United Airlines’ “goodwill” certificate doesn’t work — is it a fake?

When United Airlines sent Amrita Deshmukh a $75 certificate after a recent flight, she was delighted by the airline’s goodwill gesture. But when the certificate didn’t work, and United refused to help her, it cast serious doubts on the airline’s good will.

Her story — and its surprise ending — offer an important lesson to airline passengers who are traveling at a time when generosity is thought to be in short supply in the airline industry: Behind every “no” from a customer service representative, there may be a “yes” from a supervisor.

Here’s what happened to Deshmukh:

I recently received from United Airlines Customer Relations a Goodwill Electronic Certificate of amount $75. As per its rules I tried to redeem it on the Web site.

I got the error “This promotion code has been used the maximum number of times.” In fact, I had NOT used this voucher. I didn’t share it with my friends or family members, either. So the error message is definitely some kind of mistake in either their site or database.

I called United Airlines customer service, and they only repeated what I already knew: that the certificate has been used before. They were not able to tell me who used the certificate or when the certificate was used.

So I am very disappointed with United Airlines, and I am starting to believe that the certificate that was issued was just a bogus one in the first place.

United’s customer service department should have tried to figure out how to get Deshmukh another certificate, particularly since this was a “goodwill” certificate that was presumably given to her for a service problem.

But isn’t that how it goes? You reach the first level of customer service and no one can help.

I recommended that Deshmukh take it to a higher level at United. She did.

I used one of the contacts on your site, and the problem was solved. They sent me a $100 certificate.

Lesson? Sometimes it’s necessary to appeal your case to a higher authority. The case of the non-working “goodwill” certificate should have been a no-brainer for the folks on the front lines, but remember — you can always appeal.

  • Bob

    Sometimes the airlines use certificate numbers that are predictable, if you know the pattern. Some nefarious individual may have guessed her certificate # and used before she could.

  • Rama

    The question is whether the $100 certificate works???

  • Aimee

    I had this exact problem in October. I had the same error and the same exact response from the customer services reps, one of whom I’m pretty sure wasn’t speaking English. I talked to two reps and finally convinced them to let me talk to a supervisor, not just another rep. After 10 minutes of arguing, they reissued another voucher for the same amount “as a gesture of goodwill”, insisting that it was not their fault that this happened. They even implied that I was trying to scam them by getting a new voucher.

    I requested that they take it off the ticket price that should have had the $75 credit to begin with, but they refused. I could only use the $75 if I bought another ticket. I pointed out that I had purchased a ticket less then 2 hours ago, only after which I discovered the dang credit didn’t work, but it was like talking to a wall.

    And just to add insult to injury, they lost my luggage twice on that trip.

  • lisa

    I knw what happen because I just did a search and came up with someone telling people how to find valid numbers becasue the fist 7 or so numbers are the same so someone stoled your number

  • http://united.com lyle hansen

    i was awarded a $250.00 e-certificate by e-mail..it got erssed
    and i would like to use it now …need the certificate number