Questions using Southwest gift cards for flights

[jenf22]

Hi all,

I'm struggling to get flights home after our cruise in June. The options are just really bad to get from FLL to DEN on a Sunday afternoon. We can get home at midnight for a reasonable fare but we don't really want to do that (and it's not on Southwest so I can't change it is something better comes along). So I've been watching every week for months and have about had all I can take of searching. So I'm thinking about buying Target cards on a discount site and then using those to buy Southwest cards from Target. Has anyone done this? Are there disadvantages of buying tickets with gift cards? I've read about some people getting banned from Target. Does anyone know the circumstances of that?

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[davper]

I have done this several times. You can only use 4 forms of payment when you purchase with Southwest. Each GC used counts as one. So you may have to make a couple of purchases to use all GCs. You cannot use a GC to purchase EBCI.

As long as you are not doing something crazy like using stolen GCs or trying to buy 30,000 in GCs in a month. You shouldn't have to worry about being banned. But anything can happen.

 

[Angrose]

I have also done this a few times and it meant saving 12% on flights which was a great deal! If you buy Target gift cards from Raise or Cardpool I would use them right away to minimize the chances of them getting drained before you can buy the SW cards.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I've gotten very creative in finding ways to pay for Southwest flights. Some things I do, besides the discounted Target cards include:
Sam's Club has discounted Southwest cards ($143 for $150 in GC). Not a huge savings, but if you earn Walmart gift cards on Swagbucks or other sites, you can use them at Sam's Club and really save (or get them 'free').
Buy Southwest cards on Ebay (Gift Card Mall) when they have a sale. The last time I did this I bought $300 worth for $270 plus I earned E-bucks and Ebates.
Earn rewards on E-Rewards which I cash in for Rapid Rewards points. You can also earn RR points on their shopping portal.

Some of these take time to earn/acquire so they might not work for your June trip, but maybe the next cruise!

 

[eeyoresmom]

As an aside, Coinstar machines also allow you to redeem for Southwest cards for no charge.

 

[jenf22]

Thanks everyone. If I book with gift cards, is it still ok to move the flights around? I think I may book the Monday flight for $215 and just hope the Sunday flight goes down (it's $336 right now - and that's one way!)

 

[Angrose]

Thanks everyone. If I book with gift cards, is it still ok to move the flights around? I think I may book the Monday flight for $215 and just hope the Sunday flight goes down (it's $336 right now - and that's one way!)

Yes, you can still change flights. They will give you a credit if you need to cancel or have any remaining balance leftover after the change. You just need to use the credit within a year otherwise you lose it.

 

[MickeynMinnie]

I was able to buy a southwest gift card on amazon with giftcards I had earned from Ibotta