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Luv Voucher Use

ks6141
Explorer C

In December 2021, I was given $1600 in SW Luv Vouchers due to holiday travel issues (divided among 13 Luv Vouchers). 

 

I am trying to use them to book 3 passengers on a round trip flight this summer (August 2022, well before the vouchers expire) that costs $1,700. The issue is that I keep being prevented from using my Luv Vouchers.

 

Okay, here's the breakdown:

SW.jpg

 

Understand that Luv Vouchers cannot be used to cover taxes & fees. So based on this fee breakdown, it appears that I can use $1,456.08 ($485.36 x 3 passengers) in Luv Vouchers, but I can't get anywhere close. 

 

So I spoke with a SW agent who told me that - despite this not being found anywhere in the FAQs or terms that I can see - you can only use 2 Luv Vouchers per passenger per reservation. This is problem #1, as my total number of Luv vouchers is so high.

 

I can split up the itinerary into two reservations - OAK-ALB as reservation #1 and ALB-OAK as reservation #2. That should allow me to use 6 vouchers per reservation. 

 

Despite doing this, I still can't use what I believe to be the maximum amount of Luv vouchers. Not in total amount or in number of vouchers. Both reservations have maxed me out at 5 vouchers. The OAK-ALB reservations has a "price per passenger" of $305.47, so I should be able to use $916.41 in vouchers. I can't get past $850, no matter what combination of vouchers I use (for reference, I tried using 1-$250, 2-$200, 2-$100, and 1-$50). The ALB-OAK reservation as a "price per passenger" of $179.89, so I should be able to use $539.47 and I cannot get past $450 (I tried to use 1-$200, 3-$100, and 1-$50).

 

Does anyone have any idea why I can't use more vouchers? I don't plan to travel again between the summer and December 2022, so I really want to use as much as possible to avoid the vouchers expiring. 

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Luv Voucher Use

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

When booking with multiple vouchers and multiple passengers things do get quite confusing with the limit on payment methods and remembering that you still need to pay taxes and fees with a credit card which reduces the number of vouchers that can be used.  The simplest, quickest way to get this done is to make separate reservations of one way flights for each passenger.  Yes, that means each passenger has to complete their own check-in, but if you can get past that the booking process is much more straight forward.  You can always purchase EarlyBird (with credit card, not voucher) to eliminate the hassle of individual check-in if you want.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Luv Voucher Use

dfwskier
Aviator A

The other option would be to use two vouchers + credit card . To buy a ticket. Then cancel it.

Then use two vouchers + credit card to buy another ticket to buy another ticker. Then cancel it.

 

Rinse and repeat. Since I think cancelled vouchers come back as travel funds you have to be careful about passenger names. since TFs can only be used by the named passenger. 

 

Then use the resultant TFs to buy the ticket you really want. Since taxes were paid on the other deleted tickets, you should be able to get down to three TFs and then use the resultant three TFs (one per named passenger).

 

Whether you buy a bunch of one ways or do what I've suggested, either way some effort will be required.

Re: Luv Voucher Use

chgoflyer
Aviator A

In case it's not obvious from the above posts, anyone can get around the "no taxes/fees" rule on Vouchers by applying them to a booking and immediately cancelling it (refunding the taxes/fees back to the credit card used), then using the resulting Travel Funds to make the final purchase, and Travel Funds have no such restriction.

 

As noted above, be careful with passenger names as Travel Funds are only usable by the originally named passenger.