Watch those expiration dates on your United e-certificates because all of a sudden UA seems to be enforcing them.
For the last few years, UA’s e-certificates, issued for service problems experienced onboard or on the ground, have had expiration dates on them, but whether deliberately or not, the e-certs have been valid for use past their expiration dates.
According to the terms and conditions of the certs, however, we see that for a cert issued today (for example) the following restrictions are clearly noted:
5. Ticketing Dates: Valid for 1 year from May 25, 2011
6. Travel Dates: Valid for 1 year from May 25, 2011
Although I have not picked up one skykit this year (tip of the hat to UA for insuring their IFE and overhead reading lights are in working order, seats are functional, and special meals are loaded) I have an assortment of e-certs leftover from the last two years when UA used to give them out like candy.
Unfortunately for me, three of my certs–all from 2009–have now expired, one valued at $250, another at $200, and a third at $150. I am a bit bummed, but have no right to complain–the terms and conditions were clear and I took a gamble by not using them before the clearly prescribed expiration date.
I still have a few more that should have expired but have not, so UA still has some kinks in their system that they may be working to address. Time to shop for flights!
Note the terms of the voucher specify not only that travel must be booked by the expiration date, but travel must be completed by the expiration date. That means you cannot book a trip in July with an e-cert expiring in June, even if you are making the booking weeks before the e-cert expires.
When I heard the news that e-certs were suddenly expiring, I thought about the California law making it illegal for gift certificates to expire, but a quick look at the law made clear that UA e-certs would not apply. Furthermore, recall that a court sided with Southwest last year after the carrier imposed expiration dates on paper onboard alcohol vouchers that had no expiration dates! I am not going to fight this one.
Once again, you can learn from my mistake–monitor those expiration dates on your UA vouchers so you don’t lose $600 like me. If one of your expired certs still seems to work, it would be prudent to use it soon.
Matthew, say it ain’t so! Ouch to have left “money” on the table with United, but a good reminder to keep tabs on the expirations.
How does UA treat purchasing a refundable ticket with an e-cert and then refunding it? Can you do this and will it reset the expiration?
@Matt: That is not an option, unfortuantely. The fine print also says the voucher can only be used once and unlike type b vouchers or VDB travel credits, the e-certificates actually subtract from the base fare, meaning if you used a $200 voucher to book a $300 ticket and decided to refund within 24 hours, the UA folks would see the ticket as costing $100 and only issue that.
Help! I’m going insane trying to find out my $150 e-certificate # issued by united for a problem from mht-ottawa last july 13-16. It was issued by email and began 1016 but I’ve lost the paper with the number and computer has since crashed. I’m sure there’s a record of it somewhere but cannot talk to a live person to explain this.United.com says enter cert # when you book and Alex jsut sends me to page with 1016 info. Reservations are a half hour wait and then they put you through to the Philipines, where no one can help you.Anybody got any ideas before my cert expires as I was planning to use this to go to FL this week. Thanks, Jim
@Jim,
Call Mileage Plus–each e-cert issued on your behalf should be linked to your Mileage Plus account. By looking into your account history, they should be able to tell you what your cert number is.
my husband and i got $150 e -travel certificates but they only gave us ref#s how do we redeem them they were for flight 1664 march 21,2016 got ref #s from http://www.united/appreciation #10176345 and # 10176388
Valerie,
Please send an e-mail to customer relations (1kvoice@united.com) or call MileagePlus at 800-United1.
I attempted to use my certificate ($100) numerous times. WAS REFUSED toward flights…offered at later date. UNITED NEVER counted as “certificate eligible to receive my discount” OR EXTEND the DATE>E-Certificate:101605310313607798. FOUND It yesterday. REQUESTED from “JESSIE” who TOLD me she was emailing me RIGHT THEN the baggage /luggage requirements for PLANNED TRIP TO DICKENSON , ND> 8-23 to 8-28-2017, Garry and Sally Weiesnbach. JESSIE said I’d have email and info in 24 hours. Altho, I signed and kept emails for $100. “we look forward to serving you better in near future” does not satisfy my 83 year old needs!!!!!!!!!!!! I must have baggage/luggage in print!!! NOT VERBAL on phone! NOW!!!!! You may phone 918-682-8411 until 4:00 PM>BETTER STILL EMAIL to this address…aofsswg@sbcglobal.net United needs to TRAIN workers to DO what they say OR it cause HARM to those of us “inconvenienced#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sally