Southwest Rapid Rewards Q
 

Is there any way I can prevent this from happening again?

I get Rapid Rewards tickets fairly often using Southwest VISA card.

With Southwest, you can actually book one way ticket and use 1/2 of the reward ticket. The other half stays in your account.

I have booked a couple of flights that we one way and it seems that they did not use the oldest tickets. As a result, I had 1 oneway ticket left and just today realized that it was going to expire on 1/28. I am flying in Feb and wanted to use the ticket, but had to pay $50 to renew it.

I did that, as it was still cheaper than buying a ticket.

But in checking my most recent flight [also oneway], I see that SW used a rapid reward that would have expired in 07/09.

Is there anyway to pick which Reward you use? As we do in accounting, on a FIFO [first in, first out basis].

I had never given this a thought before, but now I wonder if this can be done.

I hope I have explained it correctly.

Thanks for any insights.
Deb

No idea - but I would call SW RR customer service and ask. I called them recently to ask about the $50 renewal fee - I let a reward ticket expire on purpose because I LIKE having a flexible ticket around I can use to fly last minute - and was told I can renew the ticket for another year any time in the next two years. Anyway, that doesn't answer YOUR question, but I'm sure they can! It was fairly easy to get someone helpful on the phone.

It does seem like SW ought to use the soonest-to-expire award first! Perhaps a trick you can use is to book a dummy trip with the award that expires last, then book the real one with the soon-to-expire award remaining...then cancel the dummy one. Not sure if that would work - and it would be silly that you would need to resort to that.

Hi Debi

I agree that I'd call and ask. But doesn't your RR have a certificate/confirmation number on it? It's been a while since I've gotten one, but as I recall I had to plug in that number when I made a reservation. If so, you should be able to use the earlier certificate.

Andrew, I will call them; it's always easier to try here first with our knowledgeable crew!

Don,
When you book an award ticket, you simply put in your flight info and you log in to our RR account. Then SW computer magic does the rest.

I never gave it a thought before as I had always booked roundtrips with those rewards tickets. I didn't even realize that you could use them on 2 one way flights which essentially makes them into open jaw tickets. Best part, is that you don't have to use them on the same trip.

I had some crazy family stuff going on in the fall which involved using 3 one way tickets. The circumstances involved medical emergencies etc. so I wasn't paying all that much attention, plus I was away from home when booking flights so I couldn't find actual info on reward certificates. I now have found where they are on the SW site, but at the time, I just never had a need to watch the expiration dates.

I am not one to let a free ticket linger!

So, those 3 one ways left the remaining 1 oneway in question. 2 of the 3 were due to expire this coming summer, the third matched the one that is due to expire in 2 weeks.

Seems to me that the oneI have now should have been used, before the other 2.

I will call SW and see what they say. I am not hoping to be lucky enough to get them refund the $50 I paid to renew, I just want to know how to avoid this in future.

Will post back with what I learn.

Thanks guys!
Deb

OK, I got a answer from SW but not sure if what I was told is accurate.

The rep did say that the computer program should RR tickets using oldest available first. FIFO basis I was would have thought.

Where I got lost was when she said, when you make your reservation the systems ASKS YOU which reward certificate you want to redeem.

IF the system uses FIFO why would it ASK YOU which certificate you want to reeded, why wouldn't it just pick the oldest?

I have never been asked which RR certificate I wanted to use, but that may be because I usually don't have more than one reward "in the bank" at a time.

Rep said I may have had a reservation with the second part of the certif in question, which then got cancelled after I had used the newer RR cert. and it got put back into my account. That is possible, there was a lot going on then.

Again, I wasn't looking for a refund of my $50; but rather I was wanting to understand how their reservation/ RR system worked.

Deb

Deb - thanks for getting back and clarifying the RR number issue. Guess that makes sense, and yes you would think the system would automatically use the FIFO approach.