Friday, July 30, 2010

Oh, I am so clever

I usually don't brag, but I thought this was pretty smart and a great way to SAVE MONEY!  I was booking a flight for us to San Diego for a wedding.  I found on Orbitz that United had good, cheap rates $180.  So I went to United.com to book - sometimes I get extra miles if I book directly.

On the flight search page, there was a field for promotion code or electronic certificates.  I thought what the heck, I will google United airlines electronic certificates and see what I find.  A whole new world!!!  Many people are selling their electronic voucher at less than face value since they cannot use it in time.  I found out the best search is for United Airlines electronic vouchers.  I found a few people on craigslist and on a few sites selling $150 certificate for $110 etc...
 
Still I wasn't sure.  What if I pay for it and it doesn't work?  Well as it turns out, if you pay by PayPal and you and they are verified, you are protected I think.  Also I actually got the seller to send me the code first to try/use it before paying him.  Some tips are
  • flight has to be operated by United and NOT their partners
  • flight base price has to be higher than the voucher value
  • if you are buying two tickets, you need to do it separately to use two vouchers.
I ended up getting two vouchers from two different people - the second one, I paid first and then he sent me the code.  Both worked great.  I ended up paying $40 each for the flights + $110 each for the vouchers, so $150 instead of $180. Yeepy!  I am sure I can get the voucher for even cheaper next time, but for a first time experience, this was great!  ;-)

Happy Travels!

Lei
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1 comment:

Dawn said...

Very clever!