southwest credit balances extended?

[dj2]

has anyone had any luck getting swa to extend some credit dollars which will expire before they need to be used? DD has about $104 expiring 8/17, (and $17 expiring 6/15) but doesn't need to travel again until 8/29. it would be nice to at least use the $104 that misses the cut-off by less than 2 weeks.

if so, what's the best procedure to try to do something like this?

thanks.
dj

 

[chocovrdmicears]

It is my understanding that you can extend it but they charge a $50 fee. BUT I am not sure about how long they extend it for -

 

[dj2]

It is my understanding that you can extend it but they charge a $50 fee. BUT I am not sure about how long they extend it for -

do you think there is a special number to call, or just the regular number? i can't see any place to do this on line.

 

[dj2]

ok, just in case anyone is curious---

i just called customer relations. yes it is a $50 penalty, per confirmation number. so left as is, the smaller dollar amounts would be wasted. and they can't reissue anthing until the money actually expires. by then the $119 ticket i was going to buy would probably be 2-3 times that price.

i think i'll combine all the funds by buying a dummy ticket to somewhere for an amount equal to all the credit we have, so then it will all expire on 6/15. then i'll have them reissue the money minus $50, so i'll still have a $71 credit (good for 6 months).

 

[bluenosemickey]

does that work?

 

[dj2]

does that work?

yes. i've done it a few times before when prices had dropped leaving me with a bunch of little credits. you can only use 4 payment methods at a time, so i searched for cheap flights, like KCI to STL, or within texas or california, etc. and used those to combine the small amounts. sometimes i had to have quite a spreadsheet going to get it all to work, but it saved us a lot of money in the long run.

 

[bluenosemickey]

cool! the stuff you learn on DIS!