Is Being Frugal Going Out of Style?
It seems that when airlines issue vouchers for flight cancellations or overbookings, the vouchers aren't easily redeemable online. When my connecting flight from Dallas was overbooked to San Antonio for the ASCLS CLEC meeting, American Airlines was seeking volunteers for a flight that left an hour later, and the airline was offering a $150 voucher. So, I took the bump and got the voucher. I used most of it ($138.07, to be exact) to travel to see friends in Chicago in February, and then American issued another voucher for $11.93.
After I tried to use it online (unsuccessfully), I called today and asked to speak with an operator. Mind you, I had to go through about a dozen voice prompts to get said operator. When the operator finally got on the phone, I explained that I was calling to use the voucher for $11.93. He literally sighed heavily into the phone and then said, "You're using a voucher for $11.93? You've GOT to be kidding me."
How incredibly rude of this phone agent! I mean, I wasn't going to let the voucher expire unused if I had it. If I am wasting the airline's time, it should have issued me an electronic voucher and this whole scenario could have been avoided.
Since when is $11.93 sigh-worthy? Should I have just thrown it out? I guess being frugal is going out of style for some.