I searched but could not find a specific answer to the first part of my question..

a) If a customer appreciation e-cert (UA) states valid for 1 year, and even has the specific date mentioned in the terms, yet still works beyond the 1 year period (so far only a few days), what does this mean in regards to its expiry? Will it continue to work throughout year 2, is there a few day grace period, or could it be a glitch??..

b) Is the best bet to use it ASAP, list in in CC (with caveat mentioned), or roll the dice and use it when it would be more beneficial? If it no longer works shortly, would UA offer anything provided it was "just" working?

If I should be using it ASAP I am not to clear on the info I got from searching regarding purchasing a refundable ticket... I have found refundable Q fares, but they state "Penalty /-Refundable-/"... I can find some B fares that seem to be the same, where Y fares don't seem to even be available on many of these routes... Would a Y fare be fully refundable (as opposed to B,Q,U, etc) or would there be no difference in this case?

I'm not looking to turn it into cash obviously, but either extend the validity or hold off til needed with the hope its still valid..

any experts?? (or similar experiences with e-cert validity/expiry)

thanks in advance..

I would assume it expires when it says it expires. No need to be disappointed that way.

Believe e-certs normally have a book by and fly by date on them. If it was emailed, there should be a terms link which will show the info.

...appreciate the response, but perhaps I bundled too much into my post..

"still works beyond the 1 year period (so far only a few days)"

meaning the terms (in the e-mail link) indicate it is PAST its validity, yet it is still CURRENTLY VALID?!

hence my confusion and conundrum...

I thought this might be a bit of an unusual scenario, so again, any clarity or insight would be greatly appreciated..

I think there's an unpublished 30-day grace.

I know there is on paper certs.

I've found the Book by date never holds up -- and the fly by date hasn't either. The fly by dates usually round "up" to the year in which it was to expire....to December 31st.

So I had certs that were to expire September 2011 and actually were valid for use up until 12/31/2011. I have a cert that was to expire 12/21/2011 and its still valid, and I expect it to stay valid until 12/31/2012 since I am able to use the cert on flights well into 2012.

And the less said the better

a. When it says it is valid for 1 year, trust the word. In some cases, UA web support may, in their discretion, to allow 30-day grace period (by manually applying the e-cert).

In some rare situations, agent may even issue an new one.

But those are the past - with SMI/J, use it exactly before it expires.

b. FTers will use FIFO to make sure that e-cert will not have to go invalid. But in some cases, they may exchange with others for other stuffs, like GPUs, RPUs.

Some even sell them on craigslist (not ebay) - as this is against the term.

For use of e-cert, a quick reminder is they are known as Type A voucher, which carry no value at all (treat them like a discount code), and for one-time use only.

Any re-ticketing may affect your voucher validity.

(BTW - Type B or commonly known as VDB voucher is the one who carry a value).

thank you kindly for the responses...

expiry has past by several days in case that part was unclear, so it would seem that either the 30 day grace applies online in addition to web support, or that the e-cert will still be good through the remainder of the calendar year... still a bit unclear, but either way thanks..

Don't bet on it. I would use it as soon as possible and not risk it expire for real. I recently used 2 e-certs that were just about 1 month past expiration date to book flights that were 2 months past expiration.