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)
#2176
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 56,887
Any expert on how Southwest travel funds work want to write something up in the wiki for this thread? I suspect that's going to be a recurring question here, especially come January. It's been covered in lots of Southwest forum threads, but a brief summary in this wiki would be most convenient.
#2177
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 8
Hey buddy, your Amex Gold has $200 airline credit? You might have mistaken it for the platinum?
#2178
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 5
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I am actually taking these flights. I wasn't expecting to be reimbursed for both, I just split them up for the sake of the credit. I suspect that if the $133 flight triggered the credit, I would have gotten the full $100.
#2179
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 30
8/27- Purchase $96 one way ticket
8/27- Cancelled ticket for travel funds
8/31- Counter moved down $96
8/27- Cancelled ticket for travel funds
8/31- Counter moved down $96
#2180
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,111
Is there any route that has a fully refundable ticket for less than $100? Alternatively, if I purchase a $349 refundable ticket with a $250 gift card put $99 on my Amex, when canceled, will the gift card funds go back to the original gift card or become travel funds attached to the ticket?
#2181
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 30
Is there any route that has a fully refundable ticket for less than $100? Alternatively, if I purchase a $349 refundable ticket with a $250 gift card put $99 on my Amex, when canceled, will the gift card funds go back to the original gift card or become travel funds attached to the ticket?
#2182
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 2
I had a quick question - say we get two one way tickets, with each adding up to a total of $190. Is there anyway to recoup the remaining $10/$200 if I bought Early Bird which goes over by $15? What about if I used another flight ticket for $50?
#2183
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 14
If after purchasing the two one way tickets (purchased individually), you separately purchase the EB for $15, you'll get the remaining $10 credit posted to your account. Or if instead of the EB you purchased a ticket for $50, you'd still get the remaining $10 credit.
#2184
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 512
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.
#2185
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: AA EXP, DL-Plat, WN-CP | Hotels: Choice-Gld, IHG-Plt, Rad-Gld, HH-Dia, Hyatt-Glob, Marriott-LtPlt
Posts: 2,888
#2186
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Long Beach, CA
Programs: AA PLTPRO, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,557
Just a few data points -
I selected Southwest as my airline and it confirmed (via email) on the Amex site. I then proceed to book two flights for $98.98. Neither one ever caused the meter to go down and did not get reimbursed.
One week later, I booked a flight for $93.98 and after it posted, the meter went down and then it credited. Booked a second flight for $93.98 and am waiting for that one to post/credit.
So, I guess the moral of the story is to give it a few days to properly set as the selected airline. I think I knew this from other Amex cards, but the confirmation came so quick I figured it would work and I didn’t want to lose the fare. Not a big deal as I actually need to take all these flights, but figured the data points would help some one.
I selected Southwest as my airline and it confirmed (via email) on the Amex site. I then proceed to book two flights for $98.98. Neither one ever caused the meter to go down and did not get reimbursed.
One week later, I booked a flight for $93.98 and after it posted, the meter went down and then it credited. Booked a second flight for $93.98 and am waiting for that one to post/credit.
So, I guess the moral of the story is to give it a few days to properly set as the selected airline. I think I knew this from other Amex cards, but the confirmation came so quick I figured it would work and I didn’t want to lose the fare. Not a big deal as I actually need to take all these flights, but figured the data points would help some one.
#2187
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western US
Programs: Costco Executive Member, Amazon Optimus Prime
Posts: 1,251
Just a few data points -
I selected Southwest as my airline and it confirmed (via email) on the Amex site. I then proceed to book two flights for $98.98. Neither one ever caused the meter to go down and did not get reimbursed.
One week later, I booked a flight for $93.98 and after it posted, the meter went down and then it credited. Booked a second flight for $93.98 and am waiting for that one to post/credit.
So, I guess the moral of the story is to give it a few days to properly set as the selected airline. I think I knew this from other Amex cards, but the confirmation came so quick I figured it would work and I didn’t want to lose the fare. Not a big deal as I actually need to take all these flights, but figured the data points would help some one.
I selected Southwest as my airline and it confirmed (via email) on the Amex site. I then proceed to book two flights for $98.98. Neither one ever caused the meter to go down and did not get reimbursed.
One week later, I booked a flight for $93.98 and after it posted, the meter went down and then it credited. Booked a second flight for $93.98 and am waiting for that one to post/credit.
So, I guess the moral of the story is to give it a few days to properly set as the selected airline. I think I knew this from other Amex cards, but the confirmation came so quick I figured it would work and I didn’t want to lose the fare. Not a big deal as I actually need to take all these flights, but figured the data points would help some one.
Aug 26 - Get the email from Amex confirming 'Southwest is selected for incidentals fee credit'
Sep 1 - Booked 2 x $148 fare, apply 2 WN GC for $65 on each, residual of $83 is billed to Amex Plat for each (done as two separate bookings)
Sep 1 - Pending charge of $83 is noted as 'additional collection'
Sep 2 - charge posts but now includes all the actual flight information, and is noted as 'Airline' in the category spending tab
Sep 5 - needle has not moved (yet) and I'm suspecting that it won't, as most reports have have that happening fairly quickly. (And of course no credit)
EDIT/UPDATE: on 9/6 two separate $83 credits posted backdated to 9/5 ! No email from Amex and meter never moved ahead of time, until 9/6, when credits arrived.Sep 1 - Booked 2 x $148 fare, apply 2 WN GC for $65 on each, residual of $83 is billed to Amex Plat for each (done as two separate bookings)
Sep 1 - Pending charge of $83 is noted as 'additional collection'
Sep 2 - charge posts but now includes all the actual flight information, and is noted as 'Airline' in the category spending tab
Sep 5 - needle has not moved (yet) and I'm suspecting that it won't, as most reports have have that happening fairly quickly. (And of course no credit)
So I'm trying to figure out what caused this, since I still have 3-4 months to try again, and I suppose could switch carriers if the credit has not been used.
Was it
a) the initial flight being above $100 (even with GC applied later to bring it below)
b) not enough time between selection of airline and transaction
c) something else, like Amex RAT / IT team shutting this down
d) two $83 charges happening at roughly the same time, even separately, overwhelm the incidentals trigger?
e) just random flukiness which seems to happen sometimes no matter what
I did need to book those paid flights in any case but its still a bit disappointing, since I thought I did everything 'correctly'.
b) not enough time between selection of airline and transaction
c) something else, like Amex RAT / IT team shutting this down
d) two $83 charges happening at roughly the same time, even separately, overwhelm the incidentals trigger?
e) just random flukiness which seems to happen sometimes no matter what
I did need to book those paid flights in any case but its still a bit disappointing, since I thought I did everything 'correctly'.
Last edited by akr1970akr; Sep 6, 2019 at 11:59 am
#2188
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 7
I have a $100 credit with my PRG card and bought at a ticket for $103.98 on September 2nd. It's now September 5th and the credit has not posted yet nor has my meter changed. Did I do something wrong or might it take a bit longer?
#2189
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
IIRC the current champion who got reimbursed was at $102.69. You may have found the cutoff... or it could take longer.