Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

rdsjas
Explorer C

We lost my father last Aug and was just informed by my mother that when she tried to get their Rapid Reward's credit card that was in my fathers name changed to her name that she will lose all the miles that they had accumulated.  Granted, not at lot in the grand scheme of things but a real crappy message to customers who have been loyal Southwest customers for 20 years.  The individual on the phone indicated there wasnt even a way to pay the transfer costs to get the points moved to her name.  

 

Sorry Southwest, we always choose Southwest first and this is not good customer service.  

5 REPLIES 5

Re: Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

Don't make any changes, just log into your father's account and redeem points for flights as needed for whomever you want.  Once the points are used up then you can let the account sit idle.

 

If you want to have/use a Southwest credit card to earn points someone should apply for a new card.  This provides a great way to earn a sign up bonus with many points and is a cleaner/easier way to do things than switching or modifying accounts (which you were told was not possible).  What you wanted to do is really not a good way to handle things.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

jksobonya
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

Don't make any changes, just log into your father's account and redeem points for flights as needed for whomever you want.  Once the points are used up then you can let the account sit idle.

 

--TheMiddleSeat


This is the way.

 

— Jessica

Re: Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

floridaguy
Aviator C

Under most states, the property of the spouse passes to the other spouse unless a will or trust document says otherwise.

 

Present the death certificate to Southwest and ask for the transfer of property (i.e. rewards points) accordingly.

Re: Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@floridaguy wrote:

Under most states, the property of the spouse passes to the other spouse unless a will or trust document says otherwise.

 

Present the death certificate to Southwest and ask for the transfer of property (i.e. rewards points) accordingly.


Nope...

"Points may not be transferred to a Member's estate or as part of a settlement, inheritance, or will. In the event of a Member’s death, his/her account will become inactive after 24 months from the last earning date (unless the account is requested to be closed) and points will be unavailable for use."

https://www.southwest.com/help/rapid-rewards/rapid-rewards-program-terms-and-conditions

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Lost Reward Point Due to Death in Family

dfwskier
Aviator A
Solution

Cancelling a credit card has no bearing whatsoever on existing RR points. When someone earns points via the card, they become part of the  owner's RR account. Cancelling a card (which  is something you should do since the owner is deceased), doesn't cause point to be subtracted from a RR account.

 

As said up thread, just use the points in your father's account to buy tickets for anyone that you want to.