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[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I need advice concerning combining travel funds. I want to book 3 tickets to MCO all on one confirmation #, with return trip booked separately, all on one confirmation #.

All 3 individuals have several travel funds, all with the option to transfer the funds to someone else.
Person 1 has travel funds of $51 & $36 - can transfer to someone else
Person 2 has travel funds of $51 & $36 - can transfer to someone else
Person 3 has travel funds of $237.98, $192.98, $51 & $24.80

I know about purchasing a flight with 2 travel funds + credit card, then cancelling the flight to combine the funds into one. How long do I need to wait after purchasing the dummy flight to cancel it and get the combined travel funds?

Would combining all the travel funds to one person’s account be best, then purchase a flight & cancel? Or how best to combine the points in order to purchase the new flights together, resulting in 1 confirmation # departing, and 1 confirmation # returning?

I’m probably confusing myself, so need your advice.

How much do you expect the new tickets to be per person? That's an important part of the calculation.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that tickets will be about $250 per person each way. In that case, the first thing I'd do was combine persons 3 funds into 240+25 and then a different 193+51.

Next, I'd combine person 1s funds together into one confirm, and person 2s together into one confirm. When you book, you would use person 1, person 3 first chunk, credit card. Then, on the way back, you use person 2, person 3 second chunk, credit card.

In that scenario, person 3 still ends up with some unused funds, but that's because that person just has too much value sitting in their name. If round trip is $500 and person 1 has over $500 in funds in their name, they'll have to have some leftover.

You have to wait 24 hours to cancel for the funds to stay on one confirm, but I think you can also do incremental changes to keep adding cost. So, for instance, you start with the cheapest flight on a given day and use 3 funds. Then, do a change into a more expensive ticket using 2 more confirms, etc. That might be the way to go with Person 3: find a date with a bunch of variation in cost so that you can use 3 to book a flight, then get the rest of the confirm in there by changing to a more expensive option the same day. Then, you'll be able to get the most out of those funds and not end up with a situation where you have a couple bucks leftover on the outbound but then have to pay a couple bucks for that person on the return.

There's an added complication here that you can use non-transferrable WGA funds to book a WGA+ ticket and then, when you cancel that one, those funds do become transferrable. So, you could play that game with Person 3s smaller tickets to make that $75 transferrable to combine with some of the other transferrables.

Depending on how much you expect the new tickets to cost, there's a lot of fiddling you could do here to maximize those funds.

 

[Gary2T]

You have to wait 24 hours to cancel for the funds to stay on one confirm, but I think you can also do incremental changes to keep adding cost.

I’ve been combining funds recently without waiting 24 hours. Booked a WGA+ flight using 2 (non transferable) travel funds plus CC, logged out, waited a few minutes, logged back in and canceled. Result was a single transferable flight credit with a new number, and a refund to my CC.

Did this procedure several times over the course of an hour or two. We had sever smaller credits spread across 4 accounts that needed to be consolidated.

 

[Crescent_Lake]

This is absurd. There really should be an easier way to combine everything before making a purchase. Why can't Southwest just credit the appropriate Rapid Rewards account and keep an overall tally of the total funds there, then allow that credit fund to be drawn from when making a purchase? The lengths people go to with booking fake flights, it's just silly to make customers do this. As long as the credits are legitimate customers should be able to use them without jumping through hoops.

 

[disny_luvr]

It sounds like Southwest will be announcing some changes in September:
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2024-04-26/southwest-airlines-is-considering-changes-to-its-quirky-boarding-and-seating-practices#:~:text=Southwest Airlines Is Considering Changes to Its Quirky Boarding and Seating Practices,-Get ready for&text=April 26, 2024, at 4:13 p.m.&text=DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines,ways to raise more revenue.

Interesting! I’m looking forward to hear what the changes will be. I’d happily pay to pick a seat on Southwest.

 

[pinkxray]

Interesting! I’m looking forward to hear what the changes will be. I’d happily pay to pick a seat on Southwest.

I am very curious about this. I’ve always bought the cheapest ticket along with the EBCI. I am so over the boarding process with SW. I’d much rather just pay for a seat.

However, for our next trip I’ve been considering just buying the most expensive ticket that has A1-A15 bc I just don’t want to deal with it anymore. I wonder if they do switch to paying for your seat, will I be screwed and have to pay more to pick a seat after already paying $100 more per ticket to upgrade and get priority boarding?

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

It sounds like Southwest will be announcing some changes in September:
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2024-04-26/southwest-airlines-is-considering-changes-to-its-quirky-boarding-and-seating-practices#:~:text=Southwest Airlines Is Considering Changes to Its Quirky Boarding and Seating Practices,-Get ready for&text=April 26, 2024, at 4:13 p.m.&text=DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines,ways to raise more revenue.

This is really interesting.

Their biggest hurdle is going to be the preboards. Seems like it would be too time consuming to know which seats would be sold as they preboard - 2A is booked, but 2C is open, etc. Hopefully they are coming up with a good way to handle.

But I would absolutely use Southwest for more than MCO if they allowed me to preselect a seat.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

I am guessing this impending change is the reason there is such a huge gap of time before the next release of tickets on August 11. Hopefully, this means the current process will still be in place through March 5, 2025 which is currently open for booking.

Although I always preboard with my DD (ASD and severe peanut allergy) to wipe down her seat and tray table, I still find myself booking Delta more often if the price is within reason as I would rather just choose our seats ahead of time. Knowing that we have assigned seating just makes the whole airport process less stressful especially with connecting flights. I hope SW does change their process to allow seat assignment ahead of time.

I would also surmise this change would coincide with the much overdue update to the SW platform that has caused their epic meltdowns over the past few years during severe weather.

 

[LadybugsMum]

I still find myself booking Delta more often if the price is within reason as I would rather just choose our seats ahead of time. Knowing that we have assigned seating just makes the whole airport process less stressful especially with connecting flights.

I have found myself using Delta more and more to get to MCO since it's been either the same price or cheaper and I get to choose our seats.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I would pay a little extra for more legroom. I would pay a little more to choose my seat before hand (didn't used to feel this way me but watching the antics in recent years of unreasonable people and the demands they make upon boarding last in group C has changed my mind). Just don't take away free checked luggage, that'll send us to Delta in a jiffy.

 

[RedHead0186]

Guess I'm in the minority that I'm not happy about the speculation that SW might be charging to pick seats. Maybe it's because I usually travel alone, but I don't mind playing the pick a seat game. If I want to pay to get an assigned seat, I'll choose a different airline.

If SW really wants to increase their revenue, they need to invest to improve their computer scheduling system so that every time there's a disruption SW doesn't have a huge meltdown. People seem to be moving away from SW because of that (based on anecdotal comments).

 

[nekonekoneko]

People seem to be moving away from SW because of that (based on anecdotal comments).

I think people are saying they are frustrated, but I think they're still flying. Last time I was in the airport, pretty much every flight boarding had the gate person saying the flight was full.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

If SW really wants to increase their revenue, they need to invest to improve their computer scheduling system so that every time there's a disruption SW doesn't have a huge meltdown. People seem to be moving away from SW because of that (based on anecdotal comments).

We are an example of this. We have always - well, since Midwest Express went defunct- flown SW to MCO. For our Jan 2025 trip, I chose to fly Delta to MCO as I am worried that snowstorms could cause another meltdown that might delay our trip. We were really lucky for our Jan 2023 trip and the meltdown corrected itself prior to our trip. I don't want to temp fate again! I did, however, book SW for our MCO-MKE flight home. I don't care if I am late getting home from vacation

When we travel to CHS, we used to fly SW but now fly Delta. It costs a little more but has more flight options and of course, an assigned seat.

 

[pens4821]

I have a question about combining funds then getting a credit. I have a $100 luv voucher with an expiration date and a travel fund of $44 with no expiration. If I book a flight for $144 then cancel it, it would then be a no expiration $144 travel fund, correct? I’m almost certain it is but just clarifying.

I also have this for three people. Would I be able to do it all under one reservation or would I have to do all three separate (especially if I have to pay a couple dollars more and cant get one for exactly $144).

We got the vouchers for them no longer flying in Bush airport in Houston (which is fine because Hobby isn’t far). Wish it was just a little longer as we won’t be flying again until next summer and don’t want to lose it.