Southwest question - how does gift card payment credit if price goes down?

aliceindisneyland

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Hi, I'm wondering if I should buy flights this week using SW gift card (4x fuel pts on travel cards at Fry's right now). If the price goes down after I book, how does Southwest credit the payment? I believe points go back to points, and credit card pmt goes toward a different flight, but I don't know about gift cards. Thanks!
 
Hi, I'm wondering if I should buy flights this week using SW gift card (4x fuel pts on travel cards at Fry's right now). If the price goes down after I book, how does Southwest credit the payment? I believe points go back to points, and credit card pmt goes toward a different flight, but I don't know about gift cards. Thanks!

If it's a non-refundable fare (the wanna get a way one) gift card is the same as credit/cash, you get the travel credit that expires in a year from the booking. Not sure how a refundable fare works, I've never booked one of those. It might go back to the gift card in that case.
 
If it's a non-refundable fare (the wanna get a way one) gift card is the same as credit/cash, you get the travel credit that expires in a year from the booking. Not sure how a refundable fare works, I've never booked one of those. It might go back to the gift card in that case.
Thank you, that helps a lot!
 
To add to the above- the flight confirmation code acts as the "credit" on a wanna get away fare. Be aware that they do expire- you can check when on the website.
 

This may be common knowledge but I thought I would share incase people don't know became I have an useable $75 gift card. (I always book with points) SW gift cards can only be used for the flight. You will have to use your credit card for the taxes and early bird.
 
You'll want to keep track of your flight confirmation code, as mentioned above, so that if you get some money back in "Ticketless Funds," you'll need to know the confirmation code AND the name of the person associated with that code. (Southwest will not offer this information to you, you have to keep track.) The ticketless funds can only be used for THAT person and no one else, and the travel needs to be completed by the expiration date. Also, there's a maximum of four payments per ticket, so if you have small amounts sitting around on different confirmation numbers but not enough to purchase one complete ticket, then you will only be able to use three ticketless funds and then put the balance on a new payment method like a credit card or another gift card. And any new money you put toward the new ticket now takes on the expiration date of the OLDEST ticketless fund. It's imperative to keep good records. I used to use a spreadsheet. These days I have enough Rapid Rewards points to book tickets and with those, if the price drops you just "change" your ticket and the points go back into your account and you don't need to keep track of anything.
 
You'll want to keep track of your flight confirmation code, as mentioned above, so that if you get some money back in "Ticketless Funds," you'll need to know the confirmation code AND the name of the person associated with that code. (Southwest will not offer this information to you, you have to keep track.) The ticketless funds can only be used for THAT person and no one else, and the travel needs to be completed by the expiration date. Also, there's a maximum of four payments per ticket, so if you have small amounts sitting around on different confirmation numbers but not enough to purchase one complete ticket, then you will only be able to use three ticketless funds and then put the balance on a new payment method like a credit card or another gift card. And any new money you put toward the new ticket now takes on the expiration date of the OLDEST ticketless fund. It's imperative to keep good records. I used to use a spreadsheet. These days I have enough Rapid Rewards points to book tickets and with those, if the price drops you just "change" your ticket and the points go back into your account and you don't need to keep track of anything.

Good info. One update, they changed the number of payments per ticket to 3. And they changed the wording (again) to say passenger.
"You may use a maximum of three forms of payments per passenger, which includes one credit card or PayPal account per transaction." (https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/purchasing-and-refunds/index.html)

In my experience it really meant reservation, but it could be the rep helping me didn't know how to do it properly. I tried to put myself and hubby on one reservation and use 3 forms of payment each last October, but she said she couldn't do it, she'd have to split us separate to do that. Which is not what the website said (at the time it said per ticket I believe) or still says, but that's what we wound up doing as the website seemed to be making us do that anyway. So something to keep in mind if using multiple forms of payment.
 





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