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One flight short

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

I will end the year at 49 flights. One flight short of A-List Preferred (I switched to SW in June). I actually have a roundtrip leaving in December and returning in January. Will both flights count in 2019, and is my only choice to rebook that trip as two separate one-way flights? Thanks all!

9 REPLIES 9

Re: One flight short

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

Welcome to SW, and congrats on [almost] achieving ALP! It sounds like you have it figured out!! RTs don’t count until the whole trip is complete, and you will want the 2018 outbound to count for 2018. Having it on its own reservation will make that happen. 

 

Hopefully cancelling them and rebooking separately will not result in a fare increase, but even if it does, I would say it’s worth the additional cost!

 

Some folks always book each direction separately. There are different schools of thought, but for me, I would only typically consider doing that in your situation. 

 

Good luck!!

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: One flight short

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

Thanks. I called, and the nice lady was able to cancel the second leg and rebook it as its only reservation. 

Re: One flight short

dfwskier
Aviator A

I think you need to ask customer service that question. Details on how to do so are on the top left of the contacts us webpage

 

https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US

 

When you book a roundtrip ticket, the flights are not credited to your account until after you have completed the return portion, but they do reflect the actual dates the flights happened. Given that, it would seem to me that the 2018 flight would affect your 2018 status. Certainly you could make that argument to the airline. As I said initially, perhaps that is a question to ask now.

 

As the other poster mentioned, sometimes booking two one way tickets makes things easier than booking a rountrip.

 

Good luck

Re: One flight short

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@dfwskier wrote:

I think you need to ask customer service that question. Details on how to do so are on the top left of the contacts us webpage

 

https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US

 

When you book a roundtrip ticket, the flights are not credited to your account until after you have completed the return portion, but they do reflect the actual dates the flights happened. Given that, it would seem to me that the 2018 flight would affect your 2018 status. Certainly you could make that argument to the airline. As I said initially, perhaps that is a question to ask now.

 

As the other poster mentioned, sometimes booking two one way tickets makes things easier than booking a rountrip.

 

Good luck


There might be a distinction about how you qualify as well? I'm not sure, but I was under the impression that points post at a certain time, and points always count when they post regardless of when the point earning activity took place.

 

However the status terms clearly say that for flight-based tier qualifications "fly x number of legs in a calendar year" which my interpretation would be that the status may not be updated until the RT posts, but that it should apply retroactively.

 

But do the one-ways anyway, since you want to already have your ALP status for the return leg, not earning it at the conclusion, if it would be earned then.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: One flight short

krafty81
Adventurer C

I think, if you fly in that CY, the points should count for that CY right? Otherwise you are at the mercy of when SWA decides to post your points.

Re: One flight short

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Having trouble finding it, but @chgoflyer posted a link that showed when TQP would be applied for various year-end scenarios.

 

The nutshell was that flight activity in a CY would count for the CY of travel, even if posted in the next CY.

 

For a RT flight, the one wrinkle would be that any retroactive status would apply only after the trip was complete, so you wouldn't have ALP status in-hand for the return flight as opposed to if the flights were booked as one-ways.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: One flight short

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Re: One flight short

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

I ended up splitting my last round trip into two one way itineraries. I’m now A-List Preferred on SWA and Gold on Emirates. The two most different airlines in the world. 

Re: One flight short

dfwskier
Aviator A

 

 


@bwallet wrote:

I ended up splitting my last round trip into two one way itineraries. I’m now A-List Preferred on SWA and Gold on Emirates. The two most different airlines in the world. 



Congrats on earning A List Preferred!