Cant use Kona Trade thru II for Thanksgiving 2017

[jnaconde]

Hi,
I'm looking for advise on this situation. I have a week confirmed thru II for Nov 18 to 25 to a Kona Resort which I thought was wonderful to spend thanksgiving in HI but I'm finding that the airfares from San Diego area to Kona are well over $1100 pp for that week. That would mean times 2 since it's my husband and I traveling. We have Alaska points but they aren't even enough to cover the airfare. I've never seen fares so high for HI, anyways kinda bummed that we can't spend thanksgiving there. Should I just cancel that reservation and redeposit and request another location for a future date. I'll lose my $180 II fee and have to pay again for the new reservation or do I have any other options? Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[klpca]

I ran into that back in 2014. Is there any chance you can add some days on the front and back? Take a look at the fare calendar to see if the fares are substantially lower if you travel before Thanksgiving week. Ours were. It turned into a happy situation. One other thing that we did was to buy discounted points from Alaska during one of their sales. Even with the cost to purchase the points, it was cheaper than paying cash for the tickets. There were 6 of us traveling from 4 different airports on different days so we did a little bit of everything - points, purchased points, cash, companion fare coupons.

Two of our kids could only travel that week - fares never came down and I checked right up to the end. I have put the cost out of my mind so I cannot remember what we paid, but it may have been over $1k each.

 

[mdurette]

Did you purchase etrade when you did the initial exchange? If so, see if you can trade into another place that may have lower airfare.

If not, then yes...cancel and get a replacement week. You will want to do this before you hit 60 days of check-in. If you do it within 60 days of checkin then you will be restricted to flex time only.

 

[HudsHut]

Hi,
do I have any other options? Thanks for the help in advance!

Are you able to spend a few more days and/or willing to return a day early? I think that's your easiest solution.

Outbound Thursday 11/16,
Return Sunday 11/26 $778 on United

Outbound Thursday 11/16
Return Friday 11/24 $721 United/Hawaiian

***
Also, do you have the Alaska credit card, which offers the companion fare at a discount. (I do not know if holiday weeks are excluded.)
I hope others here will provide the details.