Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

lberkoski
Explorer C

So I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, and often use points for Southwest flights.  I have a flight scheduled to the Caribbean for this summer and used a combination of points and $ to purchase at the end of last year.

 

I notice additional fare categories outbound have now appeared.  I had Anytime fares booked both ways (which are fully refundable), and there is now Wanna Get Away plus outbound.  Across 4 travelers, this adds up to $680.  If I had booked directly with Southwest, I would have no issue getting the difference credited back to me for a future flight (or since its refundable getting it back completely).  Chase Travel said there are restrictions on the fare, which means I would forfit points if cancelled (I'm simply trying to get the same flight, at the lower fare).  Does that make any sense at all?    Or am I dealing with an inexperienced travel agent? 

 

Every time I book Southwest with Chase, I question if the hassle is worth it. 

9 REPLIES 9

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

bec102896
Aviator A

While I personally don’t know much about how the chase points work you could always call back and get a 2nd opinion from another agent or ask a supervisor. I feel if the price goes down you should be entitled to a refund of the difference or credit for future flight since that’s how it would work if you booked with SW direct. 

i know there are a couple CC experts here hopefully they will be more help. 

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Thankfully with Southwest the value of your tickets doesn't just vanish if you cancel so the issue is where does the value go. From Southwest's perspective they received cash from Chase. If you were to cancel that ticket the cash refund would go from Southwest to Chase. What I think is happening is Chase is saying you won't get your UR points back, perhaps there's no method for them to pass the refund from Southwest back to you? Seems odd, but that's what it sounds like. When you are dealing directly with Southwest and canceling an Anytime fare you do have the option to get a cash refund OR have the value held as travel funds. It seems that you should be able to at least reprice the fare and have the "refund" held as travel credits that you can use with Southwest later. It doesn't get your UR points back, but does still save you money on this flight.  This would all be much easier if were able to interact directly with Southwest. Do you have the Southwest confirmation number? If so, I would try making the change yourself on southwest.com and if/when you get to the refund option you want to make sure the refund is held as travel credit, not returned to the purchaser (Chase).

 

Since you have a CSR you are getting better value by purchasing through Chase, but to eliminate the hassles it might be better to transfer to Southwest and take the small hit to value. That would enable you to make these changes directly with Southwest and not worry about what rules Chase has. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

StAugustine
Frequent Flyer C

I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Several times I  have transferred points from my Chase Travel Points account to my Rapid Rewards account. The transfer is almost immediate and the transferred points work the same way as Rapid Reward points. If I reschedule a flight for a lower fare and am entitled to get points back, they go to my Rapid Rewards account. It is not possible to return the points to the Chase account. I have not had any problems. 

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@StAugustine that makes sense as you are transferring points from Chase to Southwest. Thanks for confirming it's all much simpler when you have Southwest points to work with. It appears the OP is using UR points and booking via the Chase portal as the redemption rate is better when compared to transferring since they have the CSR (small difference between the 2 cards - 1.25 cpp for CSP, 1.5 cpp for CSR). On Southwest's side that appears as a cash booking instead of a points booking. I haven't been able to find any reports of what happens if you want to reprice/change a flight booked through the Chase portal.

 

Who wants to be the guinea pig?

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

dpp
Explorer C

I just experienced this. I booked a SW flight through Chase's website (regular charge to my CC, not with points). I wanted to change one leg of my flight to a day later since the fare was cheaper. My SW account said I needed to contact my travel agency (Chase) to make any changes to the flight.

I called Chase and went through the topic with an agent. I wasn't able to fully understand the agent's answer as it seemed they hadn't dealt with this before, so I asked (kindly) to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor contacted Southwest on a separate line and played middleman, relaying the flight I wanted to change to, verifying the price difference, and getting my verbal confirmation to SW by placing me on several holds. The result was that I now have the fare difference $ credit visible in my SW account and have the flights I wanted. The Chase supervisor did mention that I could also call SW directly to manage this, but I didn't need to since Chase did that for me.

 

This exchange took about 60 minutes, so it definitely was a commitment, but I saved $100 so that was worth it for me.

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

dfwskier
Aviator A

So what is the benefit of booking thru the Chase website?

 

If there isn't any, it seems this transaction would have been done more qickly and easily if booked thru southwest.com. You could have changed it yourself via web or app.

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

kingsmatt80
Adventurer C

The only benefit I see in booking through the Chase portal is when you are using UR points.  When you book a SW flight through the portal using UR points, it counts as cash on the Southwest side of things.  This means you can use points and still earn TQPs and CPQPs. 

 

Downside of course is the lack of flexibility and difficulty in using Chase as a middle man.

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

jondrust
Explorer C

You wouldn't happen to have the name of the supervisor from Chase that handled this would you (I know this is a long shot!). I'm dealing with this exact issue right now. I called Chase a week ago - they tell me they have no idea what I'm talking about, no price adjustment can be done. I read your response on this thread and called SW today - they tell me I have to call Chase. I call Chase and they tell me they can't do it, I pressed the issue and said I was multiple forum articles on the topic, they put me on hold and called SW for me - and success, they said they will be able to get me SW rewards points for the balances ($800 across 4 tickets!)!!! Then they come back on and say that SW actually said that they couldn't do it, some BS about it was too far out from the flight (which is never true) and that I could try calling SW directly (which earlier SW told me they can't do it). Overall, both SW and Chase seemed like they had no idea about how to handle this, so I told the Chase rep I wanted them to log some kind of complaint about it. I think I'm going to just have to keep calling them and eventually get a rep on both ends who knows what they are doing! For $800, it is definitely worth calling a few more times. 

Re: Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

dpp
Explorer C

I don’t unfortunately, but I emphasized “What’s the point of booking through Chase?!” a few times and explained that SW would allow me to change my flight without issue. I’d keep trying and asking to speak to a supervisor. I’m sorry, and I hope you get this resolved soon!