Thinking of buying a cheap airline ticket voucher online? Oh no you don’t.
The latest MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index confirms what readers of this blog already know. The fraudulent sale of ticket vouchers online is a growing problem.
There is a brisk online trade in airline ticket vouchers, averaging more than 160 listings daily with deep discounts of more than 80% under their face value. Interestingly, this trade flourishes despite the fact that most airlines have a policy that these vouchers are non-transferable.
To test its theory, MarkMonitor bought several vouchers. “To no surprise, the voucher numbers could not be validated by the airline when we tried to use them to pay for a flight,” it concluded.
That’s not all. Apparently, we haven’t seen the worst of it.
With the recent airline industry bankruptcies we may expect to see an increased incidence of online fraud related to refunds, credits and vouchers.
Unfortunately, people are still falling for this scam. Just last week, I heard from another traveler who had bought several hundred dollars worth of vouchers and wanted to know if they would be usable. (They might be, but it wouldn’t preclude the airline from coming after you once the flight was over to collect the fare.)
Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
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I don’t think this deal is too good to be true, I’m trying it out, http://www.petergreenberg.com/contest/
Its too bad people scam others by selling something thats not valid or non transferrable. That makes it so its impossible for people to sell legitimate vouchers. For instance i have one of those vouchers from USAirways for giving up a first class seat on an oversold seat and taking a later flight. It says right on there that its transferrable with valid pin. What if i decide i dont want to use it? I definatley cant sell it because no one would trust me that its real
I live in San Francisco and just last week, I bought a voucher from a guy in New York through Craigslist. I flew to New York two days later non-stop on American for a total of $325. Just wanted to say that it can work out in a pinch if you do your due dilligence.
Just like anything else, it is better to purchase from the issuing organization than a third party.
I’ve bought discounted vouchers three times off craigslist and it worked, although I input a lot of time into making sure I did not get scammed. A conference call with the airline is a good option, and a phone conversation with whoever you are buying from is important.
I’ve purchased vouchers online several times and used them with no problem. I’ve also used a single voucher to pay for multiple tickets, so I don’t really think that they’re non-transferable, and if they are then it obviously isn’t enforced. I don’t really consider it too good to be true; if someone gets a $400 voucher for free and isn’t going to use it, why not sell it and get $300 cash? In my mind it’s a win-win situation.
I agree with Brett’s comments. I have already bought 2 sets of vouchers saving 500 off two separate flights (in total). Granted half of all listings I reply to are scams but it does not take a college degree to understand your being scammed.
On a side not to sellers of vouchers. THEY ARE NOT CASH so please dont treat them as cash (They have no cash redemption and expire within 1 year). If you get an $800 voucher for free from being bumped off a flight then I would sell it for $600. Dont list at $760 as your add will most likely be over looked by serious buyers because they are unfamiliar with airline policy and $40 savings is not worth any hassle. Remember you got it for free so its all profit for you, might as make the selling experience as easy as possible without headache and just get rid of it.
If you follow basic safety measures you have little to no chance of getting burned.
1. Do your homework and get to know the airlines voucher policy. Dont trust the seller as they might not even know.
2. Dont use your primary email address when contacting people off craigslist. Even if you acknowledge the scam and walk aways its already too late and they have logged your name/email address and you will get spam.
3. No online transfers or money orders. If your not willing to meet someone in person then this is not for you.
4. USE COMMON SENSE. Your the buyer. You have leverage over sellers as they have a time frame until the vouchers expire.
5. If you live in NYC or LA then most airline have a ticketing office outside of the airport. Meet the seller there and verify the balances with that airlines representative. Otherwise call the airline directly with the seller and confirm the value.
Good Luck
I have used a voucher a few times as well and so far not had a bad experience. Always managed to save a few bucks and the voucher was going to expire for the person selling it as well, so he made a few bucks. Just do your due diligence and it works.
obviously this is someone from the airline industry writing this article–very biased and guess what, i’ve done it and it has worked for me