Airline Won't Honor Man's $750 Gift Certificate
CHICAGO (CBS) Gift certificates are supposed to be good for five years. So what would you do if a business told you yours is no good after just one year?
CBS 2's Dave Savini investigates
Mike Carlini was given a $750 United Airlines gift card for doing a good deed back in 2008, but when he and his wife, Patti, tried to use it recently they were told it's no longer good.
The gift card was a "thank you" to Mike for helping his sister-in-law Barbara Carlini with repairs around her house after her husband, Mike's brother, died.
"I knew he wouldn't take any money," Barbara said.
She thought a United Airlines gift card would be a good way to force him into accepting a gift. She never thought she would be throwing her money away.
"It turned into nothing for him and nothing for my $750," she said.
But it was something for the airline. United got to keep the $750 without providing the Carlini's anything other than the paper the certificate was printed on.
The Carlinis say airline representatives first told them it was not a gift certificate.
"They keep claiming this is a voucher for a flight that we missed or something like that," Mike Carlini said.
Then, airline representatives claimed the gift certificate was worthless because it expired. But Mike says his wife researched state law, which says all gift certificates must be good for at least five years.
United officials say the Illinois gift card law does not apply to airlines because federal de-regulation laws prevent states from getting involved in airline fares.
The Carlinis say their gift certificate has nothing to do with how airlines set their fares.
A United spokesman said the airline will honor the gift card, as a goodwill gesture, but only for one more year.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Transportation is looking into the matter.
By the way, with other gift cards, after the five-year expiration, they go into the Illinois Treasurer's unclaimed property fund.
