Southwest Visa rewards snafu

[walkdmc]

If you have the SW Visa from Chase and have used it to book travel please tell me about your experience.

DH has a SW Visa which we just opened. We got (I think) 17 credits just for opening the card (16 credits are needed for 1 roundtrip flight to most cities). We also received $500 in SW gift cards over the course of the first two months of usage.

I tried to book our first flights using the SW points and the return leg of our flight which is on a Sunday, lists every flight "unavailable". However, if I go onto the SW site, w/o logging in as a rewards member, all flights on that day have availability.

Do you find they typically block out certain popular travel days? I plan on calling them and using his points to book 2 one ways for he and I, using the GCs and Visa for the kids seats. Hopefully it'll work out.

BTW, OMG can I complain about the price of airline tickets.....$300+ for one way .....ON SOUTHWEST...from Philly to Orlado...I just paid about $110 for the same flight on the same days of the week in 2010....airfare almost TRIPLED!!!! And I'm talking about a flight in October, not one week from now, we're talking 7 months from now!!!

 

[Marionnette]

If you have the SW Visa from Chase and have used it to book travel please tell me about your experience.

DH has a SW Visa which we just opened. We got (I think) 17 credits just for opening the card (16 credits are needed for 1 roundtrip flight to most cities). We also received $500 in SW gift cards over the course of the first two months of usage.

I tried to book our first flights using the SW points and the return leg of our flight which is on a Sunday, lists every flight "unavailable". However, if I go onto the SW site, w/o logging in as a rewards member, all flights on that day have availability.

Do you find they typically block out certain popular travel days? I plan on calling them and using his points to book 2 one ways for he and I, using the GCs and Visa for the kids seats. Hopefully it'll work out.

BTW, OMG can I complain about the price of airline tickets.....$300+ for one way .....ON SOUTHWEST...from Philly to Orlado...I just paid about $110 for the same flight on the same days of the week in 2010....airfare almost TRIPLED!!!! And I'm talking about a flight in October, not one week from now, we're talking 7 months from now!!!

SWA changed their RR program to points rather than credits. Under the new program, any seat can be booked on any flight and can be paid for using the points in your account. The old reward credits and awards can still be used under the old terms of use. Under the old program, you could only book a flight is there were any available award seats. Each flight has a limited number of award seats. Once they are all booked, you cannot use an award to get tickets for that flight. This is why you are seeing "unavailable" when you try to book using the award vouchers.

 

[rickdeni]

I would call them. We travel to Disney in October frequently and have never had any trouble getting flights. Southwest in the past few months has become very expensive. One way tickets on March 26th (Spring Break) were $343 per ticket. I guess I was lucky because they are sold out.

 

[Diegosmom]

MY dates are always gone or the times I want...I will be happy with the new system but I have 2 tix to use before Oct...

 

[tripplanner2]

Wondering if anyone else is having a problems getting their spending points to transfer into their rapid rewards account. My CC statement closed on April 16 and I still have not gotten my points. I have called SW, I have called Chase. I believe it is a problem on SW end since they changed the program but I am not happy at all. We could have taken out any credit card but chose that one and chose to fly SW. Now I am reconsidering all of my decisions. I am thinking SW is no longer the company it once was.

 

[JLKennedy]

What I've noticed:

Points are not listed on Chase's website.

Go to Southwest's site, log in with your rr number, and voila, the miles were there.

 

[tripplanner2]

What I've noticed:

Points are not listed on Chase's website.

Go to Southwest's site, log in with your rr number, and voila, the miles were there.

And I see the opposite...I see my points that Chase was to transfer but they are not showing on SW's end. I am loosing my mind over this. Very frustrating.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

I had the exact same problem with not being able to do it online. I had to call and then my flights were limited. Apparently they don't blackout dates and such but they do have a limited number of seats that are available to book with rr points on each flight. We were able to get a good time out from RDU to MCO but got a less desirable time home. However for a couple of free flights I was willing to deal with a later than desired flight time.

It did take a bit on the phone as the lady was SLOW getting it done. But it was doable. Just know that you may have to be flexible... and online is useless!

 

[britfish]

I have two of the "old" awards to use and the flights I want are unavailable. Do they ever open back up and become available?

 

[BSil]

I think you are experiencing a SW issue with seeing points. I got the SW signature about a month ago, and was promised 30K points after my first use/payment. I made a payment, and points were in my rapid rewards account the next day on the southwest site. No points show at all on the chase site.

Maybe if you call southwest, they can convert your old rewards to points? It can't hurt to try, and then you won't have a blackout issue. I'm sure they would like to keep as many folks flying with them as possible.