Southwest Rewards/Awards Usage

[Luv2CtheMouse]

Has anybody had any experience trying to book on Southwest using your awards/rewards and were unable to do so? If so, can you please share the details why you could not use it? Day of the week, time of the year, etc?

 

[Donut23]

I fly on reward flights frequently so I may have an idea or two.

First, double check on the Southwest website to make sure you are not trying to fly on a blackout date. There are not many, but occassionally I know I have had to change my flight by a day or so to use a reward because I stubbornly tried to book a reward flight on a blackout date. Last year we actually (don't tell anybody) flew Airtran out to LAX because we could not use our reward flights - we flew back free, however.

In the past, Southwest would give you a reward flight as long as there was a vacant seat on the jet. WOO HOO, that made life easy!

Well, a few years ago they began to limit the number of seats set aside for a reward flight on each segment of your flight.

Two suggestions.......

1.) You can go online and try other flights

2.) You can call Southwest and someone will help you find the flights which have available reward seats.

 

[DebbieB]

Has anybody had any experience trying to book on Southwest using your awards/rewards and were unable to do so? If so, can you please share the details why you could not use it? Day of the week, time of the year, etc?

I had a room reservation for June of last year at AKV, arriving on a Sunday. I wanted the first flight in the morning to Orlando, I had plans to meet friends later in the day down there. The cash price was around $360 roundtrip (PIT-MCO)! I didnt want to pay that much so I decided to exchange some of my points with Hyatt and Hilton for SW rewards points. After I did that, I went in to book it as an award and the only flight left was in the evening, which would mean missing my arrival dinner with my friends. So I checked Saturday and they had flights in the morning & afternoon. So I booked it and got a room at the Swan for that night with partial SPG points and $60. I watched the flights I wanted originally and it never went down, it ended up around $400!