Sunday, October 3, 2010

Travel vouchers - What they are worth!

Recently on our trip to Seattle we were almost bumped off the flight without being told. The flight was overbooked for the football match, and the flight staff kept telling us our seat allotment has not been done and they will let us know. Let us know when? I would go to the front desk and ask, but their answer had always been "you will be given a voucher". The flight staff assumed that it should be a great option for us since we are being compensated with a voucher for our time. Although personally I am not very fond of vouchers, my husband opted for it. What we missed because of the voucher? We missed the entire day of sight seeing at Seattle plus had no lunch and got delayed for everything.
Today finally I thought of using my voucher for another trip. When I went to expedia, I did not see any option for redeeming a voucher. Then I went to AA web site, there also while purchasing I saw no option. Finally, I was reading the FAQ's and got a number (18004331790), that said can be used for e-voucher and gift coupons. Being totally intuitive, I decided to give it a try although my gift voucher was neither a evoucher nor a gift card. The number connected immediately. However, on their web site for gift vouchers, there was another number that said from Monday through friday from 9 am to 5 pm. All this could be very misleading.
So, now my advise is: If you get a travel voucher at the airline counter in an airport you have to book the ticket through them using the phone number given above(For American  Airlines). The guy at the other end will ask you the flight number for forward journey and for backward journey(You must have it before hand). Then you can provide other information like your name, date of birth etc. They will ask you your postal address and email address. You have to post your hard paper travel voucher to the address they ask you to. In my case, it was to:[LCZACS}

American Airlines, Box - 109, 6570, caroline street, Suite-103, Milton, FL-32570-4778.  On the top of the envelope, I am asked to write my address, followed by my last name, followed by the flight number for the forward journey, followed by the date of forward journey. Fun  ha... Enjoy using the voucher!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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