Southwest Credit expires before trip?!

[VLee]

I have a credit which is set to expire in March. Our trip is May 23. Does SW extend their credit?

If so, I need to book (hopefully if they will announce new fares for May) by tomorrow. I have tentatively "reserved" Delta flights. I used my Skymiles for one ticket and then had a promo for the other two, where I bought one, received a free (ha!) companion ticket. I have until Tuesday 11 pm to make it final. It averages out for $115 for the 3 tickets. Of course, I used my Skymiles for one....but you never know with Delta--there is talk of a buyout and I needed to use these miles before I end up losing them.

But if I could get a better deal with SW, we like to fly with them because of the direct flight. We always have to figure in 2 hrs of driving time to their airport, and parking fees, so we may just stick with Delta this time.

We have to buy new AP's and the DDP plan-- just might have to use some of those Disney rewards this time!

 

[bjakmom]

When this happened to me last year a DISer gave me this advice and this is what I did: called the customer relations #(214)792-4223 (M-F 8-5 central time). I explained to them that I was unable to travel before my credits expired and they granted me a "one time" extention of 6 mos. To do this they had to mail me the vouchers - I booked my next trip on line and paid in full, following completion that trip, I mailed the vouchers, with copy of my flight itinerary to the address they provided. They credited my cc with the voucher amounts within about 4- 6 weeks. A bit of work, but I had $512 worth of credits that year, so 2 tickets to CA came to only $60. (after the credit was reimbursed) . I LOVE SWA !!! Hope this helps you!

 

[emmabelle]

When you ask for the extension they will mail you a SW LUV voucher that has on it a sixteen digit number and a security code which you then use to book new travel. It took two weeks for me to receive my voucher. They told me in November that this was the only way to do it. I had already charged a new ticket prior to calling SW thinking I would be able to send them confirmation after the trip and get a credit to my credit card but they said no. Lesson learned, I should have called SW first before jumping on the airfare. I ended up rebooking the airfare that I had already charged to my credit card with the SW LUV voucher, so now I have a new credit that expires in November. At least we plan to fly SW this summer so I'll use my new credit then.

 

[NotUrsula]

I called Rapid Rewards about this last night (you do mean a RR free flight credit, right?) I was told that for $50 you can extend a RR credit for one year. They take the infor over the phone, and it takes 48 hours to process and re-issue the credit with a new expiration date.

 

[emmabelle]

I called Rapid Rewards about this last night (you do mean a RR free flight credit, right?)

I was assuming that the OP was talking about ticketless travel funds, which would be different. I wish I could extend my credit of $337 for $50. no such luck on that one.

 

[VLee]

I was assuming that the OP was talking about ticketless travel funds, which would be different. I wish I could extend my credit of $337 for $50. no such luck on that one.

All:
Sorry for any confusion...I was referring to the ticketless credit that you get whenever you have to cancel a flight.
Thanks for your input. I will call SW to make sure of what I need to do to extend the credit before it expires in March.
Hopefully, they can grant an extension for my travel the first week of October, but not sure it will be just over 6 months.

 

[emmabelle]

All:
Sorry for any confusion...I was referring to the ticketless credit that you get whenever you have to cancel a flight.
Thanks for your input. I will call SW to make sure of what I need to do to extend the credit before it expires in March.
Hopefully, they can grant an extension for my travel the first week of October, but not sure it will be just over 6 months.

SW also told me that they extend the ticketless travel funds from the date that you ask them too, not from the date that they would normally expire, so if you called now and asked for the extension they would more than likely extend the credit only through July 31st. I waited until the credit was about to expire, mine would have expired on November 24th, I called on November 16th and they extended the funds to May 31st.