{"id":470,"date":"2016-01-09T20:18:46","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T20:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/?p=470"},"modified":"2016-02-14T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T16:33:53","slug":"how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/cancun.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-472\"><img data-attachment-id=\"472\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/cancun\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/cancun.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1000,750\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon PowerShot SX120 IS&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1362081762&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;6&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;160&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.002&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"cancun\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/cancun-300x225.jpg\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/cancun.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-472 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/cancun.jpg\" alt=\"cancun\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/cancun.jpg 1000w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/cancun-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>(Cancun, Mexico)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A TTM contributor\u00a0received a $500 United Airlines certificate\u00a0when United overbooked his flight (over the holidays) and rebooked him at the gate on a significantly less convenient flight. \u00a0Instead of taking the initial offer of a $300 United Airlines certificate, this savvy traveler negotiated a $500 United Airline certificate, $30 worth of food on the flight, and an upgrade to first class on the return trip. \u00a0I flew an American flight that was <a href=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/stranded-in-ord-until-3a-on-christmas\/\">trapped in ORD until 3a on Christmas<\/a> but I only <a href=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/stranded-in-ord-chicago-until-3am-on-christmas-part-2\/\">received 8,000 miles for this inconvenience<\/a>. \u00a0While his airline was certainly in a different position than mine, I still admire his\u00a0negotiating skills.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, his $500 United Airlines certificate\u00a0is about to expire so he asked for my assistance in assessing his options. \u00a0The TTM contributor\u00a0has the following travel restrictions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He must fly out of ORD (Chicago, IL)<\/li>\n<li>He must fly on United- and United Express-operated flights\u00a0or a\u00a0United Express-marketed flights operated by other airlines (this greatly reduces the number of available destinations)<\/li>\n<li>He cannot spend more than $250ish more than his voucher<\/li>\n<li>His trip cannot last longer than a week<\/li>\n<li>He can only travel during the last two weeks of January and the first two weeks of February<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff\">5 Best options (in no particular order)<\/span><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Honolulu, Hawaii\u00a0<\/strong>($742): he could book a trip to Honolulu\u00a0that leaves on February 2nd\u00a0and departs on February 9th. \u00a0This flight has two short layovers in LAX and SFO. \u00a0Chicago to Los Angeles is operated by United&#8217;s fairly new Boeing 737-900.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rio de Janiero, Brazil<\/strong> ($744): this trip leaves on January 19th and departs\u00a0on the 25th, with a short layover in United&#8217;s Houston hub. \u00a0The Houston to Rio de Janiero route is operated by United&#8217;s fairly new Boeing 787&#8217;s.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cancun, Mexico &#8211; Business Class<\/strong> ($708): this non-stop flight\u00a0leaves January 25th and departs on the February 2nd. \u00a0He has the option to schedule up to a 10 hour layover in Houston for only a few extra dollars. \u00a0The non-stop flight is operated by United&#8217;s fairly new Boeing 737-900. \u00a0While the seats on the 737-900 don&#8217;t lay flat, they&#8217;re still a solid business class option for a four hour flight.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Belfast, Ireland <\/strong>($767):\u00a0this trip leaves on January 21st and returns on January 28th, with an overnight layover in Newark, NJ (EWR).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dublin, Ireland <\/strong>($740): this trip leaves on January 21st and returns on January 28th, with a short layover in Newark, NJ (EWR). \u00a0This trip is fairly flexible and most dates in his time frame qualify.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Which option would you choose? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Cancun, Mexico) A TTM contributor\u00a0received a $500 United Airlines certificate\u00a0when United overbooked his flight (over the holidays) and rebooked him at the gate on a significantly less convenient flight. \u00a0Instead of taking the initial offer of a $300 United Airlines certificate, this savvy traveler negotiated a $500 United Airline certificate, $30 worth of food on the flight, and an upgrade to first class on the return trip. \u00a0I flew an American flight that was trapped in ORD until 3a on Christmas but I only received 8,000 miles for this inconvenience. \u00a0While his airline was certainly in a different position than&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[31,21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Cancun, Mexico) A TTM contributor\u00a0received a $500 United Airlines certificate\u00a0when United overbooked his flight (over the holidays) and rebooked him at the gate on a significantly less convenient flight. \u00a0Instead of taking the initial offer of a $300 United Airlines certificate, this savvy traveler negotiated a $500 United Airline certificate, $30 worth of food on the flight, and an upgrade to first class on the return trip. \u00a0I flew an American flight that was trapped in ORD until 3a on Christmas but I only received 8,000 miles for this inconvenience. \u00a0While his airline was certainly in a different position than...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Traveling Millennial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/travelingmillennial\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-09T20:18:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-14T16:33:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/Small-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"113\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"thetravelingmillennial\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thetravelingmi1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thetravelingmi1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thetravelingmillennial\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/\",\"name\":\"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-09T20:18:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-14T16:33:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/d1278cb668b8d9310500b28e32bd3649\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/\",\"name\":\"The Traveling Millennial\",\"description\":\"Travel News, Advice, and Reviews\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/d1278cb668b8d9310500b28e32bd3649\",\"name\":\"thetravelingmillennial\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/837a934ca76937cbac7755718ed21393?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/837a934ca76937cbac7755718ed21393?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"thetravelingmillennial\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/author\/thetravelingmillennial\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial","og_description":"(Cancun, Mexico) A TTM contributor\u00a0received a $500 United Airlines certificate\u00a0when United overbooked his flight (over the holidays) and rebooked him at the gate on a significantly less convenient flight. \u00a0Instead of taking the initial offer of a $300 United Airlines certificate, this savvy traveler negotiated a $500 United Airline certificate, $30 worth of food on the flight, and an upgrade to first class on the return trip. \u00a0I flew an American flight that was trapped in ORD until 3a on Christmas but I only received 8,000 miles for this inconvenience. \u00a0While his airline was certainly in a different position than...","og_url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/","og_site_name":"The Traveling Millennial","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/travelingmillennial\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel","article_published_time":"2016-01-09T20:18:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-14T16:33:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":113,"url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/Small-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"thetravelingmillennial","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@thetravelingmi1","twitter_site":"@thetravelingmi1","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"thetravelingmillennial","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/","name":"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate? &ndash; The Traveling Millennial","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-09T20:18:46+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-14T16:33:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/d1278cb668b8d9310500b28e32bd3649"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/01\/09\/how-should-a-ttm-contributor-use-his-500-united-airlines-certificate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How should a TTM contributor use his $500 United Airlines certificate?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#website","url":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/","name":"The Traveling Millennial","description":"Travel News, Advice, and Reviews","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/d1278cb668b8d9310500b28e32bd3649","name":"thetravelingmillennial","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/837a934ca76937cbac7755718ed21393?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/837a934ca76937cbac7755718ed21393?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"thetravelingmillennial"},"url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/author\/thetravelingmillennial\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/\/sites\/76\/2016\/01\/Small-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7buBC-7A","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions\/719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}