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Southwest Airlines Community

Group Travel

statesman1992
Explorer C

At this time, why is your cancellation policy different for individuals than for groups. We have a school group headed to FL for spring break. The school is not permitting them to travel due to concerns about Corona and the spread of the virus. You have a terrific and flexible cancellation policy for individual flights, why so stringent with group travel at this point.

 

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Group Travel

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

It's a reasonable question, but as this is primarily a customer to customer forum, if you are looking for a response from Southwest I suggest you contact the group travel folks at Southwest via phone. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

Re: Group Travel

jksobonya
Aviator A

My guess is that this may change in light of today's news about the coronavirus, but Southwest will need to make any official statements regarding changes to group reservations.

 

--Jessica

Re: Group Travel

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Group Travel is a specific department within Southwest airlines that offers some benefits to groups of 10 or more, such as discounted fares and name flexibility. The trade-off is that group travel is subject to its own policies, including things like the inability to add early bird check-in, and most importantly no refunds.

 

When you book a group reservation all of these terms are made available to you. as always, it's important to fully understand the terms and conditions of any financial agreement you enter into.

 

The growing coronavirus situation in the u.s. is a unique, and very specific one which may require special accommodations. At this point it remains to be seen whether Southwest will change any of its policies in reaction to the situation, but my recommendation is to check back frequently.

 

 

 

 

Re: Group Travel

CBATTLE314
Explorer C

I totally agree and do group travel all the time however this is definite a unique situation which I hope they reconsider the policy.  there are allot of people affected because of the Coronavirus at no fault of their own.  Hopefully, someone will reconsider.

 

thank you for your feedback

Re: Group Travel

CBATTLE314
Explorer C

Good Afternoon -

I am in a similar situation with a group travel and some of the passengers are changing their mind about traveling but SW will not allow a credit.  If you get an answer can you please assist me.  Our travel date is 4/12/20

Re: Group Travel

Kelleyneivb
Explorer C

We are in the same boat. Our district is canceling our field trips and our air travel as we speak. We are not permitted to go now. This needs to be looked into. How can Southwest call these tickets refundable and non changeable?

Re: Group Travel

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@Kelleyneivb wrote:

We are in the same boat. Our district is canceling our field trips and our air travel as we speak. We are not permitted to go now. This needs to be looked into. How can Southwest call these tickets refundable and non changeable?


They don't.

 

Group Travel tickets are non-refundable, but certain changes are allowed (passenger name, for example). The terms and conditions were included in the confirmation materials received by the person who made the booking.

 

You should keep checking back to see if at any point Southwest makes any accommodations for people in situations such as yours. It's a longshot, but these are unusual circumstances.

Re: Group Travel

Kelleyneivb
Explorer C

Thank you. I meant non changeable (other than names) and non refundable. We have large school groups who are being denied the opportunity to go on their trip, it wouldn't help changing names as no one is allowed to travel for this group. It is unfortunate. I truly hope SW changes their policy on this. It is out of our control.