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)
Apr 7, 2012, 2:39 am
#61
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 143
Has anyone had luck recently with SW e-mail gift cards? I purchased one on 4/2, but haven't seen a reimbursement.
Details look like this:
Ticket Number : 5260003340285 Date of Departure : 1231
Passenger Name :
Document Type : SPD/AIR FREIGHT
Hoping someone can confirm that its still working.
Details look like this:
Ticket Number : 5260003340285 Date of Departure : 1231
Passenger Name :
Document Type : SPD/AIR FREIGHT
Hoping someone can confirm that its still working.
Apr 17, 2012, 4:39 pm
#62
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: DL/UA/AA
Posts: 40
Has anyone had luck recently with SW e-mail gift cards? I purchased one on 4/2, but haven't seen a reimbursement.
Details look like this:
Ticket Number : 5260003340285 Date of Departure : 1231
Passenger Name :
Document Type : SPD/AIR FREIGHT
Hoping someone can confirm that its still working.
Details look like this:
Ticket Number : 5260003340285 Date of Departure : 1231
Passenger Name :
Document Type : SPD/AIR FREIGHT
Hoping someone can confirm that its still working.
Apr 18, 2012, 7:19 pm
#65
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 1,782
worked fine for me - $50 gift card. Took about a week though.
Apr 20, 2012, 6:11 pm
#68
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 38
Has anyone tried buying 1x$200 gift card? Also, I want to buy an itinerary costing $279, would I get credit for $200 of that?
Apr 20, 2012, 10:06 pm
#69
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Cypress Hills Research Center
Posts: 5,295
AMEX does not reimburse for actual tickets, only for "incidentals." If you buy a $279 ticket you will not get a $200 credit. If you buy 2 $100 gift cards (preferably in separate transactions), you will most probably get a $200 reimbursement from AMEX and could use the gift cards towards the flight.
Of course things can change at any time. AMEX might stop reimbursing for gift cards or change the limit of what's considered "automatic" in terms of reimbursements to something less than $100. Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.
Apr 21, 2012, 2:21 am
#70
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 143
I've already used my $200 credit with WN. 2x75+50, credit showed up about 3-4 days after purchase. It may be that your selection of WN was too close to the actual purchase. If you plan to fly WN anyway then I don't see any downside in buying another card.
The conventional wisdom is that purchases of $100 or less are automatically reimbursed. You can use multiple gift cards for a single ticket.
AMEX does not reimburse for actual tickets, only for "incidentals." If you buy a $279 ticket you will not get a $200 credit. If you buy 2 $100 gift cards (preferably in separate transactions), you will most probably get a $200 reimbursement from AMEX and could use the gift cards towards the flight.
Of course things can change at any time. AMEX might stop reimbursing for gift cards or change the limit of what's considered "automatic" in terms of reimbursements to something less than $100. Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.
The conventional wisdom is that purchases of $100 or less are automatically reimbursed. You can use multiple gift cards for a single ticket.
AMEX does not reimburse for actual tickets, only for "incidentals." If you buy a $279 ticket you will not get a $200 credit. If you buy 2 $100 gift cards (preferably in separate transactions), you will most probably get a $200 reimbursement from AMEX and could use the gift cards towards the flight.
Of course things can change at any time. AMEX might stop reimbursing for gift cards or change the limit of what's considered "automatic" in terms of reimbursements to something less than $100. Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.
Thanks for the update, trying again tonight.
Apr 25, 2012, 8:31 am
#72
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 143
Reporting back with success! 4/21 purchase of $75, 4/24 credit. Guess the lesson is to register, wait a day (or two) then purchase.
Apr 25, 2012, 12:10 pm
#73
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: OC, California
Posts: 59
For Southwest right? Im currently enrolled for United but haven't used any of the benefit yet this year so I may switch to Southwest if it's working.
