Southwest & Coinstar

[Colleen27]

Has anyone used a Coinstar e-certificate for airfare? Is the process easy? Can you input multiple certificates towards a single purchase?

Our change jar is getting full with 3+ months still before we go. Officially it is "spending money", and I'll buy DD a Disney gift card in the amount we get when we cash in. But I noticed that Southwest is a new Coinstar partner, and I'm thinking rather than roll and deposit the change I'll use the machine and take the (fee-free) e-certificate to use towards our airfare. But before I do that I'd like to know if I can apply more than one certificate or if I should just start a second jar and cash it in all at once closer to my usual buy-airfare timeframe.

 

[sweetdana]

I have used it got amazon a few times. Never a problem. Easy a gift cert # and no problems using.

 

[Colleen27]

I have used it got amazon a few times. Never a problem. Easy a gift cert # and no problems using.

I've used it for Amazon and Lowes, both easy. Kmart/Sears, not so easy only because some cashiers don't know how to handle the certificate. Xbox Live, total pain in the butt. That's why I'm hoping to hear from someone who has used it for Southwest.

I'm hoping since it actually says Southwest.com it'll be closer to Amazon than anything else, just an e-gift cert code that is entered during the checkout process.

 

[klmrph]

Target now carries SW $50 gift cards and the 5% red card discount works on them, but I didn't find out until after I bought them that you can only use 4 types of payment, so even though I bought 5 to pay for my husbands ticket, I was only able to use 3 because my 4th payment (used Paypal) had to cover the ticket.

 

[Colleen27]

Target now carries SW $50 gift cards and the 5% red card discount works on them, but I didn't find out until after I bought them that you can only use 4 types of payment, so even though I bought 5 to pay for my husbands ticket, I was only able to use 3 because my 4th payment (used Paypal) had to cover the ticket.

Good to know, thanks! So I should be okay with two e-certs and then my regular payment method.

 

[Chief Powhatan]

I redeemed my change into Coinstar today and paid for my SW tickets with a combo of the Coinstar gift card and the regular gift cards purchased from Target.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Good to know, thanks! So I should be okay with two e-certs and then my regular payment method.

Why not just book people separately? We would do that when using SWA credits and can only enter up to 4 types of payments.

 

[stacielee]

Why not just book people separately? We would do that when using SWA credits and can only enter up to 4 types of payments.

I do that, and I book each way separately. That way, if the fare goes down, i only have to rebook that part.

 

[Colleen27]

Why not just book people separately? We would do that when using SWA credits and can only enter up to 4 types of payments.

I do that, and I book each way separately. That way, if the fare goes down, i only have to rebook that part.

Hmm, I didn't think of that. I'm fine with the payment methods; I'll have two Coinstar slips and a gift card in the end. But it still might be worth doing for the price-drop credit. This is the first time I've booked with Southwest (they took over this route from Airtran since my last trip) so that's something I'm going to have to learn!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I do that, and I book each way separately. That way, if the fare goes down, i only have to rebook that part.

exactly! Also sometimes a price drop only applies to 1 passenger, not 4. Having all 4 of us on 1 res is a PITA. We get EBCI for our return anyway so we don't care that we have 4 different confirmation #s.
It's a slight pain checking in 4 for our flight to FL but worth it to be able to use points, credits, etc. Our kids are teens now so I'm not frantic if they had to sit a row or 2 away, though that hasn't happened yet.