Help, I trashed my voucher!
Question: My son recently used 25,000 Diners Club points to give his sister a gift of one free night at a Fairmont hotel. The voucher was delivered by overnight mail, and my daughter signed for it.
But the letter didn’t indicate that it was a gift from my son. She carefully read the gift certificate but decided it was too good to be true, so she threw it away.
Diners Club and Fairmont both refuse to give her a replacement. What should we do?
– Ann Mall, Fairmont, Calif.
Answer: Uh-oh. Your daughter threw away a certificate that is “not replaceable if lost, stolen or destroyed,” according to Fairmont. But all hope is not lost.
I understand why you might have thought the voucher was replaceable. I couldn’t find anything on the Fairmont or Diners Club Web sites that clearly says that once the certificates are gone, they’re gone.
In fact, there are at least two kinds of gift certificates — so-called Ovation Rewards, which are good for one night’s stay, and gift certificates, which come in denominations of $25 and $100, and are the equivalent of cash. After reading up on these certificates, I wasn’t sure if they could be replaced if they were lost or trashed.
I think your daughter’s first instinct was correct: If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Certainly the world is full of bogus travel offers. Just last week, I tried to help someone who joined a travel club with an iffy reputation. If she had been as skeptical as your daughter, then I wouldn’t have had to spend half an afternoon delving into state lemon laws so she could get a refund for her questionable purchase.
Fairmont asked Diners Club to take a look at your son’s records. According to Diners, card members who redeem their points online don’t have the option of including a personalized note with a gift certificate. Its records say that your son knew about that and told a Diners representative he planned to call his sister to tell her about the present.
Your daughter could have caught this, too. If she took the time to carefully read the voucher, then why not also call the hotel and ask if the scrip is legit? I think a short conversation with a Fairmont representative would have revealed that this was no bogus offer.
Another thing that should have tipped her off is the way in which the certificate was delivered. The bad guys usually don’t overnight their shady offers to you with a signature required. It’s too expensive.
After I contacted Fairmont on your behalf, a representative e-mailed me immediately to say that in a situation like this, an exception to the hotel’s no-refund policy could have been made if your daughter had contacted its corporate office instead of phoning the reservations number.
You received an e-mail from Davina Whitmore, a supervisor in the hotel’s partner marketing and rewards department, who apologized for your inconvenience and agreed to send your son a new certificate.
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