Tag Archives: Southwest Airlines

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Finally! Southwest Airlines Gift Card Balance Checker Now Working

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Good afternoon everyone.  This might seem like a silly blog post, how hard could it be to check the balance of a Southwest Airlines gift card or egift card?  You would be surprised.  I first wrote about the broken Southwest Airlines gift card balance checker in November 2016.  At the time (and through all of 2017 and into early 2018), the Southwest Airlines gift card balance checker would return an error message stating that the security check solution (CAPTCHA code) was entered incorrectly.  Why didn’t I type the CAPTCHA code correctly?  How hard is that?  Strangely enough, the CAPTCHA code html website code hid the CAPTCHA code from view, so there was no way to enter the CAPTCHA code correctly, therefore, there was no way to verify you were not a robot, and no way to view your Southwest Airlines gift card balance.  Until now…

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Grant’s 2017 Year in Miles & Points: How’d it Go?

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I thought it would be fun to kick off the new year by interviewing Grant about his past year of travel, miles, and points. Read along as Grant answers the questions I put to him and see how you’d answer these questions about your own year.

1. What was the deal or miles/points opportunity that you wish you had gotten in on (if there was one)?

I was really excited about the British Airways promotion to earn 82,286 British Airways Avios for signing up for Match.com and spending $548.57 (0.67 CPM). I signed up just for the miles and thought since I’m paying for the service, I would try it out and see if I met anyone. Long story short, British Airways never gave me the Avios and Match.com refunded my whole payment, but it was totally worth it because I met my girlfriend on Match.com and we’ve been together for the last 9 months. If you want to read more about the details, check out this post.

Shelli: Did anyone get in on this?

Grant: I don’t think any bloggers or readers got their British Airways Avios ☹

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My Unlikely, But Entertaining 2018 Travel Predictions

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Greetings from Uyuni airport in Bolivia.  I have a few minutes before my flight, so I wanted to get this post published.  Sorry for the delay in posting this list, my crystal ball was in the shop for a tuneup. As you can tell from my 2017 travel predictions, I am wrong 99% of the time, so take these predictions with a grain of salt (that I took from the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia).  Here are some of my highly unlikely, but entertaining travel predictions for 2018.  Enjoy!

Airlines

  • After the Virgin America merger, Alaska Airlines will add new routes to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean
  • Delta Airlines will introduce cash and miles award tickets, then American Airlines and United Airlines will follow suit
  • Southwest Airlines will increase their Transfarency by automatically keeping track of travel funds in each account
  • JetBlue will add new routes along the West Coast and maybe to Hawaii
  • Singapore Airlines will allow you to book United Airlines awards online
  • British Airways will bring back the 4,500 Avios award price in the United States

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Most of my 2017 Travel Predictions Were Wrong (Who Could Have Predicted That?)

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Good morning everyone, happy almost New Years Eve.  Earlier this month, Doctor of Credit wrote how bad travel bloggers are at making predictions (I came in last at 33% correct), but he only reviewed our credit card predictions.  I made a lot of other predictions in January 2017, so let’s see how good or bad my predictions were.  I covered airlines, hotels, credit cards, and MS.  I will put my thoughts in bold at the end of each prediction.

Airlines

  • Southwest seems bent on making the Companion Pass very difficult to get unless you fly Southwest every week.  I believe credit card signup bonuses will no longer count toward the Companion Pass and Southwest might kill the whole concept of the Companion Pass entirely or switch to a certificate program similar to the Alaska Airlines companion fare or Virgin America companion ticket.  Southwest Airlines did eliminate hotel transfers counting toward the Companion Pass, but credit card spend and sign up bonuses still count toward the Companion Pass.  I am also the proud companion on my girlfriend’s Companion Pass.
  • Other airline credit cards will adopt the Alaska Airlines companion fare (you pay full price and your companion pays up to $120) or the Virgin America companion ticket (you pay full price and your companion pays full price minus $150).  No, I don’t think any other airline added a companion fare as a credit card benefit.
  • American will introduce a basic economy fare class to compete/copy Delta and United.  Yes, I got this one right!
  • Alaska Airlines will introduce a new level of elite status (maybe MVP Gold 100K?)  No, Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75K is still the highest elite level.
  • More airlines will get away from the 12,500 one way domestic ticket and start to introduce 5,000, 7,500, and 10,000 mile awards.  Yes, I think Alaska Airlines announced cheaper awards on shorter flights.
  • British Airways will kill the 4,500 Avios award band globally and possibly remove one of their lower award tiers.  No, 4,500 British Airways Avios tier is still available outside the US.
  • Singapore Airlines will allow us to book Star Alliance awards online, rather than calling in.  Partially true, but not rolled out completely.
  • Hawaiian Airlines will get bought by a low cost airline, Southwest Airlines or JetBlue.  No, no one bought Hawaiian Airlines.
  • We will see 1 or 2 more mileage matching promos, this time from a big legacy airline.  No, no mileage matching promo like the JetBlue / Virgin America match last year.
  • My ~20,000 Spirit Airlines miles will expire and I won’t care.  Sort of, my Spirit Airlines miles did expire, but I still shed 1 tear.

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How to Find Out When Southwest Airlines Travel Funds Expires Before Cancelling Reservation

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Good morning everyone, I am on a bit of a Southwest Airlines kick lately.  Luckily (or unluckily), this is my last Southwest Airlines post of the year.  In the last few days, I wrote the following Southwest Airlines blog posts:

In today’s post, I will show you how to find out when your Southwest Airlines travel funds expire before you cancel your Southwest Airlines reservation.  You might be wondering why you would ever want to do this, so let me give you an example.  Let’s say you have travel funds that expire on April 20, 2018 (from a previously cancelled Southwest Airlines reservation), but you already have a Southwest Airlines reservation for April 13, 2018.  Wouldn’t it be great to see when the travel funds linked to your April 13 reservation expire so you could decide if you are better off cancelling your April 13 reservation and rebooking the same exact flight with the Southwest Airlines travel funds that expire on April 20?  You could then use the travel funds from the original April 13 reservation for another Southwest Airlines flight in the future.  In a sense, you are swapping travel funds that expire far in the future with travel funds that expire sooner.  Remember, if you do not use travel funds before their expiration date, they become worthless, so it is always good to use your travel funds before they expire worthlessly.  Also remember that travel funds can only be used for the passenger who they were originally booked for, so you cannot gift travel funds to others.

To get started, click the FLIGHT | HOTEL | CAR top navigation link and then click the Change Flight link.

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