Southwest Credit Problem..It worked ! You can build a credit!

[mybabesuz]

When did SW change their policy on using credits?

I booked my flights and then the price went down twice so I rebooked twice.
So I was left with 21 credits of $10 or $13 .
It issued me a seperate credit for each change for each person.
They are all under only 4 different accounts but each ticket is listed seperate.

I went to use them and it will only let me use four lines.
And even then it says I need to delete one to use a Credit Card to Pay the difference.

Is there anyway to combine the credits to be able to use them?

I am sooo mad...
The only reason I booked early was because I knew I would be traveling again and thought it would be no problem to use the credits.

I would have canceled one reservation and booked a new one if I knew how they would issue the credit.
Even if I try to cancel now the original reservation stays split up into three parts showing three credits for each ticket!

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Why don't you call them and have them walk you through the process over the phone?

When did SW change their policy on using credits?

I booked my flights and then the price went down twice so I rebooked twice.
So I was left with 21 credits of $10 or $13 .
It issued me a seperate credit for each change for each person.
They are all under only 4 different accounts but each ticket is listed seperate.

I went to use them and it will only let me use four lines.
And even then it says I need to delete one to use a Credit Card to Pay the difference.

Is there anyway to combine the credits to be able to use them?

I am sooo mad...
The only reason I booked early was because I knew I would be traveling again and thought it would be no problem to use the credits.

I would have canceled one reservation and booked a new one if I knew how they would issue the credit.
Even if I try to cancel now the original reservation stays split up into three parts showing three credits for each ticket!

 

[LoveToDisney]

I would go into the Travel Tools section of the website and check the balance of Travel Funds for each of the Confirmation numbers you have. It will tell you the balance for each number. You should then be able to use the balance of at least two confirmation numbers per new ticket. Sometimes I have to break the trip up into one-ways to use all the credits. The funds are held by Confirmation numbers so when I blend two sums into one new confirmation number, they become one new amount (although the total amount now expires on the oldest date of the group). This is how I understand it.

 

[mybabesuz]

I would go into the Travel Tools section of the website and check the balance of Travel Funds for each of the Confirmation numbers you have. It will tell you the balance for each number. You should then be able to use the balance of at least two confirmation numbers per new ticket. Sometimes I have to break the trip up into one-ways to use all the credits. The funds are held by Confirmation numbers so when I blend two sums into one new confirmation number, they become one new amount (although the total amount now expires on the oldest date of the group). This is how I understand it.

You can't do that anymore. That is my problem!
Apparently 6 weeks ago they changed there policy.
I have called and they told me to call their Headquarters and complain.
So I did.

They now issue a new credit every time you change a ticket.
I had one reservation with 6 people on it.
The flight price changed twice. Once by $13 and once by $10.
I now have 6 credits for $10 and 6 credits for $13. 12 credits total!
I can not combine them. I can only use 4 credits towards the price of a new ticket.
So I can only use $52 of my $138 credit toward the purchase of a new ticket!
until 6 weeks ago you could use all $138 on one ticket.
It is all on ONE account. You put the account in and it comes up with 12 credits.
You can only use four of them. They will not combine them. I have asked.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Oh that stinks that they changed the policy. That will definitely be a negative to me in terms of thinking of SWA for future travel. I've been able to rack up lots of SWA credits in the past from a bunch of little price drops but if they're not all lumped together it hardly seems worth it.

 

[LoveToDisney]

I find this totally odd. Today, there was another price drop on tickets and I took another credit on one of our tickets so that particular confirmation number has two credits worth totalling $20 ($6 + $14). When I go to the site to check the Ticketless travel fund balance, it shows $20 on that confirmation number, not a $6 and $14 balance.

 

[coinkc]

I don't understand this either. I changed my tickets today and got a credit. Then a little later, I changed our return flight and received another credit which was combined under the original confirmation number. So instead of 4 $30 credits, we have one $120.

Were each of the tickets issued individually? Under seperate confirmation numbers? That's the only way I could see how you would have 6 seperate credits.

 

[dioxide45]

Do you have to book all tickets at once. Can you not break them up in to seperate one way flights for each person traveling? That may help to be able to use all the credits or most of them.

 

[mybabesuz]

I find this totally odd. Today, there was another price drop on tickets and I took another credit on one of our tickets so that particular confirmation number has two credits worth totalling $20 ($6 + $14). When I go to the site to check the Ticketless travel fund balance, it shows $20 on that confirmation number, not a $6 and $14 balance.

Yes it shows the total when you look it up BUT...
when you go to use it, it breaks down each transaction for each person to a seperate credit and
you can only use four of them per transaction whether you are booking one person or eight.

So the best you can do is book each person seperately and use 4 credits per ticket.
So I have 21 credits total from 9 different people... 7 kids and me and DH...
I wanted to use the credits for a December trip but only 4 of us are going back.

I am going to have to book each ticket seperate then hope for the best when boarding??? Can I even book a 3 and 4 yo. alone???
If I book 2 and 2... One adult and one child each reservation I can only use 16 of my 21 credits...

 

[mybabesuz]

I don't understand this either. I changed my tickets today and got a credit. Then a little later, I changed our return flight and received another credit which was combined under the original confirmation number. So instead of 4 $30 credits, we have one $120.

Were each of the tickets issued individually? Under seperate confirmation numbers? That's the only way I could see how you would have 6 seperate credits.

I have 12 credits under ONE Confirmation number. It totals them on the inquiry page.
But lists them seperately when you use them. I have 6-- $13 credits and 6--$10 credits on ONE number.
And that was just one one-way flight... I have 9 credits from the flight home too.
I booked for 9 people.. split them 6 and 3...
I can only use FOUR for a Reservation...

When you do a "look up" on your ticketless travel it will say...
Res. ABCDEF $120 credit

BUT when you go to use it,
It will break down to each passager:
ABCDEF 100 $30
ABCDEF 101 $30
ABCDEF 102 $30
ABCDEF 103 $30

You can only use four of them per transaction. Fine if you only have 4...BAD if you have 21...

 

[coinkc]

That does stink! I just tried it and see what you mean.

Could you book each leg as a one-way so that you could use 4 credits for each flight? That might help eat up some of the credit.

 

[mybabesuz]

That does stink! I just tried it and see what you mean.

Could you book each leg as a one-way so that you could use 4 credits for each flight? That might help eat up some of the credit.

Can I book a 3yo a seperate ticket? And what about boarding passes. They would all be printed seperate and spread out.

 

[riley2008]

I know I'll have the same experience, most likely; however, I did have to get help at one time from SWA customer service to get another credit and was told that it might be a problem and to call if I needed help to get all the credits.

You could try "buying" a cheaper flight with 3-4 credits and then cancelling it. That way, with the new reservation, you could use the "new" single credit and a couple of the older credits. PITA but I think it would work.

 

[mareed]

I just encountered the same thing and had to split up our flights booking individually in order to use up the credits. It is annoying! The other somewhat tricky thing is that when you go to apply the credit, you have to figure out which name goes with which credit otherwise you'll get an error when you try to use it.

You can book young children separately, and it does mean that you'll have to check in with separate confirmation #'s, and they're likely to be a bit spread out, but don't worry about that. When you check in, I recommend checking in the adults first and SW will let you have your children board with you even if their boarding pass # is later. I've personally had to do this when we were on 4 award tickets and so had 4 different confirmation #'s to check in with, and I'd messed one of the kids numbers up and didn't have the right number with me when I checked us all in via the mobile phone. I had to call SW to get the right confirmation # and one of my kids ended up with a B boarding pass, but they let him board with the rest of us with A's. I specifically went and asked the gate agent what to do and she said he could board with us no problem.

 

[mybabesuz]

I know I'll have the same experience, most likely; however, I did have to get help at one time from SWA customer service to get another credit and was told that it might be a problem and to call if I needed help to get all the credits.

You could try "buying" a cheaper flight with 3-4 credits and then cancelling it. That way, with the new reservation, you could use the "new" single credit and a couple of the older credits. PITA but I think it would work.

That would be interesting if it would work...
I guess I have nothing to loose. There is no fee to book it or cancel.
I'll let everyone know if it works...

 

[LoveToDisney]

That would be interesting if it would work... I guess I have nothing to loose. There is no fee to book it or cancel.
I'll let everyone know if it works...

I look forward to hearing what happens. Many of us will be in the same boat with this new change. What a pain!

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Southwest, like many of its fellow airlines, lost money last quarter. Expect more changes like this so they can slow the bloodflow.

 

[Fantasmic303]

Don't mean to be a downer, but I don't think that method will work (of purchasing a cheap flight to get them all on one credit).

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago and had actually rebooked before so I essentially did the above without meaning to. It still split the reservation number into several different codes.

Please let us know if you find a resolution. I called SW and was on the phone for nearly an hour requesting some sort of work around. Mine occured because they tried to book something for me and attempted to override the system, and when they weren't able to, they had to cancel out the reservation (which thereby split my SINGLE reservation into two instead of one).

It's confusing, and I can't figure out how to articulate it, lol.

Anyway, they were NOT able to help me at all, and I did ask the rep (it wasn't her fault, after all) to please make sure it is noted somewhere with customer service that I am very unhappy with the situation. Using credits with Southwest has gotten a lot more complicated - now that I know that I can plan accordingly, especially since JetBlue's process is so much easier.

 

[NotUrsula]

Can I book a 3yo a seperate ticket? And what about boarding passes. They would all be printed seperate and spread out.

You definitely can NOW, if you hurry. That may change after August 15th.

The new TSA rule is going to require a DOB to be entered for online ticket purchases after August 15th, so it is possible that the airlines will monitor that and refuse to sell single-passenger itineraries when the passenger is too young to travel alone.

Right now you don't have to give an age, so the airline won't know that the person is a child until they are physically seen by personnel at the gate.

 

[mybabesuz]

I look forward to hearing what happens. Many of us will be in the same boat with this new change. What a pain!

I haven't tried yet. The cheapest flight I could find was $57.
My credits are mostly $13.
Plus you can only really use THREE of them unless your credits totally pay for your ticket.
Because you can only have FOUR lines of payments...
So you can't even use four credits and then pay the difference.
I don't think it will work anyways...

I just wish they would atleast put the credits together for the same passenger on the same ticket.
I rebooked my fare twice...once $13 cheaper and then another $10...
So I ended up with 12 different credits for only six tickets.
They could atleast put those together and make one $23 credit for each passenger.
Live and learn I guess...

Next time I will cancel the original tickets and then use 5 of the 6 credits to buy back the cheaper tickets...