As many friends of the blog know, I have been flying weekly between Chicago and DC since June 2023 for work. This is only possible because Southwest is very affordable. For at least two months a year I pay under $100 round-trip, and I would have paid even less if I had known that Costco sells $500 Southwest gift cards for $449.99, but fortunately, a friend tipped me off about their sale (these apparently get discounted regularly to $430), so of course I bought five. Not much information online about using these, so you all get a post.
The first downside of using the gift cards is that you won’t get the credit card points bonus for Southwest purchases. Presumably there is a subset of Southwest fans chasing Companion Pass and maybe spending more money with Southwest is worth it to them, but saving $350 was a no-brainer for me. Maybe this will change when I get A-list preferred for the first time next year. I will update if so.
Second downside: they are annoying to use! Costco sends you an email with the card number and PIN, and you have to use these every time you book. There is no way to save the gift card in your account. This was ok for me, since I used them to book several months of flights in one sitting. But, if you don’t fly often, you might want to print out the email. (If you lost it, Southwest forums indicate that you can recover it via memberedelivery.com — click ‘Digital Order Portal’ and enter your Costco order number. Costco customer service may be able to retrieve it for you.)
Southwest assures me that if you cancel a flight booked with a gift card, it will be returned as a flight credit to your account. No idea what happens if you book credit for others that don’t have a Southwest account. If you tell me in the comments, I’ll update.