Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

[rdsjas]

We lost my father last Aug and was just informed by my mother that when she tried to get their Rapid Reward's credit card that was in my fathers name changed to her name that she will lose all the miles that they had accumulated.  Granted, not at lot in the grand scheme of things but a real crappy message to customers who have been loyal Southwest customers for 20 years.  The individual on the phone indicated there wasnt even a way to pay the transfer costs to get the points moved to her name.  

Sorry Southwest, we always choose Southwest first and this is not good customer service.  

[TheMiddleSeat · Accepted solution]

Don't make any changes, just log into your father's account and redeem points for flights as needed for whomever you want.  Once the points are used up then you can let the account sit idle.

If you want to have/use a Southwest credit card to earn points someone should apply for a new card.  This provides a great way to earn a sign up bonus with many points and is a cleaner/easier way to do things than switching or modifying accounts (which you were told was not possible).  What you wanted to do is really not a good way to handle things.

--TheMiddleSeat

[jksobonya]

---

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

Don't make any changes, just log into your father's account and redeem points for flights as needed for whomever you want.  Once the points are used up then you can let the account sit idle.

--TheMiddleSeat

---

This is the way.

— Jessica

[floridaguy]

Under most states, the property of the spouse passes to the other spouse unless a will or trust document says otherwise.

Present the death certificate to Southwest and ask for the transfer of property (i.e. rewards points) accordingly.

[TheMiddleSeat]

---

@floridaguy wrote:

Under most states, the property of the spouse passes to the other spouse unless a will or trust document says otherwise.

Present the death certificate to Southwest and ask for the transfer of property (i.e. rewards points) accordingly.

---

Nope...

"Points may not be transferred to a Member's estate or as part of a settlement, inheritance, or will. In the event of a Member’s death, his/her account will become inactive after 24 months from the last earning date (unless the account is requested to be closed) and points will be unavailable for use."

https://www.southwest.com/help/rapid-rewards/rapid-rewards-program-terms-and-conditions

--TheMiddleSeat

[dfwskier · Accepted solution]

Cancelling a credit card has no bearing whatsoever on existing RR points. When someone earns points via the card, they become part of the  owner's RR account. Cancelling a card (which  is something you should do since the owner is deceased), doesn't cause point to be subtracted from a RR account.

As said up thread, just use the points in your father's account to buy tickets for anyone that you want to.