How to Extend Expiring Flight Credits with Southwest

Southwest flight credits expire either 6 months or 12 months from the time of booking. This can make it hard to use credits, especially if you booked months in advance and then need to cancel. You may end up with only a few weeks to use that credit or risk losing it.

Thankfully, there’s a workaround that can turn those expiring flight credits into credits that never expire! This post walks you through exactly how to do it.

How to Turn an Expiring Southwest Flight Credit into a Credit that Doesn’t Expire

Before we get into how to do it, you should be aware that this is a loophole. Like any loophole, Southwest could decide to close it at any time. There’s a good chance that this trick won’t be around forever. But as of now, it still works!

Using this method, you can take any expiring flight credit and turn it into a transferable credit that never expires.

Here are the steps.

1. Purchase a Southwest Giftcard

You can use any Southwest gift card for this trick, even one that has only a few dollars on it.

If you already happen to have a Southwest gift card, you can use that! Or you can purchase one online or at a retail store.

Online, you typically have to spend at least $25-$50.

Hot tip: If you have DashPass (which you can get free with a number of cards) — you can buy a $25 Southwest gift card with 10% off in the DoorDash app or on the DoorDash website.

Grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, and even home improvement stores often sell Southwest gift cards.

You don’t need a lot on the gift card for this to work, so purchase the lowest amount that you can.

2. Find A Flight that Costs More than Your Credit

It doesn’t matter where the flight is, because you’re not actually going to be taking it. Generally, you’ll want to find a flight that isn’t too expensive, but it doesn’t really matter because you’re going to get the extra refunded back to your credit card. You can book one way or round trip, but one way is easier.

When choosing a flight, you want to make sure of two things:

1. The flight date must be before the credit expires.

Don’t book a same-day flight. You don’t want to run the risk of not canceling in time. Book a flight for at least 7 days in advance and before the expiration date on your flight credit.

2. The flight needs to cost more than your credit.

This way, you can use up the entire balance of the credit, and it will become a new credit. If you only use up some of the credit, the part you didn’t use will still be attached to the original expiration date.

3. Book the Choice Preferred Fare

This is a small step, but it’s very important! The reason this trick works is because of the refund terms when you purchase a Choice Preferred or Choice Extra fare. It won’t work if you purchase the Basic or Choice fare class.

4. Use Your Flight Credit and the Gift Card to Pay

Use the flight credit and Southwest gift card to pay for the flight. You can use up to three payment methods at a time.

Apply the flight credit and the gift card first, then use a credit or debit card to pay the remaining balance.

5. Cancel the Booking

Once you’ve completed the reservation and gotten your confirmation number, cancel the flight. You can cancel right away; there’s no need to wait. Because it’s within 24 hours of cancelling and because Choice Preferred is a fully refundable fare, any charges you put on a credit or debit card will be refunded back to the card-as long as you cancel at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure.

Make sure to select to receive additional funds you paid on a credit card back to your original payment method.

After you cancel, you’ll receive a flight credit that includes your original flight credit balance and any balance paid with a gift card.

This new flight credit is transferable and never expires. It will be attached to the confirmation number of the flight you booked and canceled. You can use it at any time for a future flight, or transfer it to someone else!

Why This Works

The reason this trick works is because of the refund terms when booking a Choice Preferred fare with a gift card. When you use a gift card to pay and then cancel, any amount paid with the gift card is refunded in the form of a flight credit that doesn’t expire.

When you use an expiring flight credit as part of the payment method, that credit gets lumped in with the gift card payment. When you cancel, the old flight credit becomes part of the new flight credit that doesn’t expire. You can find the official terms here and see them below.

It’s a great workaround for dealing with flight credits that might otherwise be hard to use!

What to do if You Have Multiple Credits

If you have multiple flight credits, you can use the same process, but you’ll need to combine the flight credits first in order to use them all.

Southwest only allows you to use up to three payment methods per person, per transaction, which is what makes it hard to use multiple flight credits at the same time.

The easiest way to extend expiring credits is to use one flight credit + one Southwest gift card + one credit/debit card. That’s already three payment methods, so you can’t add additional flight credits.

Extra Step: Combining Flight Credits

Before you use your Southwest gift card to create a flight credit that doesn’t expire, you can first combine your expiring flight credits. It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s the best way to turn multiple expiring flight credits into a single credit that doesn’t expire!

Here are the steps:

1. Find a flight that costs more than two of your flight credits. For example, if you have a credit for $75 and a credit for $100, you’ll want to find a flight that costs over $175.
2. Book the flight using your two flight credits and a debit/credit card to cover the remainder. If you only have one Southwest gift card, do not use it here. You’ll need it later.
3. Cancel the flight right away. Make sure you select to receive any funds you paid with a credit/debit card back to the original payment method.

The previous two flight credits will be issued as one new flight credit with the combined total (using our example above, you would now have one $175 credit). This credit will still have the original expiration date.

If you have more than two flight credits to use, you can complete these steps again with a new flight. You can keep repeating the process as many times as you need to until you get all of your flight credits combined.

Once you have everything combined in one flight credit, it’s time to create a new flight credit that never expires! You’ll purchase a Choice Preferred flight using your flight credit and a Southwest gift card using the steps detailed at the beginning of the article.

How to Extend Expiring LUV Vouchers

First of all, it’s helpful to know that LUV vouchers aren’t tied to the person whose name is on them. Anyone can use any LUV voucher! This is different from traditional flight credit that can only be used by the person whose name is on it (unless it’s a transferable credit that can be transferred to someone else).

Since LUV vouchers can be used by anyone, this makes them significantly easier to use. If you still need to extend the expiration date, there are a couple of things you can do.

Call Southwest

Sometimes, you can get an expiring Luv voucher extended by calling Southwest. Agents have the ability to extend the expiration of a LUV voucher by 6 months. They won’t always do this, but sometimes they will as a courtesy.

Use a Southwest Gift Card

You can use the same exact process to extend a LUV voucher that you would use to extend an expiring flight credit.

Purchase a Choice Preferred fare class using your expiring voucher and a Southwest gift card, and then cancel the flight. The value of the LUV voucher will be lumped in with the value of the gift card, and you’ll get a new flight credit that never expires.

Ready to Book? Walk Through the Steps With This Tool

Now that you know how it works, are you ready to try it? We’ve built this interactive tool to guide you through the actual booking process. Open Southwest.com in a new tab, and follow the prompts below to ensure you don’t miss a step.