Source
r/awardtravel•
Techun22

Flying Southwest, points and travel voucher

So in October I want to fly BWI - PDX with a companion. I have 110k+ pts and the companion pass. This seems very straightforward, except I also have a $200 sw voucher from a delayed flight, that expires in December. I have no other trips planned to spend this.

Can I book one leg (~$200) with the voucher and then the return with points? Do they have to be two 1way flights to do that? Is the voucher good for anything else, like food on the plane? I believe it can be used for the ~$22 in fees I would have to pay for award flights.

Posted Aug 25, 2016, 1:48 PM UTC

614
WantsToGetAway•

Yes, book two one way. Pricing is the same (or close) to round trip cost. I would make sure to burn the whole voucher and then pay for a small amount with a CC that has trip protection if there is a delay. You can also still use your CP.

8
Techun22OP•

Thanks. That's what I was thinking when typing this up, but you never know if there's some other loophole like booking, cancelling, and having that $200 in a more "usable" form.

1
Doctorworm321•

With southwest I almost always book one-ways instead of round trips. With their flexible cancellation policy, I love the flexibility one ways give me if my travel plans change. Often times I book 2 return flights at different times and just pick the day of which one to keep.

Another idea I got from a friend was when flying an airline in the US that doesnt recognize TSA (I think he was flying frontier earlier this year) he had a Southwest ticket booked as well just to get through security quickly and then canceled the ticket for a full point refund.

7
DudeFoods•

Damn, that 2 return flight idea is genius! I might need to start doing that!

2
Doctorworm321•

It works best out of their hubs that have lots of flight options available to you. And since you're booking it early, you lock in the better rate.

Their old policy allowed you to just not show up for a flight booked with points, and the points would still be refunded in full to your account. Not sure if it still works this way, so I just cancel the one I dont use.

2
FOUR_YOLO•

10 mins before the flight departs you would lose all pts if not cancelled.
Its fun to see someone else doing this 2 flights pick which one thing. I thought i was alone!

5
Doctorworm321•

Thanks for the confirmation. I've been too lazy to look it up and I saw the 10 minute language on cash fares so just guessed they changed the policy for award flights too.

1
DudeFoods•

Yeah, I go to Vegas a few times a year and I'm thinking it would be especially useful for those trips where sometimes I lose a ton of money and wouldn't mind going home earlier and sometimes I'm winning and want to stay a little longer.

3
Doctorworm321•

Haha that's a good use of this method.

1
thatsunshinegirl•

when flying an airline in the US that doesnt recognize TSA

What do you mean by this?

1
Doctorworm321•

Sorry I left out "precheck". Didnt proof read my post. But yea, if you fly Frontier, even if you're registered for precheck you wont get it on your boarding pass. Just did a quick search and found that Frontier is changing that in Sept. article here. So earlier this year my friend booked a southwest flight to a random destination to get a precheck boarding pass, and then canceled the southwest flight once through security.

Sorry for the confusion.

4
thatsunshinegirl•

Thanks for the clarification!

1
kris7778•

As others have mentioned, just book one way tickets. Also, yes, use the voucher for fees. To be clear though, if you have "travel funds", those are tied to the original person's name and cannot be used for anyone else. If you have a "voucher", that can be applied to anyone's tickets / fees. You can pay a $100 fee to convert "travel funds" into a "voucher" with a 6 month expiration extension.

2
ReverseApache_Master•

My gf has travel funds on her RR account from a cancelled flight which had hers and my name on it. I have since earned my companion pass. Can we use her travel funds to buy a ticket and use my companion pass?

2
kris7778•

You can use your remaining travel funds to purchase your ticket, then she will be free as your companion. As for her travel funds, it will only make sense to use her travel funds on a flight she takes without you. Otherwise your options are to have her pay for her flight with funds just to earn points - or when one year is reached, take the $100 hit to convert it to a voucher.

2
Techun22OP•

Thanks

1