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UA Electronic Travel Certificates (ETC): Q&A, OK for partners, 2 year life (Dec 2022)

Old Jan 8, 2015, 2:07 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
*NEW* Now See All Your Electronic Travel Credit(s) (ETCs) on Your United.com Account!
Originally Posted by DELee
Link to Travel Credit Lookup by E-mail Page:

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/credit.html

Note: page first shows FFCs; scroll down further for ETCs.

David
Update 30 Aug 2021
Were extending electronic certificatesTo give you more flexibility when you travel, electronic certificates are now valid for 24 months from the date they were issued. This includes all currently valid electronic certificates and all new ones issued on or after April 1, 2020. All electronic certificates due to expire prior to December 31, 2022, will be extended until December 31, 2022.

This policy change will automatically appear, but it may not be reflected everywhere right away. Wed appreciate your patience as we work to make that happen.
.
See discussion in COVID19 Schedule Change (6+hrs)/Cancellation Refund, UA resisting refunds, DOT ruling

Checking the balance: http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...s/default.aspx
Enter type (see below) and PIN as a single code without any spaces. Then the page will say it couldn't find anything and offer you a place to enter your last name. Note, will show remaining value but not expiration date,

What does "type" mean? Good question. See the following answer from post 670:

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
In most cases this will be 20TCVA or 19TCVA (from 2019)

On the ETC , this is labeled as Promotion Code

There are other types but rarer
​​​​​
Electronic Travel Certificates (ETCs) / vouchers can only be used for travel on an entirely UA/UX operated paid itinerary.
Late August 2021 Now useable on partner and codeshare itins!
ETCs can now be used to pay pre-paid baggage fees.
Not valid when there are partner flights or any segment that uses partner metal.
Cannot be used to pay award flight fees.
Cannot be used for E+ fees, WiFi fees, UA subscriptions (Wifi, E+ fees, UC membership, ...), upgrades fees (but OK for up-fares), change fees, ....
ETC can be used by anyone with the PIN and last name of the original person receiving the ETC.
If not fully used the residual can be used later with the same original expiration.
ETCs will be used for the total amount needed (no partial payments if the ETC has a greater value)


TVCA certs with PINs (by far the most common ecert most customers will receive -- such as goodwill compensation from Customer Care or refunds on flights) are considered a form of payment and don't reduce the PQDs PQP earnings.. So the full value of the ticket is earned, no reduction
Originally Posted by cfischer
Expiration -- ETCs generally have a 1 2-year life. The ETC should be used prior to expiration -- but the actual travel days can be after expiration. While not publically documented, it does appear ETCs have a 30 day (one month?) post-expiration grace period.

How do I use the ETC?
Online works fine or you can call and used an agent (a fee may apply)

Online, either select "all search" options and scroll to the bottom of the screen to enter
or
wait until you get to the Payment Options at the end of the purchasing steps and select "United payment types"
Enter pin code (7 or 10 digits) and Last Name on the ETC

Where online can I view my unused ETCs?
You cannot. No such listing is available. UA now displays some ETCs in Your Account (May 2020)
Reports suggest ETCs from flight credits seem to be displayed but customer service ETCs are not.
Now See All Your Electronic Travel Credit(s) (ETCs) on Your United.com Account!
You can call and ask an agent to look these up for you. Note agents will not provide the ETC PIN on the phone.

Can an ETC be used for covering the costs of a post-purchase upfare?
Multiple reports of success but one mentioned it would need to be the sole method of payment.
Can only be done by an agent -- not online
Can not be an upgrade fee, must be an upfare.

Can an ETC be used to UC membership or E+ access fee or change fee or award fee or upgrade co-pay or baggage fee or ...
ETCs can only be used for airfare, not for any fee
August 2020 - ETCs can be used for internet access, E+, subscriptions, upgrades, bag fees

Can I partially use an ETC and then pay the remainder with a credit card (to get the card's benefits)?
No, the ETC must be fully used (up to the needed amount). Only if the ETC is insufficient, can a credit card then be used.

If I make a booking with an ETC and then cancel -- what happens?
Normally it would just stay as flight credit. If refunded, it goes back to the original ETC (recent reports suggest a new ETC is now issued). If that has expired, it gets tricky, UA may create a new ETC -- this situation generally takes manual handling. It does not get converted to cash

How many ETCs can be used at one time?
There is a limit of one ETC per passenger. If you have multiple passengers on the PNR, you can apply 1 ETC each ( does not have to be the same value ETC nor does ETC to be applied to every passenger). (Recent reports suggest the use of multiple ETCs per passenger). If you have more ETCs than passengers, you can now combine ETCs. You can also use one-ways to double the number of opportunities to use ETCs vs roundtrips.
Combinability update July 2017 - ETCs can be combined (either a new ETC created with the expiration date of the earliest-expiring ETC or multiple ETCs used on a PNR). Appears will only combine ETC if you need to do this to book a flight. Initially, UA seemed to allow the combining for future use but most reports now suggest you need to also have a flight booking in mind using the new combined ETC.
Combinability update June 2020 - ETCs can be combined at the website payment screen without calling (see post 690)

Related threads
Extending a Credit/Travel/ETC Voucher by booking a refundable fare?

Is there any way to combine multiple travel certificates into one? {out-of-date -- see not above}

UA Electronic Travel Certificate & Codeshares/partner flights

Using ETCs in Canada (outside of US) on new United.com

Archive: UA Electronic Travel Certificates (ETC): General Q&A, ... {Archive}


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UA Electronic Travel Certificates (ETC): Q&A, OK for partners, 2 year life (Dec 2022)

Old Apr 4, 2020, 1:07 pm
  #586  
 
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Nice move by UA.
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Old Apr 4, 2020, 1:18 pm
  #587  
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Originally Posted by seanp7
Nice move by UA.
Yes, they get free use of your money for 2 years. In that time, they can raise fares so it cost more to get where you were going and prevent you (potentially) from earning a return on your money.

I'll have to say UA is smart for doing this - getting an extension on free money. Occidental went to Warren Buffet for money. Buffett said, "OK, you can have some of my money, but you're gonna have to pay me back the principal and add some interest on it (ahead of any stockholders)". UA says, "We reserve to raise fares on you, pay you no interest, and you forfeit your claim in 2 years". What a deal!

If the ETC is compensation, that's great, but if the ETC or credit is for a flight cancelled by UA, this is hardly a good deal (vs a refund).

Last edited by IAH-OIL-TRASH; Apr 4, 2020 at 1:27 pm
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Old Apr 4, 2020, 4:02 pm
  #588  
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Update 4 April 2020

See discussion in https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ot-ruling.html
Nice. Good move from UA.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 4:55 am
  #589  
 
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Can someone confirm if ETC issued in July 2019 will expire in July 2020 or July 2021 now? Don't want to play "gotcha" but United's statement can be read in two ways:
  • All currently valid, ||||||||||||| and all new certificates issued on or after April 1, 2020
  • Meaning July 2019 ETC will be extended

OR
  • All currently valid and all new certificates, ||||||||||||| issued on or after April 1, 2020
  • United's statement was issued on April 4, 2020, so "currently valid" really only refers to ETCs issued between April 1 and April 4, 2020. The extension does not cover ETCs issued before April 1, 2020
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 5:19 am
  #590  
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What happens if you use ETC to book a new itinerary, then cancel within 24 hours? Do you get a new ETC, with new expiration, or does value go back to original ETC?
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 8:41 am
  #591  
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Originally Posted by bdw1120
Can someone confirm if ETC issued in July 2019 will expire in July 2020 or July 2021 now? Don't want to play "gotcha" but United's statement can be read in two ways:
  • All currently valid, ||||||||||||| and all new certificates issued on or after April 1, 2020
  • Meaning July 2019 ETC will be extended

OR
  • All currently valid and all new certificates, ||||||||||||| issued on or after April 1, 2020
  • United's statement was issued on April 4, 2020, so "currently valid" really only refers to ETCs issued between April 1 and April 4, 2020. The extension does not cover ETCs issued before April 1, 2020
In your second interpretation you add a comma that does not exist --
Your currently valid July 2019 ETC is covered
This includes all currently valid and all new electronic travel certificates issued on or after April 1, 2020.
Originally Posted by TerryK
What happens if you use ETC to book a new itinerary, then cancel within 24 hours? Do you get a new ETC, with new expiration, or does value go back to original ETC?
Back to the original ETC usually
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 9:02 am
  #592  
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Originally Posted by controller1
No need in booking a dummy reservation. UA.com has a procedure to check the remaining balance, albeit not intuitive.

From the Home Page:

Deals & Offers > Promotional Certificates

Under the drop-down box for programs select Electronic Travel Certificate.

Enter PIN and submit
No longer works. Anyone knows current way to check ETC balance without creating dummy reservation?
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 9:32 am
  #593  
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Originally Posted by TerryK
No longer works. Anyone knows current way to check ETC balance without creating dummy reservation?
It still works for me. You have to concatenate the 'Promotion Code' and the PIN, e.g. 20TCVA1234ABC5D6, and you have to click the submit button rather than pressing enter on the keyboard.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 11:50 am
  #594  
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Originally Posted by fumje
It still works for me. You have to concatenate the 'Promotion Code' and the PIN, e.g. 20TCVA1234ABC5D6, and you have to click the submit button rather than pressing enter on the keyboard.
That is the key. Thank you.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 2:30 pm
  #595  
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I have several flights that were scheduled for March and April 2020 that I canceled in March after countries started travel restrictions, Germany cruise was canceled, and United started rescheduling flights.

These were all purchased in biz class or economy; no basic economy flights.

Of course, I used United's online forms to apply refunds, and have batted zero; UA replied after several weeks that a refund was not possible, but I could use the value of the tickets towards the purchase of other trips.

When I go online at united.com to make new reservations, for later this year, I get the following error for my canceled biz class PDX-TXL round trip:
-
"We are unable to process your request. Please see the message below for details.
No flight schedule could be retrieved using your search criteria. Please use the form below to start a new search."

There was no form below.
-
When I revisit the Refunds page at united.com I see this:"If you've previously canceled your trip, you'll soon be able to convert your unused ticket into a travel certificate for more flexibility. Check back soon."

When I checked by canceled domestic flights, I was able to apply the canceled flight credits to new dates in July and August. And on the payment page, I could see that unused credit would result in an ETC.

Any idea why the US-Germany canceled flights credit could not be used, and why I got the error? I just wanted to get that expensive Europe trip cancelation taken care of.

Thanks in advance.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 2:40 pm
  #596  
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Originally Posted by M2inOR
Any idea why the US-Germany canceled flights credit could not be used, and why I got the error?
The online change tool often has issues. Try calling.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 8:57 pm
  #597  
 
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If you have cancelled a ticket does that become an ETC or do I need to do something? Usually I would just call and apply the old ticket to a new flight but not sure if that is technically a different thing and would still expire w/in a year or if you can convert unused ticket credit to an ETC.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 9:33 pm
  #598  
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Originally Posted by adambadam
If you have cancelled a ticket does that become an ETC or do I need to do something? Usually I would just call and apply the old ticket to a new flight but not sure if that is technically a different thing and would still expire w/in a year or if you can convert unused ticket credit to an ETC.
A cancelled ticket does not immediately become an ETC. UA has indicated that they are planning to allow people to convert canceled tickets to ETCs, but that functionality doesn't exist on the website yet.
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Old Apr 6, 2020, 9:41 pm
  #599  
 
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I cancelled a reservation under the waiver on united.com, asked for an ETC (one of the options when cancelling, with the full price intact). But then at the end, it said it could not generate an ETC due to a "technical issue," please call. So I called (1K line), the agent agreed that I should get the full amount on the ETC. But the agent said that I need to wait a few days to get the ETC, even though all my successful online ETC cancellation and other instances yielded an immediate ETC email. Any thoughts? I understand that this may be normal to wait, but wanted to hear from the others.
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Old Apr 8, 2020, 8:31 am
  #600  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: East Coast, USA
Posts: 1,032
Originally Posted by bcm0830
We had a similar situation where we used a canceled PNR's value for a new ticket, and 1K desk said they'd send an ETC for the difference, but it could take up to 5 days. That was Sat, and we still haven't received it.
Thank you for the report! Apparently, this is a recent rule that I missed, as quoted here (a couple of pages up)

Originally Posted by spartacusmcfly
6. ...Unfortunately, there is a new 5 day processing period that no longer allows instant ETC creation.
I still think it is a little odd to be able to get an instant ETC if everything goes right on the website, but forces us to wait 5+ days if they have a technical issue or if we are in a situation where we must call to retrieve an ETC (through no fault of our own)...
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