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Southwest Airlines Community

Cancellation reschedule policy

RDeslauriers
Explorer C

In light of the current coronavirus pandemic your requirement to use the flight credit within 1 year of the original booking date is overly restrictive. It should be extended to 1 year of the original planned flight date. This would be much more reasonable for vacation travellers that book flights many months in advance

11 REPLIES 11

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

dfwskier
Aviator A

Since you are asking SW to change it's policy, you should do that here:

 

https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Submitting-a-Suggestion-and-or-Complaint/ta-...

 

Since this is a customer to customer site it is entirely possible that the firm will not see your suggestion here.

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

RDeslauriers
Explorer C

Thanks - I sent in my concern/complaint through that avenue as well. The events unfolding in the past few days clearly convey that our current situation relative to the coronavirus has taken us well outside the "normal" business environment and Southwest should respond accordingly. For example, Disney World has already modified their ticket policy to extend 2020 ticket validity through 2021.

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

Dmill315
Explorer C

Do you know if I have fly by year purchased date OR book before that date?  That’s a big difference since I too have had flights booked and Disney closed. Is it true the Disney park tickets are valid thru 2021 . I can’t get thru to Disney or Southwest ! So frustrating 

since I’m not sure we can travel within 6 months it took a year of planning to get my family members all to have same vacation time 

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@Dmill315 Travel must be completed before the expiration of the travel fund, that is one year after the original purchase date.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

dfwskier
Aviator A

@Dmill315 wrote:

Do you know if I have fly by year purchased date OR book before that date?  That’s a big difference since I too have had flights booked and Disney closed. Is it true the Disney park tickets are valid thru 2021 . I can’t get thru to Disney or Southwest ! So frustrating 

since I’m not sure we can travel within 6 months it took a year of planning to get my family members all to have same vacation time 


Sorry that this is happening to you and everyone else.

 

The rule on travel funds is that travel must be completed by the expiration date of the travel fund -- which s one year from the date that the ticket that resulted in the fund was purchased. It might be less than that if travel funds were used to buy that ticket.

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

margolambert
Explorer C

I had ticket for Disneyland too. My receipt indicates the timeframe my ticket is good

for. I didn’t need call.

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Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

RDeslauriers
Explorer C

We are in the same position as you. Southwest will only allow full credit of the ticket for 12 months of the original date that you ticketed the flight. That's  the rub. I spoke with their executive relations team last night and they are currently unrelenting on that policy. Disneyworld website indicates that if you can't use the tickets in 2020, you can request and be granted an extension on the tickets through 2021. 

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Travel funds are (and have always been) valid for one year after the original purchase date.  It appears you purchased your tickets 6 months ago so yes, you have 6 months remaining to use the travel funds.  This policy has been adopted by most other airlines out there so Southwest's standard policy is as good or better than other domestic airlines' emergency policy.

 

Just as an example, here is the policy from United (emphasis added by me):

"If the customer decides to cancel their flight, they can retain the value of the ticket to be applied to a new ticket without fee for travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date."

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Cancellation reschedule policy

Funsize
Explorer C

Shame on Southwest! They are known for their awesome customer service and now I'm seeing that's gone to the wayside.. with the uncertainty of everything going on I can't believe that the awesome Southwest is not trying to work whether passengers better. As much bad publicity as American has had over the years with their customer service they seem to be bending over backwards to help out their people.. #shameonyou