Type A - Discount Certificate versus Type B - Voucher
 

This topic comes up a lot, so I thought I'd post something I just wrote for the United forum.

I hope this helps you get those savings you are entitled to.

Type A and Type B are standard industry terms for marketing or customer service forms. Type A is a discount certificate, which reduces a fare. Type B is a voucher, which has value and is exchanged for a ticket.

On United, in my experience, CS25 and CS50 PMO/Dollar PMO/Friends are all Type A - Discount Certificate. The Denied Boarding Compensation vouchers I have seen are Type B - Voucher. Other customer service dollar certificates could be either type. The certificate or its detailed rule should tell which.

If you want to see the procedures for ticketing, check

http://www.arccorp.com/forms/pp/iah6_0_2.pdf

http://www.arccorp.com/forms/iar/iarbook.pdf

Regrettably, I have yet to find a definitive source that makes it clear that one can apply a Type A and a Type B to the same ticket, although the logic seems clear. The Type A form reduces the fare you are paying and then the Type B form is exchanged as full or partial payment for the reduced fare.

If anyone can get a reference from a carrier or the ARC that spells this out, it would be very useful.

It's possible for a single form to be treated as either a Type A or a Type B if the airline wants it that way as these references explain.

Charles

I have used both a discount travel certificate on AA and then paid with a voucher.

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DtG

There's no lack of actual experience in being able to successfully use both, what we need is an industry memo from a voice of authority which we can present to the agents (& their supervisors, when escalated) who genuinely believe that both A and B cannot be used on the same ticket.

Yes pshuang, that's what we are looking for.

My organization gets a generous discount on United tickets through our travel agency (Carlson Wagonlit Travel), which works like a Type A discount. So we cannot ever use Type A discounts in combination.

But the agency is so concerned about United's (inconsistent) attitudes that they aren't taking many Type B vouchers like denied boarding compensation, either. They say the DBC vouchers are 'non-combinable' and therefore they don't want to accept them in combination with our Type A discount. They could be right; it's not crystal clear. I would like to interpret the non-combinable as meaning not combinable with other Type B vouchers. I'm going to try to get a written ruling from our UA sales rep, but would like information in advance, even from UA competitors on how this issue is handled.

Charles

My condolences.

Actually, we have a good deal. Our travel manager is our employee. He contracts with Carlson to pay four agents, which he selects, and to cover the CRS and processing costs.

We keep whatever meager commissions the airlines are paying this week and use them to offset the fixed costs of the contract.

We can also take advantage (?) of limited Carlson services like their 24 hour service center. Our travel manager gets a bill for each call we make there, which, again, he uses whatever he can squeeze out of the airlines to cover.

Centralized travel management always has drawbacks, but this is one of the best arrangements I've experienced in that vein. And we do get good rates on airline tickets.

United is nice in giving a discount off all tickets, discount to full fare, domestic and international. Other airlines (I could mention some names - Delta) never discount the discount fares.

Charles

I have used both the entertainment discount and travel vouchers with Continental and Northwest.

Well I have a UA $50 Travel Certificate in front of me, and it says "treat as type AB certificate" !

So is that A, B or both? It's like blood types http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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RichardMEL, UA 1K
A Star Alliance Member.

It sounds like it goes both ways, so to speak. I spoke to my travel agents some more on this issue and one point they raised is that there is less paperwork to process a Type A than a Type B. So allowing a certificate to be used either way is advantageous to both the passenger and agent.

Our agency has gotten tickets rejected by the ARC so they are reluctant to process many of these vouchers. There does not appear to be a clear policy on what can be used with what on UA, at least. They recommend using the CTO in particular for combinations of discounts and vouchers.

Charles

LAX UA 1K - whether "actual" policy or not, my experience is that UA has never let me combine Type A Discount certs and my Corporate Discount. This is at UA CTO's or the airport. They told me it was not allowed. However, I have never sent my Type A certs to my travel department to see if they would do it.

I've always been told that Type A discounts can't be combined with our corporate discount, which requires a tour code and a Type A fare modification (percent off). It only makes sense that you can't modify the fare again with another discount.

What was puzzling me is why I couldn't apply a Type B voucher to pay part of the discounted fare using a corporate discount, when people seem to be able to combine 1 Type A coupon with 1 Type B voucher.

Upon further detective work, I find out that our agency has actually had the DBC 'bump vouchers' returned as inapplicable to our corporate discount. The specific reason cited by the ARC (not UA) is that these vouchers are 'non-combinable.' I guess that this use apparently is onsidered 'combining'.

We can and do use MCOs, which are akin to an unrestricted Type B voucher, against corporate discount fares all the time. If the single coupon Travel Certificates do not say 'non-combinable' then I might be able to use them, but I haven't held one in my hands long enough to read it.

The travel agents clear guidance was that any combination of discounts and vouchers was best handled in a CTO preferably, or a ticket counter, and not at a travel agent. The travel agent is likely to get burned (debit memo) if they accept an invalid combination even when UA verbally approves (as they did in some cases above). UA won't be debiting their own agents.

I think this question is basically settled, at least until the day I get a personal audience with someone in authority at UA to get a comprehensive policy. Frankly, I figure the ual.com website will implement whatever policy they want to enforce (combining Type A and B or not) once all this becomes usable electronically.

If we can use bump vouchers online against the web fares, without any tricks, and web fares stay at discount levels, then this largely becomes a moot point. Until that day, we scheme.

Charles

I spoke to several agents here and they won't touch the UA certs saying I had to use them through UA direct, which sucks because, at least from here, their published fares are many hundreds of dollars more than what an agent can do what with overrides and all.

I may just make a stop in LAX or something and walk up to UA ticketing and buy a roundtrip to SAN or something on the spot.

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RichardMEL, UA 1K
A Star Alliance Member.

Well, thanks for inquiring (or is that enquiring http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) RichardMEL. It sounds like the agents there are getting the same message as agents here, even more so because non-published fares are more common there.

And thanks to everyone who participated in this thread. I'm interested in hearing about other airlines, not just UA.

I feel like I've really gotten an education, and I understand that's supposed to be good for me. If we can use this knoweldge to our advantage, maybe it will be. Till then, it just seems like a pain! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif (Hmm, not too much variety in the smilies. Kinda sad that AOL Instant Messenger has more, and cooler ones.)

Charles

I have been able to use both a discount coupon and a voucher on tickets with CO. However, I must do the ticketing directly with a ticket office or over the phone (new e-certs) as the travel agents' CRS can't handle the double discount.

My company also works with Carlson Wagonlit and has an agreement with Continental. I am able to take advantage of the discount fares and use a voucher, but not a coupon.