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Covid related travel changes

Hbishop3
Explorer C

I had to cancel 3 trips at the end of this year due to COVID restrictions at work due to being a healthcare provider. I now have over $700 in credit I will not be able to use before the expiration next year. I am hoping Southwest administration does the right thing and changes the policy that allows extensions as Covid cases are at the highest point ever and shutdowns are again already occurring in CA. It would be fabulous if they allowed tickets to be purchased for others as I want to use my credits to get my daughter home from college, she is the only one traveling in our family at the current time do to restrictions. However, the least that could be done is extension for credits or ability to use the funds to purchase southwest points that will not expire. Something needs to be done due to the continuation of the Pandemic that unfortunately is not going away any time soon. 

12 REPLIES 12

Re: Covid related travel changes

jksobonya
Aviator A

Hopefully you will get to use your travel funds as they are good from one year from the date you purchased the reservation. With a vaccine on the horizon to be distributed by the end of this year into next year, I am hopeful we can put this all behind us in the next couple of months. The virus remains mild for most and most recover, and 1 in 5 have no symptoms at all. In my opinion we've dragged this out longer than necessary already, and it's time we get back to normal business and way of life. 

 

--Jessica

Re: Covid related travel changes

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@jksobonya wrote:

Hopefully you will get to use your travel funds as they are good from one year from the date you purchased the reservation. With a vaccine on the horizon to be distributed by the end of this year into next year, I am hopeful we can put this all behind us in the next couple of months. The virus remains mild for most and most recover, and 1 in 5 have no symptoms at all. In my opinion we've dragged this out longer than necessary already, and it's time we get back to normal business and way of life. 

 

--Jessica


 

Unfortunately, the virus doesn't care that people think we should get back to normal.

 

Just to be clear, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are all at their highest rates in the US since the pandemic began.

 

We don't just get to wish this away because we're over it.

 

Without further mitigation efforts those numbers will continue to increase. A more realistic timeline for widespread vaccine distribution is well into the first quarter of 2021, at a minimum. 

 

Hospitals are already stressed. Imagine needing emergency care (because of a heart attack, or a car accident, or any number of medical needs) and not receiving it because of staff or facility issues due to covid. If people continue to disregard the very real problems this pandemic continues to cause that will absolutely happen.

 

It's also astonishingly insulting to those who have lost friends and family members (and the frontline healthcare workers who put their lives on the line everyday battling this disease) to suggest that the virus isn't serious. Especially when upwards of 2,000+ people are dying, and continue to die, every day. 

 

Re: Covid related travel changes

jksobonya
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

Hospitals are already stressed. Imagine needing emergency care (because of a heart attack, or a car accident, or any number of medical needs) and not receiving it because of staff or facility issues due to covid. If people continue to disregard the very real problems this pandemic continues to cause that will absolutely happen.

 

It's also astonishingly insulting to those who have lost friends and family members (and the frontline healthcare workers who put their lives on the line everyday battling this disease) to suggest that the virus isn't serious. Especially when upwards of 2,000+ people are dying, and continue to die, every day. 

 


Hospitals aren't stressed. They are at normal capacity or below normal capacity pretty much everywhere. "Hospitals are going to be overwhelmed everybody panic" is just another fear tactic that people buy into, but it just isn't true. It wasn't true in the spring, it wasn't true in the summer, it wasn't true in the fall, and it isn't true now. 

 

I never said the virus isn't serious, but our reaction to it has been. We never should have closed down businesses in the way that we have; I've said it before and I'll say it again, protect the vulnerable and let society function as normal. We have millions out of work and unemployed vs a 250K death toll thus far - the economic devastation is far worse than what the virus is doing. 1/2 of those deaths (if not more) are a direct result of the nursing home debacle where infected patients went to nursing homes where death occurred as a result. The average age of death from this virus is in the 80s and the vast majority have pre-existing conditions anyway - they aren't dying of COVID, they're dying with it. If you take out the nursing home deaths alone the real death count is probably 125K and I argue it's actually under 100K. 

 

And we're wrecking our economy over this?

 

Here's another statistic: 17% of all restaurants in the United States have closed since March. Not temporarily, but permanently CLOSED. That's nearly 1 in 5 restaurants across the entire country.  It's total madness that we are letting this go on and letting countless livelihoods be destroyed like this. Not to mention the mental health issues and things like drug / alcohol abuse and everything else that is resulting because of our extreme overreaction to this virus. I'd also argue that deaths due to COVID causation are just as high as the COVID deaths themselves.  

 

So, in conclusion, protect the vulnerable and let society function, that's all we need to do it's really that simple. 

 

--Jessica

Re: Covid related travel changes

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@jksobonya wrote:

--Jessica


 

 

Unfortunately, from your reply it's clear that you're choosing to believe information that simply does not align with facts. I've sadly found it's often impossible to have a coherent argument in this type of situation so I won't waste either of our time. 

 

 

Re: Covid related travel changes

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Re: Covid related travel changes

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Re: Covid related travel changes

Hbishop3
Explorer C

Unfortunately your opinion is not that of medical officials. Though it is mild for some it is quite the opposite for others, thus the world shutting down. I work in healthcare and the demographic I serve are the high risk. I can’t choose company policy which is erring on the side of patient safety not popular opinion. A vaccine is not going to fix this problem anytime soon. Anyone who is in the medical profession can tell you its a 2-5 yr ever evolving process. 

I can appreciate your opinion & optimism but the circumstances I am referring to in this post is not going to change for the better with in the next few months, in fact we are seeing the complete opposite. 😕 Every business has had to adapt and take losses all I’m saying is the policy being cut off on September 7th doesn’t quite make sense and the consumer is the one at a loss.

Re: Covid related travel changes

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

I appreciate your concerns. As the virus drags on and gets worse, I’d encourage you to share your thoughts directly with SW via one of the contacts us methods below. 

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: Covid related travel changes

gsking
Aviator C

In case you weren't aware,  SWA did have that policy until mid September.   I thankfully was able to take advantage of it. 

 

I agree it would seem to make sense that they implement it again.   Like many of the rules and scenarios we've had to deal with this year, the difference between those who benefited and those who didn't were only separated by seemingly arbitrary differences like a few days in booking time or a county line on a map. 

 

Here's hoping.