LUV Voucher Expiring in August – What to do

[clarined]

Hi Southwest Peeps,

I'm in a bit of a conundrum; I received a LUV Voucher with the intent on using sometime this summer–that was until Covid became a reality. My expiration is set in August, and unlike Travel Funds, Southwest is not extending the expiration date of LUV Vouchers sadly (confirmed with an agent). I have no intension of using this voucher by August, especially given the current situation. 

I was wondering could I purchase a flight using my voucher, then cancel, thus converting the LUV Voucher into a travel fund that would expire in 2022 as per their policy? I realize it would be locked into my name, but this way I wouldn't outright forfeit the amount. If anyone has confirmed that this is possible, that would be great, as I don't want to make a false assumption and lose the entirety of my funds. 

Cheers

[ZevSupport]

Hiya! 

Try giving the airline a shout via DM on social media to explore your options. 

Hope this helps! Stay safe!

[elijahbrantley]

@clarined And pls let us know what you find out. This is a good question!

[bec102896 · Accepted solution]

I would book a flight with the voucher then cancel the flight. The funds from the voucher would then be held as a travel fund which should be valid until September 7th 2022. Keep in mind once you apply the LUV voucher to a reservation those funds can only be used by the person you booked the flight for and the funds are non transferable. 

[gsking]

Except....SWA said they would let travel funds be converted to points at the current rate.   Therefore, the value would no longer be restricted to the one flyer. 

When they will implement this capability is TBD.

[clarined · Accepted solution]

UPDATE: I booked a flight using my LUV Voucher and canceled. At first the funds were set to expire on the same date as the original voucher's, but checking again today they expiration date has been updated to 2022. 

In conclusion: you can extend a LUV Voucher to 2022 by purchasing a flight and canceling, thus receiving travel funds. The extension won't happen instantly (may take up to 5 business days). Note that you won't be able to use travel funds to purchase for another person as with LUV Vouchers. 

As a side note, seems like a fairly big loophole. Not sure how long this technique will be viable. 

[dfwskier]

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@clarined wrote:

In conclusion: you can extend a LUV Voucher to 2022 by purchasing a flight and canceling, thus receiving travel funds. The extension won't happen instantly (may take up to 5 business days). Note that you won't be able to use travel funds to purchase for another person as with LUV Vouchers. 

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My experience is that the revised travel fund date does not appear on the date of cancelation, but that it does the next day. I've seen that twice.

I suppose the process is handled  via batch processing as opposed to real time processing.