How Do I Use Southwest Travel Funds?

Southwest travel funds can be utilized for booking tickets and flight services. However, these funds cannot be used for early bird check-ins and baggage fees, etc. The travel funds Southwest are released by Southwest to the customers as compensation for their flights that were delayed or canceled. 

• These funds can be used while booking a reservation from the Southwest Airlines website.

• Get on the Southwest website and go through the regular booking process as usual.

• On the payments page, click on the option of "Use travel funds/vouchers" and pay a part of the complete payment using your credits.

A confirmation email will affirm the successful booking of your Southwest ticket.

Can I use Southwest travel funds for anything else? 

Southwest travel funds can be put to use for booking flight reservations and onboard services. You cannot use this fund to upgrade your flight booking or to get faster check-ins. One cannot pay the baggage fees if any. If you need to do so, convert these funds into travel credit or vouchers as they can be redeemed for those services.

Is Southwest still extending travel funds? 

Southwest has extended the expiration date of travel funds due to covid to 7 September 2022. This has been done keeping in mind the numerous flight cancelations that took place during covid. The travel funds that were released to the customer's account for future purchases have an expiration date of 1 year from the time of issuing the travel fund. Thus many people were not able to use the funds again due to covid, and so Southwest has extended the travel funds.

How do I extend the Southwest travel fund expiration date? 

Southwest travel funds cannot be extended in any circumstances. One can convert the travel funds to travel credit or points, but that's not always an option. The other method of Southwest travel funds extension is to write to Southwest and request them to reinstate the expired travel fund as some other voucher form, like a LUV travel voucher which is valid for six months. The only catch is that a fee would be deducted from the travel fund amount, and the remaining portion will be converted into a Voucher.

How do I convert Southwest travel funds to vouchers? 

• One should wait for the Southwest travel fund to expire. Once it has expired, call Southwest customer support and request them to convert the travel fund into a LUV voucher. 

• A fee, generally $100 in amount, is deducted from the travel fund, and the rest is converted into the LUV voucher which is sent to you. 

• LUV vouchers have six months till they expire, and one can ask Southwest to convert their expired travel fund up to six months from their expiration.

How to cash out my Southwest travel funds? 

Southwest travel funds cannot be converted into cash. One can rather convert the travel funds into travel vouchers or Rapid rewards points to use them for a future booking or other flight services.

Can I convert Southwest travel funds to points? 

One can convert Southwest travel funds to rapid rewards points. This conversion comes with a processing fee. However, the travel points do not expire and can be used for a wide variety of purposes. So even though the conversion may decrease the actual monetary value of your travel fund, it would gain the leverage of not getting expired. You can contact Southwest customer service to get these travel funds converted into points.

How do I use expired Southwest travel funds? 

Expired Southwest travel funds can be revived for usage by contacting Southwest customer support and requesting them to convert these outdated funds to LUV vouchers. This request can be made within six months of the travel funds expiration and a conversion fee of around $100. Also, the LUV voucher that would be issued also expires within six months from the time of issuing.

Can you use Southwest travel funds for hotels? 

Southwest travel funds cannot be used for hotel reservations and other accommodations. Instead, convert the Southwest travel funds into travel credit points like the rapid reward points, which can be used for getting packages, including hotel reservations and so on. This conversion can be done by requesting Southwest customer service. However, a fee would be charged for the conversion process.

Can I use Southwest travel funds for early bird check-in? 

Early bird check-in cannot be paid for by using the Southwest travel funds. If you desire to use the travel funds for an early bird check-in, you would have to convert the travel fund into some other form of travel credit like rapid reward points or a LUV voucher. Both of these conversions will invite a nominal fee. However, you would have to wait for the travel fund to expire first to convert it into a LUV voucher. 

Can you book a hotel with a Southwest voucher? 

Southwest Vouchers cannot be employed for the payments of Southwest vacations and other hotel services and accommodations. One can use Southwest credit points to pay for Southwest vacations and hotel accommodations instead.

Can I use my Southwest travel funds for drinks? 

Southwest travel funds can be used to buy special on-flight services, including dining and drinks. This is to be used while booking the reservation, and in case of an already booked reservation, by going to the "Manage Booking" section on the Southwest website and adding services to your booking.

Why can't I use my Southwest travel funds? 

• Southwest travel funds can be used for anything along the lines of booking a flight reservation and additional services while making the booking.

• One cannot use the travel funds for early bird check-ins and baggage fees, as well as hotel accommodations, etc.

• The Southwest travel funds expire within a year, after which they become redundant and cannot be used for any specific purpose.

In such a scenario, one can contact Southwest customer support to request to revive the Southwest travel fund as a voucher.

How long are Southwest travel funds good for? 

Southwest Travel funds have an expiration date of 1 year from the time they were issued. After this period, they become redundant and have to be converted into a LUV voucher for usage. This conversion comes with a processing fee, so the effective worth of the LUV voucher is always less than the travel fund. In other words, one should aim to use Southwest travel funds within a year. 

How do you trick Southwest travel funds? 

One can buy a reservation from Southwest using the Southwest travel funds, and in case of cancelation of this new booking, the travel funds expiration date will be renewed. This can be used as a workaround. However, this is Southwest travel funds hack and not an official Southwest feature or workaround, so any issues may not be compensated. One can convert the travel funds into vouchers or credit instead, which usually invites a conversion fee. Still, this is beneficial as the travel credit will not expire anytime soon enough.

How do I get around Southwest travel funds expiring? 

The following strategy can be employed as a likely Southwest travel funds loophole to renew the Southwest travel fund expiration date.

• Buy a new flight reservation with Southwest using your travel funds.

• In case of a cancelation, the travel funds will again be issued with a new expiry date.

• This is not an official Southwest policy or feature, and in case of any hiccups or complexities, the funds may not be compensated.

One can convert their travel funds into travel credit by paying a conversion fee, as travel credits don't expire.

Will Southwest travel funds be extended? 

It's unlikely for a Southwest travel funds extension covid in the current scenario as the intensity of the covid pandemic has increasingly fallen down. Since there's not a great crisis with flights being canceled, further extension of travel credits is not a likely prospect.