I just got burned by this -- I have TTF expiring in a month and have a last minute trip to go on, so I said hey, why not, use the TTF with some new CC money for the trip. Of course, the price of the trip goes down, I refare, and the extra money.. still stays with Southwest, as now it also has the short term expiration date and I don't have any more trips planned.

I'll take this limitation over the addition of change fees, but it does make it harder to use those small balances left over effectively. And of course, no change fees is great when you can change your ticket -- four tickets in a row that I wanted to change I could not due to system problems -- the first two because the re-use award issue (supposedly now fixed) and the last two because some ticketless travel funds show fine and apply on the final screen but then won't completely ticket.

Frustrating as heck