Southwest - Combination of Ticketless Travel Funds and Cash??

[clkelley]

I've got some Travel Funds from a trip that are due to expire in November. (Broken into 4 pieces)

We are planning on using them in September and will book shortly after the new dates are released. Two people traveling, will be booking 4 one-ways.

The terms on my travel fund balance says "If you apply TTFs toward the purchase of a new reservation, you new reservation record will relect the expiration date of the oldest TTFs used to pay for this reservation. Therefore, the expiration date of your new reservation and all TTFs associated with your new reservation may be less than 12 months."

Now, if I use some TTF, and some cash for the new reservation, will the cash portion I paid have the same expiration as the original TTFs??

I guess what I'm asking is it better to put a portion of the TTF to each new segment I book and have cash for each segment because the cash portion will have the later expiration date

Or is it better to lump the TTFs together into the fewest segments, because the cash portion will retain the earlier expiration date?

Will be purchasing lowest non-refundable fare available, hoping for lower fares or Ding! to come out in interim, so I want the longest availability for any future TTF I might get when lowering fare.

Does this make sense??

 

[cepmom]

basically if you pay part cash, part TTF then you get a Ding or otherwise lower the price of you airfare, the resulting TTF will have the same expiration date of the most recent expiration date of the TTF you used to pay for the trip.(can you follow that?? not sure if that made any sense!)

Last year I used several TTF with different expirations and cc for payment. I got a Ding and received a new TTF for the price difference. The new TTF had the earliest expiration date even though part of the payment was by cc.

Not sure what would be the best way to go about using the TTF.....if you spread them out (one for each transaction) then if the price goes down, the new TTF will have the same expiration as the TTF used for payment (November??) even if you used part cash for that payment.

I think I would use all the TTF on one transaction (we'll call "A")and use them up before they expire. Then use cash for the rest of the transactions ("B", "C", "D"), then if you get a lower fare, you will have a year from date of purchase to use the new TTF.

If a lower fare comes along, change all the fares, then use the resulting TTF from "A" towards "B","C" and "D" so that will all be used up again. The resulting TTF from "B","C", and "D" will be good for a year

I hope that made sense!!

 

[clkelley]

Oh, now that does make sense!!!

That's what I was having trouble figuring out, is how to make sure the TTC funds are used for the September trip, and have any "new" TTC funds last longer.

I'm also thinking that the only way I would be stuck with the older TTC funds is if "A" dropped and B,C,D were actually higher fares than they were when I originally booked.

Kewl!!

Thanks!!!!

 

[cepmom]

I am glad you were able to make sense out of all that!!

 

[MarylandMommy]

Are you sure? I booked "A", got a discount and a credit, then booked "B", and when I got a discount on that, it has the same expiration as "A".

So, you are saying I should book "A", then on a completely differenct trip later in the year book "B" with "A"s credit and a brand new "C" (no credits), then if I cancel "B" and cancel and rebook "C" with "B"s funds, it will have "C"s expiration?

Does that make sense? Is that what you meant?

 

[cepmom]

Are you sure? I booked "A", got a discount and a credit, then booked "B", and when I got a discount on that, it has the same expiration as "A".

So, you are saying I should book "A", then on a completely differenct trip later in the year book "B" with "A"s credit and a brand new "C" (no credits), then if I cancel "B" and cancel and rebook "C" with "B"s funds, it will have "C"s expiration?

Does that make sense? Is that what you meant?

"A", "B" etc refer to each person and each leg of one trip....for example, if I were booking two people to fly to MCO and back, I would book each person separately as one way tickets, resulting in 4 one way tickets (A,B,C,D) not four separate trips. HTH

 

[clkelley]

Exactly.

I have $179.00 in Ticketless Travel Funds that have an expiration of November.

I'm booking two people going to MCO in September.

I will book four transactions.

A - Hubby BNA to MCO - $100.00 - Use TTFs - $79.00 Balance TTF

B - Me BNA to MCO - $100.00 - Use TTFs - $0.00 Balance TTF - $21.00 on Credit Card

C - Hubby MCO to BNA - $100.00 - $100.00 on CC

D - Me MCO to BNA - $100.00 - $100.00 on CC

Then I would have $200 in potential TTF expiring in November and $200 in potential TTF expiring in May

If all four drop to $60.00 each

Then the new purchase would be to cancel all four tickets:

A - Hubby BNA to MCO - $60.00 - Use November TTFs - $140.00 Balance November TTF

B - Me BNA to MCO - $60.00 Use November TTFs - $80.00 Balance November TTF

C - Hubby MCO to BNA - $60.00 - Use November TTFs - $20.00 Balance November TTF

D - Me MCO to BNA - $60.00 - Use November TTFs ($20.00) and then May TTFs $40.00

Leaving a balance of $160.00 in TTFs that expire in May.

 

[MarylandMommy]

Ok, I'm dumb! Thanks for the clarification. This is exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you for spelling it out so clearly. It seems we always had all this credit because Southwest always drops their airfare. I realized that I need to stop booking all our flights on the same reservation number, but didn't know how I would still avoid the old credit from rolling over.
Brilliant!