toomanybooks

We are approaching the 2-year mark for the start of RR 2.0 (at the end of next month) and there are no doubt many old-style credits expiring, as I recall a lot of posting activity once 2.0 was announced in early January 2011 (as I recall). Make sure you don't lose track of them.

In your WN online account from the page explaining how you can generate an Award by adding points to it, there is a link that will tell you when each credit expires. Worth verifying, as they are worth 1200 new points each toward an Award and they cannot be revived after expiration.

Also through the square yellow-and-blue "Where are my Awards?" link at right on the login page, you can find out which Awards (one-way or RT) you have which are expired and can be revived for $50.

ursine1

It's probably worth noting that availability of old award seats is extremely limited, and that checking before converting any points is a good idea.

Phoenixtinct

I had some expiring credits in December but converting a few thousand points, I was able to get 16 credits for a round-trip award, just so I don't see 2-3 credits expiring. Never redeemed for award travel on Southwest, so not sure what the availability is but one can transfer the award(s) to AirTran and book with them. Which brings me to my next point. Until AirTran's A+ Rewards program is converted to using points, people will still face the issue of booking awards with credits (as opposed to using points only). I transfer between both programs all the time. And I just got 32 AirTran credits from the new AirTran credit card, which I may use on Southwest due to no baggage fees.

But the point is, whether it's the 2-year mark or not, credits will be around for quite a while longer. So, Southwest needs to come up with a way to resolve this once and for all. They've been taking their time in handling everything about this takeover with an extremely slow pace. If availability is really scarce on Southwest when using credits to redeem, I won't be a happy camper.

toomanybooks

On some routes, yes. On others, wide open. Still a good idea to check, or have someone check for you.

Issuance of the Award upon adding points to credits is instant.

TravelGuy1965

I have a couple Freedom Awards I'd like to keep intact.

They list an expiry of 2/10/12 but are available for reissue.

I recall hearing that expired awards were only available for reissue for one year instead of what I think was 2 years in the old program.

Has anyone verified if 'available' for reissue is one year for these?
Or know if there is a place online to check?

toomanybooks

There has been some confusion on this as far as I know. You probably ought to call Customer Service and verify for sure. If you do, please report back what you learn. Thanks.

TravelGuy1965

I'd say... Customer service insists 24 months. When i said I've seen conflicting information on internet forums and would very much like some type of online our email confirmation she found a supervisor who confirmed it was 24 months. She said you will see 12 months on their Web site but its really 24.
My next step was to email a question siteing the phone call and asking for email confirmation for my records. I think there will be a strong case for people if they do actually expire in 12 months.....

If they tell me 12 in the email reply if recommend people call to get confirmation of 24 and ask them to notate their account. I'm guessing they should be able to do that and should have thought of it before i emailed. Notation on an account should make a case. Just take screen shots of your account awards before the 12 months.

ursine1

I believe the official line is that it's currently 24 months, but that could change to 12 at any time. <rollseyes>

Jwebber57

We'll my originally rr credits expired at different dates and before I knew it they all expired but customer service reissued them and I used a few points 9,000 to make up the difference so I have my ticket that expires in August, but may- August are blacked out so I'm leaving for Cali in 3 week.

It sucks cause I had to use half of my points...


Blah but I still love my Southwest Airlines

TravelGuy1965

There are two very different aspects here.

A) When they expire and are still available for 're-issue'. Expire has always been 12 months.

B) Once expired how long they are available for reissue. The old program allowed 24 months. Then at the introduction of 2.0 they indicated it would be reduced to 12 months. However, now the web site says 12 months but customer service say its really for 24 months. This is the open/confusing question... And if it is 24months will the just make a no-notice change back to 12 leaving us in a lurch...

pshuang

<reposted>

OzzyOzzie

I had 8 credits, most of them expiring in December 2012 so I used points to get the other 8 credits for a RR 1.0 award. Mine expire on 12/08/2013. I think my latest (single) credit would have expired in February 2013.

pshuang

Any remaining unexpired Standard awards (issued before RR 2.0) or Transition awards (issued after RR 2.0) can be fed through the Texas two-step (convert to Airtran and back... see FAQ) without financial outlay and with no penalty. So that's easy, there's an optimal solution for everybody in that situation. Hopefully people aren't so paranoid as to do the two-step every month as that might introduce such high conversion volume as to draw unwanted attention. I've been doing it as my Transition awards come within 4 months of expiration.

Any expired Standard awards can be reissued for $50, with no way to avoid this fee. Since the Texas two-step exists and is reasonably likely to exist for some reasonable amount of time, I think reissuing expired Standard awards before the 1-year mark after expiration, and then using the Texas two-step periodically, makes the most sense as the least risky strategy.

The difficult quandary is for those of us with an expired Freedom award, which cannot be fed through the two-step process. Do we renew just before the 12-month mark after the expiration as documented by the terms & conditions on the Southwest Web site, or hang tight for the 24-month mark as currently promised but without written public declaration? The $50 cost to reissue would be spent either way, and the time-value of the $50 for a year is negligible. The real opportunity cost is whether renewing early before the 12-month mark means you'll feel "forced" to use the Freedom award on an itinerary that won't be as valuable as an itinerary you could have used it on if you had waited later to renew. It's a real #FirstWorldProblem, I know.

I'm planning to wait and see and hope for Southwest to continue to honor the 24-month mark. There's a rapidly dwindling supply of awards on which the $50 reissuance is even possible, so I'm hoping they will have little reason to make a change and thereby anger customers whom they told 24 months. Part of my thinking is that if I renew now before the 12-month mark, I really am giving myself only about 8 months of time during which I can really seek optimal usage. In the final 4 months, I'll be in the mindset that even significantly non-optimal usage of the Freedom award would be better than no usage of it at all. If I wait, I'm giving myself 20 months of seeking optimal usage and 4 months of any-usage-is-better-than-none.

A small glimmer of support for the 24-month reissuance: my Freedom award is now one year and one day past its expiration, and is still listed as reissuable. I clicked through to what appears to be the final page to confirm reissuance, and the Web site did not balk. (Sometimes you see something in a Web site summary but if you try to initiate the actual transaction, the Web site decides what you want to do isn't allowed after all. Does not appear to be the case here, although still possible that the Web site would balk at the actual purchase.)