To extend your Southwest Travel Funds you must call Southwest customer relations at (855) 234-4654 extension 4. You cannot request an extension online. Southwest is one of the most customer friendly airlines when it comes to tickets changes and cancellations, especially considering other airlines like United, American and Delta that will charge you $250 to change your flight. If you cancel a non-refundable ticket on Southwest, the travel funds are available for 1 year from the date the ticket was originally purchased (not the date that you canceled the ticket). If you are unable to use your travel funds by the expiration date, don’t worry, there is still hope to retain some of the money you originally paid for your ticket!
Southwest Travel Funds Extension
Southwest has a policy where you are allowed to request a one-time travel funds extension for six months after your credit expires. There is a $100 fee to process your extension request, which will be deducted from your total credit (assuming that you have more than $100 of credit expiring). For example if you originally bought a $350 ticket, and request a 6-month extension you will receive $250 (minus $100 deducted from your original ticket value). The travel funds are reissued in the form of a Southwest LUV voucher (electronic travel fund credit) delivered to you by email.
How Long Does The Extension Process Take?
UPDATE: The travel funds extension process can take up to 30 days (previously the processing time was 7-14 days). In my case it took the entire 14 days, and I called Southwest customer relations on the 13th day to inquire as to the status of my voucher. They assured me that the LUV voucher would be delivered within two weeks, and added that it could take the entire 14 days, which it did. I received my voucher by email the very next day. Let this be a warning to you, especially if you want to use the travel funds for an upcoming trip that may be within 2 weeks.
When Should I Call Southwest?
You must wait until your travel credit has actually expired in order to request an extension. If you call before your funds expire you will be told to wait and call back after the your travel credit expires. The LUV voucher expiration date will be exactly six months from the day that Southwest issues the voucher by email.
Keep in mind that you could wait months after the voucher expired to request your extension! You do not need to call right away. Make sure you have upcoming travel plans before you request the extension, but don’t wait until the last minute as there is a 30-day processing time. In my case I waited over 4 months after my funds expired to submit my extension request.
Steps to Request a Southwest Travel Funds Extension?
1. Make sure you know how much your travel funds are worth and when they expire. You can view the details on Southwest’s website here. Remember to take note of your confirmation number as the agent will need this.
2. Call Southwest Airlines customer relations at (855) 234-4654 extension 4 (Monday – Friday 7:00 am – 8:00 pm CST).
3. You only need to provide the confirmation number associated with the original travel funds. They will ask for your name to verify that it belongs to you.
3. They will request your phone number and email, which will be where they will deliver your Southwest LUV Voucher (processing may take up to 30 days).
4. Remember that you are only allowed one extension per travel funds credit, so plan carefully.
Just an FYI. I called and requested a voucher extension and everything was processed within a couple hours. Thanks for the info.
how did you get through to the office, i’ve been trying to call the number and it just beeps busy. it’s been a week and i get no one.
Call the reservation number and tell them about your problems getting through. I got the busy signal but then I got a message that the number was no longer in service. The reservations lady (bless her) transferred my call. That was yesterday. Today I got my travel voucher by email for the total amount paid less $100.
All true, but they will charge a $100 fee. $100 will be subtracted from your expired travel funds and a LUV voucher will be issued for the remaining balance which expires in 6 months. Still better than forfeiting the whole credit.
We called today before the expiration date and they said we must call AFTER the funds have expired.
I called today and was also told to call back the day my credit is expiring. The customer service person said there is nothing they can do before that. Now I’m debating if I should try to use some of my credit before it expires just in case. I was planning to use part of it in February which is the month it expires so now I would have to wait until it expires to even book travel…
Question, regarding that $100 extension fee. I bought 4 tickets for my family for a Florida trip totaling $900. Each RT ticket per family member being $225. Will the $100 be from my entire purchase of $900, or will they sock me $100 per each ticket. Hopeful, but not sure I’m gonna like the answer. Surprised no conversations anywhere touch on this subject, as it is probably the common scenario excluding a single business traveller.
thanks in advance, David
David,
If you did not buy the tickets with a Southwest travel voucher, you may cancel the tickets with no cancellation fee. Your SW credit will be good for 1 year from the date you purchased the tickets, and not the date of when you were scheduled to fly. If you bought the tickets WITH a SW travel voucher, I’m not sure.
David-
Did they take $100 per ticket or $100 total purchase?
Thanks
I called and is $100 per ticket holder. So for our family of 4- is $400 to extend the 6 months after they expire- terrible!
Still better than forfeiting the whole thing like with other airlines, so not that terrible really.
I asked them to extend my travel funds expiration by one month and I was ready to book the ticket right then to spend out the fund, but they refused. It’s particularly frustrating because most of the travel funds were from a trip that was canceled less than a year ago, but since a few bucks were from a trip almost a year ago, they took the latest date and put all the funds together, resulting in less time for me to use the whole clump of funds. I appreciate their travel funds program, but some of these rules are hard and fast, resulting in less customer friendliness than necessary.
@Susie I agree completely. I literally am trying to use them for a flight the day after they expire with no luck. Same problem with credits expiring in less than 1 year.
@Susie I have the exact same issue. I literally have a few dollars from a trip a year ago, otherwise the rest is from a recent flight. YET, they are cancelling the whole ticket value amount. Really upsetting. I didnt realize this and would have booked this ticket for a flight that I just took
Last year I went to the TLI Teacher Specialist Summit in Houston Texas and since our plane was delay for 4 hours at the Bush airport in Houston, Tx. Several TLI Teacher Specialist including myself received a Voucher from Southwest Airlines for the amount of $100.00. This year we will be attending the same TLI conference in July and would like to extend my Southwest Airlines LUV Voucher because it will expire on June 25, 2015. Several of my TLI friends asked to extend their expiration date and were give six months since we will not be out on vacations until July 2015. Thank you in advance!
I have a $550 credit for an unused seat expiring June 24. I am booking three tickets for travel in the future for $700. Will the $550 be credited to the $700?
I have $127 in travel funds from two different flights that I adjusted about a year ago. These funds expire July 22, 2015. I want to fly from Chicago to DC on August 2nd so I cannot use these travel funds. I spoke with customer service and they could only offer me the $27 after a $100 “extension fee” essentially so I am just losing most of my funds. My question is, what if I booked a flight before July 22 for let’s say 150 bucks, and use my travel funds. Then, turn around and change that flight to the flight I want back from Chicago to DC, would that work and I just have to pay the difference or would they figure that out and not allow me to use those travel funds? Any help is much appreciated!
Did your plan work?
Just a heads up, the number has changed. It’s now : 855-234-4654
Southwest will not extend travel funds related to international flights only domestic. Had to cancel a flight to Mexico last fall due to a hurricane.
I called the day that I realized they were expiring but it was a weekend and customer rep told me to call back during business hours and they would extend my funds. Called today and waited 40 minutes for the rep to tell me that he had to transfer me somewhere else because it was an international flight. Waited 10 more minutes for rep to tell me that expired international funds can’t be extended and there was nothing that she could do. Yes… awesome customer service at SW. Too bad they didn’t just train the 1st agent to tell me that I’m SOL. Need to find a new airline!
My stepson was supposed to travel back to his mom on August 1st but she moved into same state as us so he did not need to fly. I got a travel voucher. Is there a way around the name? The voucher is in his name. He is 12 years old and will have no need to fly anywhere in the next year. Anyone have any luck/experience with getting a new voucher in your own name or no name? Thanks!
You need to fill in the reservation number and the name of your stepson to redeem the voucher. The voucher does not need to be under your name. It worked for me, should be very straight forward. If the flight costs more, you just pay the difference. Make sure the flight you want to purchase using this voucher is before the expiration date for this voucher.
Just want to say this page helped me get my Southwest Travel Funds extended for 6 months. As such here is the latest update.
Number to Call: 1-855-234-4654
Calling: Mon – Friday (opens 7:00am)
Cost for extending to LUV Voucher: $100
It was a pretty simple process. I called the number, waited for around 25 minutes and asked the nice lady for an extension. There was no guilt process whatsoever and was informed of the $100 fee which was automatically deducted from my expired travel funds. I called in the morning and got my voucher by mid-afternoon. They said it could take 7-10 business days but I got it very quickly.
Good luck guys!
from what i can tell, i do not believe that you can buy a new ticket before the funds expire, cancel the new ticket and keep the money aka extend the travel funds for no fee as Colin was trying. this is because you bought the ticket with travel funds, not credit card. If it was with credit card, you could cancel it and get the credit back.
in the situation Mark is in above, the trip has to be before the funds expire for the money to go toward it, so the $550 would go toward the 700 if the trip is before june 24.
in Michelles situation, there is a dif between a voucher and travel funds. vouchers are given when a mistake is made on their end and is good for 1 year from the date of the voucher. Travel funds are acquired when you cancel a trip and are good for a year from the date the trip is booked, not cancelled. vouchers can be used by any traveler. Travel funds can only be used by the traveler on the original cancelled flight. I dont know if michelle could call and for a fee get it transferred to someone else.
I had two LUV Vouchers that expired the first and second week of August 2016 and I needed to use the vouchers for a trip scheduled at the end of August.
I called the Southwest number at 800-435-9792 and selected the option for “Unused Travel Funds” and I spoke with a very nice agent who first said that I had to use the voucher by the expiration date.
I then asked her if there was anyway to extend the voucher to the end of August. This is when she mentioned that she would check to see if I “qualified” for a 6 month extension starting from today’s date which would put me at October 7, 2016. I told her I would love for her to check. She placed me on hold and when she came back she provided me with two confirmation numbers and told me the new vouchers with the Oct expiration date would be sent to my email within 24 hours.
I specifically asked her how much is the voucher and she said that it is the same as the original amount. I asked her if there would be any fees associated with this extension and she said no. I actually received my email with the new vouchers about 45 mins later and the vouchers had the full amounts. They DID NOT, I repeat, they DID NOT deduct $100.
So, maybe because my funds hadn’t expired yet is the reason they didn’t charge me the fee?? I don’t know. Unless their policy changed. I wasn’t asking any questions! 🙂
I just called this number because I am trying to travel on Dec 27 for funds expiring on Dec 26. The lady, Anna, said that is an issue the customer relations department deals with. She told me they might charge $100 and that they like to have you call once the funds have expired. I asked if there is a one time 6-month extension that I could possibly qualify for and she again said I would need to talk to customer relations (1-855-234-4654, option 5). I also said that it would be hard for me to call in after the funds expire since it’s the next day that I am wanting to travel. I’m sure prices will be outrageous the day before or day of a flight. I guess I will call customer relations tomorrow when they are open, since they close at 6pm central time.
My travel voucher expires June 2nd. The first time I had to cancel my flight was due to my Father passing away. The next flight I booked, I had to cancel it due to a medical emergency with my Mother. I tried to book my flight to fly out on June 2nd, which the website won’t allow since the expiration date means you must fly and return by said date. I called CS and they told me no how no way, didn’t even offer the $100 deduction option. Mind you it is not June 2nd yet so possibly that is why? I offered documentation of both events and still nothing. I have to admit for a LUV voucher I feel absolutely no love nor compassion. If I did not have events and work commitments in the next 2 weeks I would use them prior to June 2nd. Has anyone encountered this or have any advice on what I can try next?
Call back and speak with someone else. Southwest has a refund policy for those situations. Ask the representive for a a refund claim number. Instead of a credit you get it refunded to the orig payment method. They will give you an email address to send the documentation. It takes 30 days to process/respond after its submitted.
This page probably needs to be updated to reflect the new policy. My situation: I had a voucher expire and called to renew it back in Oct of 2015 and they renewed it for 6 months at the original amount. The voucher expired again so I called this morning to get it renewed. Not possible. I was told their policy is they will renew it ONCE for 6 months from original purchase date at the full amount of the voucher but after that, the voucher will not be renewed again and you lose any money that was on the voucher. I was pretty frustrated because this was NOT explained to me at the time of the first renewal nor was it in any of the subsequent documentation that was sent to me with details on the new voucher.
Hey Nick.
I recently cancelled my flight wich is $99!!! So if there is any fee, I should pay $1 too:))
So you mean they did not charge you $100? That would be great.