LIH Prem

There are Ag taxes and possibly some other special taxes, but they are always included in the price of the ticket when you price it online, just as with departure taxes that are collected by the airlines at time of ticketing. The price doesn't go up when you go to pay for the ticket on .bomb.

The fare basis was well over $200 (over $600, in fact) before any taxes.

You can only use Type B VDBs from the same booklet. You can't combine two booklets, but some people have found convoluted methods to work around that.

You can't combine more than one type A on the same ticket.

You can use one Type A and one Type B VDB booklet on the same ticket. The Type A is a fare discount and reduces the fare. The Type Bs are a form of payment (credit voucher) and reflected in the ticket as a type of payment, so the value of the type B is retained in case you need to change the ticket later.

I totally agree. For some reason when I left my house, I forgot to bring my cell phone with me this time.

-David

icedancer

Interesting. When I applied a $500 type A voucher to a $642 LAX-KOA ticket last month, my final out-of-pocket cost was $177 instead of $142. When I looked at the basic price breakdown online, it said ~$600 base fare and ~$42 in taxes, but when I inquired about the discrepancy, the CSR said that the base fare was only ~$465. I was annoyed, but wasn't going to fight over $35. Perhaps the taxes are hidden in the base fare at one point, but then get transferred over to the tax portion depending on how one chooses to pay...

cepheid

You actually can. The reason some people think there is a 3-voucher limit is because there are only 3 fields visible to the CSR when entering the voucher info. However, a good CSR can work around this by either combining all the voucher amounts into a single field (as was done for me once), or perhaps by adding/accessing additional fields (which a post on FT said was possible, but I have no idea). Either way, you can redeem more than 3 at a time.

wcj1

Where did he check the rules? By reading the profile?

If that is the case, yes you made it worse by trying to explain it to him. You should have told him to keep reading. In all these Type A profiles it says non-combinable, but then immediately after that it lists the exception of Type B vouchers. What happens is that the agents read the first part and then stop reading.

This is the example profile I copied from FT some time in the past:
BillJ

icedancer

The (1K line) CSR actually read this to me from somewhere -- it wasn't just that she could only see 3 fields AFAIK. I guess nearly anything is possible given the right CSR.

LIH Prem

I'm sure that's exactly what he did.

He offered to print it out for me, but I declined. Had I known that it was in there, I would have taken him up on his offer to print it out for me.

Thanks for the tip. Next time I'll know better if it ever comes up again. I just assumed it would be a normal transaction for them, and if there were any questions about it, that they would have called the ticketing desk, as I suggested. (The first agent didn't have a problem with it at all. It's only when he tried to ask the SD about the odd repricing that this came up.)

-David

BOShappyflyer

Yeah, everyone is entitled to a bad day. Mistakes/misunderstanding happens. But covering up his name was an unprofessional thing for the SD to do. I wouldn't have given him a GTEM.

1KChinito

According to Travel Credit T&C, VDB type B voucher is not combinable with any other type of vouchers, similar to service check, type AB voucher. I was told by a CSR who pointed out the rule to me.

Yes, you can use one Type A voucher (discount) and many Type B vouchers (cash) (non VDB Type B voucher).

LIH Prem

Well, that's the first I heard of this and the ticketing desk decided they were combinable.

What about the wording that wcj1 quoted?

I still have a booklet of VDB vouchers here. It says on top "TRAVEL CREDIT" and on the bottom "TREAT AS TYPE B VOUCHER".

It does say "Non Combinable/Non Refundable/Non Extendible/Void If Mutilated", but they all say that on the coupons, even the Type A's that have the exception in the profile. Non Combinable means you can't combine this with other Type B travel credit vouchers as far as I understand it. There's nothing on it that identifies it as a VDB specific type B voucher. It's simply a travel credit voucher. I guess there's a profile associated with it, it also says S=UAL/TRAVEL CREDIT right above where it says "TREAT AS TYPE B VOUCHER". The only thing that distinguishes this from a non-VDB travel credit are the words "NO CASH VALUE/NO RESIDUAL BALANCE ON PARTIALLY USED COUPONS".

I guess we'd have to see the profile for UAL/TRAVEL CREDIT to see all the rules.

-David

pareto

perhaps there are regulations that are similar to sales taxes in CA -- specifically that if a discount is offered on an item that the tax has to be paid on the full cost of the item. i don't know if this applies to all goods, but i do know that if you get a free cell phone from your carrier, for example, you have to pay sales tax on the full cost of the phone.

wcj1

Sigh, yes you can combine Type A (discount) and Type B (VDB Travel Credits). Enough of us have done it, enough agents realize it is ok because they know or they read the relevant section, and the computer accepts it. Just because some agents get it wrong...

Since, you asked, from the TRAVEL CREDIT profile:

So yes, there is a clear exception in both profiles, but the agent has to find it.

BillJ

1KChinito

wcj1, thank you for sharing. I shall try it next time.

cepheid

Thanks... I've added it to the FlyerGuide UA wiki. I didn't find it previously because it's (strangely) listed as S*UAB instead of S*UAL... don't know if that's a typo or not.

LIH Prem

Bill,

Thanks for posting the relevant parts of the profile.

-David

HaeMaker

How did they ship the tickets back to you?

If they only send them USPS First Class back, I think all Hawaii First Class mail comes via boat. It has been a few years since I have been there, but I remember warnings at the post office directed at tourists, that express mail costs only a little more but makes a huge difference for delivery times (on the order of weeks).