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)
Oct 23, 2019, 11:29 pm
#2281
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
Oct 24, 2019, 4:28 pm
#2282
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: Marriott Platinum, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select
Posts: 469
Please note if you cancel within 24 hours, for most airlines, you will almost always get a full refund due to the 24 hour rule. So yes...you will not get the airline credit and refund.
Oct 24, 2019, 8:31 pm
#2283
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 148
So could I purchase a flight (wanna get away fare) for under $100, wait for the charge to post (past the 24 hour mark), and then cancel the ticket to get Southwest credit for a future flight?
Oct 24, 2019, 10:32 pm
#2289
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 30
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.
Oct 24, 2019, 11:33 pm
#2290
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
WN doesn't issue LUV vouchers for cancelled tickets, just electronic Residual Travel Funds tied to the pax name. If after one year the Travel Funds expire, WN may re-issue the Travel Funds as a LUV Voucher for a cost of $100.
Oct 25, 2019, 12:09 am
#2291
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
Maybe Col Custer can lead the charge to the roundup on this new data point.
Do any other airlines reimburse on tickets NOT using GC on partial purchase to cover only fees?
Here is the posts from a FB page on Amex Plat benefits on WN:
"Flights UNDER $100 on Southwest are still triggering the airline credit .
This is the second time this month that this has happened for me."
Edit Quote Multi Quote Quick Reply
Reply Subscribed
Last edited by euromannn; Oct 25, 2019 at 12:56 am
Oct 25, 2019, 3:32 pm
#2292
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 2
Quick question, sorry if it has been answered on here or not.
Say I bought a really cheap Southwest ticket for like $49, and decided to switch it to another ticket/route. Would Amex cover the switching of that ticket with the travel credit?
Say I bought a really cheap Southwest ticket for like $49, and decided to switch it to another ticket/route. Would Amex cover the switching of that ticket with the travel credit?
Oct 25, 2019, 4:31 pm
#2293
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
WN does not charge fees to change flights. If the new ticket is higher priced you may need to apply the $49 Residual Travel Fund and keep the new ticket price difference under $105 (new total under $154) for the additional AmEx credit to work. It's like buying a new ticket using a $49 GC to get the amount owed under $105. You might have the first DP on this.
Oct 26, 2019, 7:59 pm
#2294
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 267
It's not fraudulent, it's against their intended use. I would feel much more "ethical" about finding loopholes in their program if they didn't have this total BS rule where I have to choose one airline once a year and stick with it. It's clearly designed for the purposes of advertising an awesome benefit which has low likelihood of being fully utilized by the customers.
Oct 26, 2019, 8:20 pm
#2295
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 30
It's not fraudulent, it's against their intended use. I would feel much more "ethical" about finding loopholes in their program if they didn't have this total BS rule where I have to choose one airline once a year and stick with it. It's clearly designed for the purposes of advertising an awesome benefit which has low likelihood of being fully utilized by the customers.