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Southwest Airlines Community

Overcharged for flight re-routing

ck1234
Explorer C

My family was vacationing in UT from 3/7 to 3/13. Due to the coronavirus my son's NC college directed students to take an additional spring break week and then go on-line from home.  Nobody allowed on campus. In lieu of sending him back on his original flight from UT, thru AZ and back to NC, I wanted to get him back to our home in CT.  I looked on line and the cost to do the change was $231 so I called customer service to complain that this was extenuating circumstances as a result of the coronavirus to see if there was anything they could do.  Answer was "no". So I went back to the web site and the price had changed to $345 in the course of a 1/2 hour !!  I was left no choice but to book a change at this price.  The kicker was that my son later told me that both his flights from UT to St Louis and then to Hartford were about 1/2 full !!  I am shocked and saddened by this treatment from SW and will look to alternate carriers in the future.I will also dispute charge with my credit card company .

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Overcharged for flight re-routing

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Unfortunately prices change frequently, sometimes up and sometimes down. If there was just one ticket left in the lower priced bucket of tickets and someone else grabbed it then unfortunately the fare would have gone up. It's unclear why you couldn't make the change on the phone. Making changes online is certainly quicker and generally pretty easy to do.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Overcharged for flight re-routing

dfwskier
Aviator A

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

 

Fares from SLC to NC are different than fares from SLC to Hartford.

 

Every airline pretty much handles the situation in the same way. When you change a flight to a new destination, you have to pay whatever fare is being charged on the new routing.

 

I know you don't like it, and I'm sorry that you went thru the ordeal, but what I said above is truth.

Re: Overcharged for flight re-routing

bec102896
Aviator A

On top of what was already mentioned every airline raises prices the closer the date gets a flight at 2 weeks out will be a different price than the same flight 3 days out even if the plane is half full. I do believe they should cap fares right now but unfortunately that's not the case.