Southwest Flight Booked with Chase Travel Points - Lower Fare?

[lberkoski]

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. 

[bec102896]

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. 

[TheMiddleSeat]

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

[StAugustine]

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. 

[TheMiddleSeat]

@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