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Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)

Old Sep 17, 2014, 10:45 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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.





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Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)

Old Jan 16, 2013, 5:01 pm
  #121  
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Nassau, NY USA
Posts: 16
Originally Posted by flytoski
Yes, and ONCE a year.
How does AMEX interpret this? Suppose you first enroll in January and choose an airline. Now in the same month can you change to a different airline? Since your initial selection is a choice, not a change from anything technically it would seem that the change would be allowed.

I ask because if you initially select SW and the charge for a GC is not reimbursed you could switch to a different "safe" airline this month and purchase $200 in GCs from them.
tuckeg is offline  
Old Jan 16, 2013, 9:41 pm
  #122  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Programs: AmEx Platinum MR, Delta, Southwest, UA, AA
Posts: 16
Originally Posted by tuckeg
How does AMEX interpret this? Suppose you first enroll in January and choose an airline. Now in the same month can you change to a different airline? Since your initial selection is a choice, not a change from anything technically it would seem that the change would be allowed.

I ask because if you initially select SW and the charge for a GC is not reimbursed you could switch to a different "safe" airline this month and purchase $200 in GCs from them.
That sounds like twice to me.
flytoski is offline  
Old Jan 22, 2013, 2:01 pm
  #123  
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 377
A gift certificate data point: Bought a $200 SWest gift certificate in December, and I didn't automatically receive the incidental benefits credit. I called after four weeks, explained that my incidental benefits credit hadn't posted, and the CSR processed it so that it posted. She was friendly did ask what my wife (it's her card) charged; I told a white lie, that I didn't know but thought it was for change and baggage fees.

In January I Bought four $50 SW gift certificates on my Platinum and four $50 SW GCs on my wife's Platinum. Full credits for both posted automatically in a few days.
I can see for miles is offline  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 12:30 pm
  #124  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Laguna Beach, CA
Programs: SPG Gold, HHonors Gold, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 363
Originally Posted by I can see for miles
A gift certificate data point: Bought a $200 SWest gift certificate in December, and I didn't automatically receive the incidental benefits credit. I called after four weeks, explained that my incidental benefits credit hadn't posted, and the CSR processed it so that it posted. She was friendly did ask what my wife (it's her card) charged; I told a white lie, that I didn't know but thought it was for change and baggage fees.

In January I Bought four $50 SW gift certificates on my Platinum and four $50 SW GCs on my wife's Platinum. Full credits for both posted automatically in a few days.
Did you re-select WN as your airline? I didn't, and I didn't get anything posted within a week (also for a $50 card).
mgchan is offline  
Old Jan 23, 2013, 8:27 pm
  #125  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6
I got the platinum when the 100k was up. Signed up for southwest and I purchased $200 worth of SW gift cards. 10 days went by without being reimbursed. I needed to book a flight on American so I decided to switch my airline to American and bought $200 worth of AA gift cards. 4 days later I was reimbursed.
kaichief is offline  
Old Jan 25, 2013, 11:45 pm
  #126  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by mgchan
Did you re-select WN as your airline? I didn't, and I didn't get anything posted within a week (also for a $50 card).
Originally Posted by kaichief
I got the platinum when the 100k was up. Signed up for southwest and I purchased $200 worth of SW gift cards. 10 days went by without being reimbursed. I needed to book a flight on American so I decided to switch my airline to American and bought $200 worth of AA gift cards. 4 days later I was reimbursed.
Does anybody know of anybody getting a credit automatically posted after buying a southwest gift card? I currently have southwest selected as my airline b/c i use them the most but if this is going to turn into a headache I might switch it to a more reliable airline. I only have until 1/31 to decide.

My experience. I signed up for the 100k point offer for the Amex platinum card a couple weeks ago. I selected southwest as my airline on 1/9, bought a $50 credit card on 1/10. To date i haven't got any credit. I thought maybe b/c i bought the gift card so soon after selecting the airline I'd give it another shot so i bought another $10 SW gift card on 1/23. Still no credit for that one either.

I'd really like to know if anyone anywhere has got a SW credit for gift cards this year. I'm thinking they may have closed that door.
BaronvdB is offline  
Old Jan 26, 2013, 2:13 pm
  #127  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by BaronvdB
Does anybody know of anybody getting a credit automatically posted after buying a southwest gift card? I currently have southwest selected as my airline b/c i use them the most but if this is going to turn into a headache I might switch it to a more reliable airline. I only have until 1/31 to decide.

My experience. I signed up for the 100k point offer for the Amex platinum card a couple weeks ago. I selected southwest as my airline on 1/9, bought a $50 credit card on 1/10. To date i haven't got any credit. I thought maybe b/c i bought the gift card so soon after selecting the airline I'd give it another shot so i bought another $10 SW gift card on 1/23. Still no credit for that one either.

I'd really like to know if anyone anywhere has got a SW credit for gift cards this year. I'm thinking they may have closed that door.
Well, my $10 gift card purchase was reimbursed automatically today. I'm guessing that the original $50 isn't going to get reimbursed so I'm thinking about trying again and hoping for the best.

EDIT: just bought another $75 gift card today 1/26. We'll see what happens i guess.

Last edited by BaronvdB; Jan 26, 2013 at 2:25 pm
BaronvdB is offline  
Old Jan 29, 2013, 6:25 am
  #128  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 24
I was reimbursed automatically in a couple of days on a $50 gc and two
$75 cards.
johnb102 is offline  
Old Jan 29, 2013, 3:01 pm
  #129  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by johnb102
I was reimbursed automatically in a couple of days on a $50 gc and two
$75 cards.
Did you use a windows machine? What browser?

I'm starting to wonder if that makes a difference. I wasn't reimbursed for my first $50 SW GC purchase, or my latest $75 SW GC purchase, but I was reimbursed for a $10 SW GC purchase I made in between those other two. I'm trying to think back and I may have purchased the $10 SW GC while I was at work on a windows machine and I'm pretty sure I bought the $50 and $75 GC's on my home Apple computer. I'm not 100% positive though. So far I'm out $125 in SW GC I haven't got reimbursed for.
BaronvdB is offline  
Old Jan 30, 2013, 10:44 am
  #130  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: BOS
Posts: 31
My experience:

Registered for WN 1/29.
Bought 4x $50 GC 1/30. Pending on account for $200 transaction, category: Travel - Airline

Will update on reimbursement.

UPDATE: $200 credit posted Friday, 2/1/13, two days after the posted transaction date of my GC purchase.

Last edited by kwest2; Feb 2, 2013 at 12:07 pm
kwest2 is offline  
Old Jan 30, 2013, 5:40 pm
  #131  
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Programs: DL PM/MM, AA ExPlat, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia, National ECE, Hertz PC
Posts: 16,577
Switched to WN this month, purchased two tickets for just under $70 each and received credit for them four days later.
Beckles is offline  
Old Feb 2, 2013, 8:53 pm
  #132  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by BaronvdB
Did you use a windows machine? What browser?

I'm starting to wonder if that makes a difference. I wasn't reimbursed for my first $50 SW GC purchase, or my latest $75 SW GC purchase, but I was reimbursed for a $10 SW GC purchase I made in between those other two. I'm trying to think back and I may have purchased the $10 SW GC while I was at work on a windows machine and I'm pretty sure I bought the $50 and $75 GC's on my home Apple computer. I'm not 100% positive though. So far I'm out $125 in SW GC I haven't got reimbursed for.
bought another $75 SW GC and got credit about 4-5 days after purchase. So I've got automatic credit for two $75 GC and one $10 GC but never got any credit for the $50 GC I bought first. Might see if they can manually credit that or something.

My advice: wait a couple days after choosing southwest as your airline before you buy the gift cards and use a windows machine if you can (not sure if it matters but it might).

The overweight charge is $50 and going up to $75 so that's why i choose those amounts.
BaronvdB is offline  
Old Feb 9, 2013, 1:43 am
  #133  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 61
bought $75 SW gift card. posted on 2/3. refund posted on 2/7. (with a mac)
mulbry is offline  
Old Feb 11, 2013, 12:19 pm
  #134  
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 14
Just a data point. Bought a $50 gc on 2/5 and had the statement credit post on 2/9.
Lazbum is offline  
Old Feb 12, 2013, 4:45 pm
  #135  
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 64
I just got my card. Any suggestions on how to get SW gift card reimbursement? Where do I go to make the purchase?

Thank you in advance for your help.
mrnik2007 is offline  

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