Southwest Travel Funds

[DonaldsBFF]

I have a question that I hope someone can answer. Last August we booked flights for a Disney vacation that we were to take in January. Everything was all set until my wife's work put a freeze on vacations and we had to cancel. Now we have travel funds totaling $900 divided by 4 people. Also each person has 2 travel funds: one for $200 and one for $25. This is because fares went down after original booking so I rebooked. Anyway, the vacation freeze comes off in September but the travel funds expire in August. I called SW customer relations to check my options and basically found out I need to either use them before expiration or I can turn them into vouchers good for 6 months but not until original expiration is up. Also to do that there would be a $100 fee for each fund. This means that the 4 $200 travel funds would now be worth $100 and the 4 $25 travel funds would be gone because they are not worth more than the $100 fee. At least that is what I was told. So I would end up losing $500 of the $900. My question is could I book new flights that cost as close as possible to the $225 that each person has remaining and then cancel those flights and retain one travel fund for each person for close to $225? Then when they would expire in August I would get $225-100=$125 voucher per ticket and only lose $400 instead of $500. Is that a possibility or wishful thinking on my part? Thanks for any help. Hope this makes sense.

[DizneyRox]

Nope, expiration is set at August. And that's the fly-by date, not the rebooking date. In fact if you do that, any additional funds you use will also forfeit in August.

You are understanding Southwest's cancellation policy accurately though. It's pretty confusing. That's my one complaint about southwest, they are still my airline of choice.

Freeze on vacations between January and September? I'd tell them to pound sand honestly, but maybe that's just me.

[BrerGnat]

I think your wife needs to get "sick" over a long weekend. Or, you take the kids on a trip somewhere without your wife and forfeit her funds. There is really no other choice.

[mydisneygirls]

Are the funds transferable....can you book in someone else's name? You could try to sell them.

[KylesMom]

Are the funds transferable....can you book in someone else's name? You could try to sell them.

No, the funds are not transferrable - so unfortunately that is not an option.

[DizneyRox]

Correct, each fund is specific to the flier. Can't even use your wife's funds to pay for the children. They check names when applying them.