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Using Multiple Travel Funds?

norsebassist
Explorer C

I am trying to book a flight that costs $365 round trip. I have three separate travel funds ($91.00, $98.24, and $107.80), all three expiring 05/21/21, but the site only allows me to use two of the three, with the nebulous "The method of payment was not added due to payment rules" as the explanation. All three travel funds are less than the total due, so I don't see why I can't use all three. Any ideas? Hold times for the 800 number are greater than 2 hours, so that's a waste of time.

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Using Multiple Travel Funds?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@norsebassist wrote:

I am trying to book a flight that costs $365 round trip. I have three separate travel funds ($91.00, $98.24, and $107.80), all three expiring 05/21/21, but the site only allows me to use two of the three, with the nebulous "The method of payment was not added due to payment rules" as the explanation. All three travel funds are less than the total due, so I don't see why I can't use all three. Any ideas? Hold times for the 800 number are greater than 2 hours, so that's a waste of time.


 

That's unfortunately just how the system works. Calling won't help, as there's nothing the phone rep can do.

 

The work-around is to use 2 funds to book a flight, then cancel it, and you'll have a new fund that effectively combines the first two into a single fund. Then use that fund plus the 3rd to book the actual flight you need.

 

This only works if all the travel funds have similar expiration dates, as the new funds will take on the earliest one. And if all the travel funds are for the same person. Sounds like it would work for you.

 

When booking, choose flights as close to the total of the two travel funds as possible, and when you cancel be sure to choose to have the taxes & fees refunded back to your credit card instead of lumped in with the travel funds.

 

Good luck!

 

Re: Using Multiple Travel Funds?

gsking
Aviator C
Solution

You can only use three forms of payment, and those 3 don't cover the bill. 

 

You can use 2, and pay the rest.   Or use 2 or 3 for cheaper flight, and then cancel it to combine them into one new travel fund, and then use that. 

 

Or if it's round trip, use two for one leg, and the rest for the second leg. 

Re: Using Multiple Travel Funds?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

@gsking wrote

 

Or if it's round trip, use two for one leg, and the rest for the second leg. 


Assuming the two flights are 50% ish of the price this is the way to go. There's no difference in cost to book the flights as two one ways and you should be able to easily use two travel funds to cover the entire price of one flight, leaving you with a maximum of two funds to book the second flight.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Using Multiple Travel Funds?

norsebassist
Explorer C

Yep, that worked. Before I checked back to this thread, I decided to try again, but book each leg separately. So, two of the travel funds fully covered the outbound trip, then the third one (and the little left from the second one) plus credit card covered the return trip.