@dfwskier wrote: @chgoflyer wrote: You bought thousands of dollars worth of gift cards without reading the terms and conditions? Sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, as you note, Southwest Airlines and Southwest Vacations are indeed two different companies, with different payment policies. My general advice is to avoid Southwest gift cards completely, as there is no benefit to their use in the first place, and, as you've discovered, they have many significantly limitations. Acually, buying gift cards may make sense for some people. For example I really bought $400 in Southwest gift cards two days ago at a Kroger affiliate. Discover gave me $20 back for using it's credit card. Kroger gave me 1600 fuel points (it was running a 4x points for gift card purchases). That equates to a $56 discount on gas purchases. FInally, I have my cell service thru a Kroger affiliate. That affiliate gave me a $16 cell phone credit for my purchase. So my $400 gift card purchase, after all discounts, actually cost me $308. That makes sense to me. Wow, that's a great deal. Nice! I used to do a ton of stacked deals and manufactured spending. Seems like lately I haven't had the time (or energy really) to find and take advantage of deals like that. Good score! And your point is valid, if there's a discount or other financial incentive(s), gift cards can be a way to save some $$$. I guess my only caveat would be that there's less risk involved if you're either set in your travel plans, or if you generally fly Southwest often (or plan to again within a year).
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