Southwest

We have tickets for my family and my parents with Southwest points for our flights to Disney in July. We gave the flights to my parents as a gift. I’m almost positive that we aren’t going. I don’t know if my parents will be able to go again with us next year due to some increasing health problems. What happens to the points for their flight if they don’t use them? Can they go back into our account, or do they have to use them since their name is on the ticket?

Second question is similar. This trip was for my daughter’s graduation. My sister-in-law owns a vacation house in Port Charlotte, Florida and has offered that as a replacement. I am hesitant to buy another set of tickets, this time with $, because her high school is still trying to make some kind of commencement happen. We just don’t know the date yet. The Southwest sale I believe is over today. Any advice? Do you think the prices are going to go up that much if we wait a few weeks to see if there’s any news about graduation?

Thanks!

I can answer the Southwest question. If the tickets are booked on your points, they will go back into your account like any other points. You can use them however you like, and can book another flight for your parents later if you like. That is the beauty of booking Southwest with points. If you had paid cash, the travel funds would have to be used by them.

At least in my market, Southwest sale prices went up today vs yesterday. They have a sale just about every week, so no telling if you will get a better deal now or later. The nice thing with them is if the price goes down you can always get your points back or save travel funds for later.

If purchased with points, they will be returned directly to the account used to purchase the flight.

It’s hard to say about the price of flights - I find they can change very frequently and then stagnate for a long time. If you purchase the flight with points you can watch for fare drops and be refunded the points to your account; if you buy with cash, the cash is held in “travel funds” to be used by one year from the date of purchase. Same holds for cancelling the flight - points go back to the account, cash is held in travel funds.

I personally bought a load of points to buy October flights because we aren’t sure., so that I can get the points back and not worry about a deadline to use the travel funds by. (I didn’t do this for my August trip as that was already purchased with cash)

I have tried twice in the past week to buy points with my Rapid Rewards card - working toward companion pass - and it will not go through - the charge shows pending on my card but it gave an error message on the points site. Guess I need to call. With the discount they are currently offering for points, a flight purchased with bought points is just a little over the cash price which is worth it to me for the flexibility.

Thanks for the help! I would rather use points to book the second flight. I’ll have to look and see if we have enough points to book them. You probably aren’t allowed to split and book some with cash and some with points?

You can if you split your party to two reservations, or separate reservations each way.

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That’s weird! I would definitely call. I made points purchases back to back without issue a week or so ago.

I agree regarding the possibility of paying slightly more for greater flexibility.

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This. Just remember that it then means two online check-ins on the day before your flight.

Thanks! I guess we’ll be busy figuring stuff out tonight. On another note, my fast pass day is tomorrow. It’s not the usual excited feeling!

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I know, I’ve been arranging my 6/24-30 trip and everything is coming together, but it looks less and less likely to happen. Oh well, it’s something to do besides looking at Covid statistics.