PayPal Issue Persisting

[gbarbeeyow]

Why is there still an issue when trying to book through PayPal? It's been ongoing for close to a decade now. It had been a couple of years since I'd last tried using PayPal, so I tried again this morning, thinking the issue must have been resolved by now, but still I received the error:

PayPal receives the request, and so it's now listed as pending on my account, but the reservation itself never goes through.

In my experience, calling does nothing because the customer service representatives don't know what to do about it.

(If you're going to comment on this suggesting it's an internet connection error, just stop right now. It's not. I've tried it on different computers, different connections, my phone on data. If you're going to comment that well, you were able to make a purchase using PayPal, so surely there isn't an issue, go ahead and stop right now, too. It's clearly an issue that only affects some people.)

[SoCalFlyer97]

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@gbarbeeyow wrote:

Why is there still an issue when trying to book through PayPal? It's been ongoing for close to a decade now. It had been a couple of years since I'd last tried using PayPal, so I tried again this morning, thinking the issue must have been resolved by now, but still I received the error:

PayPal receives the request, and so it's now listed as pending on my account, but the reservation itself never goes through.

In my experience, calling does nothing because the customer service representatives don't know what to do about it.

(If you're going to comment on this suggesting it's an internet connection error, just stop right now. It's not. I've tried it on different computers, different connections, my phone on data. If you're going to comment that well, you were able to make a purchase using PayPal, so surely there isn't an issue, go ahead and stop right now, too. It's clearly an issue that only affects some people.)

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Greetings:

Unfortunately, this issue has been a frequent topic of discussion on this board. Many people are able to utilize the PayPal option without any trouble; others run into errors constantly when attempting to process transactions between SW and PayPal. 

This forum is customer-to-customer and we as fellow travelers cannot research or diagnose this issue here. For this reservation, I would for sure use an alternative payment source so that your booking and confirmation are all set. The pending PayPal payment from your last attempt should time out and self-void itself after a few days and be credited back to your account. 

However since you appear to be consistently impacted by this, I would still send your letter in an email to Southwest Customer Service and via the PayPal Resolution Center respectively:

https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us

https://www.paypal.com/disputes/dashboard/

Just like how you wrote your post to this board, make sure the focus of your question is "what needs to be done to my account so that I can use PayPal to purchase Southwest flights going forward?".  Mention clearly that you already tried to complete the transaction on different machines and networks and provide them with the error codes. The "bug" causing this error may be from either SW or something with your either your SW Rapid Rewards or PayPal account; thus try reaching out to both.

[gbarbeeyow]

I was actually just trying to use PayPal's resolution center, though it also keeps giving me error screens, so I've had to use their AI chat bot to send an email to a rep (ridiculous).

I will send the Southwest one, too.

In all honesty, though, I don't expect either side will do anything. This issue has been documented going back to 2015, and not a single person online has said that they have found a resolution. If the issue is with PayPal, they might have incentive to fix it, but Southwest has no incentive, since everyone just gives up and books using a different monetary method.

One of the reasons I made my post was hoping that someone had found a resolution and just not posted about it. The other reason is that I want this public documentation for the next unfortunate person googling this issue. The most easily findable, public posts about it from those affected, the better.

[gbarbeeyow]

*the more easily findable, public posts

[SoCalFlyer97]

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@gbarbeeyow wrote:

I was actually just trying to use PayPal's resolution center, though it also keeps giving me error screens, so I've had to use their AI chat bot to send an email to a rep (ridiculous).

I will send the Southwest one, too.

In all honesty, though, I don't expect either side will do anything. This issue has been documented going back to 2015, and not a single person online has said that they have found a resolution. If the issue is with PayPal, they might have incentive to fix it, but Southwest has no incentive, since everyone just gives up and books using a different monetary method.

One of the reasons I made my post was hoping that someone had found a resolution and just not posted about it. The other reason is that I want this public documentation for the next unfortunate person googling this issue. The most easily findable, public posts about it from those affected, the better.

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Thanks! Based on my experience, customer service staff are usually focused on ensuring the immediate travel needs are resolved which likely why they'll respond with workaround solutions on payments. Most travelers are okay with using the alternative method and move on which is why I think this subject has been drifting in circles for so long for those who still run into this error.

As mentioned, when they respond to your emails, make sure they actually answer and not dodge this question: "What needs to be done to my account so that I can use PayPal to purchase Southwest flights going forward?"...Emphasis on going forward. Hopefully that will prompt the service reps from both entities to escalate the request so that the right staff can look deeper into your accounts to search for any settings, glitches, incompatibilities, or bugs that could be triggering the error.

If they advise you to try another machine or network, make it clear that you tried that. If they still give you a workaround (i.e. Pay with different method), make it clear that the question is about Paying w/ PayPal going forward and restate that point so they'll be better prompted to escalate this to the proper staff. 

[gbarbeeyow · Accepted solution]

After years, multiple phone calls to both PayPal and Southwest, internet searches, and inquiries going no where, there may now be an answer. I, unfortunately, can't test it, because like every time before, I gave up and made the purchase with my debit card before the prices grew too high.

However, if you're reading this discussion board because you've run into the same problem, try removing any hyphens ( - ) or other non-letter symbols from your name on PayPal before making the purchase. As I can't test it, I don't know if it will work, but it's the first lead I've seen on this issue since it started.