Booking on points questions for Southwest Experts

Lisa0620

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 11, 2009
Messages
393
Southwest is new to our market, so we’ve never flown them before. I signed up for 2 Chase SW cards with the 50,000 bonus points and have earned the first 52,000 but haven’t spent enough yet for the second 52,000 or the add’l points needed for a companion pass, but I plan to in the next two months.

We’re not sure if our next trip will be in August or November, dependent on extended family decisions. SW has a sale through tomorrow on late August dates. I’m considering booking now “just in case” but I’m not sure how the -no change fees- policy works with points.

I would book 4 tickets on points now and then once we earn the companion pass I would be able to cancel the one ticket and rebook as a free seat with the companion pass, correct? The points would be refunded to me with no restrictions, or would they be refunded with the caveat that I would need to use them within one year of the original booking? And would they be designated for a specific traveler or are they just my points to use as I want?

If I book now for August and we end up going in November instead can we just cancel the August booking and get all the points back or do I need to “rebook” from August to November? (These would all be wanna get away fares.)

Or maybe the bigger question, we’re looking at the last week of August which is a value week at WDW. Should I just wait until I have the companion pass to book anything since we’re going a non peak week and hope that there might be more sales between now and August?
Thanks for any all help and opinions! Lisa
 
Southwest is new to our market, so we’ve never flown them before. I signed up for 2 Chase SW cards with the 50,000 bonus points and have earned the first 52,000 but haven’t spent enough yet for the second 52,000 or the add’l points needed for a companion pass, but I plan to in the next two months.

We’re not sure if our next trip will be in August or November, dependent on extended family decisions. SW has a sale through tomorrow on late August dates. I’m considering booking now “just in case” but I’m not sure how the -no change fees- policy works with points.

I would book 4 tickets on points now and then once we earn the companion pass I would be able to cancel the one ticket and rebook as a free seat with the companion pass, correct? The points would be refunded to me with no restrictions, or would they be refunded with the caveat that I would need to use them within one year of the original booking? And would they be designated for a specific traveler or are they just my points to use as I want?

If I book now for August and we end up going in November instead can we just cancel the August booking and get all the points back or do I need to “rebook” from August to November? (These would all be wanna get away fares.)

Or maybe the bigger question, we’re looking at the last week of August which is a value week at WDW. Should I just wait until I have the companion pass to book anything since we’re going a non peak week and hope that there might be more sales between now and August?
Thanks for any all help and opinions! Lisa

The beauty of points reservations is if cancelled or changed the points go back to your account unrestricted.

Not sure how the companion pass works, typically there are restrictions.
 
We have a companion pass. I have booked and cancelled so many times on points its nuts. But I love it!!

Typically when booking further out, I will even book 1-2 tickets first if I am still waiting on more points and then add the 3rd ticket later. I usually wait for companion pass. It's rare Southwest completely sells out the plane until very close to the flight date. You can add it anytime there is a seat.

If our plans are not firm, I just book my DH and kids and add my companion pass after plans are firm.

Right now I have a "on again off again" DLR trips in the works for the summer. In January, I booked it for the first week of July for all 4 of us. When you book, you pay $5 each way per person. Plans changed and in February, I cancelled all tickets. I said to keep the $40 I paid as a credit instead of refunding to my credit card. That turned out to be annoying. I booked another flight and had to apply those credits. It took a few more clicks - would have been quicker just to get the money refunded to my credit card and then just pay again with my credit card when I make the booking.

Right now I just booked a trip to DLR at the end of July. It's a placeholder trip I don't know we will do so I bought tix for DH and the kids. I will buy my companion pass later once our plans are more firm (so I have fewer flights to cancel, change, etc).

One thing I learned - if you are going to price watch, then book your flights as one way tickets. Makes it MUCH easier to get lower prices on specific portions of your flight. I already did this for our end of July trip. Prices changed for outgoing and all I had to do was change the one set of outgoing tickets. Just makes it all simpler and tidier. If I already found a rock-bottom price for the schedule I want though, I just book it all as one.
 
Great information, thanks so much for your replies! I wouldn't have thought to wait on booking the companion pass ticket, but it makes perfect sense. I'm used to booking being so final, it's hard to wrap my head around this kind of flexibility. :)
 

Something to remember if you have children: if you are in a situation where you can book some of the tickets on points but have to pay cash for some of them, always book the children on the cash tickets.

The reason for this is that children cannot earn miles in any other way than butt-in-seat, whereas adults can earn on credit card purchases and travel partner transactions such as hotel stays. What this does is to make it possible for your kids to earn enough points to get free trips in their own names, thus saving your CC points for more use.

Also, if you are buying a ticket for anyone not in your immediate family who is iffy about their travel plans or has a history of backing out of things, buy it with points, even if you have to purchase those points to so so. Points are fully refundable with no restrictions on who the passenger is or the time period for use; both of which will cost you on a paid fare if Sonny's best friend gets grounded by his parents right before your trip.

PS: I meant the advice re: kids for folks who don't have a really frequent business flier in the family. If you have someone who has status, then sure, buy that person's ticket with cash to get the add'l points, but if you don't have status and don't normally pay walk-up fare, then my strategy is a good one. Also, our kids don't travel as often as we do, but they travel often enough that there is little likelihood of their having a cash credit expire from non-use (the kids normally take about 6 r/t flights per year, while DH and I do about three times that. However, our jobs seldom require us to fly on short notice, so we still tend to purchase WGA fares for our business travel.)
 
I actually do the opposite of the PP. I use points for the kids b/c they don't fly as much and accrue points at the lowest rate per $. DH is A preferred so he accrues at a higher rate. When we pay cash for his tickets we get more points for the $ to use for more kid flights. And then I am the lucky companion.
 
I also use points when I book for the kids and cash for me and DH. We travel more and if the fare drops and we get a credit it is more likely that I will be able to use it for a future trip.
 














Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE













DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top