The Offer
- BJ’s has a number of gift cards on sale, for example:
- Southwest $200 for $175
- Disney $500 for $464.99
- Chipotle $10 three pack for $24.99
The Fine Print
- Requires membership
- Valid until 5/6
Our Verdict
Not an amazing deal, but might be able to find some useful gift cards.
$100 hotels.com for $84.99
The Disney gift card shows as $479.99 for me.
Bit of a thread hijack (but hopefully appreciated by the DoC community)… Learned the hard way that purchasing a SW flight can have VERY costly risks, with additional risks specifically associated w/ a SW GC as payment: SW cancelled a flt on me (due to weather) and was unable to accommodate me for travel to my destination that same day (as they only offered 1 flt a day to that destination). I had to be at my destination THAT DAY, so as a result had to purchase (out of my own pocket) last minute airfare on another carrier (which was obviously ridiculously expensive), who traveled through a different connecting city (that didn’t have weather issues). Side note: I would venture to say that all the money I ever saved by flying on SW (for the “free” bag checks) over other carriers (who typically charge for bag checks) was more than lost with that lone last minute ticket purchase on the other carrier. While is sucked having to purchase last minute airfare, it was (somewhat) understandable. SW doesn’t currently codeshare w/ other carriers. Thus, barring extreme circumstances, they don’t re-book you on another airline. Weather related cancellations are not “extreme circumstances,” no matter how much you argue w/ them. All SW was willing to do was refund my airfare for my cancelled flt (which was otherwise a non-refundable ticket). Part of the original ticket was paid for by CC, part by SW GC. The part paid by CC was refunded to the CC w/o issue. Here’s the kicker… the part paid by GC was not refunded to a SW GC! Instead, they refunded it as if I had requested cancellation of my travel, where I receive an airfare credit (valid up to 1 year from the date of ORIGINAL TICKET PURCHASE) tied to the original ticket locator #. The original SW GC I used as payment towards my airfare, to my knowledge, had no expiration date (so was likely valid indefinitely). SW advised that there’s a disclaimer on their web-site (when paying w/ a GC) that once the GC funds are used, they’re GONE. They further advised that they have no way to refund GC payments. That sounds like a load of crap to me. (BTW, I spoke at length w/ their “customer relations” department). If SW cancels a flt on me, they should (at the very least) refund the purchase precisely to the payment method(s) it was originally purchased with. If they truly can’t do that w/ GC’s and they’re going to force their customers to take an airfare credit, if they cancel the flt on the customer, the 1 year credit should be valid from the date of flt cancellation, not the ORIGINAL TICKET PURCHASE DATE. I purchased the ticket 6 months in advance, so by the time the refund credit was issued to me (which was on the date of the cancelled flt), I’m now left w/ 6 months to use up that credit. That’s a far cry… Read more »
Thanks for sharing your experience. With nonrefundable fares, SW has long had a policy of issuing ticketless travel funds (TTF) that expire 12 mo after the initial booking date. Given the weather situation, it appears that SW did its part in refunding the portion to your CC that you paid with the CC; normally its policy would be to issue TTF. SW GCs have numerous restrictions on use, so I avoid them. SW’s strength is in its points system, and points that get redeemed for flights can be canceled up to 10 minutes before departure and the points get redeposited into your account with no penalty fee. No other airline will match that flexibility, unless you’ve flown and spent tens of thousands of dollars with them and have high elite status. That said, it’s a bummer that this happened to your travel plans.
Per my lengthy discussion w/ SW Customer Relations, they advised that even if I had purchased a FULLY REFUNDABLE fare, they’d still be unable to issue a refund to a SW GC. It would still be issued as a flt credit towards a future flt, valid for 1 year from the original TICKET PURCHASE DATE. As I said in my rant, SW GC currency is GONE once redeemed. In short, SW GC’s are extremely inflexible if travel plans get FUBAR’d (flt insurance *might* protect you — I didn’t purchase it because I didn’t take into consideration that I might have to rebook on another carrier out of my own pocket — something flt insurance *might* have covered).
BJ’s 3 day sale is done
Disney is showing as $479.99 for me.
Southwest GC is sold out.