Sep 17, 2014, 10:45 am
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.
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.
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.
Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)
Jul 2, 2019, 12:43 pm
#1906
formerly atomicfront
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 171
I figured the net negative annual fee on the Aspire wouldn't last ... 
.
On top of the killed travel credit, Amex is also killing the Priority Pass later this year (selectively removing all restaurants/etc and only keeping the lounges). Which I can see on their cards that also give Amex Lounge access, but the Aspire only gives the Priority Pass.
Guess I continue keeping my Chase Sapphire Reserve around (had been considering dropping it and keeping Aspire instead).
Devalued hilton points already pushes the 14 points/$ at Hilton to very near what I get on chase anyways. 3 Chase points = 4.5%. 14 hilton points at <0.4 (it's now generally 0.4 or even lower compared to AAA/MVP rates without even considering "lost" 20% by not earning rewards on reward stays. I find even 5 day stays now come out near 0.4 when considering the "unearned" rewards on reward stays.) = 14*0.4 = 5.6%. And by the time I get around to using all my Hilton Points, I'm sure they'll devalue them further.
Much more difficult proposition to pull out 450 of value now, IMO comes down to the Diamond status for keeping the card.
.On top of the killed travel credit, Amex is also killing the Priority Pass later this year (selectively removing all restaurants/etc and only keeping the lounges). Which I can see on their cards that also give Amex Lounge access, but the Aspire only gives the Priority Pass.
Guess I continue keeping my Chase Sapphire Reserve around (had been considering dropping it and keeping Aspire instead).
Devalued hilton points already pushes the 14 points/$ at Hilton to very near what I get on chase anyways. 3 Chase points = 4.5%. 14 hilton points at <0.4 (it's now generally 0.4 or even lower compared to AAA/MVP rates without even considering "lost" 20% by not earning rewards on reward stays. I find even 5 day stays now come out near 0.4 when considering the "unearned" rewards on reward stays.) = 14*0.4 = 5.6%. And by the time I get around to using all my Hilton Points, I'm sure they'll devalue them further.
Much more difficult proposition to pull out 450 of value now, IMO comes down to the Diamond status for keeping the card.
Jul 2, 2019, 12:45 pm
#1907
formerly atomicfront
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 171
Early bird is pretty useless. It guarantees you nothing. Better off traveling with a kid. Really I fly Southwest in country so you get free bags anyway. And International on AA which gives you free bags. You can get free wifi on a WN flight I guess.
Jul 2, 2019, 2:41 pm
#1908
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1,639
Glad I used up my $300 (plat+gold) credit earlier this year. If this goes away I'm almost certainly going to bail next year for the Sapphire Reserve.
Jul 2, 2019, 2:51 pm
#1909
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: csp chase sw chase united barclay hilton citi aa
Posts: 21
yikes purchased last week aspire 250 SW. was wondering why credit hadn't posted. that sucks now I'm out 250. wondering if ill keep the card now. this was clearing up half the annual fee. SMH
Jul 2, 2019, 2:58 pm
#1910
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: HOU/IAH
Programs: WN CP; Hilton Diamond; IHG Plat
Posts: 189
my actions, and sentiments, exactly. Esp on top of the Amex Priority Pass $28 restaurant credits going away.
Jul 2, 2019, 4:26 pm
#1911
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 354
Jul 2, 2019, 5:15 pm
#1912
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 2
Amex Biz Plat. Bought 1x$100 SW on 6/20, reimbursed 6/22. Bought another 1x$100 SW on 6/24, still not reimbursed
Jul 2, 2019, 5:22 pm
#1913
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 4
Amex Platinum
I bought the WN GC for $200 on 6/29, the charge went through on 7/1. The charge is coded as Spd/Air Freight. Accidently logged in to Rapid Rewards. Still have not received my credit.
Interestingly, I made a SAKS purchase online the same day and was credited $50 today (7/2)
Has anyone had experience calling in asking for the credit? Claiming say, the charge was used for extra bags, etc?
Are other airline GC hacks working?
I bought the WN GC for $200 on 6/29, the charge went through on 7/1. The charge is coded as Spd/Air Freight. Accidently logged in to Rapid Rewards. Still have not received my credit.
Interestingly, I made a SAKS purchase online the same day and was credited $50 today (7/2)
Has anyone had experience calling in asking for the credit? Claiming say, the charge was used for extra bags, etc?
Are other airline GC hacks working?
Jul 2, 2019, 7:45 pm
#1914
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 825
no children so ebci, drinks and wifi it is.
Jul 2, 2019, 11:36 pm
#1917
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: AA Plat, AS Gold 75k, Marriott Titanium, IHG Gold
Posts: 17
Tried to post the link but I can’t since I don’t have five posts yet.
Jul 2, 2019, 11:40 pm
#1918
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 22
Uh oh.......
Delta, Southwest Gift Cards May No Longer Trigger Amex Airline Fee Credit by The Points Guy
I think this is really dead. AMEX better make a change here or they're going to lose a lot of customers.
Delta, Southwest Gift Cards May No Longer Trigger Amex Airline Fee Credit by The Points Guy
I think this is really dead. AMEX better make a change here or they're going to lose a lot of customers.
Jul 3, 2019, 7:21 am
#1919
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,061
Someone on reddit posted a few days ago they bought $200 in gift cards and then proceeded to purchase a ticket for $299. The $99 excess coded as passenger ticket was reimbursed but the gift card was not.
Tried to post the link but I can’t since I don’t have five posts yet.
Jul 3, 2019, 8:21 am
#1920
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 354
Someone on reddit posted a few days ago they bought $200 in gift cards and then proceeded to purchase a ticket for $299. The $99 excess coded as passenger ticket was reimbursed but the gift card was not.
Tried to post the link but I can’t since I don’t have five posts yet.
looks that way. This route has been around since before, but it was usually easier/more flexible to buy GCs. Anyways, looks like partial airfare reimbursement will become my go-to method for using this benefit now.
also, somebody on TPG commented that 1 out of 3 DL GCs they bought on 6/25 was reimbursed on 6/29. The other 2, nothing. Here's the link: https://disqus.com/by/disqus_Uif6ldHWa8/?
makes me wonder if they used a DL platinum card and got a $50 Delta purchase credit, but mixed it up as the amex airline fee reimbursement that we're discussing here.
I will note that the user said they used an "amex platinum".
Last edited by 808traveler; Jul 3, 2019 at 9:24 am