[Jim Erickson]

My wife and I were given Travel Credit Exchange Coupons "worth" $400 apiece last year for being willing to relinquish our seats on a flight taking us home. We agreed to wait several hours at the airport and to travel on separate flights home in exchange for these coupons. Now when we try to use these coupons, which are "valid for travel only on United Airlines/United Express only", we find that United Airlines will not accept them for a United Airlines flight if it is "operated by Continental Airlines". This is more than deceptive, for a flight with a United Airlines Flight number is surely a United Airlines flight, whether or not it is subcontracted to another airline. Nowhere on the Travel Credit Exchange Coupon does it say that if a United Airlines flight is operated by another airline, then it does not qualify for travel using such a coupon. I repeat, this is more than deceptive; it is a scam! The worst part is that any non-subcontracted United Airlines flight costs almost twice as much as a sub-contracted one,so that the coupons given us, instead of being worth $400 for each of us, are really only worth about $60 for each of us, if that. Furthermore, a United flight operated by United often is not even available for the travel days desired.