A lot has changed in the airline industry over the past 20 years but the often derided United Airlines has stayed true to its word after all this time for one customer.
John Walker was unable to use his ticket on a Nashville – Sacramento flight with United back in 1998 and was given a flight voucher to be redeemed at a later date.
Then he promptly forgot all about it for nearly two decades.
Walker says the flight voucher and accompanying letter from United went missing during a house move a short time later.
He only came across it again recently when searching for other documents.
It was still with the letter which stated that the "domestic wholly unused non-refundable ticket(s) can forever be applied toward the purchase of another domestic non-refundable ticket, for the customer named on the ticket."
Walker called United probably in hope rather than expectation, to see whether they would make good on their promise but was then continually redirected as agents were a little bamboozled.
"No one knew what to do with a paper ticket because by this time paper tickets were long gone. They hadn’t been issued for 10 or 12 years," Walker said.
Next step for Walker was to send a direct message to the airline’s Twitter account which got quick results.
A customer care assistant told him that United were not technically liable to honor it as their bankruptcy in 2010 absolved them of all outstanding debts, even airline ticket vouchers.
However such was the unique circumstances, the airline agreed to redeem it as promised.
"They decided to honor it partly because of the letter even though it wasn’t legally binding but also because I think it was just good customer service on their part.
"Which is funny because I’m sending them the old ticket, but they’re using new technology to send me the voucher," Walker added.
He is now awaiting a new e-voucher worth $378 which was the cost of the original 1998 flight.
That would now be worth about $571 due to inflation, he said.
