Your state parks gift certificate expires during a blackout you can't book in

If you're holding an Alaska State Parks gift certificate, your real deadline is Sept. 27 — not the Sept. 30 expiration the state announced.

The reason is a gap the state hasn't addressed. Alaska is moving its campsite booking system to a new vendor, and from Sept. 28 through Sept. 30 nobody can create a reservation at all. The certificates expire at the end of that blackout. So the last three days of their life are days you can't use them.

The credits won't carry over, either. The Department of Natural Resources said in June that Reserve America gift certificates would not transfer to the new platform, and that whatever they buy has to be a stay beginning before Jan. 1, 2027.

Neither the June announcement nor the department's update this week addresses the overlap, or says whether certificate holders will get an extension or an exception. This week's release mentions gift cards only to note that sales stopped on the old system and resume Oct. 1 on the new one.

Existing reservations are safe. Bookings that extend past Sept. 30 will be honored and moved to the new platform automatically. The blackout only blocks making, changing or canceling reservations — during those three days, customers can still log in to view what they already have.

The new system launches Oct. 1, run by Tyler Tech. It carries a $4.50 reservation fee with no charge to cancel or change, and opens campsites on a rolling three-month window. Wood-Tikchik and the cabins on Afognak and Shuyak islands keep a six-month window. The state structured the contract to cost it nothing, putting the transaction fees on customers instead.

Account holders will get emailed instructions for setting a new password. During the blackout, the department is directing questions to its reservations team.