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Update, 8/5: The 10% bonus promotion ends today!
Update, 8/4: As noted in this post, United TravelBank funding is being reimbursed as an airline fee credit! Plus you can extend the validity of the bonus via the electronic travel certificate method mentioned below.
Originally posted on 7/31:
Add Funds To Your United TravelBank And Get A 10% Bonus
You can get a bonus when you fund your United TravelBank as follows:
- Fund with $50, get a $5 bonus.
- Fund with $100, get a $10 bonus.
- Fund with $250, get a $25 bonus.
- Fund with $500, get a $50 bonus.
- Fund with $750, get a $75 bonus.
- Fund with $1,000, get a $100 bonus.
You’ll need to sign into a United MileagePlus account to see this offer. You may need to refresh the page a couple times after signing in to see the offer or try using another browser or an incognito browser.
This offer expires on 8/5.
The amount paid won’t expire for 5 years and can be extended by having any TravelBank funding or usage. You can use the funds for United flights purchased on United.com.
The amount paid will be available for use immediately. You can find your TravelBank balance in your United account and it will show up as a payment option at checkout.
The bonus will post within 90 days and will only be valid for 120 days after that.
However, assuming that United’s free change policy that has been in effect since March 3rd is still valid when the bonus posts, you can book any ticket with those funds and refund it to an electronic travel certificate valid for 2 years form the date of refund.
You can only get the bonus once per MileagePlus account and I don’t see a way to add more funds after you make your initial funding. You can however combine electronic travel certificates together.
United discontinued TravelBank funding a few years ago. Until that point, you were able to get credited for airline fee credits on cards like AMEX Platinum, AMEX Business Platinum, and Hilton Aspire if you were registered for United.
I’ll update this post next week with the results of my funding on whether it does or does not trigger that credit.
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106 Comments On "Ends Today! Add Funds To Your United TravelBank And Get A 10% Bonus, Works For AMEX Airline Fee Credit; TravelBank Funding Will Be Back For Good!"
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Just as an update to a former post. After opting for a few ETC’s, then filing a dispute with Citibank because I paid with a debit card, then filing a complaint with the DOT, United gave me back my $2600! Thanks!
Nice!
Also wondering if it will work for PenFed airline fee credit.
Dan, Can travel bank funds be used to pay baggage fees?
Keep in mind if you do this if United declares bankruptcy you’ll likely lose your $
No, tickets only.
They’re not going bankrupt with all these bailouts. And even if they did consumers are unlikely to lose anything.
One problem is that you give up the ability of filing a dispute against the charge of the ticket if needed
With the DOTs help, it shouldn’t come to that with a US airline.
Still worth to be aware
If I upgrade to economy plus on an existing reservation, will that trigger the amex credit?
It should.
Wondering if this will also work for the Ritz travel credit.
They’re quite lenient in my experience.
Agreed.
However one time I had to HUCA to get a change fee credited.
Posted as United Electronic Ticketing, wondering if this will qualify for credit at AMEX. not worth arguing since it is probably not totally legit. Just hoping.
Did it reimburse?
Will this stack with chase 15% off offer?
I’d assume it will.
Any guesses on whether or not I would get the United bonus points of I use either my Explorer or TravelBank card?
I’d assume you will.
When did United restart TravelBank?
Now 😀
But it seems limited to just this funding, I can’t find a way to fund more than once.
If I use my amex card to spend $100 or $200 will this count as an airline incidental fee? Will I get back the money from amex?
Read the post?
How do you extend the TravelBank funds for another 5 years? Can this be done online on my United account page or I have to call in order to extend these funds?
It’s automatic when you add or use funds.
Nope. It does not extend the expiration date of what it is already in my TravelBank. It adds it on top of my balance and creates new expiration date for what is added only and not the total balance. Now, I have two expiration dates. One for what was there and another one for what i have just added. Do you know what happens with the funds in TravelBank after the expiration date?
How did you earn your previous TB balance?
In the past if TB expired it would issue an electronic travel cert. Not sure if that’s still the policy.
I’ve earned it in 2015, when the Gift Certificate option was available and I’ve used an Amex card to get the credits… Yeah, I did not spend them yet.
I’ve checked the TB terms and conditions, but there is nothing about what happens when the expiration date comes up. It seems to me that the TB Cash expires and there is no travel certificate offered for the balance that is about to expire.
“25. TravelBank Cash accrued in a Member’s TravelBank account shall be maintained in the account until they are redeemed or until they expire, whichever occurs first.”
The same thing happened to me. I have two expiration dates now. What would be the best way to contact United about this? My first expiration date is coming up on 10/01/2020.
Do you think 5x using Amex Platinum card?
Do you know if this will earn 5x points with Amex Platinum or Citi Prestige?
Dan,
In the past, it was recommended to only charge $100 to the travel bank at a time so that Amex will credit you. Is that still the recommended way? ( and do it twice to equal the $200 credit)
May I ask what etcs is?
You just made me $450 between my platinum business and aspire cards. Had no way of using them and was cancelling in the near future.
Thank you Dan!
Someone in flyertalk mentioned getting credit back on amex of 100usd
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/testing-using-2020-amex-airline-fee-credits-airline-vouchers-bonus-credits-will-use/
I was able to change my AMEX airline today to United with a chat in just 2 minutes!
I wanted to cancel my flight booked a few weeks ago by united And they said that the ETC option is no more available. I can only change and not cancel.
HUCA
Does United have to be my airline on Amex for the credit to apply?
Yes
Will $250 be triggered on Aspire?
I’d assume so.
So, exactly what is United TravelBank? I must have been absent that day.
“The amount paid won’t expire for 5 years and can be extended beyond for another 5 years that by having any TravelBank funding or usage. You can use the funds for United or partner flights purchased on United.com.”
Unless things have recently changed, there are at least two false items in the above quoted paragraph.
Partner airline travel I don’t think is allowed using TB funds, unless that change. Back in 2012, we started a gift registry for honeymoon travel, which included a TPAC on NH (bad idea for other reasons, but that’s for a different post) Registry funds deposited into the TravelBank. At the time, I read through the TB T&Cs probably a dozen times and saw no restriction on partner flights. Yet could not get the website to allow the option trying several times. In the end, I was really persistent and eventually found an agent who was willing to make it happen, but took many calls over a week or so, and The agent had to have it ticketed offline and called me back when it was complete. Sometime later, the partner restriction was in the T&Cs. Not sure about now. I have $ in the TB now, so maybe I’ll try a mock booking and check?
Second, short of a recent change again, there is no way to extend the Expiration of TravelBank credit. At one time, maybe up until a couple of years or so ago, all funds would be valid for two years from the most recent TB transaction (either a debit or credit – like the way it’s being described now). After that point, the funds would be put into an ETC, and sent to the passenger, and would have to be used in the standard timeframe (a year from issue date). At some point, like I said, maybe a year or two ago, it changed, and each batch of deposited funds had its own expiration date – I believe approx. 18 months from the deposit date. A additional deposit (or use of TB funds) would not change that, and believe the funds were supposed to disappear at that time. I never specifically tested any of these policies, since I have always been able to use funds in time, but reading this article, and also this is acting a reminder that I have a portion of funds that were originally supposed to expire this year, maybe I’ll also check. Not sure when the 5 year expiration started, but maybe that’s an incentive to get folks to buy now.
Also, for those commenting on this, the TravelBank never completely disappeared. Yes, the gift registry did, and the ability to add funds manually to it did. But the TravelBank has still been there throughout. My wife and I both have the [free] United TravelBank Visa card, which deposits 1.5% of spend into each of our TravelBank. The card most certainly has less value than it used to, but we still use it sometimes, and this monthly deposits still come in. The value of the TravelBank today is another question, as in a world where most aren’t traveling, at least nearly as much as we used to, and entire areas of the world closed to (at least US) tourists, why shift real $ to a proprietary airline $ system. Not to mention while I’m not sure it’s likely, there still is a real possibility of bankruptcy/failure, in which case, the $ would be lost. Even with this bonus, I’m not even considering depositing $ to my TravelBank until things are back to ‘somewhat’ normal, whatever or whenever that is.
1. I was also able to book partner flights via calling in the past. Not sure if that’s still the case, so I’ll remove that.
2. I’ve always had my expiration date extended when using TB funds. Are you sure that changed?
3. Did you have any funds expire without an ETC being issued for them?
The charge comes up (on Aspire, while pending) as “United Electronic Ticketng”. Is that normal? Sounds like it’s being coded as a ticket, not an incidental…
Normal.
Is there any concern the Amex will clawback the credits?
Always a possibility, but tough to predict.
I added $100 and want to add more. When I signed off and on the screen says thank you. I dont see where I can add again. I have travel credit with more than one card. I just switched from delta to united. ps United Dreamliner Premier economy to Israel is very nice
“United tells me that you will be able to make further contributions to your TravelBank account after this 10% bonus promotion ends tomorrow!”
Have you tries again? I did a $50 today and can’t make additional purchases. A friend purchased a few days ago with Aspire and got credit but also can’t make another purchase. Perhaps UA is swimming in $’s now!
If I have business and consumer cards can I potentially get $400 back? Trying to understand what you meant when you wrote you can only fund it once (thinking of doing it with two separate cards twice)
Tb can be used for anything ? Award taxes etc? Also can it be used to book for others?
Dan you funded your travel bank credit with 99 dollars to trigger the airline fee credit or 200 for the airline fee credit
How do you get the travel bank amount into an ETC (not the promotional amount). Would that also require booking and cancelling the ticket?
I show 0 balance in TB ACCT. How do I add?
Am I only able to do it one time? It’s not allowing me to go the purchase page again.
Read the post and the post update.
Dan, are you able to add more funds to your Travelbank now that the promotion has ended?
Yes, I just did it with the same link.
It’s possible that there’s a 1 purchase a day restriction as after I made a $100 purchase, I am unable to make another one.
Same with me. I purchased $100 Funds on August 7th and got the Credit on August 10th. But I am still unable to add more funds.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/account/travelbank.html doesn’t the T&C say funds expire if no activity within 18 months? For those of us w/o the travelbank credit card, makes it harder? Or do you just have to deposit more money in it at some point?
The 5 year expiration date can be seen after you fund your account.
I’m afraid it didn’t work for me. It coded as a flight from chicago ohare to chicago ohare with 016 ticket number (I loaded $250 🙁
It also says Travel bank CA with my last name. Oh well.
same. nor can i get into travelbank again
when did you make the purchase?
I purchased on August 4 (perhaps it’s too early to tell, but it definitely posted as a flight ticket)
Update: I didn’t have United selected as my preferred airline – likely the reason statement credit didn’t post
When did you purchase, mine is similar but I think give it a day or two more.. perhaps the credit will come through. Dan, what do you think? I purchased mine on the 4th and from looking at the examples Dan provided in his post, it should credit on the 7th which is today.. which means tomorrow you should see the credit in your account..
Just wait, same here. The $200 credit posted.
Posted as a flight ticket from Chicago
Thanks Dan! Read your post the other day, purchased the $250 travelbank promo with my AMEX personal platinum card and the $200 Amex/UA credit was approved and credited to my AMEX account. Now… Where do I find those funds on my United account? 🙂
I originally did it for $100 with my gold card and it just got reimbursed. Then I kept on trying to go back and do it but it would only show me a receipt so I kept on trying over a couple days and it finally gave me the option again so I tried $50 with my platinum card and it just got reimbursed too. I don’t see an option to add more every time I use that link it just shows me a receipt. I called United and they all seemed confused about this. I’m starting to think this was just a one time only thing.
I went straight and deposited $250 twice using my 2 AMEX accounts. One charge has just been refunded. I am going to do the same on the 1st of January, 2021.
Do you know if u can do it again I can’t figure out a way to
Did $250 august 4 on my aspire card. Credit posted august 7.
Update I got my credit for the Hilton Aspire on Aug 11. However, I have not been able to purchase more travelbank dollars since then.
I just charged $100 on my aspire after changing my airline to United yesterday. I will let folks know what happens.
Any luck?
I had a couple of calls with the United Customer Reps and got different information.
The Website Tech Rep told me that his Manager confirmed it’s only 1 purchase per customer until the bonus is posted. So, asked me to check next week (14 Days I guess).
The MileagePlus Chat Agent gave me to below update:
“I’ve check there is a system glitch to purchase additional funds for Travel bank, however, we already reported it to appropriate team. Currently we are unable to provide exact time frame on when will it be fix. But we will do our best to fix it as sson as possible.”
So, I guess a waiting game.
Looks like we need to wait a solid 2 weeks before we can do another purchase. Not sure if it’s a technical issue or something else. I purchased the 1st TravelBank fund of $100 on Aug 7th and I am able to do another purchase today again. And again don’t see an option to purchase more.
Worked on Amex Gold and united. Took 4 days!
Been hounding United about the technical glitch we’ve all seen (can only make one purchase and subsequent visits just show your receipt). Tentative fix date is scheduled for September 8th.
I called again to find out more. The CSR was very helpful but didn’t have an answer. She worked with some IT folks and they couldn’t figure out it and were going to submit a ticket.
My wife purchased $250 on her aspire card after she designated UNITED as her airline and it did NOT trigger the credit. Bought on Aug 15
Any updates on united triggering credit?
Update: My wife’s purchase of $250 Travelbank dollars did not trigger the credit because she purchased a flight on frontier for $315 a months ago which triggered the credit. We had no idea the round trip flight she purchased on frontier triggered the credit.
I received my $200 airline fee credit for using my Platinum card for this deal, but haven’t yet received my 10% bonus in my TravelBank account. How long does it usually take and has there been any issues with receiving this bonus? It was purchased on the last day of this offer – 8/5/20.
I thought the 10% bonus offered expired on 8/5? That’s what the top of this page says.
I made a $100 deposit. It did not extend the expiration date of my existing funds. Rather, the pervious funds and newly added funds have different expiration dates.
Is the travel bank option still available for United? I tried logging into the travel bank page and it just errors saying United could not handle the request.
Can confirm this still works. Added 100$ to travelbank on 10/12. Got reimbursed 10/15
Is the united travel bank still working to trigger the airline credit? I used it recently for my Hilton aspire as I have $250 on it. I put $250 on the travel bank and I am still waiting on the results
Did this credit post?
Credit posted
Posted here too
The Travel bank T&C states 18 months expiration. Why does the article say 5 years?
“all accrued TravelBank Cash in an Account is subject to expiration and/or forfeiture for any Member who fails at any time to engage in Account Activity (as defined above) for a period of eighteen (18) consecutive months. “
Experience > Ts & Cs.
Are there ways to sell UnitedTravel bank cash?
I booked a flight using the travel bank and canceled hoping for etc but it just says that my refund needs to be processed by an agent and can take up to 30 days. What does that mean?
Anybody know if I can get free checked bag with my United explorer card if paying partially/fully with United Travelbank funds? If not, any suggestions to use the funds to get the free checked bag benefits?
As long as you put 1 cent on the card you’ll get free bags.
That worked just fine. Thanks Dan. I’m hoping the travel protections on the United card will still apply for partial payment.
Can United Travel Bank be used for Third Party?