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)
Dec 30, 2019, 10:44 am
#2671
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 8
Purchased 1 $89 flight and paid taxes on 2 domestic award flights, reimbursed 12/27.
Dec 30, 2019, 11:46 am
#2672
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 93
2019 and 2020 credits
As we are at end of the year, and it takes credits a few days to reimburse , how would it work to the meter of a purchase is made now and it goes into 2020, how do we know what year credit was applied?
Dec 30, 2019, 11:58 am
#2673
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 57,084
Travel funds for cancelled tickets can only be used for the passenger in the original ticket, right? That's my recollection, but I couldn't find confirmation on the Southwest site.
Dec 30, 2019, 12:26 pm
#2675
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 136
Not reimbursed yet!
Chose SW as the main airline for Amex Honors card. Booked SW award tickets using the points and paying the taxes in November.
So are the taxes on award tickets don't get reimbursed? Doesn't count as airline fee credit? Thank you.
So are the taxes on award tickets don't get reimbursed? Doesn't count as airline fee credit? Thank you.
Dec 30, 2019, 12:45 pm
#2676
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Dec 30, 2019, 1:46 pm
#2677
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 1
12/24 Selected WN as airline
12/25 Purchased one-way tickets totaling $250
12/26 Transactions posted
12/27 Meter moved
12/28 Received Airline Fee Reimbursement dated 12/27
12/25 Purchased one-way tickets totaling $250
12/26 Transactions posted
12/27 Meter moved
12/28 Received Airline Fee Reimbursement dated 12/27
Dec 30, 2019, 1:53 pm
#2678
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 55
So I've had the platinum for several years and have united as my airline this year. I spent and received the credits earlier this year. Recently I signed up for the aspire and selected southwest as my airline on this card. However I now look back at my platinum counter and it shows all 200 as available to spend n united before 31Dec2019. Has anyone ever seen something like this? I dont have a need to spend anything on united although I am curious as to whether it would actually credit me again.
Dec 30, 2019, 1:53 pm
#2679
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 57,084
Any predictions on whether Amex will close this loophole in 2020? I'm puzzled as to why it ever existed. If the software can spot and reject statement credit for a $150 canceled flight, how difficult would it be to tweak that to reject credits for $90 tickets?
Dec 30, 2019, 4:00 pm
#2680
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 55
Possibly which why I plan to spend all of it early in 2020.
Dec 30, 2019, 5:08 pm
#2681
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 57,084
Yeah, my thinking as well. I have no real CompSci talent, but I somehow earned real money in my teenage years in that field.
My best guess is that Amex does not pay enough bucks to attract the best talent in CompSci, and whatever talent they hire will be tasked to focus on things that have nothing to do with what we FlyerTalker travel geeks obsess about.
My best guess is that Amex does not pay enough bucks to attract the best talent in CompSci, and whatever talent they hire will be tasked to focus on things that have nothing to do with what we FlyerTalker travel geeks obsess about.
Dec 30, 2019, 7:27 pm
#2682
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 61
I just got my Amex Biz Plat today Dec. 30. If I get SW tickets today and also $100 Dell Xbox gc do you think that's enough time for it to count for 2019? Would be a nice triple dip but I'm not sure if I want to risk it and just double dip instead. Thanks!
Dec 30, 2019, 8:13 pm
#2683
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 5,867
2) How would they close the loophole? Really the only way to do it would be to only reimburse charges under a certain threshold (i.e. $50). But, even then, you can still get cheap flights under that threshold (i.e. LAX-LAS).
Dec 30, 2019, 8:33 pm
#2684
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 136
Thank you. Looks like I got this wrong then. I was under the impression that award flight taxes are valid and will be reimbursed.
I lost $250 credit for 2019 with Amex Honors card. Bummer!!
I lost $250 credit for 2019 with Amex Honors card. Bummer!!