Southwest Flight Credits Will No Longer Expire—Forever

The past few years have certainly been turbulent for air travel, with numerous flights canceled due to the pandemic and a plethora of flight credits issued for future use. However, as air travel challenges and pandemic-related obstacles persisted into 2022, utilizing old flight credits has proven to be trickier than expected. Many travelers find themselves with more credits than they can use or may not be ready to fly yet amid a summer filled with travel disruptions. Meanwhile, those credits are at risk of expiring, if they haven't already become invalid.

Fortunately, this worry no longer applies to Southwest Airlines flight credits that were either valid or issued on or after July 28, 2022. In what the airline has labeled as a "first-of-its-kind policy" among major U.S. carriers, it has abolished the expiration date for all future Southwest flight credits.

While this new policy does not assist those whose Southwest flight credits expired before July 28, it does benefit many pandemic-related credits that were set to expire in September.

According to Ryan Martinez, Southwest’s vice president of investor relations, the airline faced a significant accumulation of COVID travel funds from the early days of the pandemic when many changes occurred. These funds were scheduled to expire in September, prompting the need for action and a timely response from the company during their recent quarterly earnings call.

The airline’s executive informed investors that while implementing the new policy will incur some additional costs, they believe the benefits will manifest as increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

"This aligns perfectly with our free baggage policy, no change fees, and Rapid Rewards points that never expire—everything that distinguishes Southwest Airlines. It's an excellent added benefit, and I'm fully confident it will attract more customers and enhance loyalty and retention, just like our free baggage policy did," Martinez stated.

The updated flexible flight credit policy covers all currently valid flight credits, requiring no action from customers who have flight credits in their Southwest accounts. Customers will see a placeholder expiration date of December 31, 2040, for flight credits while the airline updates its technology systems to eliminate expiration dates entirely.

According to Southwest's policy, flight credits for nonrefundable fares will be issued as long as the reservation is canceled at least 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

Customers who purchased Wanna Get Away Plus, Anytime, or Business Select fare class tickets can transfer their flight credits to another person, provided both are Rapid Rewards members. For such transfers, the expiration date extends up to 12 months from the date the ticket was booked.