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Gifting Rapid Reward Points to Charitable Organizations

Jwalsh3rd
Adventurer A

I have enough Rapid Rewards points that I can take care of family and friend needs and contribute to chritable organizations.  I have learned that when I contibute to an auction or other fundraiser event that I need to qualify that I am giving "two round trips not to exceed 25,000 points each " in order to make my gift clear and to avoid getting hit for perhaps double that amount for people that want a last minute flight or Business Select fare.  Another thing that I have learned is that it is always better for me to purchase the tickets through my account for the charity's recipient for the flights they have selected rather than donating the points to another Rapid Reward's account.  Southwest charges a healthy fee to transfer point s to another rapid reward account.  I would much rather absorb the security fee charged on each thicket than to pay several hundred dollars for a transfer.  I did that once and learned my lesson the expensive way.

1 REPLY 1

Re: Gifting Rapid Reward Points to Charitable Organizations

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

All very good points and your generosity is incredible. Also remember that if you purchase a flight with points for someone else and they cancel the reservation, points are returned to your account. You can also get points refunded to your account if the price of a flight drops after the reservation is originally made. If you transferred points they would be refunded to the person who received the transfer.

 

Southwest does occasionally offer programs where you can can donate your RR points to a specific charity through Southwest, I've seen it happen after hurricanes and such, but what you're doing allows you to pick the charity and help specific causes.

 

--TheMiddleSeat