Here is an interesting ruling that finds that state gift card laws do not apply to airline gift certificates.  Specifically, the court found that California’s law against gift cards with expiration did not apply to an airline gift certificate that had a one year expiration date.

Div. Four agreed with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr that the Airline Deregulation Act, which bars states from regulating “a price, route or service of an air carrier,” takes precedence over Civil Code Sec. 1749.5.

Airlines seem to have an interesting exemption here.

The class distinction between gift certificates and gift cards goes further.  Under the new federal laws, gift certificates issued in only paper are exempt, but actual gift cards would be covered under the federal laws.   In plain language, the new federal laws don’t apply to paper gift certificates at all.

From the airlines perspective, they clearly treat gift certificates as second class citizens as well.  In the past, my experience on several airlines has been that these certificates can only be used at the ticket counter at the airline, and typically can not be used more than one at a time, making them incredibly tedious to use up.  So when an airline offers to give you four $25 gift certificates for your troubles, ask for a gift card instead.