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Travel Funds

Biff215
Explorer C

I have travel funds from this past year.  They total over $600 for the four of us, but they are split into four separate amounts for each of us due to a flight change and several price changes.  Now we're not able to use all of the travel funds since Southwest limits you to three payment types per passenger, meaning I can only use two of the four credits per person.  The website chooses the lower amounts automatically, meaning I lose out on a majority of the funds (about $200).

 

Has anyone run into this before?  They were unable to help me on the phone, I'm just trying to see if there is any hope of using these credits on one flight.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Brian

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Travel Funds

DancingDavidE
Aviator A
Solution

@Biff215 wrote:

I have travel funds from this past year.  They total over $600 for the four of us, but they are split into four separate amounts for each of us due to a flight change and several price changes.  Now we're not able to use all of the travel funds since Southwest limits you to three payment types per passenger, meaning I can only use two of the four credits per person.  The website chooses the lower amounts automatically, meaning I lose out on a majority of the funds (about $200).

 

Has anyone run into this before?  They were unable to help me on the phone, I'm just trying to see if there is any hope of using these credits on one flight.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Brian


The unofficial workaround is to book a flight that is the same value as two or three of the funds (or as close as you can find and throw in a little cash or forfeit a small amount of travel fund), cancel that flight into a new fund that will have the earliest expiration of the combined funds, and then use the consolidated fund plus cash to book your desired travel. 

You would have to do this separately for each person to have their own consolidated fund.

 

 

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

Re: Travel Funds

TAS467
Explorer B

Yes I got screwed with this too.  14 fare decreases but can only apply 2 credits. Over $300 in credits yet I can't apply the total towards a new ticket.  Escalated to Customer Careless.  They rejected my request to combine into a voucher or gift card. All they do is quote what there "policy" is.  In other words, they aren't as tranfarency as they seem.  More like screwFarency. 

Re: Travel Funds

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@TAS467 wrote:

Yes I got screwed with this too.  14 fare decreases but can only apply 2 credits. Over $300 in credits yet I can't apply the total towards a new ticket.  Escalated to Customer Careless.  They rejected my request to combine into a voucher or gift card. 


 

Unfortunately, that's how the system works. And they won't convert to voucher or gift card, because those can be used by anyone while your travel funds are limited to the name of the original passenger.

 

It's tedious but the workaround should help you. Apply as many funds to a booking as possible, immediately cancel, and then apply that fund plus as many other funds as you can to a new flight. Repeat as needed. It's not ideal, but it will allow you to use all of your travel funds. Just keep in mind that all funds will take on the earliest expiration date of any funds supplied. In your case, if these are all from the same flight, this is not a problem. Also, if the funds are small and you can't find an inexpensive flight to purchase using them, consider purchasing a fully refundable flight, and then requesting the refundable portion be returned to the credit card along with the taxes.

 

Good luck.

 

 

Re: Travel Funds

TAS467
Explorer B

Thanks definitely going to try that. 

Re: Travel Funds

TAS467
Explorer B

Thank you - that worked!  It wasn't too bad of a process. My entire round trip ticket is paid for with Travel Funds vs paying out of pocket.