Using a travel voucher for holiday airline travel

[quixotic78]

I'm looking for two airline tickets to visit the in-laws over Christmas, and they're expensive! At least $500 each, and I've tried looking at nearby cities, flexible dates, etc. I had a wacky idea that maybe a place like eBay would sell travel vouchers, and sure enough, they do. Here's an example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/U-S-Airways-Take...d=p3286.c0.m14

I've done some checking, and these things are transferable (there's no name on them, actually). My big concern, of course, is that the airlines will indeed let you use the voucher, but only on February 22, April 9, and two days in June (i.e., that they impose severe blackout restrictions).

So, has anyone had any luck using a "free flight" voucher during a holiday season? And, even more of a long shot, has anyone ever bought one and used it successfully?

P.S. Off topic -- I haven't been at the SDMB in ~2 years. Before, I could click on the "Link" button when making a post, and it'd ask me for a link, and ask me for the text I'd want (so I could replace a big long URL with the word "here," for example). But now that button just asks for the link. What is the syntax for hyperlinking a word and disguising the URL? Thanks again...