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)
Aug 16, 2019, 6:14 am
#2147
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 61
The travel funds will go back to the person who's name is on the ticket regardless of who paid for it. They stay attached to the ticketed passenger / RR number
Aug 16, 2019, 10:27 am
#2149
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 6
Just a couple of questions for clarification:
Before the reimbursement for gift cards only worked if using the desktop site to purchase the gift cards. With the recent successful DPs for reimbursement of < $100 flights, does the same restriction apply or can I book the flights on the app and the website?
I’ve been saying a lot of successful DPs with people using gift cards and paying the balance less than $100 on the AMEX gold. Are you able to set an amount to be charged to the gift card? I don’t see a way to set an amount. My flights are $60 each way. Would it work to just charge the entire one-way fare onto the AMEX gold and repeat for the return trip?
Does paying for the taxes and fees on a companion fare and or award flight also trigger the airline credit?
Before the reimbursement for gift cards only worked if using the desktop site to purchase the gift cards. With the recent successful DPs for reimbursement of < $100 flights, does the same restriction apply or can I book the flights on the app and the website?
I’ve been saying a lot of successful DPs with people using gift cards and paying the balance less than $100 on the AMEX gold. Are you able to set an amount to be charged to the gift card? I don’t see a way to set an amount. My flights are $60 each way. Would it work to just charge the entire one-way fare onto the AMEX gold and repeat for the return trip?
Does paying for the taxes and fees on a companion fare and or award flight also trigger the airline credit?
Aug 16, 2019, 11:05 am
#2150
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Aug 16, 2019, 11:29 am
#2151
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 6
thanks for clarifying. I was referring to southwest because I saw previous posts specifically stating that they used the website. I wasn’t aware it only applied to Delta.
Aug 16, 2019, 12:42 pm
#2152
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 61
. Next I will wait few weeks and then get EBCI and I guess buy some drinks on the flight.
Aug 17, 2019, 11:45 am
#2153
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 4
First of all, THANK YOU to everyone here for sharing your experiences in trying to help others take advantage of this really annoying benefit.
Aug 14 - Selected Southwest as my airline
Aug 14 - Booked two one-way flights for $103.98 and $95.98 with my Amex Platinum
Aug 16 - Credits posted for $103.98 and $95.98 and meter is down to $0.04
Aug 17 - Canceled flights and now have $200 in travel fund
QUESTION: Does anyone know if Amex will claw back the $200 credit after canceling the card before the annual fee hits?
Aug 14 - Selected Southwest as my airline
Aug 14 - Booked two one-way flights for $103.98 and $95.98 with my Amex Platinum
Aug 16 - Credits posted for $103.98 and $95.98 and meter is down to $0.04
Aug 17 - Canceled flights and now have $200 in travel fund
QUESTION: Does anyone know if Amex will claw back the $200 credit after canceling the card before the annual fee hits?
Aug 18, 2019, 5:52 am
#2154
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: ATL
Posts: 802
First of all, THANK YOU to everyone here for sharing your experiences in trying to help others take advantage of this really annoying benefit.
Aug 14 - Selected Southwest as my airline
Aug 14 - Booked two one-way flights for $103.98 and $95.98 with my Amex Platinum
Aug 16 - Credits posted for $103.98 and $95.98 and meter is down to $0.04
Aug 17 - Canceled flights and now have $200 in travel fund
QUESTION: Does anyone know if Amex will claw back the $200 credit after canceling the card before the annual fee hits?
Aug 14 - Selected Southwest as my airline
Aug 14 - Booked two one-way flights for $103.98 and $95.98 with my Amex Platinum
Aug 16 - Credits posted for $103.98 and $95.98 and meter is down to $0.04
Aug 17 - Canceled flights and now have $200 in travel fund
QUESTION: Does anyone know if Amex will claw back the $200 credit after canceling the card before the annual fee hits?
Aug 18, 2019, 11:23 pm
#2156
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 267
Bought a ticket for $127.98. Paid $30 with a SW GC, the rest put on HH Aspire. Credited two days later. Worked like a champ! Thanks to all who provided DPs on this method.
Aug 19, 2019, 9:41 am
#2157
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 76
8/16- southwest one way ticket purchase of $94
8/18- reimbursed $94
Plan on doing one more to the tune of $100 or as close as possible.
8/18- reimbursed $94
Plan on doing one more to the tune of $100 or as close as possible.
Last edited by GunneRy; Aug 19, 2019 at 2:32 pm
Aug 19, 2019, 10:08 am
#2158
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 11
I took a slightly more complex approach to end up with one $200 voucher.
- Selected Southwest as my airline on my amex platinum card.
- Booked a $103.98 ticket.
- Waited for charge to post and amex credit counter to go down.
- Cancelled the flight and got a travel voucher.
- Booked a new flight for $200 and split the payment between my platinum card and the travel voucher from step 4. Because I used the travel voucher the new charge to the amex card was $96.
- Waited for the new charge to post and amex credit counter to go down to 0
- Canceled the new ticket and I ended up with a $200 travel voucher.
Aug 20, 2019, 10:01 am
#2159
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 25
I took a slightly more complex approach to end up with one $200 voucher.
- Selected Southwest as my airline on my amex platinum card.
- Booked a $103.98 ticket.
- Waited for charge to post and amex credit counter to go down.
- Cancelled the flight and got a travel voucher.
- Booked a new flight for $200 and split the payment between my platinum card and the travel voucher from step 4. Because I used the travel voucher the new charge to the amex card was $96.
- Waited for the new charge to post and amex credit counter to go down to 0
- Canceled the new ticket and I ended up with a $200 travel voucher.
Aug 20, 2019, 12:26 pm
#2160
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 1
Ack! I purchased tickets 2 days ago and completely forgot that my last airline I used was American Airlines. I called to switch over to Southwest, but now I'm wondering if it will retro-actively find the purchases and credit them. Anyone have any experience with that, or am I sol?