US Air voucher

[cmdmfr]

My wife and I are trying to buy airline tickets from US Air to fly from Philadelphia to Aruba and on line they are 463.80 and to buy on the phone they are 570.00 we have a $100.00 voucher but it appears that the voucher is worthless. Does anyone know if the price through customer service will come down or is there a way we can use the voucher and get another one for the difference between the online price and the price we get over the phone

[VVTrader]

I got bumped off a plane so they gave me a free ticket or so I thought.
I tried to use for Thanksgiving time and they told me no availibility. I had just booked three other seats and saw by looking at the websites that their were still tons of seats. I wrote an e-mail to their customer service complaining last Sunday and here it is Saturday and no reply from them at all.
By the way I asked if I could use the "free" ticket any other days, they told me there was nothing available the whole month of November. I didn't ask about the other months because I had to go run for my blood pressure medicine(HaHa).
Now I know why some air lines have more trouble than others. I'm not buying any US Air stock real soon.

[Timeshare Von]

The airlines have very limited availability for free tickets. They do inventory control to assure that they are generating the revenue necessary on all flights. They frequently have total blackout dates. Thanksgiving is one of the heaviest traveled times of the year and the least likely opportunity to use freebies.

When you accept (or get) a bump, those "free tickets" are just like those of us using frequent flier miles for free seats. Also, there are a lot of freebies floating around out there for businesses who utilize the airlines as their preferred airline partner. My association is hosting a big meeting in Southern California this summer and we'll probably earn four to six free tickets for future use due to how many tickets our members buy on that airline.

With the airlines booking tighter (filling the planes) I expect to see more free ticket inventory out there from people taking the bumps. Additionally, many of the airlines have been very aggressively "winning" (or keeping) business travelers through free miles programs. Just this year alone (through five months of 2006) I've earned over 50k miles just for traveling on NWA, that in addition to the actual miles (plus the doubling because I'm "gold elite"). I think I've in total, in five months earned close to 200,000 miles. That's eight coach tickets (or almost three first class to Hawaii )

Anyway . . . one thing that the airlines don't tell you is that often that "free ticket voucher" you get for taking the bump can actually be used as cash towards the purchase of a ticket. NWA for example will apply $200 towards the purchase of a ticket. That removes the domestic limitation and gives you great flexibility to use it. Often I will only accept the bump if they are offering $300 or more in a "transportation credit voucher" certificate. With the prices of tickets today, the "free ticket" is probably worth more $$ than the $200 . . . that is almost certain. But again, with the lack of flexibility to use them, it's like a bird in the hand or two in the bush.

Good luck with it. Sorry I have no experience with US Air. They are simply not an airline I do business with (for many reasons).

Yvonne

[Timeshare Von]

Originally Posted by cmdmfr

My wife and I are trying to buy airline tickets from US Air to fly from Philadelphia to Aruba and on line they are 463.80 and to buy on the phone they are 570.00 we have a $100.00 voucher but it appears that the voucher is worthless. Does anyone know if the price through customer service will come down or is there a way we can use the voucher and get another one for the difference between the online price and the price we get over the phone

I should have said in direct response to your question however . . .

Often internet pricing on the airline's website will be better. They are doing that to motivate people to book themselves, online. Self service is less costly than having 24/7 manned customer service phone lines. Additionally, some airlines (maybe all?) are now charging an additional surcharge for the convenience of using their ticketing agent via phone. If you think that is bad, most travel agencies are now charging between $30 and $60 PER TICKET for their service. This was in response to the airlines cutting their commissions about five years ago. Self serve is clearly the way to go (and save).

Again, I don't use US Air at all, but with NWA you can enter your travel credit voucher into the online reservation system when buying. Of course, this would only be available booking on their site. If you go to Orbitz or Travelocity, you won't be able to use your airline issued travel voucher.

Hope this helps some!
Yvonne

[Timeshare Von]

I just went out onto the US Airways website. The prices they quote when you initially do a flight search do not include taxes and fees. Maybe that is part of the reason for the differences in price. International flights are higher than domestic for these types of add-on charges, so you might expect to see $100+ more per ticket.

Also, I didn't see where you could use a credit voucher online towards the purchase of your ticket. Poor design on their part!

Yvonne

[riverside]

The information you got about the US Air tickets is correct. We have gotten bumps from them before and they are treated like frequent flyer tickets. We've had great success using them as I call and book 330 days in advance.

Airlines treat this in different ways. We've often had to drive to the airport to purchase tickets as we had to physically turn them in. The last bump I got was Northwest and they offered $300 voucher or free ticket. I chose the voucher so that I could use it at any time. They were very clear that if you chose the free ticket that there would be limitations.

Your best bet would be to forget using them at Thanksgiving and treat yourself to another vacation during a less busy time. Even so, you'll need to plan ahead.

[jfbookers]

Just tried to use a US Air bump certificate for Norfolk to Denver in September. Going through the various hubs there are about 20 flights per day but no availability through August 2007! I think this must mean there were never bump or frequent flier seats available. Makes me rethink ever volunteering again on US Air. Yours, Jim

[Spence]

Originally Posted by jfbookers

Just tried to use a US Air bump certificate for Norfolk to Denver in September. Going through the various hubs there are about 20 flights per day but no availability through August 2007! I think this must mean there were never bump or frequent flier seats available. Makes me rethink ever volunteering again on US Air. Yours, Jim

You can call customer service and trade your 'free' ticket voucher in for a voucher that gives $200 off. Then you're not limited by a quota of seats.