One Way to Defer RR Award Issuance
 

Late last summer I experimented with a technique to defer issuance of RR Awards. I've not seen it discussed here (apologies if I missed it) so I thought I'd share it now that I'm registered to post. Note, however, that the A-List, which was introduced after I came up with this technique, significantly limits this technique's usefulness for those who rely on A-List status for priority boarding.

The one-year life of RR awards means it can be important not to earn one "too soon." Imagine you have the following scenario: you plan to take round trip flights on SW in late August and again in mid-September and late-October. You have 14 credits in your account so the August flight credits will trigger your next award. You were hoping, though, to use the award ticket for a leaf-peeper trip to New England in mid-October one year hence. If the award is issued as expected in August it will have expired before you can use it for the New England trip, and you'd rather not pay the $50 extension fee.

Here's a fairly simple solution: a) don't provide your RR number when you book your August to October flights; b) after the first of November or so, log in to your account and use the Add Past Flight Credit screen to claim your credits for the August through October flights. The award will be issued within a couple days after submitting the request for past credit, and will expire one year after issuance--late enough for you to use the award ticket for the leaf-peeper trip.

Presumably it has always been possible to use a variation of this technique; it just wasn't very convenient to do when we had to mail in documentation of past flights when reporting missed credits.

The one chance I had to experiment with this I was only able to defer one award issuance in my wife's account by about five days. She was already scheduled for a second trip that would trigger her next award, with RR number already in the record, within a week of the first trip. (The "second trip" was booked before the first trip and before I came up with the idea of not entering the RR number; we didn't call to see if a RR number can be removed from a record and it would have been much too expensive to cancel and rebook the second trip.) Because we decided not to go to Hawai'i in April, I now wish I'd come up with this deferral idea sooner; I don't know that we'll be able to make good use of that award before it expires in September. :(

Obviously Rapid Rewards Visa card users and car-rental credit claimers have to be more careful with their planning. You also need a good tracking and reminder system so you don't forget to claim your credits.

ftn

Very good post. Well written and thought out.

A question... can you get Cust Serv. to take out your RR# after you have booked a flight??

Also, any guess as to how long one can go before requesting the credit on line? 1 month. 2 months?

I just added this to the FAQ, which is now approximately up to date. Including deletion of ATA-related information. :(

I suppose you need to watch, if you just barely qualify, not to lose credits by waiting to long to add past trips, ie 24month old, or near that old, credits falling off.

If the trip happened during a bonus credit offer (general or targeted), and we made the request after the promotion was over, could we expect the bonus credits?

ETA: As I think about it, we'd probably need to look at the language of the promotion, whether it says the trip needs to be booked online with the RR number.

Yes. I've done this.

And thanks for the tip ftnoob

ftnoob, you've done it again with this contribution to the commonweal. Bravo.

Talk about hitting the ground running. How many of these do you have up your sleeve? If you keep this up, you're gonna rival nsx on this board in ferreting out the gold nuggets.

Thank you again. Looking forward to seeing much more from you.

:-:

The "earn-by" aspect
 

NB: Back-posting will move up the date by which you must earn your 16th credit for your next RR. NB'd here just so people aren't surprised in the event. Not the big deal it was back when we had only one year to do it.

It is true that you need to be aware of the "earn by" aspect. I should have noted in the original post that one should be careful to input the back credit requests in chronological order (at least up through whichever flight triggers the award). As long as you do that the next earn by date will end up exactly where it would have been if you'd been supplying your RR number with your reservation as usual.

One other caveat is that my experiment did not involve going back months. I see no reason why it would work any differently for older back credit requests, but it would be nice to have explicit confirmation from another test.

rove, yes, check the language of the offer but frequently promo credits will not be earned with this technique; consider whether the promo is worth $50 out of pocket before deciding how to proceed.

bryanw, as explained in the FAQ the system retroactively restores credits that rolled off when earning activity would trigger an award.

rrgg, thanks for the info on having an RR number removed from a record; it's good to know. When I did this experiment it was for "pure research." At the time I thought it was just the first of the two awards my wife needed for our anticipated trip to Hawai'i this month. I might have tried to have her RR number removed from her second trip if I had suspected we would end up not making the Hawai'i trip.

Thanks for the kind words, Firewind. I'm indebted to this community for many great tips, especially the Continental-AGR-Choice points transfer (we're staying free several nights in Europe; see my post on the Choice board) and the 8 credit SFO signup bonus, which two of my wife's sisters were able to use.

ftn

when the online credit thing first became an option I claimed credits from several months before that were done on a promo and the extra credits posted fine instantly

i wonder if the following steps would still match the requirements for bonus credits

1-book flight, provide RR at booking, as required
2-remove RR#
3-fly
4-later date, ask fro credit

Not something I'd worry about trying, because I can always use a free flight...

Logical Extension of this for Compaion Pass
 

If I'm understanding this correctly, this potentially can be a boon for those working towards a companion pass.

I guess the question is does Southwest post the credit the day you fly or the day you request them?

This is the scenario I'm thinking about. Let's say you fly 150 credits one year and 50 the next year. Would you be able to stop supplying your rapid rewards info for anything past 100 the first year and then defer them to the second year to earn an additional CP?

Just a thought.

Not to draw too fine a point, but just a tweak: It's important, when choosing when to enter which credit, to enter them conscious of the effect they will have on the next "earn by" date if you have several you're playing with -- if you care. Otherwise, it doesn't matter when you enter them. The earliest (by earn date) will trigger the new "earn by" date.

Actually, the bind still may be in the cheese somewhat, as it also will affect the one-year "earn by" dates for Companion Pass and A-List status.

Too fine a point... and probably already more than obvious to the "regulars" here. As someone commented when I brought forward "another way to upgrade to A", my head's starting to hurt.

Wow, that is a really, really interesting idea. I expect it will work fine. I would be in a position to try it later this year, but I kinda like getting A17r Boarding Passes. And I expect to earn CPs the regular way for many more years.