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Duplicate Name using a SW Credit Used your Credit

menardm13
Explorer C

I am a long time loyal customer, but I had the weirdest experience and I am still not satisfied. I wonder if anyone else has had anything remotely close to this.  

 

In Dec, 2019 I booked a round trip to Vegas from my hometown for 3 people for the latter part of March, 2020.  We all know what happened, and obvs I canceled the trip.  I received credit as expected and went about my business. 

 

2 weeks ago I started searching for another trip to Vegas for November of this year.  I did not book, but saved the flight.   

 

I was always using my SW account login and RR number during all of these activities.  

 

Today I decided to pull the trigger since SW extended the no middle seats until the end of November.  It would only be booked for myself and one of the other original travelers (3rd traveler cannot make the dates, but could book in the future to use their credits - no issue there). 

 

I was going through the booking process and applied my credit using the confirmation number, then proceeded to apply the credit for the 2nd traveler, but it was only giving me a fraction of the original credit (canceled flight was around $300, only getting $73 on the online transaction.  Weird. 

 

So I call customer service, I get a rep, go through the story, he looks things up, and says, "huh, never seen this before", puts me on hold.  Eventually he comes back and says that the 2nd traveler used part of the credit 2 weeks ago to fly from Buffalo to Orlando.  Same name.  I find this not possible because the 2nd traveler lives in Nebraska (with me), is disabled and cannot travel alone.  He was not in Buffalo.  Ever. 

 

So, he asks that he is given time to escalate and someone will call me back.  OK, I'm good with that, but I really want to know how another guy with the same name used that credit.  Well, they tracked it down and the guy was 34 (almost 15 years off 2nd travelers BD) , and apparently called in to book his trip and the agent "picked the wrong John Doe" from the list of John Doe's. 

 

My question is, can I just call SW and if my name is "Mary Johnson" and without any verification (like the confirmation number on the previously canceled flight, or address, or phone number, or KTN) and they find an account that has credits by the same name, will they just book it?

 

Oh, and I will get my credit back on my SW account in about 10 days.  I find this wholly unacceptable.  

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Duplicate Name using a SW Credit Used your Credit

bec102896
Aviator A

Sorry to hear someone used the credit of the other passenger you were traveling with. This is definitely a strange situation since another john Doe used the funds without any verification. If you haven't reached out to customer relations I would Contact Customer Relations so they can look in to everything and find the other john Doe and charge him for his flight and give you the credit back. 

 

-Blake 

Re: Duplicate Name using a SW Credit Used your Credit

menardm13
Explorer C

I did.  They were the ones that gave me the final info, and said I would get my refund adjustment in about 10 days (they are behind in processing). 

 

I have not received a good explanation how an agent could pick a customer out of a list by their name only and not verify anything to make sure it was the correct account.  When I tried to book online it certainly asked for the confirmation number and name to be able to apply the credit funds which is how I discovered this whole thing.  When I called customer service the first thing they asked for was my RR number and confirmation number.  Then I got a call back from customer relations (they were very responsive and very nice, so no complaints there on anyone I have dealt with). 

 

But why was the same level of verification not done when the Buffalo booking happened?  It makes no sense.  

Re: Duplicate Name using a SW Credit Used your Credit

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

Definitely a strange situation! 

In the past, there was no good tracking mechanism for travel funds, even for SW agents. So in a way, this doesn’t surprise me. I’ve sat on the phone before while we tried to track down my travel funds. 

Fortunately, each traveler can no see his or her travel funds in their Rapid Rewards account

Even though this was a weird situation, I’m glad they corrected it for you and solved the problem that “took” your funds. 

And even though you can track your funds in your account, as a best practice, I keep every booking or cancellation email for my own tracking purposes. 

-A List, Companion Pass holder