Beware : the difficulty of using the UA e-certificate
 

I got 2 of them for $350 each from UA switching the 772 with flat beds to the old bacarlounger seats. Today, tried to book online and used the certificate, the computer would not accept it.
Called the 1K line and now after 36 mins, the nice agent still cannot finish my reservation and apply the RPUs...
And I was told that once you use the certificate, the computer won't give you back any risidual amount.
39 mins and still counting for a simple reservation IAH-DCA-IAH

What type of certs are these? The ones which can be used online on the final payment page can definitely have residual value held on them.

Were they issued pre 3-3 by United? If so, you probably don't have the PIN to use them online. This happened to me and it took over two months and about 10 phone calls for United to process them correctly.

I've had no issues with e-certs (yet).

Mine were issued only about 5 days ago...and it's the freebie renumeration e-certificates.
102 mins and still counting. Wow, is this level of of training the poor UA agents get ? having to call a supvervisor..I really appreciate their patience.
After working for the airline for so many years and gain some knowledge and "expertise" on your computer system, and having to re-learn a new one !
I do have a lot of empathy for them, because I used to work for Western Airlines, and when Delta bought WA out, I had to go to re-training...and my, you should have seen the ticketing line at the airport when we switched over. And the angry pax we had to face. But with Delta, they could send over babysitters who walked around behind us and helped us when we got stucked. Funny, I learned to re-issued hand written tickets to computer issued tickets using the DL template. Talking about green screen :eek:

OK...this is what I was told.
My certificate is for $350, and it would apply only to the base fare. Not the taxes.
The poor agent has done many before, with the add collect, and this was his first time with a residual amount.
Hope you folks can help another agent out if you get into the same situation as mine.

I lost $800 in ecert value due to this issue, and cannot find anyone to replace them. :eek:

I had a similar problem earlier this year when the phone queue times were on the orders of hours. I called into the United Reservations line in Guam at (671) 647-6453 and the agent was unable to apply the certificate. Being that I needed the reservation anyway, I had him go ahead and book it. Later in the day I received an email from the agent letting me know that he figured out how to apply the certificate and attached my new receipt with the discounted price. I was billed the correct amount.

So maybe give the guys in Guam a call, they were able to figure it out for me without any hold time :)

Are these new problems that just happened in the last couple, three weeks? I have been bad for not booking any UA flight in the last few weeks! Otherwise, I thought those PRE 3/3 ecert's were working beautifully for some of us ;-).

havent had any problems whatsoever, if anything I got avery nice surprise when my Add Collect was lower then I expected, as CO does things differently then UA did :D

It took me two 2 hour phone calls to get a pre-merger UA cert to work. Had to have 3 agents and 2 supervisors involved as they couldn't figure out what to do.

Was able to use one of them but for a second one, after hours on the phone a customer care agent told me she would void the old one and issue a new post merger cert. Got it within 48hours by email and it took me less than 5 minutes to make the reservation online.

I would ask if they can void the old one and issue a new one that you can use online. (They have also less restrictions apparently.)

Mine was brand new/less than a week old. The problem was apparently the agent did not know how to apply the $350 to the reservation while the fare+tax was only $301.
I ended up paying $12.06 in tax, with the fare showing as 0.02 . You read it correctly : 2 cents. And my 1 hr on the phone.

I tried in March and April to book on UA and gave up. Had my first UA flight last week in a long time, but couldn't use the ecerts to book (booked in May)

When the base fare was < e-cert amount on pmUA, you simply had to call web support. They knew how to set the base fare to 0 and just charge you for any applicable taxes/fees. I don't know if the process has changed, but I'd suggest calling them first in the future.

I haven't had any problems using e-certs since the merger, and the e-certs now come with additional perks that didn't exist on pmUA. Also, e-certs issued by UA in the past do not come with a PIN number. Furthermore, you have to enter the e-cert number at the flight search page, NOT the payment page. That's probably the most common mistake people are making when trying to redeem e-certs, thinking they aren't working, and then getting frustrated by trying to book over the phone.

Actually you can enter the e-cert number on the payment page under the "Rdemption Options" you have the ability to select a Travel Certificate or Gift Certificate and enter either the e-cert number of pin number and cert year. After clicking "Apply" the ticket amount will change and you can pay for the remaining balance.