Southwest Rapid Rewards - What would you do? Expiring Round Trip award.

I have the old round trip award that I've already extended for $50 last year. It expires a week before I need to use it. SW won't let me extend again.

Anyone have any ideas on what I should do. If anything? Maybe book a flight then cancel it? Or ?

I hate to just let this go to waste. Can I sell it? or swap it?

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas.

Booking a flight and canceling won't accomplish anything.

It is against the program rules to sell it. You could give it to a friend or family member, who then down the line might give you something. Make sure the recipient knows to say it is a gift, in case WN asks.

You could give it to a worthy charity, though you cannot deduct the value from your taxes.

If you're talking about a standard award, you can convert it to AirTran A+ Reward credits and then back into a fresh WN standard award that will expire in a year.

If you're talking about a standard award, you can convert it to AirTran A+ Reward credits and then back into a fresh WN standard award that will expire in a year.

Seriously? How is this done?

Seriously? How is this done?

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Southwest_Rapid_Rewards#Transition_from_A irTran.27s_A.2B_Rewards_to_the_new_Rapid_Rewards

The Transfer two-step

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Southwest_Rapid_Rewards#Transition_from_A irTran.27s_A.2B_Rewards_to_the_new_Rapid_Rewards

The Transfer two-step
Dear qwertyasdfghzxcvbn, You are truly awesome. I've had to work hard my whole life for every penny. No one has ever handed me anything for free. I've been holding on to a round trip reward for over a year just waiting to give myself a little vacation to just get away. The award expired 6 days before I needed to use it. I couldn't extend it a 2nd time. I was pretty bummed out to lose the reward and the $50 I paid last year to extend it.

As a last resort, I thought I'd just throw my problem out there on flyertalk.com to see what would happen. You came along, read my post, and I now have a round trip to Orlando from LAX!!!!

Don't want to sound weird or over emotional, but thanks so much. I couldn't have afforded to take this vacation if it weren't for your help.

Thank you.

Dear qwertyasdfghzxcvbn, You are truly awesome. I've had to work hard my whole life for every penny. No one has ever handed me anything for free. I've been holding on to a round trip reward for over a year just waiting to give myself a little vacation to just get away. The award expired 6 days before I needed to use it. I couldn't extend it a 2nd time. I was pretty bummed out to lose the reward and the $50 I paid last year to extend it.

As a last resort, I thought I'd just throw my problem out there on flyertalk.com to see what would happen. You came along, read my post, and I now have a round trip to Orlando from LAX!!!!

Don't want to sound weird or over emotional, but thanks so much. I couldn't have afforded to take this vacation if it weren't for your help.

Thank you.

You're welcome. I'm glad it worked out for you. Have fun in Orlando!

I'm seeking some help with a conversion. I have 3 standard RR awards that just expired that I was going to float for the year to then extend. I have zero A+ points in my account. When trying to convert RR to A+ and back it doesnt give me that option to even convert. It wants to use my RR points which I don't want to use. It only wants me to convert .25 points to A+. What am I doing wrong? I followed the instructions for the two step but it doesn't work for me. Thanks for the help.

I'm seeking some help with a conversion. I have 3 standard RR awards that just expired that I was going to float for the year to then extend. I have zero A+ points in my account. When trying to convert RR to A+ and back it doesn't give me that option to even convert. It wants to use my RR points which I don't want to use. It only wants me to convert .25 points to A+. What am I doing wrong? I followed the instructions for the two step but it doesn't work for me. Thanks for the help.

I bolded your problem. You have to do this BEFORE they expire, not after. If these awards were renewable, you could pay the $50 each to revive them until 2 years from when they expired. However it appears that these awards were issued after February 2011, making them nonrenewable and meaning that you are out of luck. Sorry. :(

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Southwest_Rapid_Rewards#Transition_from_A irTran.27s_A.2B_Rewards_to_the_new_Rapid_Rewards

The Transfer two-step

flyerguide.com must be down now because I can't get it to load. I'll check tomorrow. Thanks.

Also available via Google's cache (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:meYaR9qYb_AJ:www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Southwest_Rapid_Rewards+http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Southwest_Rapid_Rewards%23Transition_from _AirTran.27s_A.2B_Rewards_to_the_new_Rapid_Rewards&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) of the page. (Use your browser's "Find" function to navigate to the two-step discussion.)

flyerguide.com must be down now because I can't get it to load. I'll check tomorrow. Thanks.
Try this one.
http://www.southwest.com/html/promotions/fs-rr-convert.html

Okay. Sounds like I can just extend them for $50 and transfering them won't help me after that. Thanks.

Okay. Sounds like I can just extend them for $50 and transfering them won't help me after that. Thanks.

If your award was issued before 3/1/11 you can do this two-step transfer & extend it. Mine & my wife's qualify. I want to thank those up-thread for the heads-up. :)

I'm assuming you can't do this online.

Reissuing via $50 fee and extending via AirTran laundering are both available online.

For expired awards the recommended approach is to pay the fee and extend at the optimal time (admittedly difficult to establish), then do the two-step every four to six weeks to obtain fresh one-year validity periods. (To be almost absolutely safe you should not exceed 29 days, as 30-day notice is required for a change of terms to the program. I say "almost" because SWA might come up with some argument that this transfer is not actually part of the RR program and thus can be taken away with zero notice.) If you are a person who keeps up with news on this forum (which obviously isn't everyone), you can be comfortable going well beyond the 29 day window.

Also refer to the original discussion: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/southwest-rapid-rewards/1332956-southwest-airtran-credits-now-exchangeable-reward-points-merging.html

Have 1/2 expired award that expired in Feb2012. Should I extend it now for $50? I don't have any plans to use or have an Air tran account.

Can you advise what I should do with this expired 1/2 award? Thanks!

Have 1/2 expired award that expired in Feb2012. Should I extend it now for $50? I don't have any plans to use or have an Air tran account.

Can you advise what I should do with this expired 1/2 award? Thanks!

If you will be flying on WN at all, book all flights as OW's. There may come a time when the leg you are traveling will be available as a SA. You can not check SA availability unless you extend it, unless you use the Sticky thread to ask someone to check for you.

I had about 13 OW segments in SA's when 2.0 came in. I am down to 3. I book every flight as OW and try to use the SA when I can. I just used one last week. Three weeks earlier I was able to use two on a vacation trip when Mrs. Ink and I were able to swap out a points leg for two 1/2 SA's.

If you fly WN a lot as I do, I would probably go ahead and extend it just because I know an opportunity to use it will come up in the next year. If you fly irregularly, you might want to wait until January to extend it.

If you do not fly WN at all, and have no plans to, extending it would be throwing away your $50. However, you do not have to use it yourself. You can give it away or allow a family member to use it. What you can not do is sell it.

Quick question. Can you check Standard award availability if you only have 1/2 an award? i.e I have 8 SW credits and want to check a 1 way flight.

If you have half an award in your account you can check availability. If you have 8 credits in your account, you have to combine it with points to create a round trip award. I don't think you can use 8 credits to get a one way award, but you can book a one way ticket with points.

I still have some credits in the old program, but am waiting until a few days before they expire to combine them with points to extend the expiration date of the award. It looks to me like you have to get a round trip ticket to use the old credits.

Ok, I just wanted to make sure I could check availability for flights with half an award built up. I don't want to cash in my RR 2.0 points via the transfer 2-step until I know there is availability.

If you just have 1/2 an award, and it is available for use, you can only look at one way flights.

If you just have 1/2 an award, and it is available for use, you can only look at one way flights.

If you only have .5, check the outgoing leg one-way, then check the return leg one-way.

Just to be clear, can I move 9600 RR 2.0 points to airtran for 8 credits, then move it back to get 8 SW credits and create .5 an award to check one way award travel availability? Will it allow you to create .5 an award? I would at that point transfer the other 9600 to form a full roundtrip award once I checked availability. I only ask because airfare from RDU-SAN is incredibly expensive with points and 19200 RR 2.0 is a crazy amount of savings.

If you just have 1/2 an award, and it is available for use, you can only look at one way flights.

ftnoob figured a work-around for this, and I've used it to book an A-B-C one-way trip. Maybe somebody can find that info and link it here.

Just to be clear, can I move 9600 RR 2.0 points to airtran for 8 credits, then move it back to get 8 SW credits and create .5 an award to check one way award travel availability? Will it allow you to create .5 an award? I would at that point transfer the other 9600 to form a full roundtrip award once I checked availability. I only ask because airfare from RDU-SAN is incredibly expensive with points and 19200 RR 2.0 is a crazy amount of savings.

The only way you can create an award is with 16 credits. You cannot create a .5 award from only 8 credits.

does the 2 step method still work? I am considering moving an old award to AirTran to actual use there, but have never tried this method.

Is it possible to do this same thing for a few family members on the same flight, or are there not enough reward seats on an AirTran flight?

Feel free to PM me as well, if you have done this and have any special pointers you don't want to post.;)

does the 2 step method still work? I am considering moving an old award to AirTran to actual use there, but have never tried this method.
Yes it still works, but your newly created AirTran credits will maintain the same expiration date as your old RR Standard Award. If your flight is too far out, you may need to do a three step transfer (1 RR SA w/ old expiration date -> 16 A+ credits w/ old expiration date -> 1 RR SA w/ new expiration date -> A+ credits w/ new expiration date) to book the flight.

Is it possible to do this same thing for a few family members on the same flight, or are there not enough reward seats on an AirTran flight?
You'll probably get a better answer to this in the Airtran forum, but I just ran a search (with zero credits in my A+ account) for a random flight with varying number of passengers. Depending on how many tickets I wanted to buy, different options appeared based on the number of award seats available. So I looks like you can search for yourself.

Yes it still works, but your newly created AirTran credits will maintain the same expiration date as your old RR Standard Award. If your flight is too far out, you may need to do a three step transfer (1 RR SA w/ old expiration date -> 16 A+ credits w/ old expiration date -> 1 RR SA w/ new expiration date -> A+ credits w/ new expiration date) to book the flight.


You'll probably get a better answer to this in the Airtran forum, but I just ran a search (with zero credits in my A+ account) for a random flight with varying number of passengers. Depending on how many tickets I wanted to buy, different options appeared based on the number of award seats available. So I looks like you can search for yourself.


Thanks very much for the info.
Im just confused when to do it. We don't need them until next spring, but they will expire within the next few months.

Also, I'm not an A+ member yet. Well maybe, I am, I think I got something with a number (maybe due to my SW status).

I am thinking they match benefits for SW status (cannot really remember).

Thanks very much for the info.
Im just confused when to do it. We don't need them until next spring, but they will expire within the next few months.
Glad I could help.

Because it sounds like the RR SAs will expire before you want to use them, I'd go ahead and do the transfer two-step now. This will push the expiration dates out to one year from now. There are no limits to the number of transfer two-steps that you can do with an award, so there is no harm in doing it now. During this process you'll also need to set up your A+ account, so that would also give you a chance to check out what award flights AirTran has available.

Still working. I just extended my 2 trips again. :)

Just checking if someone has tried this recently?

Didn't want to do the transfer from SW standard award to AirTran only to find out that the expiration date remains the same.

I have 1 standard award expiring next month that I'd like to renew, so wanting to pull the trigger on the 2 way transfer.

Thanks in advance for the help!

As long as you have 2 one-way Standard Awards (16 credit equivalency), yes you can still do this.

We just did the 2-step a month ago - surprisingly easy to do - 2 new RR 1.0 certs good for another year.

Yep, I did it a week ago.

Worked for me. Just did it today morning, and have a fresh 1 year expiry for my Standard Award that was due to expire within a month.

Thanks guys!

Just so I'm on the right track here-instead of paying $50 can't you now extend your points 2 years just by earning a "single point"-like ordering a cup of coffee or glass of soda from a Rapid Rewards Dining restaurant?

Just so I'm on the right track here-instead of paying $50 can't you now extend your points 2 years just by earning a "single point"-like ordering a cup of coffee or glass of soda from a Rapid Rewards Dining restaurant?

Welcome to Flyertalk, Bob Sims!

In theory, that should work. But this only extends your existing points, not an Award that has already been issued.

The double transfer loophole is alive and well. Had two Standard Awards set to expire on 4/1/13. Transferred to AirTran and back to SW on the same day this week and my awards now have a 4/1/14 expiration.

Any maybe it's just my imagination but it seems to have opened up more opportunities to use the award now. Prior to the transfer, available ST flights were few and far between.

I just completed this today and it worked! I was set to expire in a week! Phew!!!

If you're talking about a standard award, you can convert it to AirTran A+ Reward credits and then back into a fresh WN standard award that will expire in a year.

I assume you can not do this with the transition awards? The ones where you combine points and old credits to make an award?

I assume you can not do this with the transition awards? The ones where you combine points and old credits to make an award?

In fact, you can. They are treated the same.

I'm super-excited to have found this thread as I think I will be able to do it for 2 RT awards (me and hubby). Pushing it out a year is great but has everyone found the old-fashioned standard awards are few and far between. I'm happy I'll be able to push it out but it seems increasingly hard to find availability.

Maybe I'm not so excited after all. I have topped-off standard awards so do these work? If it does work for me...do I need to complete the two-step in one day. I'm not traveling until 4/19/2014 so I need to wait a few weeks to be one year out. Can I move the awards to A+ now and then wait a few weeks for step two?

Maybe I'm not so excited after all. I have topped-off standard awards so do these work? If it does work for me...do I need to complete the two-step in one day. I'm not traveling until 4/19/2014 so I need to wait a few weeks to be one year out. Can I move the awards to A+ now and then wait a few weeks for step two?

Standard Awards created by topping off with points can be run through the transfer two-step. You do not have to finish the transfers in one day; you can park the awards/credits in your Southwest or AirTran account, but be aware that the expiration date does not extend until a new RT SA is generated. You can transfer back and forth between programs as often as you want, provided you have the necessary number of standard awards (2 one way coupons) or credits (16) or combination thereof. You will want to be sure that your expiration date is after your return flight if you will be using a SA for the return flight. It is safest to park your SA/credits in the airline account you expect to use them in, just in case the transfer program suddenly ends and you don't get stuck with credits in the wrong program. (This is not expected to happen anytime soon.)

Standard Awards created by topping off with points can be run through the transfer two-step. You do not have to finish the transfers in one day; you can park the awards/credits in your Southwest or AirTran account, but be aware that the expiration date does not extend until a new RT SA is generated. You can transfer back and forth between programs as often as you want, provided you have the necessary number of standard awards (2 one way coupons) or credits (16) or combination thereof. You will want to be sure that your expiration date is after your return flight if you will be using a SA for the return flight. It is safest to park your SA/credits in the airline account you expect to use them in, just in case the transfer program suddenly ends and you don't get stuck with credits in the wrong program. (This is not expected to happen anytime soon.)

Thanks so much for the detailed response! I'm really happy I "might" not lose these SA. Might is the key word as it seems like SW is highly limiting the availability of them on flights. Maybe as more people's run out in the coming year there will be availability?? Of course, I need to travel during school vacations which makes it even more difficult...

New to this and just reading these posts. Any help appreciated... I have 2 standard awards that will expire on November 1. I know I cannot use them before then. I see you can get an extension for $50? How long is it for and how do I go about it?
Also, can these two awards be converted to Air Tran and converted back to SW with a new expiration date without losing them?
Thanks!

Were you able to extend your awards?

Yes you can. i did it as recent as 1 week back.

2 way transfer from SW->AirTran->SW...read prior posts to see how exactly to do this.

Good Luck!

Is there a way to extend a one-way standard award or does the transfer two-step have to be with two one-ways in order to get a new expiration date?

Would transferring a one-way SWA --> Airtran --> SWA and then top off with RR Points work (to generate a new roundtrip)?

FF

Is there a way to extend a one-way standard award or does the transfer two-step have to be with two one-ways in order to get a new expiration date?

No. Yes.

Would transferring a one-way SWA --> Airtran --> SWA and then top off with RR Points work (to generate a new roundtrip)?

And yes.