New website selling unused ferry tickets

Buying advance ferry tickets from Washington State Ferries' Wave2Go system makes sense for Kimberly Brown, who lives on Bainbridge Island.

The 10- or 20-ride tickets come at a 20 percent discount.

But she doesn't commute every day and sometimes has rides left over when the ticket expires after 90 days.

"I'll leave it at the tollbooth and tell the guy to give a free ride to somebody who's coming up behind me," Brown said.

Robin Kallas also lives on Bainbridge, and said she and her neighbors have lost a lot of money on unused rides.

"You shouldn't throw money away in the trash anymore. In this day and age, there's a secondary market for everything," Kallas said.

She just launched FerryTail.com, which she describes as a consignment shop for unused ferry rides.

Sellers enter the 22-digit code off their multi-ride ticket.

Buyers can see how many rides are available and the expiration date.

They pay 80 percent of the current walk-up ticket price, and get a bar code to show the ticket-taker.

After the expiration date, sellers are reimbursed two-thirds of the value of the rides they sell.

"It's a very small profit. I really created FerryTail as a service. Ferry travel is expensive and I just really felt that people deserved to keep their money," Kallas said.

FerryTail is in the testing phase, and only available for routes serving Vashon Island.

Kallas plans to launch in the San Juan Islands in July and system-wide in August.

A Washington State Ferries spokesman said people should be careful sharing their information with a third party and said the state is now checking to see if the site is legal.

Kallas said it's both legal and secure and she predicts it will fill a need.

"It really resonates with people who want to keep their money," she said.

Cox Media Group