Do Tickets Expire?
 

I have quite a few unused tickets both E and paper. Do these guys expire? Should I somehow get paper tickets issued for the E-Tickets that I have or should I be OK?

I once ran acrossed a very friendly United agent who went through their system with a comb to find any unused tickets that I might have. She said that they didn't usually do it and even had to switch phones so she wouldn't get in trouble.

After that, I called USScare to see if they could do the same. Well, one of the rudest people I've ever dealt with (regardless of industry) refused to even try to find anything.

So, does anyone have any ideas on how I might also be able to determine if I have any unused tickets that I may have forgotten about? I am premier on both United and USScare and those are the only two airlines I am really worried about. I also belong to both of their lounge programs.

Any help is appreciated...would be nice if I could search somehow myself.

The ladies at my friendly local United CTO have done this for me in the past. They simply entered my FF number and up popped all the unused reservations/tickets that were in the United system.

Was able to apply them against some other reservations I was making, less of course, the ubiquitous change fees.

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Robert Johnson
danville 1K


[This message has been edited by danville 1K (edited 11-26-1999).]

I beleive, regardless of the ticket (except full fare), expires 1 year after date of issue.

A little organization on your part might be in order.

Once you get what you can credited, that might be your new years resolution.

This brings up an interesting question. If for example I have 3 unused tickets and would like to apply them all towards the purchase of 1 more expensive ticket, is the fee $75 or $225? Thanks.

can be anything fom 0 (as a UA 1K for example, or for full fare tickets) up to 3 times $75 = $225 or to impossible for non-refundable tickets.

Are there two different kinds of non-refundable tickets, then? One kind whose fare basis is applicable to future flights, and another kind whose fare basis is not? I didn't think so.... The term "non-refundable" is still be technically correct since you are not being actually refunded your money.

(I wonder what happens if you apply the fare basis of a non-refundable but still expensive ticket toward a full coach [and usually then refundable] fare, then ask for your money back?)

Hey ranles, I believe a little courtesy on your part might be in order. If you read my original post, I didn't ask for advice on how to simplify my life. Let's go ahead and make the assumption that I'm smart enough to figure out how to avoid it in the future. Your post does me no good, and only serves to waste time.

With USAirways you can only apply non-refundable tickets towards other non-refundable tickets. Hence no way to get your money back after its tied up in the system. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Side, but related story, I had two non-refundable tickets through two different agencies. One agency applied the difference in the value towards the change fee. That's what I expected. The other told me that 'the airline mandates the $75 change fee and you lose the value difference in tickets'. I told them bullsh**, and then they told me something about corporate policy, and then they started stumbling over themselves and hanged up on me! .. grr.... I hate corporate mandated travel agents. They know I can't switch so they treat me like crap.