Southwest Travel Funds

barefootMom

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Hi all,
I have travel funds with Southwest for $340 for a flight I recently had to cancel. The expiration to use the funds is Feb 10 and I did not plan on flying again until Feb. 15. I sent Southwest an email just for kicks begging to have them extend the expiration date by just 2 weeks and they said No. So then I emailed back to see if I could pay the $100 I had read that people do in order to get at least the $240 credit ($340-$100) for a flight in Feb and again they said No. I have read several accounts online of folks who were able to pay $100 to get funds extended for 6 months. Did they change this policy? Is it that I have to wait until they actually expire before I ask? Ugh! I know I should have paid attention more and planned better but things happened out of my control to need to cancel this flight this month (that I had stupidly booked last Feb!). Any thoughts or suggestions? thx
 
Do you have to actually travel by Feb 10, or just rebook a flight using those funds by Feb 10?
 


It is pretty good, IMHO, except for the damn $100 fee, lol. Used to be $75 I think.

The GOOD thing is, that I think you have a year to do that 6 month extension, so do not rush to do it until you have a trip within the new 6 month window. (PLEASE VERIFY THIS WITH SW, do not take my work for it). The other GOOD thing, is that LUV voucher can be used by anyone, it is no longer attached to a particular person. (That policy has helped me in the past).
 


The other GOOD thing, is that LUV voucher can be used by anyone, it is no longer attached to a particular person.
Is the "LUV voucher" the travel funds or just the extension (new travel funds)? My parents, DH and I are on the same confirmation number and each received $30 credits due to a fare drop. They won't travel again before it expires, but DH and I will. Are we able to use theirs in addition to ours?
 
Is the "LUV voucher" the travel funds or just the extension (new travel funds)? My parents, DH and I are on the same confirmation number and each received $30 credits due to a fare drop. They won't travel again before it expires, but DH and I will. Are we able to use theirs in addition to ours?

The LUV voucher is issued after paying the fee for
extending expired travel funds. Regular travel funds are tied to each passenger.
 
Right. I have ended up with LUV vouchers a couple of times, after the credits expired and fees withheld. I had to pay the fee, but waited to apply for the LUV vouchers until I knew I could use them. It sometimes takes a couple days to get the LUV voucher, FYI.

Another tip I just remembered is that if you have a couple of these unusable credits, for some weird reason, you should combine them into one credit (per person) so you only pay one fee to extend the credits into LUV vouchers. I also had to do that. You can just book a (fake)flight using multiple credits (per person) and then immediately cancel, you get $$ back for the cash part, if any, and the credits were combined (into the one expiring first). Again, it USED to work that way, this was several years ago.

I hope that makes sense, it would be a rare circumstance, but can come up if you fly SW often and watch the fares closely and keep applying for credits.
 
Is the "LUV voucher" the travel funds or just the extension (new travel funds)? My parents, DH and I are on the same confirmation number and each received $30 credits due to a fare drop. They won't travel again before it expires, but DH and I will. Are we able to use theirs in addition to ours?
The credit you got is called a Travel Funds. Travel Funds and Luv Vouchers are too different things and travel funds can only be used by the name listed on the original ticket so no you will not be able to use their credit.
 
Right. I have ended up with LUV vouchers a couple of times, after the credits expired and fees withheld. I had to pay the fee, but waited to apply for the LUV vouchers until I knew I could use them. It sometimes takes a couple days to get the LUV voucher, FYI.

Another tip I just remembered is that if you have a couple of these unusable credits, for some weird reason, you should combine them into one credit (per person) so you only pay one fee to extend the credits into LUV vouchers. I also had to do that. You can just book a (fake)flight using multiple credits (per person) and then immediately cancel, you get $$ back for the cash part, if any, and the credits were combined (into the one expiring first). Again, it USED to work that way, this was several years ago.

I hope that makes sense, it would be a rare circumstance, but can come up if you fly SW often and watch the fares closely and keep applying for credits.
As long as you cancel within 24hr of booking. After 24hrs the money you have applied is not refundable and takes on the expiration date of the original voucher you used to book the flight.
 
IMPORTANT if you book a flight using travel credits and cancel all of the credits have to be used subject to oldest credit
You book a flight costing $150. Pay 140 on a credit card and 10 with a credit which expires a month after your flight
Cancel your flight and you 150 credit must be used within that month


Sometimes it makes sense to let small credits expire
 
IMPORTANT if you book a flight using travel credits and cancel all of the credits have to be used subject to oldest credit
You book a flight costing $150. Pay 140 on a credit card and 10 with a credit which expires a month after your flight
Cancel your flight and you 150 credit must be used within that month


Sometimes it makes sense to let small credits expire
I have been bitten by this part before. I think it is dirty but I have to admit it is really my only complaint with Southwest.
 

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