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Last month, for two days only, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com. In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity. And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.
Initial results from this adventure varied widely from person to person. Some people reported big problems right from the start (see, for example, “When the deal goes awry”) while others had great apparent success (“Sears 15X: Frequent Miler’s almost final results”). For some, though, initial success may have been illusory…
Disappearing points
On June 21, in the comments of the post “Sears 15X: Frequent Miler’s almost final results,” a reader named Dustin reported that points initially pending to his account had been subtracted out. He had bought e-gift cards (for 15X) and then used the gift cards (to get another 15X). The points awarded to him for the use of the gift cards had been removed (see comment 48 of that post).
After Dustin’s initial comment, 3 more readers commented with the same issue, and another reader reported this issue to me via email. What’s going on? It’s understandable to have points removed if items are returned, but Dustin and others deny having done that. It would also be understandable if purchases made with gift cards were not allowed to earn points, but there is no such exclusion in the T&C (see “Sears 15X: do gift cards count?” for more information).
Is there a common thread among those who lost points? Dustin double-dipped, but I did too and haven’t lost any points yet. One reader, Wndstr, reported having done a price adjustment. Is that the issue? Was it the purchase or the use of your gift cards that was subtracted out? If you’ve had points removed, please comment below and let us know which of the above factors apply to your situation. Any other ideas of the cause?
Contact them
If your points have been subtracted out, I’d recommend that you fill out the “contact us” form right away. The more people that do this, the more likely (I hope) it is that someone will figure out what has gone wrong. After you log into your Rapid Rewards Shopping account, click the “contact us” link at the bottom of the page, or go directly to that page via this link.
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Medman: Yes, I think you can add a companion at any time (but I’m not 100% sure about that)
Hey I’ll take what I can get. Quick q: Can I book a ticket now for three months out and add my wife at that time? Or do buddy pass tickets have to be confirmed at the time of booking?
Medman: Unfortunately it takes about 2 months for the points to appear for real.
Great news! I just got a confirmation of the points in RapidRewards Shopping. How long does it take for the points to convey to my southwest account?
[…] some people who previously reported disappearing points have received those points anyway. So, check your Rapid Rewards point balance and let us know […]
@c0ldlimit They automatically activated my CP this evening (I didn’t even have to call). I cancelled and re-booked the flight for Wednesday! Thanks Frequent Miler! Though I don’t think this story is over. I suspect they will be clawing back miles in the near future…I am curious how the companion pass will be handled when that happens…
My transactions of 50K+ points posted! Thanks @Greg The Frequent Miler.
@Dustin Did they activate your CP the quickly?
@Dustin: You can call Customer Relations at 214-932-0333. They will be able to pull up your account, issue you the companion pass and add a companion to your flight.
Has anyone with a point transaction >50K post yet? I have yet to see anything in my RR account.
Still waiting for my >50K points too.
Success! 105k points from a 7k gift card purchase posted today.
Boy they have a mess over there. On the 5th the points I earned from the e-gift cards posted but not the disputed points for the purchases made with the e-gift cards. This was expected. Today, however, they posted the points for the disputed purchase AND the e-gift cards…again. So I have been given double points for the e-gift cards… Which obviously won’t stay. Here’s my dilemma however: we have a flight on Wednesday that we could use the companion pass for. Once the companion pass clears (I assume tomorrow), do I use it for Wednesday? I wonder what Southwest would do if/when they rescind those points? It seems a little risky to me, but it would be nice to save the money…
TravelerMSY: Me too! Sweet!
Dustin: If I were you I would go ahead and book the flight with the companion pass as soon as possible. Once they issue the ticket I think it’s very unlikely that they would claw it back especially since this is their error not yours
Dustin, the CP sometimes takes a while for Southwest to recognize you earned it. And you are theoretically supposed to present the plastic card upon their request, but they almost never ask now that checkin is online.
It’ll be close.
@TravelerMSY: Is there something I can do to expedite the process? Call them or something? We already have a ticket booked, but if I could rebook as a companion that would be pretty sweet. Maybe I’ll just use it for the return flight in a week.
All my points posted today and the ‘progress bar’ for companion pass status shows 100%! However the actual status says “not yet earned”. I am assuming that since the points just posted today, it may take a couple of days for the companion pass status to be updated so that I can enter my companion info. Fingers crossed!
it now states that i’ve earned a companion pass and I have a form where I can enter my companion info. I’m still pretty worried that a good chunk of the double dip points are going to get clawed back, and therefore invalidating the companion pass. I suspect that points get credited and reversed in batches and that since the original point deductions didn’t happen on the shopping mall site until about a month later that the reversal won’t happen for another month.
At 11am EDT on 6 July 2012, the threshold of posting transactions seems to be at around 50000 points. A friend of mine have a transaction of 49950 points have posted, but another transaction of 50100 points is not seen yet. FrequentMiler may be right. The supervisor may be on leave this week!
I’m in the same boat as Erik. 47K points posted but still waiting on the 51K transaction to post.
Maybe the employee who approves 50K+ points is on vacation this week.
Both of my x2 >50K point transactions that have yet to post. =/
I had 49,942 points post but the 52,500 transaction hasn’t posted.
Cartera is an absolute mess. I filled out the rapidrewardshopping.com contact page and got this today:
“I have confirmed that 45 days have passed from the purchase date and this order can now be sent for research with the merchant to confirm its eligibility for rewards. Therefore, I am sending this order to be investigated immediately. Because a third party will now be involved, we ask that you please allow 4-8 weeks for a definite resolution. However, we hope to have this issue resolved much sooner than that.
Please note on all orders purchased via US Airways Dividend Miles Storefront taxes and shipping fees are not eligible to earn miles.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your patience and, as always, your continued patronage.