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Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

almorris63
Explorer C

I was told by customer service that my funds were not extended because I did not cancel my child's trip until after some cut-off date in September of 2020.  They are saying there is NO extension of my ticket booked in June of 2020 for travel in November of 2020 which was cancelled in October of 2020.  My child has to fly by 1-year from the original date of purchase or lose the funds.  

 

The ticket was booked for school.  And the school cancelled in-person classes.  We are not yet planning excursions, so the funds will be lost.  I guess I cannot change my plans even during a pandemic unless I read the fine-print.  Given the number of notices that came out telling me there were extensions---even one giving a further extension (for more than an additional YEAR) i for those that actually got an extension, I thought I would receive an extension.  I  thought I would at least be able to rebook the trip by the expiration date of the funds.  

 

Anyone else lose funds this way?  It's several hundred dollars!  I cannot blame the airlines for wanting to raise revenue.  If there was not so much heavy advertising to go ahead and book, I would not be as upset.  Now I feel misled.

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

dfwskier
Aviator A

Airlines are not doing this to" "raise revenue"" Airlines are simply enforcing  the terms and conditions that you agreed to when you bought your Wanna Get Away ticket

 

1) It is  non refundable

2) Travel funds that come abut as a result of change or cancellation must be used within one year of the original purchase date.

 

However, Southwest does something that no airline does

 

It lets you convert expired travel funds into a voucher, and anyone can use a  voucher, while only the named passenger is allowed to use a travel fund.

 

1) It cannot be done until after the travel fund expires

2) It MUST be done no later than 6 months after the expiration date

3) The resultant voucher is good for 6 month

4)The fee to do this s $100 per travel fund.

 

So there is hope that you'll get access to some of your funds. No other airline does that

 

As far as all that advertising goes, why would SW do that? Answer the airline is burning about $2,000,000 in cash every day. It is desperately trying to get more passengers to fly t reduce that cash burn and eventually turn in a cash surplus,

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Minor correction to the above info

1) It cannot be done until after the travel fund expires

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

dfwskier
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

Minor correction to the above info

1) It cannot be done until after the travel fund expires

 

--TheMiddleSeat


Good catch. I meant to put in the word "until,"  but for whatever reason I failed to do so.

 

I'll edit the post.

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

49erhuny
Explorer C

I along with what appears a to be a lot of Southwest customers are caught in this pandemic bugaboo. I purchased 5 tickets June 2020 to fly September 2020. Cancelled late September 2020.  Funds now expiring June 2020. 

Here’s what happened. 

SW sent an email April 2020 indicating that any available travel funds that were available on September 7th 2020, would be extended for an additional 12 months.  

So the dilemma for many of us, is that we didn’t cancel soon enough and thus we’re having our funds expiring right now, even if we are still uncomfortable with traveling. 

SW should do the right thing and honor those who have fallen into this crack. I believe SW had an obligation to notify anyone who purchased a ticket between April 2020and September 7th 2020, that they could get an extension on their travel funds if they cancelled before September 2020, they could get this extension. From all of the emails that I have from Southwest up until now, the only mention is that one email. I could not find a reference again. Soon some cases, if you were on their email list, you would NEVER have know. 

ithink SW should do the right thing and honor the extension for these customers. SW says that after 50 years of service, they continue to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer service. So help us out here Southwest and take care of this bizarre loophole in the system. 

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

@49erhuny  Southwest Airlines should do the right thing and honor the contract. If you bought Anytime or Business Select fares, they should refund your money. If you bought Wanna Get Away, the fund should expire in June 2021. You should honor the contract.

 

You bought the tickets in June of 2020. You very clearly knew the situation. Even I didn't fly in June (I started again in July). As you said, "we don't feel comfortable flying". That's not very compelling. You chose to buy the tickets according to a contract with well publicized terms, and you choose not to fly even though their is no reason not to fly. That's your choice.

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

almorris63
Explorer C

Southwest is essentially saying "Too bad you did not cancel.  Had you really read the fine print, you could have received an extension."  Contractual?  Yes.  We could argue that being sent so many emails about how we should not worry about booking flights at the start of the pandemic was deceptive.  But it is not worth the hassle. 

 

Putting an artificial cut off date six months before the end of the pandemic was probably not a good move for Southwest.  It looks bad.  I am an ordinary traveler, and I used to prefer Southwest.   I have seen other posts where people are losing their travel funds.  And they are not going to be happy either.   

 

 

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

dfwskier
Aviator A

You bought a non refundable ticket in the middle of the pandemic. The rules are "funds used to purchase this ticket expire 12 months from the date the ticket is bought.

 

The rules DID NOT say "

"funds used to purchase this ticket expire 12 months from the date the ticket is bought unless (*) .

 

*insert reason here.

 

You knew , or should have known, you were taking a risk by buying a non refundable ticket with a pandemic surging out of control. You need to accept that fact.

Re: Losing Travel Funds at 1 Year Even During the Pandemic

gsking
Aviator C

You were comfortable buying a ticket to travel in September 2020 before the vaccine, but now you're not comfortable traveling after the vaccine??

 

Sorry,  I'm not tracking your logic.