PD, PK certs -- do they make a difference?
 

I've been playing around on nwa.com looking for a nice president's day weekend trip. I have a PK003 zone certificate and a PD841 $35 off $200 fare certificate. And I don't see that either of them make a difference. ONT-BUD in mid-February prices at $546.70 (VLXS49E) with or without a certificate.
ONT-LGW prices at $384.45 with out without a certificate.

I've had them save me money in the past, but I guess the other spring sales are just too good.

Anyone else with similar experiences?
tom

Certificates
 

I think it just depends on fare availability.

I am trying to use one for the same weekend to AMS and it saves me about $75.

I used one to go to YVR in Jan and it saved me a bunch of money.

I searched on NW website and restricted the search at the bottom of the search page under E-CertSM Fares "Check here if you only want to search for this offer."

Good luck!

Tried to use a PD972 on numerous routings before mid Feb. All came up cheaper on regular fares except the AMS run which we decided to do in WBC sale fares for the 1.5 miles. Remember, the cert quoted price does not include all the add-ons for segments and fees. Almost anywhere WN is running a sale to will be cheaper straight out. But sometimes we find the coupons -- which arrive in the mail -- save some cash. Just not this year.

I've had good luck using the PD zone certificates for trips to Europe. The savings have not been substantial but still cheaper than fare sale prices for CVG. I really like the PI certs to Europe that sometimes come in the NWA weekly e-mail's. Also have a PD $35 off cert that never seems to work when tried.

When you start flying out of Small midwest cities and start travelling to odd cities in Europe, you can save a bundle. If you use big cities like LAX and SFO to London, Paris, or Amsterdam there might not be a big difference, in fact, I have been using normal fares to most of France, yet if I would go to Athenes or Oslo, or Helsinki, I would definitely use a zone certificate.

Timo

I fly out of ONT and more often than not it is co-fared with LAX. I'm not that surprised that the zone cert isn't coming up cheaper. But the PD841 amenity pack cert isn't saving me anything either. I might try a phone call since as a plat, I don't have the phone charge.
tom

The basic fact of NWA zone fares is that they are nothing-special, mid-range fares. Most of the time, on ordinary travel days, the spot fares on most routes will price out cheaper. But the zone vouchers can be big-time money-savers in two circumstances: 1) at times of peak demand (holidays) when market fares may well have doubled but if you can work around the blackout dates you can still get the zone fares; 2) the zone vouchers require 7-day advance booking -- a huge benefit if you find a good fare and then see that it has to be booked 14 or 21 days ahead!

If the fare is already marked with a "star" for a promo fare, you cannot use PD / PK certs in conjunctions with those fares. Somtimes it's frustrating as the "sale" price isn't always the cheapest vs other carriers, or I can list a neighboring city as a departure point, the fare is just as low, but not a promo.

SDF_Traveler

That's been my experience too. I do have to say that I applaud NWAC for having at least made using these certificates relatively painless by allowing for a do-it-yourself/online option to use them on the rare instances domestically where it saves money.

For small, NW-dominated airports to other small airports with little competition, these zone certs have been useful in saving a pretty penny and then some.