Today I got a crash course in Electronic Travel Certificate fine print and I need some help/advice

Last week my wife and I flew to Texas to visit family (we flew with ETCs we got coming back from our honeymoon), and between BOS and IAH and the return we volunteered to get bumped twice and came back each with a $300 and $250 voucher ($1100 total). We had planned on using those to go to Hawaii since we have friends there that will put us up, and we couldn't afford the air fair out of pocket (I am a gradudate student and she is a school teacher). But when I started looking into the details of using them at some point, I found out that I CAN'T combine them! (that was in the fine print I didn't read). So at best we could only get $600 off our combined airfire, rather than $1100, and this knocks us out of the "this could be a feasible vacation" range.

My question is, do I have any options or am I totally confined by this "one ETC per ticket" rule? I found out I can't transfer the ETC into someone else's name, and I can't use them to purchase gift certificates (that would have been sweet - and too easy).

So, any ideas or am I stuck just dreaming of visiting Hawaii??

not only do they scr*w you with that one, but they also don't give you any residual back. so, i have a $500 voucher. if i buy a $200 ticket, CO says "rough nuts."

but, you can mail them to CO and they will break them down for you.

this is your reward for volunteering.

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 01-06-2003).]

If you can mail them to CO to break them down, perhaps they'll also let you mail them in to combine them, too?

I wonder what the service fee for this is

I'm assuming you're from BOS based on your post, and that you wanted to use all 4 certificates on the Hawaii trip.

I suggest doing two end-on-end tickets. The closest place on the mainland from which CO serves HNL is LAX, so if you buy two tickets each, you can get to Hawaii for about $50 + taxes (after certificates):

1. Buy PVD-LAX-PVD on a currently published $198 or $258 fare, less $250 vouchers.
2. Buy LAX-HNL-LAX on a currently published $349 fare less $300 vouchers.

I selected PVD because BOS was too expensive.

Doing it this way also allows you to stop in LAX in either or both directions if you want to.


[This message has been edited by channa (edited 01-06-2003).]

dupe

[This message has been edited by channa (edited 01-06-2003).]

Great advice channa!

[This message has been edited by Let's Go (edited 01-06-2003).]

channa,

Thanks for the AWESOME suggestion! However, I do have one question:

The travel dates I'm looking at at 2/15 - 2/23, And the lowest I can get (on Continental.com) for PVD-LAX-PVD is $432 and the lowest LAX-HNL-LAX I can find are $632.70. Where are these published fairs and what are their dates of validitiy?



[This message has been edited by gccgrad (edited 01-07-2003).]

gccgrad -- the lowest of these fares are for midweek travel. Weekend travel goes up about $50 each, ($25 each way) based on availability. It looks like availability PVD-LAX is an issue on your outbound (is that President's Day weekend or something because availability is pretty tight)? Best case you'll get the PVD-LAX-PVD to price out around $223 with tax included, and the LAX-HNL-LAX to price out to $363 with tax included.

Go to Travelocity and enter your cities PVD-LAX and LAX-HNL being sure to select "My Dates are Flexible." That will show you the lowest fares. Select the Continental fare and it will bring up a calendar that shows when the fares are offered. Click on the dates and it will show you if there is availability on those dates.

These fares seem to go all the way into early June. Hope this helps.

If you can be somewhat flexible, the two of you will be able to get your Hawaiian vacation on a student and teacher budget!