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Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)

Old Sep 17, 2014, 10:45 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Tanic
Reminder: you must enroll and select Southwest as your airline BEFORE making a reimbursable purchase.
Some have suggested the need to wait several hours or even a day before making the purchase, but there are also several DPs that worked without waiting that long.

(BTW, you will often hear people refer to Southwest as WN. WN is the IATA code for Southwest Airlines. SW is the IATA code for Air Namibia.)

Caution: As of late July 2019, reports are that direct gift card purchases are no longer being reimbursed.
To purchase click here: https://www.southwest.com/gift-card/create-card.html Caution: Do NOT login to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account when making the purchase.

What does appear to work is buying flight tickets less than $100, OR using gift cards to get the charged amount down to less than $100.

Always read the last few pages to get up-to-date DPs.





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Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)

Old Mar 2, 2011, 5:06 pm
  #1  
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Programs: SPG Plat, WN CP, Many Others
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Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)

I doubt many people chose Southwest like I did since bags are free and there are no change fees. However, for this year I will be on SW a lot and figured I would drink $200 in drinks anyway. Those credited back to my card even before I got back from my 3 day trip as well as the EarlyBird Checkin $10charges so I could get a better boarding position.
millere2 is offline  
Old Mar 4, 2011, 10:57 am
  #2  
 
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Originally Posted by millere2
I doubt many people chose Southwest like I did since bags are free and there are no change fees. However, for this year I will be on SW a lot and figured I would drink $200 in drinks anyway. Those credited back to my card even before I got back from my 3 day trip as well as the EarlyBird Checkin $10charges so I could get a better boarding position.
Good to know on the boarding position and nothing like a nice cold one on in the air...
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Old May 9, 2011, 8:38 pm
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Laguna Beach, CA
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Anyone used this on Southwest to buy gift certificates?

I fly a lot of Southwest but of course do not incur a lot of fees (either because there are no fees or because I have drink coupons). As such, I'd rather not spend the $200 on things I otherwise wouldn't spend money on if I can actually save money with it. Southwest gift certificates would be ideal, but of course with only one shot to select the airlines I wouldn't want to lock into Southwest only to find out the gift certificates aren't being reimbursed.

My other option is to either buy some AA or other gift certificates which are confirmed to work, but my future travel plans that won't be using Southwest are not set yet. Again, locking myself into AA or DL or what not would be suboptimal as then I might have to go with that airline even if flights are not the cheapest.

As a test, I did purchase a gift certificate from WN to see how it would be billed -- perhaps someone with more experience with the workings might be able to tell whether it would be reimbursed? This is from the "Pending Activity", not the final charge.

Code:
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES	 10.00
.	
Doing Business As:	 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Merchant Address:	 ATTN SUPVR CR CD BILLINGS
MAIL STA 6AR/PO BOX 36611
DALLAS
TX
75235
UNITED STATES

Category: Travel - Airline
From what I can tell, an actual ticket purchase adds some info regarding the flight and says "DOCUMENT TYPE: PASSENGER TICKET".
mgchan is offline  
Old May 10, 2011, 8:46 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: May 2011
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I can confirm that it works with Southwest gift cards. Got reimbursed for a $25 purchase of one. Yay.
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Old May 10, 2011, 7:59 pm
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by jimbobiii
I can confirm that it works with Southwest gift cards. Got reimbursed for a $25 purchase of one. Yay.
Thanks! I'll go ahead and select Southwest and try to buy a few $50 cards.
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Old May 11, 2011, 6:14 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by mgchan
Thanks! I'll go ahead and select Southwest and try to buy a few $50 cards.
I am going to try 2 - $100 ones on two separate buys! Please note according to SWA you can ONLY use 3 gift certs per PNR so if you are 2 people on a trip and want to use 6 of them you will have to split into two PNR's!

@:-)


..... Technically you can use 4 but then the ticket must be under the total amount of the gift cards as the 4th card must be your credit card to make up the rest of the cost. Clear?

https://www.southwest.com/html/help/...onditions.html
Renes Points is offline  
Old May 11, 2011, 11:55 pm
  #7  
 
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Originally Posted by deltagoldflyer
I am going to try 2 - $100 ones on two separate buys! Please note according to SWA you can ONLY use 3 gift certs per PNR so if you are 2 people on a trip and want to use 6 of them you will have to split into two PNR's!

@:-)


..... Technically you can use 4 but then the ticket must be under the total amount of the gift cards as the 4th card must be your credit card to make up the rest of the cost. Clear?

https://www.southwest.com/html/help/...onditions.html
Haha well let me know how the $100 goes. I put in a trial $50 gift card. Obviously it would be nice to have it on less cards but it doesn't matter too much because I make short trips on Southwest quite often. I actually already have quite a lot of money tied up in cancelled trip funds...
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Old May 14, 2011, 1:59 pm
  #8  
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Originally Posted by mgchan
Haha well let me know how the $100 goes. I put in a trial $50 gift card. Obviously it would be nice to have it on less cards but it doesn't matter too much because I make short trips on Southwest quite often. I actually already have quite a lot of money tied up in cancelled trip funds...
We are golden - or at least I am - got the $100 credit for the $100 SW gift card (e-mail flavored one) and put in for one more today. ^^^
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Old May 15, 2011, 12:33 am
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by deltagoldflyer
We are golden - or at least I am - got the $100 credit for the $100 SW gift card (e-mail flavored one) and put in for one more today. ^^^
Nice, after I got my $50 credit I went ahead and ordered two more $75. Glad I don't have to adjust my flying now based on the credit and what airline I chose.
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Old May 18, 2011, 5:02 am
  #10  
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Originally Posted by mgchan
Nice, after I got my $50 credit I went ahead and ordered two more $75. Glad I don't have to adjust my flying now based on the credit and what airline I chose.
Just as an update on both my and wife account got full credit for both $100 gift e-cards. So, my $900 total card fee's down to $500. Also we are both doing the "GOES" so there will be another $200 so down to $300. Will try after JAN1-2012 for another $400 in SW e-cards and thus get PAID for one year with cards $100! O'and the 200,000 MR points on top of that. Wow what a nice deal!^^^
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Old Jun 23, 2011, 7:34 am
  #11  
 
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Just bought 2 $99 Airtran gift certificates in seperate transactions. I will advise whether they are reimbursed via the $200 Platinum Amex credit.
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Old Jun 27, 2011, 4:57 am
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by indual
Just bought 2 $99 Airtran gift certificates in seperate transactions. I will advise whether they are reimbursed via the $200 Platinum Amex credit.
I received credit for both of these gift card transactions with Airtran.
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Old Aug 25, 2011, 10:30 am
  #13  
 
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Noticed something interesting

After reading that Southwest gift cards would work, I designated Southwest as my airline choice for the benefit, waited 3 days, then bought a $100 e-gift card to test it out. I noticed the charge in my "pending charges" area and thought nothing of it. It remained in "pending" for about a week then just dropped off. When I review the other charges on my account, I don't see the southwest charge anywhere...neither the initial $100 charge, nor the $100 credit back. I repeated the same thing again more recently, bought another $100 e-gift card and experienced the same thing again (in "pending" for about a week, then it dropped off, actual charge nowhere to be seen).

I just made a dummy booking on southwest.com to make sure the e-gift card numbers that were sent my way were valid, and indeed, each one is loaded with $100 of value.

Has anyone experienced this? Seems very strange...
EmoryFlyer is offline  
Old Aug 25, 2011, 10:42 am
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by EmoryFlyer
After reading that Southwest gift cards would work, I designated Southwest as my airline choice for the benefit, waited 3 days, then bought a $100 e-gift card to test it out. I noticed the charge in my "pending charges" area and thought nothing of it. It remained in "pending" for about a week then just dropped off. When I review the other charges on my account, I don't see the southwest charge anywhere...neither the initial $100 charge, nor the $100 credit back. I repeated the same thing again more recently, bought another $100 e-gift card and experienced the same thing again (in "pending" for about a week, then it dropped off, actual charge nowhere to be seen).

I just made a dummy booking on southwest.com to make sure the e-gift card numbers that were sent my way were valid, and indeed, each one is loaded with $100 of value.

Has anyone experienced this? Seems very strange...
Even better than the $200 annual travel benefit.
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Old Aug 25, 2011, 12:48 pm
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by EmoryFlyer
After reading that Southwest gift cards would work, I designated Southwest as my airline choice for the benefit, waited 3 days, then bought a $100 e-gift card to test it out. I noticed the charge in my "pending charges" area and thought nothing of it. It remained in "pending" for about a week then just dropped off. When I review the other charges on my account, I don't see the southwest charge anywhere...neither the initial $100 charge, nor the $100 credit back. I repeated the same thing again more recently, bought another $100 e-gift card and experienced the same thing again (in "pending" for about a week, then it dropped off, actual charge nowhere to be seen).

I just made a dummy booking on southwest.com to make sure the e-gift card numbers that were sent my way were valid, and indeed, each one is loaded with $100 of value.

Has anyone experienced this? Seems very strange...
I'm experiencing something similar. I made a gift certificate purchase on 8/19 for $50, and it's been stuck in pending charges ever since. I've had other charges come and go through the pending status, so I don't know why it's stuck. I just used the $50 gift certificate to purchase a flight, so I know the purchase is good.

I've been waiting for the charge to clear pending state to see if it'll get reimbursed before I purchase more gift certificates.

How long before making your purchase did you designate Southwest as your airline? I designated Southwest on Sunday, 8/14 and then made my purchase on 8/19. I had assumed it was held up because they were processing my selection of airline and when the Southwest charge came in, the system got a bit confused. I dunno.
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