I do not have a problem using the coupon again. If you do, you can always give it to me and I'll help out!

is there an ethical dilemma that some FT won't have
 

is there an issue out here that at least one FT won't have an issue with???

do what you feel like and don't worry about pleasing everyone.. someone is always offended at something.. so just do whatever makes you feel good

In situations such as this one, I just remind myself how many times I've been reamed by airlines when it comes to last minute ticketing and times when they've refused to accept a valid coupon, etc.

It really does all even out. In this instance, you are taking advantage of the airline. If you are a FF, I'm sure there are/will be numerous instances where they take advantage of you.

In short, all's fair. They didn't collect it. Use it. You didn't ask for this and you didn't intentionally try to avoid handing the coupon over.

burn it up baby!
 

in my case, there have been too many times where coupons and vouchers that should have worked did not. And then you have these ones that can only be redeemed in person at the airport. I once had to take an hour subway ride on 3 connecting trains, pay the fare each way, stand in line and present a coupon to United just to have then tell me a new rule made it invalid. But when I called on the phone earlier that day, no one told me of this so you can bet how pissed off I was!

I would totally take advantage of them and use it or trade it again without a doubt. Yes, with airlines and their silly rules and fine print, two wrongs DO make a right! Now, if I sold it or gave it to a friend and it did not work, I would feel obligated to give them their money back, but I would definitely use it. For my wife, we felt "made up to" when she had an upgrade voucher similar to the one of the original poster and they never took it at the first airport gate. So she got to fly Business class to Europe and back when the coupon was only suppose to work one way (on the outbound flights)

If I could have found a way to white out the date and write a new one on there, I would have done that too! Yep, for airline stuff, I do this stuff. I hate how airlines make us jump thru hoops. IN no other area of my life to I break rules of ethics or legality... Only with airlines.

I even made a stamp with the red box and numbers in it for RULE 240. That's the one where one airline endorses over a ticket to fly on another. If the ticket is stamped, you dont have to run between terminals and beg agents to help you while the other plane you want to be on is going to fly away. I used my stamp twice and it worked. If something ever happened, I would play dumb. I will never let anyone else use it. I dont care what people say. Airlines deserve to be going under. They are not fair. Only Starwood is fair. I would never do this type of stuff with anything they have. I dont go LOOKING for ways to be this person, but if the opportunity presents itself, I am all over it.
Screw em! Use the cupon! They should have hired better people to more efficiently run their systems and businesses that prevent things from being abused. Instead they lay off good people and then make us pay fees to book the way we always have, etc. Fees, fees, fees.

nuf said.
MM

After reading this you really don't have an ethics question.

An ethics question would examine whether something was right or wrong,
such as in this case - stealing. I refuse to believe that you don't know stealing is wrong.

It's really a "getting away with it" question. And if you can get away with something does that make it OK to do. It doesn't.

Stealing, from someone who has so much anyway, or is an evil empire, or who
"screwed you" once, or "no one will ever know" is still stealing. You are simply trying to justify your actions by deeds or misdeeds of others. The human mind is a wonderful thing. There is nothing too low that we can't justify.
So yes, you can be a thief and not feel bad.

You want to know if you can be comfortable lowering yourself? Then the masses have spoken: "go for it dude!".

Just let me know when you are away. See, if I can get together with your spouse, and you never find out about it..........

Since this is the case, I would recommend you contact the FT'er who gave it to you & see what they have to say about it. If you received it as a gift, you may want to consult with them.

In the past year, United has made more mistakes in my favor than against my favor. That said, it's not accurate to say that it all works out in the end. Therefore, every time I see miles in my account that should not be there, I cal UA and let the burden be on their shoulders. It's never been too hard to chase down. And whenever I am owed miles, I usually get them within days, if not minutes.

When it comes to upgrade vouchers, I will never understand the pyschology on FT! After all, the airline has already given us the free upgrade. And yet so often we want two upgrades (in other words, we want them not to remove the free coupon so we can use it in the future). Doesn't make sense to me.

So, in my not so humble point of view, I do think it is unethical to use the coupon. I would mail it back with a note saying, "Perhaps a charity can use it."

I like bhatnasx' idea. But the original FTer's intent in making the gift was that I use it for its intended purpose, which I have done. Ultimately, I've concluded that Thumper has expressed my thoughts most concisely. I had posted the question for two reasons, the first of which was seeking precisely the clarity that Thumper provides above.

I don't know enough about Buddhism to be sure of this, but if it's worth its standing as a major religion/philosophy, I suspect Buddhists would say it's an improper application of the principle of karma to advocate cheating someone because I've been cheated. That was never my intention or motivation, but the discussion of that aspect has helped me see the situation clearly.

The other purpose in posting the question was to find out if there were important considerations I was missing. And it turns out there was at least one. I had not considered the possibility that the coupon provider might prefer that it be used again in order to promote business they might not otherwise receive. So I may call the coupon provider and find out their thoughts about it. However, they don't just leave these coupons out for anyone to take, so I doubt they'll want it to be reused.

And while I disagree with most of what Marathon Man says above, the interesting twist is that the coupon is a Starwood coupon. So even MM is arguing that it should not be reused.

All in all, it's a lot of wind to blow about a pretty insignificant monetary value, but if we're unfaithful in the little things, there's no hope for the big ones.

I appreciate the input from everyone, and I hope the discussion has been of some value to others besides just me.

I would assume the opposite. My guess is that they will thank you for your honesty, and tell you to go right ahead and use it again.

:D

that is, if she would go with you... She may not.

only if she has sufficiently low standards, but I can hope....

;) I'll ask her fer ya...

hee hee hee
(for a trade of decent award stays of course, with another woman!)

GOOD NEWS! My mother says OK.

Of course my wife may still kill me, but a deal is a deal. ^

It's Hinduism of which Karma is an element. And identifying with the idea of the action (without actually taking the action) results in the same 'Karmic debt' as actually taking the action. In order words, you're already guilty.

IMHO, a Buddhist lesson would be along the lines of...
The Zen one finds while flying at 33,000 feet is nothing more than the Zen one brings up there with one. :confused: