SW extends travel funds for flights cancelled between Mar 1-Jun 30th..but what if I already have travel funds from that trip from price drops?

mom2mikel

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Does anyone know? I've emailed SW and they simply replied with this information without actually answering my specific question.

Back in October, I purchased flights for our May trip for $300 per person. Over the course of the last few months, we've bebooked several times due to finding lower prices so I currently have $225 in travel funds that show an expiration date of 10/20. And my flight which has a value of $75 from the lowest fares we found. If we cacnel this flight, will ALL of our $300 in travel funds be extended to June 2021 or just the current value of our tickets ($75)?

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Can I receive a refund if I’ve booked a ticket on Southwest and feel uncomfortable flying?
Nonrefundable tickets (Wanna Get Away fares) not flown on the travel date, but canceled in accordance with Southwest’s No Show Policy, can be applied to future travel up to one year from the original purchase date aside from the below exceptions.
All travel funds must be used by the individual named on the ticket.
In recognition of the current travel environment, we are extending the expiration date of some travel funds:
  • Customers’ funds that have expired or will expire between March 1-June 30, 2020, will now expire June 30, 2021
  • Any newly created travel fund because you cancel a flight between March 1-June 30, 2020, will have an expiration date of June 30, 2021
For any nonrefundable tickets that do not fall within either date range noted above, the travel funds can be used up to one year from the original purchase date but must be used by the individual named on the ticket.
 
Caught them on FB Messenger -- he said all but $10 will be extended through June 2021! I'll take it :)
 
Why all but $10? Is that the taxes/fees? Its my understanding that if you were scheduled to fly in May and had to cancel, all of your credits will be pushed to June 2021 with the exception of taxes/fees and whatever you paid for early bird check-in, if applicable.

Also, keep in mind that you can only use up to two travel funds per person per transaction. And to use them on more than one person, you have to book the flights separately. Even though the travel funds have the same confirmation number and are from the same canceled flight. I ran into this also because I had three separate travel funds issued from price drops on my May flight, but will only be able to use two of them when I book my November flight, and I will have to book DH separately to use his.
 
Why all but $10? Is that the taxes/fees? Its my understanding that if you were scheduled to fly in May and had to cancel, all of your credits will be pushed to June 2021 with the exception of taxes/fees and whatever you paid for early bird check-in, if applicable.

Also, keep in mind that you can only use up to two travel funds per person per transaction. And to use them on more than one person, you have to book the flights separately. Even though the travel funds have the same confirmation number and are from the same canceled flight. I ran into this also because I had three separate travel funds issued from price drops on my May flight, but will only be able to use two of them when I book my November flight, and I will have to book DH separately to use his.

I don't know why the $10 but I was jus thappy to only lose that much so I didn't question it. And, are you saying that if I had, let's say, 5 credits from 5 different rebookings (due to price drops), I can only use 2 on a new reservation? That stinks. Also, we have 6 people on our reservation so I'm going to have to book 6 different reservations now?

Thanks for the info!
 

nd, are you saying that if I had, let's say, 5 credits from 5 different rebookings (due to price drops), I can only use 2 on a new reservation? That stinks. Also, we have 6 people on our reservation so I'm going to have to book 6 different reservations now?
Yes and yes. Let's say you have a flight booked for May 10th and the flight price has gone down twice - you'll have two credits, one from each price drop. Then you decide to cancel, so you have a credit for the flight cancellation. That gives you a total of 3 travel funds on your account, all of which would have the same confirmation number. If your party of 6 was on the same confirmation, they should have identical travel funds as well.

When you go to book a flight and want to use those travel funds, Southwest only permits you to use up to three forms of payment - two can be travel funds and the third would have to be a credit/debit card. So in order to be able to use two travel funds per person, you'd have to book everyone separately.

There are workarounds where you can book a "dummy" flight, then cancel it, in order to combine each person's travel funds into one per person, but I haven't done it myself yet so I can't speak to it. Might be worth googling. But it is a caveat in situations like these.
 











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