Vanishing Gift Certificate Balance - CSR Runaround
 

I have a gift certificate that was purchased in February of 2015. I used part of that certificate in 2015 and promptly forgot about the rest. Finding the certificate, I attempted to use the balance on a new booking last month, only to be told that there was no balance left. I've spent about four hours on the phone with CSRs, and submitted two online requests. The CSR's tell me to submit it online, and the online response is to call customer support. No one is able to tell how/where the balance of the gift certificate went, and I suspect shenanigans on the part of UA.

Do I have any additional options for trying to resolve this with UA prior to contacting the NYS Attorney General or other consumer protection group?

It's not a huge amount of money, but it's not peanuts either. The way that UA handled the discontinuance of gift certificates makes me suspect that some executive decided to sweep the balance of unused certs to a quarterly earnings line.

Does this link report anything?

That link says the gift certificate number is invalid. I have the original receipt from buying the ticket but it just lists the payment type as "Misc Document".

Call back and specifically ask for that department handles UA Gift Certificates. That department is located in the Philippines. In addition to gift certificate number, you need to provide your email address and verify your identity. They will not discuss any information with you if certificate belongs to someone else.

It is best to have them issue your ticket so certificate will be applied properly.

Good luck and please come back and let us know your result.

Unfortunately you're not entitled to anything for the debacle, but if you raise enough hell with them you could probably get a free drink chit or a small monetary value GC. Had a similar issue with UA in the past, I complained about it and they sent me a $50 gift certificate. Best of luck!

Is there a trick to cashing out an e-gift certificate or use it for something else? Thank you

Unless e-gift certificate is something other than ETC or Travelbank, no there is no way to use for anything other than a flight.

So ETC and Travelbank can be used for other things? Thank you

No, they cannot be used for other things. I assume you are referring to either ETC or Travelbank funds.

Gift Certificate T&Cs

The T&Cs quoted are silent on the question of whether the gift certificate could be applied to MUA co-pays or ToD upgrades. Any ideas whether these could be applied in practice?

-James

As those are generally fees, no.
If you actually upfared, maybe.

It looks pretty clear to me that it's tickets, taxes, and surcharges only.

Can’t combine gift certs??