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

Old Sep 17, 2014, 10:45 am
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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 Jul 30, 2019, 6:57 am
  #2086  
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5
July 23 - Used Plat to pay for SW fees and taxes on a flight purchased by points
July 25 - Reimbursed $5.60

July 26 - Purchased SW flight on Plat from BWI to EWR
July 29 - Reimbursed $83.98

$110.42 Left on the meter.
Banga_Saab is offline  
Old Jul 30, 2019, 10:11 am
  #2087  
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: WAS
Programs: UA 1K, BA
Posts: 6
Gift card plus charge on card below $100 worked for me.

Jul 22 - bought a one-way $128.95 flight with a $30 gift card bought with some other card and charged the rest to the Platinum.
Jul 24 - meter went down
Jul 25 - airline fee reimbursement of $98.95.
rippler is offline  
Old Jul 30, 2019, 11:45 am
  #2088  
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1
does buying gift cards trigger the travel credits?

does buying gift cards with Amex Gold trigger the travel credits now?
Sam Ng is offline  
Old Jul 30, 2019, 11:57 am
  #2089  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: TX, USA
Programs: Bonvoy Plat, Hilton Diamond, IHG SA
Posts: 139
Originally Posted by Sam Ng
does buying gift cards with Amex Gold trigger the travel credits now?
Not any more since last month
dagangwood is offline  
Old Jul 30, 2019, 2:31 pm
  #2090  
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1
Amex Platinum

7/26 Selected SW as airline
7/27 Purchased two $79 tickets, two transactions
7/30 Meter went down to $42
Expecting get reimbursed in the next few days.
Drdammit is offline  
Old Jul 31, 2019, 9:41 am
  #2091  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 41
Originally Posted by edkwan88
I don't think it is dependent on the card issuer, I think it's more how the airline does it. I usually purchase 2 tickets at a time and most of the time it posts as two separate transactions. However, this WN ticket showed it pending as only one charge. That's all I'm asking, is if SW will split out the charges into two transactions or leave it as one. I guess I'll find out in a couple days.
How did this turn out? Did the two tickets post separately? And, if so, was each one reimbursed separately (with an independent $100 cap)?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. And, from recent comments, it looks like there are other people who are also trying to figure out whether a multi-ticket purchase will be split up for purposes of the Amex credit.

I have a situation where it will be one adult and one child on the eventual use of this, so I don't think I can do two separate tickets - because you run into "child traveling alone" issues and fees when you try to separately book a child's ticket.
40orFight is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 12:27 am
  #2092  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: UA gold; WN A; PC plat; Marriott Gold
Posts: 425
Originally Posted by 40orFight
I have a situation where it will be one adult and one child on the eventual use of this, so I don't think I can do two separate tickets - because you run into "child traveling alone" issues and fees when you try to separately book a child's ticket.
I would think in general adult+child on two separate reservation but on same flight situation would be allowed, e.g. one is a paid ticket and the other is an award ticket. you can try booking this as two separate paid reservations and see what happens when you are booking the child's reservation. worst case you can cancel within 24hours.
qisu is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 6:02 am
  #2093  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: CO, UA, AA, WN, DL Gold
Posts: 2,981
Originally Posted by 40orFight
How did this turn out? Did the two tickets post separately? And, if so, was each one reimbursed separately (with an independent $100 cap)?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. And, from recent comments, it looks like there are other people who are also trying to figure out whether a multi-ticket purchase will be split up for purposes of the Amex credit.

I have a situation where it will be one adult and one child on the eventual use of this, so I don't think I can do two separate tickets - because you run into "child traveling alone" issues and fees when you try to separately book a child's ticket.
If the child is not on the same reservation as you, you will probably have to check him/her in at he airport with an agent. This could be a huge PIA if the lines are long.
thebat is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 9:12 am
  #2094  
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by Banga_Saab
July 23 - Used Plat to pay for SW fees and taxes on a flight purchased by points
July 25 - Reimbursed $5.60

July 26 - Purchased SW flight on Plat from BWI to EWR
July 29 - Reimbursed $83.98

$110.42 Left on the meter.

7/30 - Bought flight, BWI to BOS
8/1 - Reimbursed $102.98

$7.44 left on Meter.

Glad this worked, otherwise that $550 yearly card fee is just way too much to recoup.
Banga_Saab is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 9:29 am
  #2095  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: SAN
Posts: 54
Originally Posted by Banga_Saab
7/30 - Bought flight, BWI to BOS
8/1 - Reimbursed $102.98

$7.44 left on Meter.

Glad this worked, otherwise that $550 yearly card fee is just way too much to recoup.
Nice! This is the first DP I've seen for purchase over $100.
fishfly is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 10:18 am
  #2096  
 
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 8
7/29 Purchased SW flight with Platinum, BWI-MSP $99.98 Passenger Ticket
8/1 Reimbursed $99.98
asdf1 is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 10:50 am
  #2097  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 41
Originally Posted by thebat
If the child is not on the same reservation as you, you will probably have to check him/her in at he airport with an agent. This could be a huge PIA if the lines are long.
Agree - wouldn't want to do that. The idea here is to refund the fares to the future travel funds of the adult and the child, respectively - and then book them together on a reservation later using each person's accumulated travel funds. Since there is a limit (3) on the number of prior travel fund credits that can be applied for each person on a reservation, I was trying to find a way to get each person's credits from the prior cancelled fares up to $100 (rather than being stuck with only $50 each if the adult and child have to be booked together).

The preferred alternative is to be able to book them together and refund - if someone can confirm that Southwest splits the total fare (on a multi-person reservation) up by person for billing purposes (and Amex will credit up to $100 for each individual person/charge on the same reservation).
thebat likes this.
40orFight is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 10:54 am
  #2098  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 41
Originally Posted by qisu
I would think in general adult+child on two separate reservation but on same flight situation would be allowed, e.g. one is a paid ticket and the other is an award ticket. you can try booking this as two separate paid reservations and see what happens when you are booking the child's reservation. worst case you can cancel within 24hours.
Thanks, yes you may be right. Other airlines try to charge the "child traveling alone" fee at the start, but Southwest doesn't seem to (or maybe it does, just later in the process). I haven't actually gone fully through the process yet to buy a child's ticket alone. I'll give it a try if I need to - but before going down that path, I'd prefer to find out the answer to my original question as to whether Southwest splits the charge for a multi-person reservation (and whether Amex reimburses each person's charge on a combined reservation up to $100). That seems to be the simpler solution - if it works.
40orFight is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 10:58 am
  #2099  
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Programs: United MM, Alaska MVP, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Plat
Posts: 560
7/30 purchased four separate one ways all less than $100. All reimbursed 8/2. Meter is now zero. Used Hilton Amex Aspire.

Purchased a $250 gift card in June and was not reimbursed so I guess I'll be flying Southwest more next year!
buzglyd is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2019, 1:19 pm
  #2100  
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by fishfly
Nice! This is the first DP I've seen for purchase over $100.
I had read somebody was reimbursed with a $104 ticket earlier in the thread...I was afraid to do it, but happy it worked.
Banga_Saab is offline  

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