pinniped

My wife and I were hoping to use our Companion Certificate for a weekend getaway this January or February. We aren't picky, we can fly to markedly off-peak locations, we like both cities and more touristy destinations, and we don't mind bringing a jacket with us.

So I plugged in my usual "all U.S./Canada" query to ITA and am really stumped on a good destination right in the $250 R/T base fare range required to use the certificate.

Right now, my leading candidate is CLT at about $275 base. I know nothing about CLT other than it has a nice airport as hubs go. PHX could also work, but we've done PHX four times in the past 18 months for both work and pleasure and would like to do something different.

When I saw CLT pricing in the right ballpark, I got excited and added CHS, SAV, and JAX thinking maybe one of those would hit the same range. Alas, those are all pushing $400-plus. I'm pretty much seeing zero decent leisure fares on US metal, and the certificate does not allow the use of United codeshares.

Since fares are high on *all* weekends and not higher on MLK or President's Day weekends, we'd probably go for one of those two weekends. (Although oddly enough, you can't fly on the Friday of President's Day weekend with this certificate. All other days are fine and all of MLK weekend is fine.)

Anything I might be overlooking? I don't believe there's a "hole" in my ITA query, but who knows... Or are there just no good US Airways fares loaded for my home market (MCI)? Am I actually looking at this too early?

Worst case...we'll probably explore Charlotte since we've never been there. Or maybe drive down towards the coast and end up in the Charleston area anyway... Just seems like for extremely off-peak travel, a $250 base fare should get me a long list of options to consider within North America... Wondering if someone here will think of something I haven't.