 COVID-19 has disrupted many travel plans and a side effect of struggling airline industry is the airlines credit or discount codes issued in lieu of direct refund wherever the airlines could offer it. But due to on and off lock downs and travel restrictions even folks who were issued those airline credit or discount code would find difficult in using it.
So, if you have expiring airlines credits or discount codes here are few things you can do: Contact airline's to see if they can courtesy extend your credit: Lot of airlines realize that it still might not be possible for folks to use the credit or discount code's and given the ramping COVID-19 they might be willing to extend it or re-issue a new code with future expiration date. Convert the credits to airlines miles (YMMV, but keep an eye for any special run by airlines): Few airlines have been innovative and have provided members with option to convert their available credits due to cancellation to airline miles. Southwest Airlines already have active promotion for the same (So check if your credit qualifies) and Alaska Air has run the promotion couple of times in the past, so keep any eye if you have Alaska Airlines credit. Use the credit or discount code to book future trip: While your credit may expire it generally can be used for booking future flights before expiration. Although how far in future you can book depends on airlines, usually you should be able to book 330 days out on major U.S. airlines (Except Southwest Airlines). So as a last resort you can book something way out with hope of taking that flight and hoping if there are schedule changes you can use it to your advantage to change your ticket for free without any additional cost. So, do not sit and let that airline credit/ discount code expire but rather act upon it with whichever options works out for you before the expiration date. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
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 Southwest has a potentially great deal going on where if you have your "travel funds" which are expiring September 7, 2022 due to the COVID-19 policy can be converted to Southwest Rapid Reward points at a rate of ~1.28 cent/point. The conversion is available till Dec 15th, 2020, but only for funds expiring on Sept 7, 2022. Though, if you change your previously issued funds expiring Sept 7, 2022 to another ticket, your new expiration date would be 12 months from the date of issue of new ticket and you would lose the ability to convert them to points. You can find more details of the conversion here.
Here are the potential reason's why would you want to do the conversion:
For limited time till 09/07/2020 due to COVID-19 policy of Southwest Airlines any purchased ticket which is cancelled would have travel funds issued with expiration date of Sept 7, 2022. So for now if you have discounted Southwest gift card available then you can potentially convert it to Southwest Rapid Reward Points by purchasing a ticket and then refunding as travel funds expiring on 09/07/22. So, if you have travel funds issued which are expiring on Sept 7, 2022 then now till Dec 15th, 2020 would be a good time to turn them into Rapid Reward points. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Chase credit cards are hard to get but if you are under 5/24 (5 accounts opened/closed in last 24 months) then one of the best deals as of now is the Chase Southwest credit cards where you can earn total of 75k points after spending $5k (40k points after $1k spend in 90 days and remaining 35k points after spending additional $4k in first 6 months of account opening)
This also gets you closer to companion pass which requires 125k points to be earned in a calendar year (The pass is valid from the time you earn 125k points in the year to the end of next calendar year). The best part is Southwest points are valued at ~1.4 cents/point to ~1.6 cents/point and when you use points for reservation there is no penalty if you cancel (You do not even need the same passenger to use the points again) and the entire points go back to your Southwest account. Southwest flies to many airports including islands of Hawaii!! Here is the Southwest route map which would be useful for you to decide if its worth taking the credit card. Southwest Airlines has lot of fare sales where the price between certain city pairs could be as low as $29 when purchasing the fare which when booked with points would translate to about ~1016 points + $5.60 in fees and taxes. Also Southwest airlines points do not expire as long as you have 1 qualifying earning activity every 24 months. The card comes in various variants with annual fees of $69, $99 and $149 and currently all these cards come with sign up bonus offer of 75k miles!! So if you are eyeing this card now is the time to get it. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  It's shopping season again and some of the major airline affiliated shopping portals are offering tiered bonus miles for spending money at various advertised merchants. Below are the current mileage bonus promotions from various airlines shopping portals. Delta Airlines: Earn up to 1,000 bonus Delta Skymiles for shopping from 11/05/2018 to 11/18/2018.
 Earn up to 1,000 miles for shopping through Delta Skymiles shopping portal American Airlines: Earn up to 4,000 American Airlines miles for shopping till 11/18/2018.
 Earn up to 4,000 bonus miles through American Airlines shopping portal United Airlines: Earn up to 5,000 United miles for shopping till 11/18/2018.
 Earn up to 5,000 miles through United Airlines shopping portal Southwest Airlines: Earn up to 3,000 Southwest Airlines miles for shopping till 11/18/2018.
 Earn up to 3,000 miles through Southwest Airlines shopping portal Alaska Airlines: Earn up to 1,500 Alaska Airlines miles for shopping till 11/18/2018.
 Earn up to 1,500 miles through Alaska Airlines shopping portal Each one of you would values miles from specific airlines differently. So, based on your preference as well as amount you are looking to spend you might want to lean towards specific airlines shopping portal. Enjoy the bonus miles on items which might be discounted earlier then the Thanksgiving!
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. As we get in to the holiday shopping season various major airlines are promoting their shopping portals by providing shopping bonus points/miles. I wrote about United MileagePlus bonus here. Below are the shopping bonus details for Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program and American Airlines AAdvantage program. Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards earn up to 3000 bonus points: As with United Airlines this is a tier promotion as well. Earn bonus Southwest Rapid Rewards points for shopping from 10/30/2017 to 11/20/2017. You earn points based on tier spending as below.
 Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping bonus miles American Airlines AAdvantage earn up to 4000 bonus miles: Earn bonus American Airlines AAdvantage miles for shopping from 10/30/2017 and 11/19/2017. The American Airlines AAdvantage miles are also tiered as below.
 American Airlines AAdvantage Shopping bonus miles Note that the bonus miles end before black Friday and are there to pull you in shopping before the actual holiday season starts :). Take advantage of these if you plan to shop during the promotion period.
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Most of the USA Carriers sells fare which are non-refundable. If you cancel your reservation within 24 hours of booking you can get full refund to your original payment method without any fees. There are however two carriers which are more flexible on change / refund policy and these are Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
For Southwest if you cancel the flight up-to 10 minutes before departure you get the refund in the form of Southwest credit to be used by the same passenger within one year of the date of purchase of the ticket. For Alaska if you have booked the flight which is more than 60 days away from the flight date then you get the refund as a credit in your "My Wallet". The good part is this credit could be use for any passenger and it does not expire. So what happens if the price falls for the flight booked by on Alaska Airlines website and the flights are within 60 days of purchase date? The good news is that Alaska Airlines provides Price Guarantee where if the price of the flights falls it would either provide a refund or credit in My Wallet based on refundable or a non-refundable fare. Apart from Southwest Airlines generous change policy Alaska Airlines is the only one which does not charge any fees and provides the credit if the price of the flight booked by you falls below the original ticketed price. There are requirements such as you should not be changing the flight date, times, or cabin while using the price guarantee so as to say it has to be for the same flight you had originally booked. You can find the full terms here but more importantly the entire process can be done online and the credit gets deposited in My Wallet and expires in 1 year from the original date of reservation but you use it for any passengers. Also you can claim this credit for Virgin America flights booked on Alaska Airlines website . So the next time you see the fare of your booked flights with Alaska Airlines fall below your purchase price and if the reservation is within 60 days of travel, go ahead and claim the credit for future use here. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. I have been offline for a while so apologies for that. That being said lets explore something which is useful if you have credit cards which earns you points which you can redeem for travel credits at 1:1 ratio. Let me begin with the few cards that I am aware of which provide great value on earning or redeeming for travel credits.
Thanks for reading! P.S. - I do not earn any commission from the above credit card links. |
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