United airlines sent out an email earlier this week alerting members to a bit of positive news: travel credits that were previously set to expire on 12/31/22 will now be valid until 12/31/23. That’s an awesome extension for those of us who have been sitting on credits since pre-pandemic.
Personally, I have United credit from a bump voucher I accepted in fall of 2019. That credit was originally scheduled to expire in October 2020. My credit was extended to October 2021 and then eventually all the way to December 2022 and now that credit I earned in late 2019 will be valid all the way until December 31, 2023. This also includes some trips I booked using part of that credit and later canceled or changed. I wrote a post last fall about how I rebooked a United flight 4 times in the space of 5 days because prices kept dropping. All of those credits have been extended to the end of 2023.
This is great news if you have a credit waiting to be used. A family member recently received notice that their American Airlines credit (from a trip booked and cancelled last year) has been extended to December 31, 2022. I hope for them that AA follows United’s example and extends for another year. I really appreciate the length of advance notice on this; I was recently thinking that I needed to start looking for uses of my credit in trips planned this year. Now I know I have plenty of time to cherry pick the right use.
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Delta also has their credits expiring in December 2023. I believe they were the first to do it.