acker

I'm ashamed that I don't know this answer, but I haven't flown SWA in 2 years and am finding conflicting info online.
Forget about calling. My HUCA resulted in four different answers.
I've 8 sub $100 travel funds all expiring this week. I was going to figure a way to merge them as much as possible, then shoot for a ($100 fee) "extension".
But then I remembered funds under $100, even when combined, don't qualify b/c the original fund is under $100.
Hope I've explained my situation OK, my head is spinning.
(Serves me right if I'm screwed...I booked bogus flights last November using old gift cards from various cc $200 airline credits with the plan of canceling & converting funds to points...forgetting that that option went away in Sept '20. Sometimes I'm too clever for my own good)

Tanic

I'm going to make an assumption (since it is not clear) that the Travel Funds are all in the same name. Otherwise no need to continue...

You will need to buy new tickets with the funds to combine the amounts. The website has a limitation of three sources of funding, so find any ticket that costs an amount similar to, but slightly less than three of the expiring funds and buy it with those funds. You will then have fewer new tickets than when you started. Repeat this process of combining expiring funds until you have one large expiring ticket with one new PNR. When the new ticket expires this week you will have six months to request a LUV voucher. The $100 fee is deducted from the amount of the new LUV voucher.

All of the travel fund combining can be done online, but the LUV voucher must come from Customer Relations.

Good luck, we're all counting on you!
- Dr Rumack

nsx

I believe that is incorrect. It costs you nothing to combine them so please do so and report your results here.

To combine, you purchase any trip with 3 funds, then cancel it. Then you have one fund plus the leftover from the third fund. So you have reduced your total fund count by 1.

Repeat N times until the last purchase which will use your last 2 funds plus a credit card. Cancel that one and request a refund of the credit card portion. Done.

joshua362

Remember to combine before they expire this week. All "travel" has to be completed by the earliest expiration date of the PNR's you use including a "return". Look at one way AT & BS fares to cover all your funds. I'm in the same boat next month due to the AMEX PLT credits...

acker

Thanks. Yup, I need to be the dp I want to see...
Now off to combine, book, cancel. Combine, book, cancel. Rinse and repeat until 1 have one ticket. (BS fares will be my friend - I've $750 worth of expiring vouchers to merge). I'll sit tight until end of the week when that 1 yr clock runs out. Then request the refund/voucher (less $100).

Tanic

You have six months after the big ticket expires to make the request. The day you request the LUV starts another clock running on the validity of the LUV voucher (I think it's six months).

acker

I had a blast piecing together the baker's dozen of travel funds into one fund. In the end I have a fund north of $700 and an orphan $1.26 fund. The $700+ fund expires this week. I'll time the request to kick in when I have a better idea of my '22 flights.
I love this game!
Next up, figuring out the best day for me to apply for my double-dip of SWA cards. I think it's my 3rd or 4th go round with them. Hubby coming off his 2 yrs run. Wish I could do a referral but everyone I know is inside the 24 month rule. That's OK, I'll be creative and have a goal of hitting the 125k by mid January.
Thanks guys and gals for your input.

sdix

I think I totally F'd myself. I had $300 travel credit expiring Dec 7th. No problem. Have a sports tournament to go to first few days of Dec so booked with the funds plus a $150 addl fare. Tournament was cancelled today because of covid so cancelled trip.

I know smarter people than I know that the $150 now expires Dec 7th. Ugh......

Are there any work arounds to this other than actually traveling for no reason?

dmbolp

Same work around given in this very thread, and elsewhere, for expiring travel funds; once the $450 expires on 12/7 you've got 6 months to ask for a LUV voucher, less $100 fee

benfro6

Just for future posterity: no need to cancel. Research flight options, combine multiple vouchers, book flight. Then can just go to change and select a slightly more expensive option, add more vouchers, complete change/book. Can ostensibly be one confirm/itinerary that had many different dates and destinations booked in a short timeframe. This is more efficient as it does not generate a new voucher to track or combine, so less steps to get to your final goal!

ORD-TGU

This is news to me, same situation, so I combine all the funds into one, let it expire, and I have to pay a $100 fee within 6 months to get a LUV voucher, that is valid from the date voucher was issued for 1 year?

joshua362

Almost. The voucher is good for only 6 months but usable by anyone. So you can get about 1 more year out of the funds it altogether.

ursine1

Also: The (currently) $100 fee is deducted from the funds balance. And everything about this unpublished policy is subject to change at any time.

acker

Quote:

Originally Posted by benfro6

Just for future posterity: no need to cancel. Research flight options, combine multiple vouchers, book flight. Then can just go to change and select a slightly more expensive option, add more vouchers, complete change/book. Can ostensibly be one confirm/itinerary that had many different dates and destinations booked in a short time frame. This is more efficient as it does not generate a new voucher to track or combine, so less steps to get to your final goal!

Of course,of course! Here's hoping I don't find myself in this situation again, but you're right, there was no need to cancel and re-book, I could have simply kept building on the original flight price until all the funds were used up. Thanks.

Soccerjoshj07

Last year we were able to get Southwest to waive the $100 fee if we were able to provide a medical reason - aka a positive test in our case.

We had to reach out and submit the request after the vouchers expired, though.

Kind of a pain - for advertising their customer friendly policies they're not really all that customer friendly anymore when just about every airline offers vouchers now