Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Points with voucher

Jasonyeh74
Explorer C

So I have a travel voucher that only can work for me,  I also have a travel voucher I can transfer to someone.  I also have points enough for a roundtrip ticket.  They won’t let me use both points and voucher together.  I don’t know why their system is so archaic.  So I was going to buy my ticket with my voucher as one transaction, transfer my other voucher to my friend to buy his ticket as another transaction and buy my child’s ticket using points on a separate transaction.  Problem is, if I use the points to buy my child a ticket, they are hitting me up with a $100 fee.  See anyway around this?  Can they make exception to not charge me the $100 since my child is technically traveling with me but ticket is purchased separate from my ticket?

9 REPLIES 9

Re: Points with voucher

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

All vouchers can be used by anyone. There is no fee to purchase a ticket with points for someone else. Yes, purchases with points must be completed separately from purchases with vouchers. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Points with voucher

dfwskier
Aviator A

I bet you are traveling internationally. I've never heard of the airline charging anyone to use points, but some internationally mandated fees might apply.

 

If not international, you'll need to be much more specific about what you are trying to do for anyone to understand your situation.

Re: Points with voucher

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Don't transfer the points for a fee - just book the ticket in your child's name out of your own account using your points. The points don't need to be in the child's account.

 

And you must have your booking first if the child is young enough that would trigger an unaccompanied minor charge so that you can enter your own confirmation number.

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Points with voucher

Jasonyeh74
Explorer C

Yes this is for domestic travel.  The credit can only be used for me.  So I was planning on buying my ticket, apply the credit and pay the difference with a credit card.  Then I have to do another transaction using my points to buy ticket for my child.  Since the second transaction is only for a child, the system thinks child is traveling alone so will charge me $100 roundtrip.  No way to tie my first purchase (adult ticket) with second purchase (child ticket with points) together to avoid the $100 fee?

Re: Points with voucher

Jasonyeh74
Explorer C

To clarify, SW told me when you buy a child ticket by itself which I have to do since I want to use my sw points and I can’t buy my child’s ticket using points in the first transaction, because I’m using credit and credit card, they charge $50 each way for “unaccompanied minor” = $100 roundtrip.

Re: Points with voucher

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm unable to recreate this situation without completing a booking, but last time I did it during the check out process I was prompted to enter the confirmation number of an adult who will also be traveling OR pay the unaccompanied minor fee.  If you are not seeing the option to provide the adult's confirmation number you may need to call in to complete the booking.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Points with voucher

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I was able to recreate this today.  As I thought, there is a very clear message that you can provide information about an adult who will also be traveling on the flight which allows you to skip the unaccompanied minor charge.  When you click "purchase" you will see this pop up message:

 

um1.JPG

Clicking Yes takes you to the screen where you provide the adult's reservation information:

um2.JPG

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Points with voucher

Jasonyeh74
Explorer C

Thank you for sharing this screen. Also I was told to use 4 credit vouchers was to break up the roundtrip ticket into two one-way tickets.  Are the prices usually the same of buying two one way tickets vs one roundtrip ticket?

Re: Points with voucher

dfwskier
Aviator A

SW always prices two one way the same way it prices a round trip