Citislave

Hi all,

I finally am ready to use 14 Southwest gift cards I have been accumulating over the years. I want to use them on one reservation, but Southwest only allows up to 4 cards to be used at a time.

I am looking for the best option here. I read about buying and canceling tickets, so that the GCs become travel funds (which expire after 1 year). But I was also told that Southwest customer relations can combine gift cards. Unfortunately, every time I call them, I get a busy signal.

Any idea?

Thanks.

lougord99

It is really simple to use 4 of them on a resrvation and then cancel for TTF's. Why do you resist doing that?

Citislave

We are a family of 5.
If I book the following four fake trips:
- Dad Trip 1 with 3 GCs
- Dad Trip 2 with 3 GCs
- Dad Trip 3 with 4 GCs
- Dad Trip 4 with 4 GCs

and then cancel, will the travel funds be associated with my name only? And in that case, can I use them for my wife ans kids' tickets?
I read somewhere that the funds are associated with the original traveler.

synergistic

Honestly, you probably should be booking each person and direction separately anyway - so you shouldn't have any trouble using all fourteen on a single "trip" regardless.
Edit: I don't travel with kids, so I don't know if there's a reason you can't book then alone. If so, I'd probably book the trip in four chunks - Dad+2kids, Mom+1kid, one ways each direction.

Citislave

It's actually worse than I thought: you can only use two GCs per booking...
I ended up booking 5 separate tickets, using 2 GCs per booking. The CSR linked all the tickets so that if one itinerary ends up being changed by Southwest, all the others would automatically follow (i.e., we would not be separated). I still have some GCs left unused, but had to pay about $300 by CC.

I'll think hard next time I want to buy Southwest GCs...

fwoomp

If you look around, you can find variable-load ones (up to $500). I'd cite specific stores, but it seems to vary across different locations of the same chain...

nsx

You should have waited a day or two for the best answer.

You don't have to use a credit card, sort of.

Say you have four $50 gift cards and you want to buy a $60 ticket.
Buy any $125 or so ticket with two gift cards and $25 credit card.
Cancel the ticket immediately after specifying refund of the $25.
You now have $100 ticketless funds for this passenger.
Book the $160 fare you want with two gift cards plus your ticketless funds.
You will have $40 leftover on the 4th gift card.

Not so difficult really.

toomanybooks

Grocery stores are good for up-to $500 variables.

Even better if you can find one with fuel rewards, like Kroger, which even has a 4x points offer, ending today.

fwoomp

I probably wasn't explicit enough in my previous post. I live near 3 outlets of a drugstore and 3 outlets of a grocery store. Only one outlet of each has variable load SW GCs. I also recently made a run of a different chain of grocery stores NOT near me. Of the four I went to from that chain, only one had SW GCs at all, and they weren't variable load. So what I'm saying is, if you go to one grocery store in a chain and they don't have what you're looking for, don't be discouraged--go ahead and try all the outlets of that chain near you before ruling out the entire chain.

I don't know what the deciding factors are, but whether a store has Southwest gift cards, and what kind, is being determined by something beyond store name on the sign out front.