Flight Not Ticketed at Boarding - but was able to upgrade boarding positon?

[sammalott]

This was a strange experience I had today, and I am not sure what happened and wanted to know if anyone has had this happen to them.

I found a flight a little later than the flight I was ticketed for and could get a refund on some points I used to book, figured, why not - might as well make the change. I did this, got my boarding pass, and even upgraded to the A boarding group. When I went to board, my ticket was denied and I was told 'I didn't have a ticket to this flight'. Thankfully the counter staff was able to get me on a flight (5 hours later, anyone got any time-killing suggestions at DIA?) I decided with all of my free time to call customer service (counter staff suggested this as well since she said I shouldn't have been able to check in if I wasn't ticketed.)

Now here is where I really got frustrated, I call SW and the agent said verbatim 'when you changed your flight you must have done something wrong' I kept pressing her on how I was able to upgrade my boarding pass, save it to my wallet, view it up until minutes before boarding in the app and she had no answer for me. 

Just really disappointed in how I was treated, and curious if this has happened to anyone. At a minimum, I think a refund on my 2nd leg of the trip (like 13k points) could be a fix, but she kept insisting I DID something wrong. I was honestly shocked. 

[bec102896]

I would send an email to southwest by clicking on the contact us link at the bottom of this page and hopefully they can sort this out and I’d ask for compensation as well. 

This sounds like a system glitch but I don’t know. 

when you say you could get some points back for changing did that point difference actually post to your RR account? Ex. If original flight was 6K new flight was 5K did your points balance go up 1K? On your account activity it would show a redemption and deposit of miles then another redemption does it show that? You should have also received an email saying your point’s balance was adjusted. 

[ZevSupport]

A DM to SWA can help too. If the travel is more than 48+ hours, maybe wait until the support team has a minute after the weather+fires.

[DancingDavidE]

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@sammalott wrote:

Thankfully the counter staff was able to get me on a flight (5 hours later, anyone got any time-killing suggestions at DIA?) I decided with all of my free time to call customer service (counter staff suggested this as well since she said I shouldn't have been able to check in if I wasn't ticketed.)

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Regarding DIA:

• Amex lounge if you are eligible - that's worth a few hours at least
• Elway Steakhouse if you go over to the United concourse - not really sure what else may be over there.
• Southwest's gate expansion at the end of C gates is really nice, great views, and depending on conditions has an outdoor patio
• Dazbog coffee
• There is a train now that you could go back to downtown for an hour.

•  

[DancingDavidE]

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@sammalott wrote:

This was a strange experience I had today, and I am not sure what happened and wanted to know if anyone has had this happen to them.

I found a flight a little later than the flight I was ticketed for and could get a refund on some points I used to book, figured, why not - might as well make the change. I did this, got my boarding pass, and even upgraded to the A boarding group. When I went to board, my ticket was denied and I was told 'I didn't have a ticket to this flight'. Thankfully the counter staff was able to get me on a flight (5 hours later, anyone got any time-killing suggestions at DIA?) I decided with all of my free time to call customer service (counter staff suggested this as well since she said I shouldn't have been able to check in if I wasn't ticketed.)

Now here is where I really got frustrated, I call SW and the agent said verbatim 'when you changed your flight you must have done something wrong' I kept pressing her on how I was able to upgrade my boarding pass, save it to my wallet, view it up until minutes before boarding in the app and she had no answer for me. 

Just really disappointed in how I was treated, and curious if this has happened to anyone. At a minimum, I think a refund on my 2nd leg of the trip (like 13k points) could be a fix, but she kept insisting I DID something wrong. I was honestly shocked. 

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Part of the issue might be solved if you can find out what flight you did have a ticket for - hopefully you saved that boarding pass, double-check the flight number and dates that there wasn't accidentally a change in the date being shown when you changed it.

Since it allowed you to upgrade position could it have been one day ahead? Anyway - rule that out first.

@bec102896 's suggestion is also great to confirm that your transaction when through and you weren't still ticketed on the original flight.

I know its a pain, but it will help your case if you can rule out some of these pathways before writing to the company.