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Southwest changed my flight

mikey1120
Explorer C

I had a trip planned to St Pete Beach, already booked a hotel and other items.  I had a choice to book a flight either to Tampa or Sarasota/Bradenton, then rent a car to get to my hotel.  Nonstop was a must have, and Tampa did not offer this at the time of the initial booking, however, Bradenton did have this and at a good price.  I booked Bradenton last month and all was good.

 

I just received an email that Southwest changed both my departing and returning flight there, and now they are not a nonstop flight and the times are awful for both.  I understand that Southwest offers a rebooking at no cost when this happens, however, non of the remaining Bradenton flights are favorable for us (or nonstop).  I now see Tampa has much better options, including nonstop.  I called Southwest support to get this changed to Tampa, but because it's technically a different city they couldn't do this.  Instead, they sent an email to customer relations and I will get a call back in 10-12 business days!

 

This is not acceptable for us, we cannot wait on this.  If I rebook my flight using Tampa, I will pay an extra $500, this isn't a good option either.  

 

Any suggestions on how to expedite a call with customer relations to make this right?

7 REPLIES 7

Re: Southwest changed my flight

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Why exactly can you not wait?  Southwest is offering to look at it, give them the time needed to do that.  Many other customers were also affected by schedule changes so you are not the only one requesting changes.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest changed my flight

mikey1120
Explorer C

The problem is that we have excursions and other plans that will be difficult to reschedule and/or are non-refundable.  If we are looking at a $500 or more increase for tickets to Tampa on top of what we already paid, we need to decide if we can still afford to go.  They only offered to call us back on the situation, but I don't know if they will tell me that they could work out a deal to let us fly in to Tampa for the same cost that we paid, or if they will tell us to rebook the flight.

 

As mentioned, the current price to Tampa on the same days are about $500 more today.  If I'm waiting over 2 weeks for them to call back, and they just tell me to rebook the flight online at whatever price it is at that time, it may be way too expensive for us at that time and we would just cancel our trip (and lose any money put towards excursions).

Re: Southwest changed my flight

mikey1120
Explorer C
Solution

This has been resolved.

 

I called again and got the right person on the line.  Customer service does have the ability to make changes like this without involving the customer relations department or wait 2 weeks for an answer.  The gentleman was very polite and prompt, and this was resolved in less than 10 minutes.  

 

 

Re: Southwest changed my flight

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@mikey1120 wrote:

This has been resolved.

 

I called again and got the right person on the line.  Customer service does have the ability to make changes like this without involving the customer relations department or wait 2 weeks for an answer.  The gentleman was very polite and prompt, and this was resolved in less than 10 minutes.  

 

 


Glad to hear it, I have also had to ask twice but gotten a swap in my case from TPA to SRQ. 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Southwest changed my flight

bec102896
Aviator A

In the past TPA and SRQ are considered sister airports and usually they would let you change to one vs the other. You might have to call and get another agent but I have made this type of change before when schedule changes or weather waivers appeared. 

 

Southwest has a lot of new agents so not all of them know they are co terminal (sister airport) 

Re: Southwest changed my flight

mikey1120
Explorer C

Yes, that is what the gentleman on the phone said, was that it is a co terminal so that is why he was able to make the change.  Thanks for the information, good to know!

Re: Southwest changed my flight

StAugustine
Frequent Flyer C

I changed airports from Providence to Hartford for the same reasons you had. Called Customer Service and the flights were changed immediately. Maybe you had an inexperienced Rep? 

 

BTW, in my experience the Southwest Reps are always pleasant and easy to work with. Kudos to them all!