Best way to search lowest fares for Continental
 

I have 2 Continental credit vouchers which I'd like to use for two trips to Toulouse. My dates are flexible; I'll probably try one trip in mid to late Feb and another in early April.

AA now has a feature that shows lowest fares for flexible dates but Continental doesn't seem to have this. I looked at fares using itasoftware and it shows a good fare on KLM for Feb. I've never used ITA so I'm not sure how to go about purchasing this. Is it better to try to pull the same itinerary on CO or call them direct?

kayak.com

Thanks gail. I do use Kayak but it only allows for 3 days before and after for flexible searches so I was hoping there would be a more efficient way of going about this. I guess not.

Just reread your post - you did make that clear, sorry. USairways also has a feature similar to one you describe on AA - but I guess that doesn't help you much easier.

Can you use these Continental travel vouchers on a KLM flight? They are both part of Skyteam, so I guess so.

If you have found the flights you want on ITA, try doing a multi-city search on Continental.com with those exact flights.

You could try phoning Continental directly, but the problem I've found with the agents is that they cannot see the same fares as you can see on the web. I guess it's to discourage you from calling them.

WillTravel, when I received the vouchers, I asked the CO agent and was told they could be used on alliance partners. I'm not sure how this works and was hoping to have a few options before I call them. I found KLM flights on ITA for around $700 but CO was showing them for $300 more.

These are vouchers left from a trip that we had to cancel and I need to purchase tickets by end of Feb. Fortunately, there's still enough time.

gail, I've gotten used to the "best fare" feature which is why I was trying to find something similar. Not complaining though; will have to spend a little more time and play around with dates.

What city are you leaving from, and what dates are you looking at?

I'm looking at CMI/TLS but I can fly out of ORD/IND/STL if I have to. I used Feb 20 and Mar 3 for my last search and got the NWA/KLM for around $700 but as mentioned before I am flexible on dates.

I think if you select travel within +- three days, then select other days on the subsequent screen you get a list of prices covering about a week from each of your selected dates. I don't know how that compares with other airline's websites, as I have not used them.

I would suggest you examine your vouchers very carefully, as I think you have only a certain period to purchase with them, and a certain period delimiting the period you can actually fly. I seem to recall postings from people who didn't consider both periods, and were unable to use their vouchers.

As to using another airline, you will not get an authoritative answer on this board; for that, you will have to succeed in making a purchase (I think the airline is not even bound by answers a telephone representative makes, as the representative may not be specifically designated to make such representations, and there is a substantial possibility of miscommunication). My guess would be that the voucher would only be good on a code-shared flight, but I really don't know. I do know that when you try to buy on line a flight that is not covered by the voucher, they just tell you the voucher is not valid; they don't tell you why. You need a human to get that answer, so I suggest you call continental, confirm the dates and conditions under which your voucher can be applied, and make the purchase on the same call. I suspect sometimes an agent will suggest a flight that the voucher won't cover, so they go to a supervisor and try to get an override to avoid embarrassment.

Thanks Cleveland. I'll put in assorted dates and see what I can find.

As for airline reps, you are perfectly right and the result often depends on who you talk to. I was fortunate that when I canceled the original trip, CO agent was sympathetic and waived the $200 fee. I was able to use a portion of the original ticket for travel within US which resulted in extending the voucher's valid period. As far as I know, all I need is to purchase tickets by end of Feb not commence travel. But I'll call again to make sure.

esm -
if you find an itinerary on ita that looks good, go to the last screen where the flights are listed and click "show booking details" and it will display at the bottom of the page the info an agent needs to set up and sell the itinerary. With that in hand call CO. I just did a quick look for CMI-TLS and NWA, KLM and Delta (all part of SkyTeam)had flights.

Thanks Seamus. I now see the fare construction with a set of numbers,etc. I'll see how this works with CO.