Need Advice on Booking Flights

[morrik5]

Hi everyone. We had to cancel our family trip from Ontario, Canada to Fort Wilderness this April and have since rebooked to hopefully come in April 2022. Our daughter and her family have flight credits for their trip and I'm wondering how long I should wait to use them and book new flights. I know a lot factors on how comfortable one feels taking a COVID test pre-departure but when would "you" book flights originating from Toronto to Orlando? I'm unsure if you can get a credit on a new flight booked with a credit from the old flight if situations changed and we felt it was uncomfortable to still travel.

Plus it all depends on whether we can travel over the land border ourselves to meet up with them. Thanks.

 

[starry_solo]

Hi everyone. We had to cancel our family trip from Ontario, Canada to Fort Wilderness this April and have since rebooked to hopefully come in April 2022. Our daughter and her family have flight credits for their trip and I'm wondering how long I should wait to use them and book new flights. I know a lot factors on how comfortable one feels taking a COVID test pre-departure but when would "you" book flights originating from Toronto to Orlando? I'm unsure if you can get a credit on a new flight booked with a credit from the old flight if situations changed and we felt it was uncomfortable to still travel.

Plus it all depends on whether we can travel over the land border ourselves to meet up with them. Thanks.

Most flight credits have a time limit to use, whether it is one or two years. Once you book using them, you are likely to lose time (as to how long they are good for) and whether or not they can be used again if you cancel. You have to look at which airline you booked to get specific details, but I cannot see them extending past the original expiration date.

 

[starry_solo]

I thought I would give you an example.

I had a flight booked for SWA (Southwest Airlines) for September 2020. I canceled and the funds converted to travel funds, good through mid-September 2022. In hindsight, I probably should have converted it to points when the offer was made, but I did not. So, I have travel funds.

I used part of the travel funds to book a flight (one way) for later this year, but I booked it in July 2021. When I canceled and rebooked (because the cost had gone down twice in one day), the travel funds now expire in July 2022 (one year from date of new booking, but earlier than the original September 2022 date). Of course, because I canceled and rebooked twice in the same day, now I have two different travel funds (expiring July 2022) + the leftover credit (expiring September 2022). SWA only allows for 3 forms of payments, so because my return flight exceeds that, I can only use two (of the three) travel funds to book and pay the rest out of pocket. the last travel funds will expire July 2022 unless I fly out somewhere else... but I've also read that any excess payments made would expire the same time as the July 2022 travel funds, even if paid with cash or credit card.

 

[morrik5]

I thought I would give you an example.

I had a flight booked for SWA (Southwest Airlines) for September 2020. I canceled and the funds converted to travel funds, good through mid-September 2022. In hindsight, I probably should have converted it to points when the offer was made, but I did not. So, I have travel funds.

I used part of the travel funds to book a flight (one way) for later this year, but I booked it in July 2021. When I canceled and rebooked (because the cost had gone down twice in one day), the travel funds now expire in July 2022 (one year from date of new booking, but earlier than the original September 2022 date). Of course, because I canceled and rebooked twice in the same day, now I have two different travel funds (expiring July 2022) + the leftover credit (expiring September 2022). SWA only allows for 3 forms of payments, so because my return flight exceeds that, I can only use two (of the three) travel funds to book and pay the rest out of pocket. the last travel funds will expire July 2022 unless I fly out somewhere else... but I've also read that any excess payments made would expire the same time as the July 2022 travel funds, even if paid with cash or credit card.

DD's flight credits expire Dec 31/22 so that's a good point but we have Disney booked for April. Hoping things settle down and travel gets easier. At least DSIL finally got his first of two vaccines so we've moved ahead in that direction at least.