How to Apply Travel Funds on Southwest

Southwest is one of the few airlines that allow you to cancel your travel plans and obtain a full refund to be applied to future travel. This perk, however, is useless unless you know how to apply your Southwest travel funds to your upcoming purchase.

1 After determining where, what dates, how many passengers will be traveling, and which flights you will be taking, scroll to the bottom of the "Book a Flight" page at http://www.southwest.com and click "Go to next step--Purchase."

2 Fill out all necessary information on the Purchase page. Under Apply Travel Funds click the "Apply Travel Funds" button.

3 Open a new window, while still leaving the Southwest purchase form up, and open your email.

4 Upon canceling a past Southwest reservation you will have received an email containing a confirmation number (a mixture of six letters and numbers) that represents your Southwest Travel Funds. The email address this confirmation was sent to would be whatever address is in your Southwest file or was given to a Southwest representative on the phone.

5 Open your email server. Open the email containing the confirmation number of your Southwest Travel Funds. Highlight this number. Go to the main tool bar and click Edit>Copy.

6 Return to the Southwest purchase page. Enter the confirmation number into the designated spot by highlighting the area, going up to edit and clicking paste. Then fill out the passenger information to which the travel funds should be applied.

7 Your credit card will be charged if the purchase price is more than the travel funds applied. If the travel funds applied are more than the purchase price, the remainder will still be valid with your current travel fund confirmation number. The remainder can be used for a future purchase.