Help- Airtran flights using points?

[kellia]

I got the Southwest Visa and have been using it for everything to get enough points for our Disney trip. I was very happy when I found out that we can use them for Airtran, since that airport is much closer than the one that SW flies out of.

Anyway, today I saw they have Feb. 2013 dates available, so I was all set to book. I logged in to Airtran and clicked on "Book Rewards Flight". But all the Jan/Feb flights say "Rewards Unavailable". Will this change? Is it because they just released the dates? I didn't think they blocked out dates, but I've never redeemed points before, so I'm not sure how it works. I haven't transferred my SW points to Airtran yet, I was trying to figure out how many we'd need first.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am so upset to think that it might not work or we might not be able to get the dates/flights we wanted.

Thank you!

 

[cjnix29]

keep checking back. I was stalking the website looking for rewards flight for our cruise flight. Finally one flight came up. Not the best time, but we can do it. They do seem to add and subtract periodically. ANd they appear and disappear regularly too! Honestly, I usually find best price and changes on Fridays and Saturdays! Seems counterintuitive to all the flight advice, but it's what I have found, and I check regularly! But keep checking.

airtran has regular coach fares always cost 8 credits, business class costs 16 each way. There is a conversion calculator so you can figure out how many airtran credits your SW points will get you. There should be a rewards conversion icon after your account summary. And...I would wait to actually convert them til you are ready to book. Points don't expire on SW, but they do on airtran, and once you convert, you can't convert back. The tutorial info on the website is actually pretty helpful. And once you figure it out, it's easy. I just did it.

 

[JLitfin]

Does anyone know whether Airtran accepts Southwest gift cards? I received some gift cards when I opened up a Southwest credit card. Thanks.

 

[MAGGIED]

I think its 1200 sw points to 1 airtran credit... I just did this for my daughter... you can do it right online in your rapid rewards section

 

[kellia]

Thanks! They just released some days, not the greatest ones, though. I thought I had us finally set and then they way back they didn't have 5 of the reward seats available.

Will they keep changing this around? I don't know if I should grab something now or wait a little bit and hope for something better. I get so stressed over this stuff!