Southwest Rewards Question - Cancelled and Expiration dates

[KCmike]

My wife and I had book a roundtrip flight out on Southwest and had paid using points we had earned. We had to cancel the flight and they points are all back but the expiration date is June 5th of 2015. Do I need to book and have my flights done with before that date or just booked before that date?

 

[jls886]

I'm not completely sure I understand your question. If you booked using points, you can cancel with no penalty. The points go back in your account and can be used on any future travel, with no specific expiration date. Your points do not expire as long as you have some sort of earning or spending activity on your account within any 24-month period. Where are you seeing the expiration date of 6/5/2015?

If you pay for a flight rather than using points, and then you cancel your flight, the ticketless travel fund you are then issued has an expiration date of 1 year from the date of the original flight booking.

 

[pixiedust915]

I cancelled a flight that was booked on points not too long ago. The points you are given back have an expiration that requires you to BOOK a flight before the date.
Hope this helps!

 

[KCmike]

I cancelled a flight that was booked on points not too long ago. The points you are given back have an expiration that requires you to BOOK a flight before the date.
Hope this helps!

Thanks that was what I thought.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm not completely sure I understand your question. If you booked using points, you can cancel with no penalty. The points go back in your account and can be used on any future travel, with no specific expiration date. Your points do not expire as long as you have some sort of earning or spending activity on your account within any 24-month period. Where are you seeing the expiration date of 6/5/2015?

If you pay for a flight rather than using points, and then you cancel your flight, the ticketless travel fund you are then issued has an expiration date of 1 year from the date of the original flight booking.

I thought this was the case. It's the few $ one must pay in taxes that has the expiration date. Points going back to your account have no expiration date as long as you have earning activity within 24 months.

 

[jls886]

I thought this was the case. It's the few $ one must pay in taxes that has the expiration date. Points going back to your account have no expiration date as long as you have earning activity within 24 months.

As far as I know, it is still the case, but now I am curious if something has changed. As of a few weeks ago when I last cancelled a points-booked trip, it was still the case. Also, when you cancel a flight booked with points you can actually select to have the few $ you pay in fees to be refunded. I always just ask for a refund of the fees so that I am not left with a very small travel fund credit.

ETA: According to the T&C, it looks like points do not have particular expiration dates as long as you earn points within a 24-month period, so I stand corrected that spending points does not count as activity.
"Points don’t expire as long as you have flight or Partner earning activity every 24 months."

Where are you seeing the expiration date for your points? I would like to check my own account to see if I have anything similar since I just cancelled a points-booked flight last month.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

As far as I know, it is still the case, but now I am curious if something has changed. As of a few weeks ago when I last cancelled a points-booked trip, it was still the case. Also, when you cancel a flight booked with points you can actually select to have the few $ you pay in fees to be refunded. I always just ask for a refund of the fees so that I am not left with a very small travel fund credit.

ETA: According to the T&C, it looks like points do not have particular expiration dates as long as you earn points within a 24-month period, so I stand corrected that spending points does not count as activity.
"Points don’t expire as long as you have flight or Partner earning activity every 24 months."

Where are you seeing the expiration date for your points? I would like to check my own account to see if I have anything similar since I just cancelled a points-booked flight last month.

Now that you mention it, I've done this too. If points expired, they would have to list each set of points separately according to exp date, which I don't believe to be the case.

 

[KCmike]

Now I can't find the expiration date but I know I saw it when they recredited my account with the points I achieved. I will keep looking around the site to see if I can see the expiration pop up again. I hope there is no expiration so I can push some future travel a little later down the calendar.

 

[KCmike]

I did make a purchase now that I think of it on this card so maybe thats why the expiration date is no longer showing??

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

When you cancel a SWA flights booked with points be sure to click the refund button and the taxes paid for the flight will be refunded to you. I just cancelled 6 flights two weeks ago that were booked with points and got all of the taxes refunded to me. If you do not click the refund button the money used for the taxes will be held for a future reservation and have an expiration date of one year from the time you booked the flight.

 

[jls886]

When you cancel a SWA flights booked with points be sure to click the refund button and the taxes paid for the flight will be refunded to you. I just cancelled 6 flights two weeks ago that were booked with points and got all of the taxes refunded to me. If you do not click the refund button the money used for the taxes will be held for a future reservation and have an expiration date of one year from the time you booked the flight.

I was about to say this as well. If you did not request a refund of your fees paid (around $5 or so) that becomes a ticketless travel fund with an expiration date of 1 year from the date of booking the flight. Maybe that is what happened, OP?

The points that you were refunded do not have an expiration date as long as you have earning activity within any 24-month period. I have booked and cancelled many flights using points and unless SW has made a major change, they do not have expiration dates once cancelled. Your points from your cancelled flight just go back in your main pool of points and can be used anytime.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Now I can't find the expiration date but I know I saw it when they recredited my account with the points I achieved. I will keep looking around the site to see if I can see the expiration pop up again. I hope there is no expiration so I can push some future travel a little later down the calendar.

You can use this page to see if you still have funds associated with your confirmation #. If you have any funds, this will list the expiration date.

https://www.southwest.com/flight/travel-funds-search.html

Keep in mind if you use this credit in the future, the funds used with it will adopt this old expiration date. For example, let's say your funds expire 7/1/15. On 3/1/15 you decide to book a flight for mid June so you apply these funds so it's less out of pocket in March right? Well now all those funds will expire on 7/1/15, not on 3/1/16 as you might expect.

Because of this, whenever we want to use up old funds, we make a separate reservation (let's say one way flights) so that if we do have to cancel, not ALL of the funds have the old expiration date.
It can be a substantial loss if you're new tickets are expensive, and your credits were minimal. Is it worth using the $5 credit to have funds for tickets from NYC to San Fran expire in a few months, not a full year?

Just something to consider when using your credits. That's if you're not getting a refund.

 

[KCmike]

Thanks everyone with the help on this. I still don't see the expiration so I think I'm in good shape. I might call them to just make sure as well.