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Passenger deleted during online booking

scottgrk
Explorer A

I booked 6 passengers for a flight this week.  When the confirmation email arrived, the system had only booked 5 passengers.  My banking receipt showed that the "item value" was for 6, but the actual charge was for 5.  I don't understand how an automated system could just decide to drop one person at the billing stage.

The "lost passenger" was a senior ticket - I feel like that has something to do with the processing issue.

 

Has anyone else experienced this happening?  I've sent emails, and I can't connect via the 1800 number (I'm not in the US).  I'ts been 4 days and I'm a bit dissapointed that I have had no reply.

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

If you are unable to call I'd suggest trying to contact Southwest via Twitter (@Southwestair). Hopefully there's a logical explanation for what is happening and all 6 passengers are booked. If you get an answer, please post a summary here so we know what happened.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

scottgrk
Explorer A

WIll do.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

scottgrk
Explorer A
Solution

Yep, Twitter is the go!  Got an answer within 15 minutes.

 

The online system can only process one fare type at a time - so it can't do Wanna Get Away and Senior reservations together.  I find this odd, but that's apparently what happened.

Extra people can't be added to an existing reserevation, so I have had to create another reservation for the same flight.

 

Thank you @TheMiddleSeat for your help!

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Ah yes, that makes sense, although as you said, Southwest's IT limitations are quite odd at times. I'm glad you got an answer and more importantly realized the issue before you got to the airport and expected to have 6 reservations.

 

I'm curious though, my understanding of the senior fare is that it's a slightly discounted Anytime fare, and if there is a Wanna Get Away fare available, the Wanna Get Away fare is usually cheaper. The senior fare is fully refundable, but other than that, there's not much benefit versus the Wanna Get Away fare. Did you really want/need to purchase the senior fare?

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

scottgrk
Explorer A

No, and for my next booking I’ll just put everyone as adults.

On reflection, the booking sequence creates the problem:

*On the first page you select how many adult AND how many seniors you want to book for.  (If you can only book one type, then this should be a single dropdown.)

*On the following page you select which fare you want.  (I realise now that I selected Wanna Get Away for the senior passenger.)

These two steps contradict each other. If you select senior at the start it should take away the WGA ticket option in the next screen.

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

chgoflyer
Aviator A

So... I'm not sure what went wrong when you tried to make your booking, but you can book both a Senior Fare and another fare type in the same itinerary.

 

On the search page, if you choose a number for both the ADULTS and SENIORS boxes, the first result returned will ask you to select the flight for the Senior(s).

 

Then, once you've selected your flight(s), the search results will ask you to select the flight for the Adult(s).

 

At the end you'll be presented with the total for both selections.

 

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Note: Even if you choose the WGA fare for the Senior(s) (instead of the Senior fare), you're still given the correct total for both.

 

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Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

scottgrk
Explorer A

That’s exactly what I did.  It does seem strange.

This is the message I got via Twitter:

 

“...Our Reservations system can only process one fare type per reservation, so a Senior fare would have to be booked on its own reservation....”

 

Anyways, I’m happy that I got a prompt explanation, and even more stoked at how ripper you cobbers are in the community pages 😁

Re: Passenger deleted during online booking

chgoflyer
Aviator A
Solution

@scottgrk wrote:

That’s exactly what I did.  It does seem strange.

This is the message I got via Twitter:

 

“...Our Reservations system can only process one fare type per reservation, so a Senior fare would have to be booked on its own reservation....”

 

Anyways, I’m happy that I got a prompt explanation, and even more stoked at how ripper you cobbers are in the community pages 😁


 

It's a bit confusing, but that's not completely correct (obviously). 😉

 

If you book a reservation for a single person, you can of course have multiple fare types. For example, WGA on the outbound and BS on the return. People do this all the time.

 

If you book a reservation for multiple "adults," you can do the same thing. The limitation is that each person must have the same fare type per flight. (You can't have one person on WGA and another on BS on the same flight.) This is probably where the confusion comes from.

 

However, if you book an "adult" and a "senior" you can have each on a different fare type. And, oddly, it works even if the "senior" isn't actually on a Senior Fare -- you can choose any available fare type for the "senior."

 

1.png

 

Note that all of the "adults" must be on the same fare per flight, and all of the "seniors" must also be on their own same fare -- although those fares can be different between the "adults" and "seniors."

 

It's an odd system, but that's not totally unexpected for Southwest. 😉