dc2

I'm trying to manage some RR awards, but before I make a non-reversible transaction I thought I would check with the experts on FlyerTalk.

As I was looking at the reissue std award option, I found the following note:

Reissued Standard Awards will be subject to capacity controls, meaning seats for travel on reissued Awards will be limited and not available on all flights.

Does that mean reissued credit is further restricted even more so than the original std award or is it the same restriction as it was for original valid period?

As I was looking at the RR rules for the Freedom Awards, it states the following:

20. Upon conversion of two Rapid Rewards Standard Awards to one Rapid Rewards Freedom Award, the Rapid Rewards Freedom Award will bear the expiration date of the earliest expiring Rapid Rewards Standard Award used for the conversion, with the following exception: at the time of conversion, for a fee, you can opt to prolong the validity of your new Rapid Rewards Freedom Award to 12 months from the date of conversion. See more information on Converting to a Freedom Award.

Does this mean that you can not extend your Freedom award at some time in the future after you convert it?

lougord99

Reissued standard awards are no different than origional standard awards.

ckpeter

I don't see why you can't extend Freedom awards the same way as you could with a standard award. However, if you are concerned (and in general, to preserve flexibility), why not wait until you actually need the Freedom award, before you go through with the conversion? This way, if one of your awards end up expiring, you can extend it for a fee, before using it to form a Freedom award (of course, this doesn't apply, if you are thinking of booking a reservation that you may need to cancel).

nsx

If you convert Standard Awards that are about to expire, paying the $50 fee when converting to a Freedom Award is almost like getting 50% off the cost of extending two Standard Awards. @:-)

sammy0623

other than one person on here who had luck, generally you cannot reconvert "freedoms" back to "standards," correct?

dc2

sammy0623,
The rules say you can't. So, I think what you said is correct.

ckpeter

Yes, the rule says you cannot convert back. However, on a side note, I seem to recall reading about someone who was able to combine one roundtrip standard award into one one way freedom award. It may not hurt to call and ask about it (I think it depends on the mercy of the phone agent that you are talking to).

sammy0623

i think i read the same post...i was just double checking that the policies hadn't changed.

loboclone

Been there done that, no way to convert Freedom back to Std RR. Man did I screw up!

PBAudit

I believe you are referring to this post.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...308&highlight=

While they made an exception in this one case, I hope they will reconsider their policy and make it easier to convert/uncovert awards. In addition, it would be nice to convert a Standard award (2 one ways) into 1 one way Freedom award. Often, I found that I can use a Standard award on the outbound, but need a Freedom award on the return (or vice versa).

Yesterday (Thursday) I flew from HOU to OAK. Last week, they didn't have any flights available for standard awards in the afternoon, so I purchased a one way ticket for $225 (7:10 pm flight). A couple of days later, I rechecked at there was now a flight available (for standard award) at 1:30 pm. I booked that flight under a standard award. Two days later, I checked again, and the only flight available for Standard award was at (4:50 pm) and I changed to the later flight. On the day of travel, I checked again, and the only flight available (standard award) was at 3:10 pm.

I was surprised at the volitility of standard award availability. Perhaps this was an unusual situation.

The central point in my letter, was that Southwest allowed you to retain the difference if the fare dropped. I believed that this was similar in this case, whe the "fare dropped" from a Freedom award to a Standard award.