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No email when reservation is auto cancelled

RobertGary1
Explorer C

I'm curious with all the email that SWA sends out why they dont' send an email when your reservation is auto-canceled. On my trip out the plane was diverted so I didn't use my last original leg. Since I wasn't in my layover city and didn't board the last leg they silently cancelled my return resevation for the following week. I was lucky they found room for me for my return since I didn't find out until the day before. 

Surely this is a computer bug that it doesn't send a notification.

 

-Robert

8 REPLIES 8

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

dfwskier
Aviator A

Hi Robert. Let me try to undersand what I think you said

 

1) Your outbound was supposed to be a flight from city A, connecting in city B, then on to city C?  Correct??

Instead you were routed from city A to city D, and never flew on to city C? How did you get to city C -- or did you?

 

2) When did you discover your return from city C back to city A had been cancelled?

 

3) Do you have travel funds from the cancelled flight available for your use?

 

I suspect that somehow you got classified as a no show for a flight - which would have resulted in the rest of your itinerary being cancelled. If the answer to #3 above is no, that would seem to confirm my suspicion. Itineraries cancelled as a result of a no show do not generate  cancellation e-mails.

 

FYI, I don't think there is such a thing as an auto cancel.

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@RobertGary1 wrote:

I'm curious with all the email that SWA sends out why they dont' send an email when your reservation is auto-canceled. On my trip out the plane was diverted so I didn't use my last original leg. Since I wasn't in my layover city and didn't board the last leg they silently cancelled my return resevation for the following week. I was lucky they found room for me for my return since I didn't find out until the day before. 

Surely this is a computer bug that it doesn't send a notification.

 

-Robert

My understanding is that auto-cancelled itineraries due to no-show generate an email cancellation confirmation message, so (assuming you've checked and it didn't end up in your junk folder) I'd guess this was just a "glitch."

 

I'm glad they were eventually able to work it out for you. I'd recommend you contact Southwest directly regarding the experience (short, factual message via the website contact form link), so that they can record the incident, and possibly address your inconvenience.

 

Edited to add: Also, you'll want to double check that you received the appropriate Rapid Rewards points for the flights. (These aren't granted until an itinerary is "completed.")

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

CareforNOLA
Frequent Flyer A

@RobertGary1

I had that situation once (before becoming a frequent traveler) and I do not remember getting an email.  A late New Orleans-Houston-Dallas outbound (would have been direct but connecting was only flight available when booked).  Bad (but not terrible) weather delayed the HOU-DAL leg, and I had to be there the next day, so I rented a car and drove one way.  When I showed up at the airport in Dallas a few days later, the return trip had been cancelled, because of the no-show (as @dfwskier mentioned) on the second leg of the first outbound trip.

 

I was a rookie, had not run into that situation before but it was the terms and conditions of the purchase, so I bought another ticket back at full fare.  It turned the entire trip into one expensive, white knuckle driving, lost sleep adventure, but I made the meeting and learned that I should have talked to the gate agent before leaving HOU or called while on the road because the airline would have split the ticket and left the return flight in place.  Because they did not know that I made to my destination, the computer was programmed to free up the rest of the itinerary.  I understand that airlines make money by selling seats, so my business lesson was learned.  

 

I doubt that the situation happens very often, and I wish that it hadn’t happened to you.  I am glad they got you back because there would be no guarantee on having an available seat.  As @chgoflyer mentioned, you would likely receive something (voucher maybe?) if you wrote in explaining what happened, though technically, the terms and conditions means that they are not required to do it.  I doubt that anyone at the airline thinks of it as an “auto-cancel” so you can use that term, but also mention “no show” as that puts the situation in their lingo.  Southwest is not the only airline with these terms of purchase, but I believe they are the best airline from a passenger focus so will be more likely to try to make it better.  

 

A little historical perspective on how this policy might have gotten started.  After 9/11/2001, the industry became very wary about one way tickets.  They were a guaranteed security pat down in the TSA line, and the pricing scheme for many airlines was that a round trip ticket was often cheaper than just one-way outbound.  Frequent flyers on all airlines started buying round trips to other destinations to get better deals and just getting off at their real destination along the way.  Save time at security and save money too?  Who could resist?  That created the change in terms because people were intentionally buying seats they did not need, and airlines, as a business, needed or wanted, to sell that seat again so they could make more money.  Fortunately, most airlines have switched their pricing strategies to show prices separately for outbound and inbound versus pricing round trips cheaper, and TSA stopped requiring the extra screening for one way passengers.

 

Hopefully you won’t have that situation again, and hopefully some flyer will read your thread and avoid that situation in their future.  I like your suggestion about sending an email about the return cancellation due to a no-show even though not technically required and even if the money is lost.  If an email is sent, that might not save everyone, but it could be an automatic computer generated feature that might save a few people.  The wording would have to be very carefully crafted so as not to offend though because many cancellations/no-shows are due to medical or personal emergencies when tensions are high, and a canned email saying that the rest of one’s plans were cancelled may seem impersonal and callous, and like the airlines are making a bad situation worse.

 

I hope you will write in to explain your past situation and that there is some resolution for you.  Hopefully the background information helps you understand how this situation got started.

 

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@CareforNOLA wrote:

@RobertGary1

@I had that situation once (before becoming a frequent traveler) and I do not remember getting an email.  A late New Orleans-Houston-Dallas outbound (would have been direct but connecting was only flight available when booked).  Bad (but not terrible) weather delayed the HOU-DAL leg, and I had to be there the next day, so I rented a car and drove one way.  When I showed up at the airport in Dallas a few days later, the return trip had been cancelled, because of the no-show (as @dfwskier mentioned) on the second leg of the first outbound trip.

 

I was a rookie, had not run into that situation before but it was the terms and conditions of the purchase, so I bought another ticket back at full fare.  It turned the entire trip into one expensive, white knuckle driving, lost sleep adventure, but I made the meeting and learned that I should have talked to the gate agent before leaving HOU or called while on the road because the airline would have split the ticket and left the return flight in place.  Because they did not know that I made to my destination, the computer was programmed to free up the rest of the itinerary.  I understand that airlines make money by selling seats, so my business lesson was learned.  

 

I doubt that the situation happens very often, and I wish that it hadn’t happened to you.  I am glad they got you back because there would be no guarantee on having an available seat.  As @chgoflyer mentioned, you would likely receive something (voucher maybe?) if you wrote in explaining what happened, though technically, the terms and conditions means that they are not required to do it.  I doubt that anyone at the airline thinks of it as an “auto-cancel” so you can use that term, but also mention “no show” as that puts the situation in their lingo.  Southwest is not the only airline with these terms of purchase, but I believe they are the best airline from a passenger focus so will be more likely to try to make it better.  

 

A little historical perspective on how this policy might have gotten started.  After 9/11/2001, the industry became very wary about one way tickets.  They were a guaranteed security pat down in the TSA line, and the pricing scheme for many airlines was that a round trip ticket was often cheaper than just one-way outbound.  Frequent flyers on all airlines started buying round trips to other destinations to get better deals and just getting off at their real destination along the way.  Save time at security and save money too?  Who could resist?  That created the change in terms because people were intentionally buying seats they did not need, and airlines, as a business, needed or wanted, to sell that seat again so they could make more money.  Fortunately, most airlines have switched their pricing strategies to show prices separately for outbound and inbound versus pricing round trips cheaper, and TSA stopped requiring the extra screening for one way passengers.

 

Hopefully you won’t have that situation again, and hopefully some flyer will read your thread and avoid that situation in their future.  I like your suggestion about sending an email about the return cancellation due to a no-show even though not technically required and even if the money is lost.  If an email is sent, that might not save everyone, but it could be an automatic computer generated feature that might save a few people.  The wording would have to be very carefully crafted so as not to offend though because many cancellations/no-shows are due to medical or personal emergencies when tensions are high, and a canned email saying that the rest of one’s plans were cancelled may seem impersonal and callous, and like the airlines are making a bad situation worse.

 

I hope you will write in to explain your past situation and that there is some resolution for you.  Hopefully the background information helps you understand how this situation got started.

 

Thanks for that info. I've not actually ever had this happen to me, but I have read reports (here and elsewhere) of travelers who had their return flight auto-cancelled due to no-show on the outbound (whether their fault, as in CareforNOLA's case, or in situations like the RobertGary1's, where it was unavoidable, caused by Southwest, and not any fault of the traveler) who stated that they had received a cancellation message. I've also read many reports (like CareforNOLA's) where the passenger said they never received anything. While I'm not certain what the actual procedure is in practice, one would hope that a message is generated whenever a flight is cancelled -- whether by choice or automatically -- and regardless of the reason. It would seem a basic good business practice.

 

Perhaps a rep can clarify for us definitively?

 

(Also, I'm using the term "auto-cancel" to refer to when Southwest's systems cancel an itinerary automatically, in the case of no-show (as discussed here) or thinks like duplicate bookings, per policy.)

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I'm curious if there might be a bug in the system where the passenger takes the first portion of the connecting leg but not the second leg, where it is a "partial cancel" and not a full no-show.

 

I wasn't clear of the whole situation on the second leg - was that flight canceled and you didn't ever re-book? Then the system might not think you traveled, especially if they end up refunding the first leg too as a partial trip.

 

I had a similar flight from LAS to RNO diverted to SMF one time - they offered to take us all back to LAS I assume as if it never happened, or maybe earning two legs but getting credit...I'm not sure. But instead we drove from SMF to RNO and I flew as expected later that same day back to LAS.

 

 

 

 

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

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@DancingDavidE wrote:

I'm curious if there might be a bug in the system where the passenger takes the first portion of the connecting leg but not the second leg, where it is a "partial cancel" and not a full no-show.

 

I wasn't clear of the whole situation on the second leg - was that flight canceled and you didn't ever re-book? Then the system might not think you traveled, especially if they end up refunding the first leg too as a partial trip.

 

I had a similar flight from LAS to RNO diverted to SMF one time - they offered to take us all back to LAS I assume as if it never happened, or maybe earning two legs but getting credit...I'm not sure. But instead we drove from SMF to RNO and I flew as expected later that same day back to LAS.

 

As I understand it, it's not a "bug," it's how the system specifically set up to work. If you miss any leg of any itinerary -- for whatever reason -- you are a no-show, and the balance of that itinerary is cancelled (and all remaining funds forfeited). This happens on things like hidden city ticketing, for example, and is one of the many reasons it's recomended to always book one-ways on Southwest.

 

I'm not sure what exactly the OP's situation was either, but it sounds like their originating flight was diverted, either directly to their destination (bypassing the connection city) or to a alternate city from where they continued on to their destination. It's likely that there are protocols in place to update the system (likely manually) when things like this happen -- to avoid the no-show auto-cancel from kicking in -- but for whatever reason that didn't happen here.

 

I am very curious about the cancellation confirmation email message -- whether or not that is sent in cases of auto-cancellation. As I said, it seems like it would be a good practice. And I can't think of any reason for it not to be so. But after doing a bit more research on this topic, it seems to me that complaints about never receiving any notification are quite common.

 

 

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

@DancingDavidE wrote:

I'm curious if there might be a bug in the system where the passenger takes the first portion of the connecting leg but not the second leg, where it is a "partial cancel" and not a full no-show.

 

I wasn't clear of the whole situation on the second leg - was that flight canceled and you didn't ever re-book? Then the system might not think you traveled, especially if they end up refunding the first leg too as a partial trip.

 

I had a similar flight from LAS to RNO diverted to SMF one time - they offered to take us all back to LAS I assume as if it never happened, or maybe earning two legs but getting credit...I'm not sure. But instead we drove from SMF to RNO and I flew as expected later that same day back to LAS.

 

 

I'm not sure what exactly the OP's situation was either, but it sounds like their originating flight was diverted, either directly to their destination (bypassing the connection city) or to a alternate city from where they continued on to their destination. It's likely that there are protocols in place to update the system (likely manually) when things like this happen -- to avoid the no-show auto-cancel from kicking in -- but for whatever reason that didn't happen here.

 

 


Diverted to your actual destination, yay! No-showing the uneccesary connection, boo!

 

That would be a rough combo - you end up where you are intending to go, and think everything is good, but get your return trip cancelled.

 

 

 

 

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

Re: No email when reservation is auto cancelled

zebedancer
Explorer C

As for the careful wording, something like "Our records indicate that you missed a leg of your flight.  We hope that you made it to your desitination safely.  Within 24 hours we will need to cancel the remainder of your trip unless we here from you about the status of your travel..."  Yeah, that probably opens up a can or two of other worms, but at least it would be a helpful alert that something weird happened.  

 I definitely would be expecting an email if something like this happened, ESPECIALLY if it was a SW employee (or software) who rerouted me or had to adjust my trip on my behalf.  We've been really fortunate with SW so far, so I haven't had to experience any changes quite like this to date.  I would probably blindly think that if they rerouted me, they adjusted the whole itenerary accordingly to look out for my whole trip.  Now, i will make a point to spend the time to go ask, if anything does happen.