor said that was not possible. Has anyone tried doing this?

I called AA re using these certs. They appear to be a good deal. The main problem is if use one or more certs to buy a ticket, the ticket can not be upgraded using mileage awards. For example use of a $25 cert on a $500 ticket would prevent it being upgraded with a mileage award. She did not know if elite upgrades could happen. You must supply the actual cert number for her to look up all the limitations. As I found out last year, the same limitations apply to "bulk" tickets and use of the $25-$150 Entertainment coupons on CO and NW etc.

One last thing came to mind. An unscrupulous travel agent could use these certs to buy tickets, pocket this money and not pass on the 10-25% savings to their customer. The customer would probably not know it unless they tried to upgrade. Something to consider IMHO.

Those people thinking there is over enthusiasm and are suspicious of it ought to re-read this whole thread. From what I see golden girl only responded to people's questions. No different than MCI, Chase TC. I just went to volumbebuy and it seems legit. I still want to know more about it, but I am really surprised at the accusations that seem unfounded. It would make other people a little hesitant to post. I am finding that some people seem to take advantage of their own anonymity. Let's be a little nice to each other.

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DtG

If these gift certificates work the same way as vouchers do, you should be able to use miles to upgrade. I used a voucher to pay for part of a ticket last summer, and upgraded it with miles.

The AA $50 Certificate on VolumeBuy is back.
Current price is $45, but should get to
$37.50 when the pool closes in 7 days,
03-Feb.

In going over this, I can the why there is suspicioun. When people join web-flyer the day of their post, no e-mail address and talk like they've been around, I see that it looks a little funny. These people seem not to have posted anywhere else. But my take on it is this. If the price goes down if more people buy, then that is what is adventageous to get other people to buy. So, if it looks like lots of people are buying, then other people will want to buy. Doesn't make it any less of a good deal - maybe it makes it a great deal, a better deak fir akkm but I can now completely understand the skeptism of the legitmacy of some of these posts. Maybe one person wrote them all.In time geniune testimonials will come forth, and the "actors" can retire.

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DtG