Military Denied refund

[Militarypg]

Southwest is receiving a $61B bailout but they will not refund my $273 ticket. I’m a military member that has served in the Air Force for over 18 years. My military leave was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All military leave was restricted by the Secretary of Defense. I did not have a choice about canceling my leave. I promptly called Southwest and Was informed they will only provide a voucher not a refund. Their customer service member read from a script saying there is nothing that can be done. This corporation is being bailed out with $61B in taxpayer money and cannot do anything? Something is wrong here.  They have bigger problems than refunding $273. SW will not be getting my business in the future and I highly encourage everyone to reconsider flying with an Airline that does not respect our military during a pandemic. 

[TheMiddleSeat]

There is currently no bailout for airlines and if there was, Southwest would not be getting anywhere near $61 billion. Travel funds are being issued to anyone canceling a non-refundable ticket. If you had purchased a refundable fare or if Southwest had canceled your flight you have would received a cash refund. You have until June 30, 2021 to use the travel funds from canceling this flight.

--TheMiddleSeat

[chgoflyer]

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@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

There is currently no bailout for airlines and if there was, Southwest would not be getting anywhere near $61 billion. Travel funds are being issued to anyone canceling a non-refundable ticket. If you had purchased a refundable fare or if Southwest had canceled your flight you have would received a cash refund. You have until June 30, 2021 to use the travel funds from canceling this flight.

--TheMiddleSeat

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With regards to the bailout:

Southwest has applied for a portion of the $61 billion airline bailout package approved by Congress. That $61 billion in aid includes $25 billion in cash grants and as much as $32 billion in separate payments for airlines to keep employees on their payrolls. Southwest is seeking up to $12 billion in aid.

[chgoflyer]

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@Militarypg wrote:

Southwest is receiving a $61B bailout but they will not refund my $273 ticket. I’m a military member that has served in the Air Force for over 18 years. My military leave was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All military leave was restricted by the Secretary of Defense. I did not have a choice about canceling my leave. I promptly called Southwest and Was informed they will only provide a voucher not a refund. Their customer service member read from a script saying there is nothing that can be done. This corporation is being bailed out with $61B in taxpayer money and cannot do anything? Something is wrong here.  They have bigger problems than refunding $273. SW will not be getting my business in the future and I highly encourage everyone to reconsider flying with an Airline that does not respect our military during a pandemic. 

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Your military status is only a factor if you were flying on a military fare, those fares are full refundable.

If you were flying on a restricted, discount Wanna Get Away fare, those are only refundable if Southwest cancels the flight (not if the customer does). However, Southwest is extending the expiration dates of all funds created due to cancellations made March 1 - June 30, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Normally these funds would expire one year from the date of purchase.

[bwallet]

I think that we all appreciate what you do for us. However, I also see that the military is all volunteer. I, for one, am tired of military members expecting everyone to kowtow to them and give them special treatment. You, like the rest of us, entered into a contract. The contract specified that if you canceled, you would get a credit. You canceled, and you got a credit. That's the rules. I expect our military members to be professional and play by the rules. 

[nanilave87]

Yea Im just as frustrated and have decided to never use Southwest again. I purchased tickets with jetblue, american airlines and united also with southwest when the ban came about I had to cancel all trips. I went on the refund page, added my explanation along with the FRAGORD. Within days AA, United and Jetblue refunded me the amounts for my tickets. And then there was Southwest who said no and said I can use the travel credit until 2022. I asked if then it could be given as a credit so that my mom or my kids could use it since i will not be traveling for a while and they said no that only I could use it. Someone said that they will only honor deployments except this is kinda like it, you just cant travel. Its stuff that is out of everyones hands and for this reason I don't agree with al the people saying that sucks and this is what we signed up for. Um no its not cancelling out of nowhere cause we want to is cancelling trips cause we have to. Its messed up cause at least they should give us the option of being able to use the funds as regular credit for anybody. But I guess thats the greediness of a business. You honor military? Honoring the military is not just letting us board early, is assisting in times like this when there is literally nothing we can do. 

[dfwskier]

Well, since you have two nearly identical posts, I guess I'll provide an identical response that I made to your other one:

"

Well two points here

First Southwest did receive a bailout, and used it to continue to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of employees who otherwise would have been laid off. That hardly makes Southwest greedy.

Second, Southwest announced that people will be allowed to convert travel funds into Rapid Rewards points. You would be able to buy your mom a ticket with those points. Southwest has yet to announce how to do that, but I expect to hear something in the net 3-4 weeks."

[DancingDavidE]

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@nanilave87 wrote:

Yea Im just as frustrated and have decided to never use Southwest again. I purchased tickets with jetblue, american airlines and united also with southwest when the ban came about I had to cancel all trips. I went on the refund page, added my explanation along with the FRAGORD. Within days AA, United and Jetblue refunded me the amounts for my tickets. And then there was Southwest who said no and said I can use the travel credit until 2022. I asked if then it could be given as a credit so that my mom or my kids could use it since i will not be traveling for a while and they said no that only I could use it. Someone said that they will only honor deployments except this is kinda like it, you just cant travel. Its stuff that is out of everyones hands and for this reason I don't agree with al the people saying that sucks and this is what we signed up for. Um no its not cancelling out of nowhere cause we want to is cancelling trips cause we have to. Its messed up cause at least they should give us the option of being able to use the funds as regular credit for anybody. But I guess thats the greediness of a business. You honor military? Honoring the military is not just letting us board early, is assisting in times like this when there is literally nothing we can do. 

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Since this is a special request I would suggest using the mail-in option with all of the details in Contact Customer Relations or mail to Southwest by USPS.

Elaborate on the distinction of the FRAGORD.

I'm not really familiar with JetBlue but I'm a little surprised that United or AA would refund a non-refundable ticket, and I'm not sure they would do the same today if they did make the exception previously - or if this is an unwritten industry standard then someone at Southwest isn't grasping the situation or you need to try Customer Relations.