Using multiple Southwest credits

[DisMomAmy]

When I booked our tickets for our November trip, the price went down the very next day & I got $63 credits for each of our four family members. The price was lower today so I got us each another $8.70 in credits. So now we have eight different credits. I know we have to use them for the same person but my question is how many credits can I use in one transaction?

We are planning another trip for April & I'd like to use all of the credits for our return flights (because I know that one won't go down after booking - school vaca week). I thought I remembered only being able to use three credits in one transaction. Will I have to book all four of our tickets as separate transactions so I can use two credits on each transaction? Is there a way around this? Have they changed the procedure now that credits have to be used by the same person?

Thanks!!

 

[nonni]

I used credits to book a flight for this fall. I booked myself and my son at the same time and used two credits each. I can't remember for sure but I think there were boxes for up to four credits. It may have been three. We only had two and I know there were more boxes.
You do have to make sure the names are spelled exactly the same. My sons wasn't showing up at first because I had his middle initial in the one I was booking but it wasn't on the one that we had the credit for so I had to go back and take it out.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Southwest replied to my email. Apparently you can use two "whole tickets" per person along with four other forms of payment (partial tickets, vouchers, southwest giftcards, and one credit card) per reservation.

So basically if you completely cancel a flight, that is separate than the travel funds that you get from a price change.

They definitely don't make it easy to use them up!

I guess I'll have to book me & one DS separately from DH & our other DS. That way we can at least use up our four $63 credits.

 

[Corinne]

When I booked our Sept. airfare I discovered the hard way that they now treat each subsequent fare change as a separate credit. We had close to 200 in travel funds, so I figured I could apply my dh's and my (ds is not traveling this time) credits to our total. The system would not allow me to do it. I could only use 3 credits and had to put the remainder on a credit card.

Now, I could not get through to SW, but if I had, they would have told me to book my ticket and my husbands ticket seperately. It didn't dawn at me at the time! I really wanted to book right then because it was a great fare. It is not really fair that they do this, I think all credits earned from one flight should be treated as one credit. Live and learn.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I guess that's what I'm going to do... unless somebody has a better idea.

We each have a $63 credit and an $8.70 credit. Here's what I'll book:

1. Return flight for me & DS11 - using our two $63 credits and my $8.70 credit.

2. Return flight for DH & DS8 - using two $63 credits and DS8's $8.70 credit.

3. Flight down for DH & DS11 (notice I switched who had which kid) - using their two remaining $8.70 credits.

4. Flight down for me & DS8 - using no credits. If the flight price goes down, at least I will be able to get a new credit for the fall 2012 trip I have planned with some friends (family staying home)... assuming I book them after mid-October. If not, I won't be able to use the credits anyways so I'll probably just book all four of us together.

I may wait a bit to book the flight down anyways. The general trend has been that the Sunday MCO return flights only go up in price (or sell out) so I definitely want to book that flight asap. We usually fly down into Tampa on a Thursday to visit family before Disney. Those flights tend to go down on us. If I'm feeling daring, I may wait to book those. The $63 credits we currently have are from a Saturday Tampa flight that went down the very next day after I booked it.

This is way more complicated than it needs to be!

Thanks for listening to me work through this!

 

[Corinne]

I agree! It is very frustrating! Good luck!

 

[DebbieB]

When I booked our tickets for our November trip, the price went down the very next day & I got $63 credits for each of our four family members. The price was lower today so I got us each another $8.70 in credits. So now we have eight different credits. I know we have to use them for the same person but my question is how many credits can I use in one transaction?

We are planning another trip for April & I'd like to use all of the credits for our return flights (because I know that one won't go down after booking - school vaca week). I thought I remembered only being able to use three credits in one transaction. Will I have to book all four of our tickets as separate transactions so I can use two credits on each transaction? Is there a way around this? Have they changed the procedure now that credits have to be used by the same person?

Thanks!!

When did you buy the original ticket? You have 1 year from that date to use the credits (flight date).

They definitely don't make it easy to use them up!

That's their plan.....

 

[DisMomAmy]

When did you buy the original ticket? You have 1 year from that date to use the credits (flight date).



That's their plan.....

We originally purchased our tickets for our Nov. 2011 trip in May 2011. They show a 5/23/12 expiration date. We plan to use the credits for our April 2012 trip.

 

[keishashadow]

i've always rolled the various credits into a series of 'dummy' reservations until i have one that includes all of them, then cancel it. Naturally, all the ticketless travel funds have the earliest expiry date of whichever applies.

know that they started to enforce the credits by name in June (i slipped thru right beforehand apparentlyfor my October trip plans).

i'm hoping the above go-around still will work out as i have almost $300 in credits from price drops between myself & DH, guess i'll find out when i try to combine them after trip in Octber. Just don't want to spend too much more OOP jik i'm denied one paid extension per person.

 

[DisMomAmy]

i've always rolled the various credits into a series of 'dummy' reservations until i have one that includes all of them, then cancel it. Naturally, all the ticketless travel funds have the earliest expiry date of whichever applies.

know that they started to enforce the credits by name in June (i slipped thru right beforehand apparentlyfor my October trip plans).

i'm hoping the above go-around still will work out as i have almost $300 in credits from price drops between myself & DH, guess i'll find out when i try to combine them after trip in Octber. Just don't want to spend too much more OOP jik i'm denied one paid extension per person.

I was wondering if that would work... I figured if I made a dummy reservation & cancelled it, the credits would revert to the way they started since I wasn't paying cash. But it stays as a "whole ticket" credit? Very cool! I might give that a try.

So if I were to try that... Each of us has $63+$8.70=$71.70 in credits. I assume I should look for a flight that is just over that amount & pay the difference in cash? Then cancel & use the "whole ticket" credit when I book the April tickets?

 

[keishashadow]

I was wondering if that would work... I figured if I made a dummy reservation & cancelled it, the credits would revert to the way they started since I wasn't paying cash. But it stays as a "whole ticket" credit? Very cool! I might give that a try.

So if I were to try that... Each of us has $63+$8.70=$71.70 in credits. I assume I should look for a flight that is just over that amount & pay the difference in cash? Then cancel & use the "whole ticket" credit when I book the April tickets?

that's how it used to work, but no personal experience to report since the enforcement started a few months ago, sorry. I'll try it again once i have all my credits in hand mid October & will report back here.

fyi, you could try to search on flyertalk for recent experiences, know there's a thread there somewhere

just remember that, when combining ticketless travel funds, all of them always assume the date of the earliest expiration date.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Just wanted to report back that I successfully consolidated all of our Southwest credits (except for $8).

There are four of us & we each had two credits ($63 & $8.70 each). I searched for flights that would be just under $71.70. I found $59 flights that came to $69.70 with fees & taxes and booked myself with DS7 using our four credits. That left us each with a $2 credit from the original $8.70 credits. I then did the same thing with DH & DS10. Now all four of us have $2 credits left over. I then cancelled these four "dummy" flights. I now have four cancelled tickets, which work differently than the credits. I can use all four of the cancelled tickets when I rebook. (I did a test run & was able to use our four cancelled tickets, plus 3 of the $2 credits along with a credit card - which I didn't enter since it was just a test.) So in the end, I will be able to book our April flights (when they open up on 10/3) using up all of our credits except for one of the $2 credits. This will save us $284.80!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Last time I was stuck with multiple credits, I was afraid to try to consolidate them, just in case it would create another set of credits to use.
So I just booked each of us separately. We like EBCI so I didn't have to worry about trying to check in all 4 of us at T-24 with 4 different reservations.

 

[CarolAnnB]

So in the end, I will be able to book our April flights (when they open up on 10/3)

How did you find out when they open up the next set of flights? I have been searching the SW site and JetBlue and I couldn't find it. I know I used to be able to find that info. We are going in June 2012. Thanks.

 

[CarolAnnB]

Just wanted to report back that I successfully consolidated all of our Southwest credits (except for $8).

There are four of us & we each had two credits ($63 & $8.70 each). I searched for flights that would be just under $71.70. I found $59 flights that came to $69.70 with fees & taxes and booked myself with DS7 using our four credits. That left us each with a $2 credit from the original $8.70 credits. I then did the same thing with DH & DS10. Now all four of us have $2 credits left over. I then cancelled these four "dummy" flights. I now have four cancelled tickets, which work differently than the credits. I can use all four of the cancelled tickets when I rebook. (I did a test run & was able to use our four cancelled tickets, plus 3 of the $2 credits along with a credit card - which I didn't enter since it was just a test.) So in the end, I will be able to book our April flights (when they open up on 10/3) using up all of our credits except for one of the $2 credits. This will save us $284.80!

Where did you find the SW will open their next group of fares on 10/3, please? I have been searching their site and JetBlue to see when they open the next schedule but can't find it. I know I used to be able to get that info but I don't know where. We are planning for June 2012. Thanks.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Last time I was stuck with multiple credits, I was afraid to try to consolidate them, just in case it would create another set of credits to use.
So I just booked each of us separately. We like EBCI so I didn't have to worry about trying to check in all 4 of us at T-24 with 4 different reservations.

That was an option, but I was afraid of two things... booking each of the kids alone (wasn't sure if there would be some kind of unaccompanied minor situation) and the prices go up SO FAST, like within minutes, when it's a school vacation week & I didn't want to risk losing good fares.

How did you find out when they open up the next set of flights? I have been searching the SW site and JetBlue and I couldn't find it. I know I used to be able to find that info. We are going in June 2012. Thanks.

It's under Travel Tools. Click on "Travel Tools" then "View all Travel Tools" and you should see it there.

 

[jcarwash]

Where did you find the SW will open their next group of fares on 10/3, please? I have been searching their site and JetBlue to see when they open the next schedule but can't find it. I know I used to be able to get that info but I don't know where. We are planning for June 2012. Thanks.

It's on the all Travel Tools page:
http://www.southwest.com/html/travel-tools/

Current info is on 10/3/11 they will open through June 1, 2012.

 

[CarolAnnB]

Thank you! I was looking at that exact page but under all the "Air" options instead of right at the top of the page. I appreciate your help.

 

[mareed]

When I booked our tickets for our November trip, the price went down the very next day & I got $63 credits for each of our four family members.

This may not be possible at this point due to the rebooking that I see you've done, but if the price really went down the very next day after booking your reservation, you should have been able to get the difference refunded to your credit card at that point so you didn't have to deal with the credits at all.

It's a somewhat unpublished, but fairly widely known fact that you can actually cancel or rebook at a lower price for a refund within 24 hours. It may not help you now, but may help next time or help someone else reading this. If you were eligible for this (the time period was within 1 day or original booking), then when the page showed up about what to do with the price difference, it would have had 2 options - to request a refund or to use as future credit.

 

[DisMomAmy]

This may not be possible at this point due to the rebooking that I see you've done, but if the price really went down the very next day after booking your reservation, you should have been able to get the difference refunded to your credit card at that point so you didn't have to deal with the credits at all.

It's a somewhat unpublished, but fairly widely known fact that you can actually cancel or rebook at a lower price for a refund within 24 hours. It may not help you now, but may help next time or help someone else reading this. If you were eligible for this (the time period was within 1 day or original booking), then when the page showed up about what to do with the price difference, it would have had 2 options - to request a refund or to use as future credit.

That's good to know!! Thanks!