Suppose one were to have a coupon for an upgrade or free whatever at a hotel or airline, and suppose one made a reservation using the coupon, and then checked in and actually received the full benefit of the coupon from the hotel or airline, but the check in agent failed to collect the coupon. And suppose the coupon holder then anticipated no further opportunities to use the coupon again before its expiration date.

Would it be unethical to offer said coupon to someone else, say, in this forum, considering that the hotel or airline had provided the full value in good faith, and had not issued the coupon with the intent that it be used multiple times?

Yes. If the coupon was for one-time use, and you use it one time, it should not be used again.

If you have to ask...

To each their own...Ethics-wise, yes, it's unethical because you've received full value & benefit.

Reality-wise, if they failed to collect it (and you, in good faith, were willing to give it up), then feel free to use it to your advantage & benefit, even if it means trading it. Sometimes GA's don't collect coupons - I'm guessing you're speaking of an upgrade coupon, but how many times have you ever ordered a pizza or something & not actually given the coupon? Or used a coupon on an car rental & never actually physically handed it over? That's no different between a coupon for a 9.99 pizza & a SWU - an uncollected coupon still has value. I'd use it.

The reason many companies issue coupons is because it encourages you to use their products. Here's an example: I had a choice between flying on AA from the US to Europe for 500.00 & an I had a coupon for a free Upgrade & flying on UA from the US to Europe for the same price & didn't have a coupon for a free Upgrade, I'd fly on AA - thereby giving them the revenue that if all things were equal, UA probably would have gotten from me.

Well its not the same as cheating on your income taxes or robbing a bank, but....

Yes it's unethical, yes people do it all the time. Will lightning strike you down... probably not.

If you want to rationalize it you could always tell yourself that someone else out there who has an unused coupon probably won't use it. Therefore you are not costing the airline/hotel anything that they were not anticipating.

Even if it was ethical, before trading to someone else, you need to make sure that the coupon was not taken electronically. In many cases, an organization will give you a hard copy coupon but also create an electronic one. The hard copy is just to make you feel good but is never really used.

Maybe they decided to comp you without telling you. It happens.

If that's the case, trade away.

Otherwise, I'm sure someone can offer you some sleeping pills.

use it or trade it... nuff said

Since this is not an actual offer/request for a trade of miles/points/certs, but is rather a discussion of practices related to such certs, I am going to move this to MilesBuzz where I think it is more apt.

cblaisd
Moderator, Coupon Connection

I knew someone who had done this once and know for a fact that this person had one year of purgatory added to his sentence.

However, the OP can help out by sending the coupon to me, and I will direct it to the proper authorities and use my contacts to get the additional year removed.

I have actually had occasion to point out to an airline when upgrade certs were not properly removed from my account. And I was told not to worry about it. ^

I've also had occasions where too many certs were deducted, or a cert was deducted from me when gifting an upgrade and then from the gift recipient, and the process was too laborious to sort out and I wound out out a cert without benefit.

These things happen, and frankly they're too much trouble to chase down sometimes. They're best left to karma.

As dhammer53 says, you may well have been comp'd the upgrade. You might not have put one over on anyway. They may have decided they needed to upgrade someone so it might as well be you, no reason to take the cert when they were going to do an operational upgrade anyway. Or they might have decided that it was too difficult or time consuming to process the cert when they had other priorities.

Too many variables to lose sleep over these things. Sometimes we benefit, sometimes we lose, at least in my experience these things even out pretty well over time.

The airline/hotel is counting on a certain percentage of coupons not being redeemed so in fact you are costing them something.

On a bit of a tangent: of course companies count on a less than 100% coupon redemption rate but I just learned/realized that they count on a less than 100% redemption rate for pre-paid cards too! These are those cards you can buy as a present for someone, like a $25 gift card at Tower Records. Even though those were paid for in cash they aren't all redeemed. And people say only the Fed can print money.

One thing to consider before trading or giving it away. Does the coupon in question have a number or something like that to identify it and you gave that number when making the reservation. If they failed to collect it and then you give it to someone or trade it to someone and they try and use it and they are unable to as the "number" on the coupon shows it was used you may be in hot water with whom you gave it or traded it to.

If no such number or identifying marks exist then you were probably comped. So use it again or trade it or whatever. Just make sure you don't violate any rules or conditions on bartering or selling said certificate.

Use your best judgement and let your conscience be your guide.

My personal ethics allow me to reuse coupons that aren't collected because I don't bother to fight hard when I don't get the discount when the agent can't collect my coupon when I've used an online couponless coupon code and rejects my discount. I figure it evens out in the end.

think it shall be treated along the ways some properties advertise at the cash desk: "if we failed to give you receipt, the meal is on us".... same here.

To fill in a few blanks:

The coupon has no identifying code, and the issuer has no way to track it even to my account, since it was not originally issued to me in the first place.

I'm pretty sure, based on the specifics of the situation, that it was not comped. I've had that, happen, too, with Delta PMUs where I qualify for the upgrade on status alone, and so they don't even ask for the PMU certificate. In those cases, I have no problem keeping the PMU and using it again (or trying to... they're actually pretty difficult to use for domestic flights). But this situation was different.

And my thought was not to trade the coupon for any personal gain. I initially received the coupon as an outright gift via FT's Coupon Connection, and my thought was to offer it to someone else, for free. But I think I am sensing that at least some people also see the potential ethical problem that bothers me a bit...