# Using a United Travel Certificate



## glenn1000 (Jul 16, 2006)

We were given United Discount Travel Certificates by customer relations after a recent travel incident. It sounds like we have to make a reservation by phone to use these and that it costs an extra $15 per ticket for telephone reservations. United said that even if we went to the airport we would have to pay the ticketing fee. The only way to avoid it is a pure online reservation but that will not let us apply our certificates. Does anyone know of another way?


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## Jimster (Jul 16, 2006)

you may well have to go to the airport to redeem it depending on the situation.  You also want to make sure you are just paying at the airport or you lose bonus points from ez check in.  Make the reservation on line and then put them on  hold and pay.


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## Denise L (Jul 16, 2006)

We had credit vouchers (for a lower fare credit) and Entertainment card coupons. I could have sent the Entertainment card coupons in, but I had to ticket the vouchers in person at the airport!  I made the reservations over the phone because I was using the Entertainment card coupons, and I told the agent about the vouchers. When I went to ticket, there was a huge line at the counter due to a cancelled flight . The agent asked me to come back in three hours. Since the vouchers were expiring that day (yah, I waited until the last possible moment), I had no choice but to drive back later that night, in the rain, before they closed at 8pm.  It was worth the savings, though, but what a pain!

Good luck!


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## patty5ia (Jul 20, 2006)

I redeemed a certificate from United just last week.  I made my reservations over the phone (they did not charge me an extra $15) and I got the internet rate minus the certificate amount.  They put the tickets on hold for me and I purchased them at the airport ticket counter.  Luckily I came to the airport at a time when there was only a short wait.

The only glitch was that after I charged the tickets to my United Visa card at the airport, the credit card company put a stop on my credit card.  After a call, all was settled.  The credit card fraud unit was questioning a purchase of an airline ticket at the airport.

I felt the process was fair, but it did take extra time on my part.  I think the airlines expect that soome people will not go to the extra effort to use the certificates.


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## Icarus (Jul 21, 2006)

For future reference ...

There's a way to mail them in and avoid the fee. I've never done it, so I don't know the details. I just make my rez online and use book & hold and then ticket it at the airport. If you have 1k status in Mileage Plus, those ticketing fees don't apply, and it isn't that much of a hassle for me to ticket at my local airport.

Lets see what I can find on FT ...

For Type B vouchers (from a refare or VDB credit voucher), apparently the fee is waived since you have to redeem them in person, but you can mail them in if you want to (but FT's advise is to use FedEx or Express Mail so you have a record and it doesn't get lost in the mail):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=539381

And for CS type A vouchers, like the type that Glenn has, the fee is not waived, you can mail them in to avoid the fee, see post #11 in this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491796

There's more, I searched for "voucher mail fee" in the united forum on FT. 52 hits. These two were easy to find on the first page of the results, but then again, I knew what I was looking for.


-David


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## glenn1000 (Jul 21, 2006)

Great information. Thanks!


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