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Southwest doesn’t not have the best practices in place to make clients aware of their policies. I have made purchases on flights and been very active in my account. But had 139,000 points taken from me due to their rewards policy. I was A-list preferred two years ago and flew only southwest domestically. But that will never happen again. It is a very deceptive policy because I remember reading on the website that’s points don’t expire but that must have changed or the wording changed. Literally thousands of dollars worth of flights that I worked for, gone. When that happens you never go back to that company and keep your friends and family away as well.
Solved! Go to Solution.
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@Rlohmeyer77, that makes me hurt for you! I value my points, and that is a lot to lose!!
According to SW’s policy on their website: “Points will remain active as long as you have at least one qualifying earning activity every 24 months. Qualifying earning activity includes 1) completed revenue travel on flights flown through Southwest Airlines® and posted to the Member’s account prior to the expiration date; 2) points earned by transacting with any current Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® partner (including transfers from applicable Rapid Rewards partners and completed Southwest Vacations® hotel stays) and posted to the Member’s account prior to the expiration date; 3) points earned using Rapid Rewards® Credit Cards and through points transferred from Diners Club® and posted to the Member’s account prior to the expiration date and 4) points purchased for personal account use through Southwest.com and posted to the Member’s account prior to the expiration date.”
Have you had no “qualifying earning activity” over the last 24 months?? If you have, I wonder if there was a mistake or even fraud?
I recommend reaching out to SW either on Twitter or through customer relations. I haven’t experienced losing points before, but it would never hurt to ask what can be done.
Good luck!
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Southwest does advertise that "points don't expire," but unfortunately, in fact, as you've discovered they do. The small print explains that you must have point earning activity every 24 months in order to keep your account active and stop your points from being forfeited.
Once they're gone, the only way I know of to get them reinstated is if you can prove you had point earning activity in the last year that wasn't credited.
Sorry.
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Southwest does what evey airline except Delta does -- it tells travelers that points will expire if there's no account activity within a certain time period. For American and United it's 18 months.
For Spirit and Fontier it's a whopping 6 months. For Southwest it's 24 months.
The reason I know these things is that I have just short of a million points I earned on the Big 3 years ago, and I visit restaurants periodically to keep them alive. I even use some periodically.
As a side note I'm surprised Delta hasn't gone to a "points expire if there's no account actiivity" model like the other airlines have.
Any traveler has a responsibility to understand the rules of the deal, not just for FF programs but any kind of deal.
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FYI: AA and UA points are kept alive by any activity, including redemption. (Southwest is earning only.) Delta's don't expire, period. Alaska is 24 months but includes redemption. Frontier and Spirit are abysmal, true, but I think it's more fair to compare Southwest to the legacies these days than the ULCCs.
Regardless of the specifics of the policy, to me, it's disingenuous to advertise "points don't expire," when they do. It's misleading. It's un-Southwest. And they would do well to discontinue the practice.
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I found it interesting to see that Delta’s FF miles don’t expire. I lost over 100,000 Delta miles about 20 years ago. I had moved west and exited the Atlanta Hartsfield traffic, so I had not flown that airline for about a year. I saw the miles go “poof”, researched why and learned a good lesson. I don’t think that I have been on a Delta plane since then, so I see your point. I wonder if it is accounting driven? The potential liability is why most grocery coupons have an expiration date.
I am A-List Preferred on SWA now, so that should tell the SWA marketing group that expiring miles can definitely have an impact on airline choice. I am not really one to hold a grudge so part of it was a more western location, but I have been back to Atlanta since then and I took the now-merged AirTran rather than Delta.
Thanks for the details.
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If you go to your recent activity it will explain the 24 month policy and show your most recent activity. It is too bad they would not send out a courtesy email to warn us we are getting close to losing them though.
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@rich1954 wrote:If you go to your recent activity it will explain the 24 month policy and show your most recent activity. It is too bad they would not send out a courtesy email to warn us we are getting close to losing them though.
Now THAT is a good idea. I know American does this as I've gotten them.
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Officially, Southwest says they do send an email prior to expiration. For what it's worth, everyone who I've seen complain about losing their points claims they never received any message. My recommendation would be to send multiple messages. It seems like I get multiple expiration warning messages from other carriers with which I have many less miles/points.