Gift Certificate / Credit Ideas - Travel Websites
 

I am contemplating purchasing travel credit or an "E" gift certificate for a family member for Christmas. I know they want to take a vacation next spring, but haven't started planning. I was thinking about buying a credit on travelocity, expedia, or orbitz for them. What would you guys do? Anyone try this before? Any suggestions?

Woyzeck...Don't know that I would do it with an online agency...Seems to me, you would be limiting yourself....My TA does it all the time for clients.Or you probably go go to an airline website and get an E-Certificate..But if you to to Travelocity and then the travel package they really want is on Orbitz, what happens? Just my HO....

Yeah Beach Boi,

That is the main problem that I am wrestling with. I would get one from a travel agency if I could, but I don't usually use a TA. Otherwise, I think just giving them cash is a bit too impersonal...

Maybe just make a certificate now for a certain amount of dollars toward airfare/hotel/whatever to be redeemed through you when the time comes?

I agree that if I had my preference, I'd rather not receive a certificate or credit through a particular online agency, because prices can vary so much. Then again, I'd never look a gift horse in the mouth, so any credit anywhere useful would be appreciated and used sometime in the future.

Good luck deciding! It's a nice gift, however you do it. :)

It was easier for me.... my parents always travel to Denver on Frontier so I got them Frontier gift certificates for an anniversary present.

Honestly, I dont think you can go wrong with orbitz or expedia. My experience is that they are $5 over what the airline charges and that is their service fee.

Building on what amwosu said - if this person/people travel a reasonable amount, then any of the big online travel agencies would probably be fine - if they don't use it for this trip, they'll use it in the future. Of, if they live in a hub city for a particular airline, a gift certificate for that airline would be great as well.

If they don't travel much and are planning to purchase a package deal it does get trickier - you wouldn't want to force them to use a particular site that might be more expensive, unless your gift will be large enough to cover the entire cost of the package so they don't feel the need to shop around as much.

Tonight while shopping, I came across American Airline gift cards in $100 denominations. Pretty cool idea. First time I had seen such a thing. They were on sale at the supermarket checkout stand along with all of the other assorted gift cards.

mc, where were you shopping that you saw these? in what store?

UPDATE: Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia do NOT offer gift certificates or gift cards. FYI

Oh well. It was worth a thought...

I saw on my Alaska Airlines statement they were suggesting you "buy FF miles" as a gift. I'm not sure this is a good idea, just a possibility if people regularly use a particular airline.

I saw the AA gift cards on a special rack of gift cards for a variety of Dept stores, specialty stores etc. at our local supermarket here in Houston. The store is called "Randal's". I've also seen them at Kroger supermarkets. Today they had cards in deniminations of both $100 and $50