Navigating Travel Credits on United Airlines

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to today’s author, the most genuine person I know, @nutella, for writing this post while I’m on vacation. I’ll see you on January 1!

Let’s break down the nuances of United’s TravelBank, future flight credits, and electronic travel certificates.

TravelBank (“TB”)

• Funds are attached to a MileagePlus account, and likely courtesy of airline incidentals
• Expiry = “book by”; funds must be used to book a flight within 5 years from the date of the load
• Not name-locked (i.e. not restricted to a specific traveler)
• You cannot mix TB funds with ETC or FFC on the same ticket purchase
• Cannot be directly used for United partner flights 

Electronic travel certificates (“ETC”)

• Funds are likely the result of service recovery, or if you volunteered to take a later flight 
• Expiry = “book by”; funds must be used to book a flight within 1 year from the date of issuance
• Not name-locked (i.e. not restricted to a specific traveler) 
• You cannot mix ETC funds with FFC or TB on the same ticket purchase
• Can be directly used for United partner flights

Future flight credits (“FFC”)

• Funds are likely the result of a flight that was canceled 
• Expiry = “begin travel by”; funds must be used on a flight that begins travel within 1 year of the date of the original ticket that was purchased
• Name-locked  (i.e. restricted to a specific traveler)
• You cannot mix FFC funds with ETC or TB on the same ticket purchase
• Can be directly used for United partner flights

Simple, right? Now, let’s cover two common questions:

Q: How can I combine TravelBank / electronic travel certificates / future flight credits on the same ticket purchase?

A: Convert your TB and/or ETC into FFC, and apply FFC’s to pay for your ticket. While United does not allow more than one type of these currencies to be used on a single purchase, they do allow uses of multiple instances of the same currency. 

For example, let’s say you wanted to book a $269 flight, wanted to burn some of your TravelBank balance, and currently hold a $99 future flight credit. You can first book a ~$170 dummy flight with TravelBank, and after ~24 hours – cancel this flight (the refund will be in the form of a future flight credit). Now, book your $269 flight and apply the two future flight credits.

Beware: if you cancel your dummy flight online within 24 hours of booking, the refund will be returned to the original payment method. If you can’t wait for 24 hours to pass, call United and they may be able to cancel the flight and immediately issue the refund as a FFC.

Q: How can I use TravelBank to book United partner flights?
A: Convert your TravelBank to a future flight credit, then use the future flight credit to book your United partner flight.

For example, let’s say you wanted to book a $420 flight operated by Air Canada and wanted to burn some of your TravelBank balance. Follow the same method as above, just be sure to find a dummy flight on United metal.

– nutella

A wise man once said, “you can use your TravelBank to book a dummy flight on United metal from DEN or IAH to LBB (Lubbock, TX), but be sure to cancel it for a future flight credit to fly literally anywhere else”