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Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TrojanFan
Explorer C

I cancelled two flights on Sept 7 around 10:30pm Pacific Standard Time (PST). My assumption was they would qualify to receive the Sept 7, 2022 extended expiration date since per Southwest's terms I was creating the travel credit on or before Sept 7, 2020. As of today, they have not received the extended expiration date and I'm beginning to believe it is because Southwest system's runs everything off Eastern Standard Time (EST). This seems unfair since no where on the page's describing which funds are eligible for extension is eastern standard time mentioned. I would appreciate any help that can be offered or suggestions for who at Southwest I should reach out to regarding this. Ultimately, I was hoping to be able to convert the travel funds to Southwest points. 

14 REPLIES 14

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

bec102896
Aviator A
Solution

I do see how this can be annoying however I believe the issue is that southwest runs things on central time since the headquarters is in Dallas TX. In your case I would Contact Customer Relations and see if they can help. 

 

-Blake

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@TrojanFan wrote:

 Ultimately, I was hoping to be able to convert the travel funds to Southwest points. 


You should be able to accomplish this regardless of the travel funds' expiration date, as long as the travel fund isn't already expired (which it shouldn't be in this case if you just cancelled the flight).

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

bec102896
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

@TrojanFan wrote:

 Ultimately, I was hoping to be able to convert the travel funds to Southwest points. 


You should be able to accomplish this regardless of the travel funds' expiration date, as long as the travel fund isn't already expired (which it shouldn't be in this case if you just cancelled the flight).

 

--TheMiddleSeat


@TheMiddleSeat

The expiration date must be September 7th 2022 to be eligible for the travel funds to points conversion 

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@bec102896 wrote:

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

@TrojanFan wrote:

 Ultimately, I was hoping to be able to convert the travel funds to Southwest points. 


You should be able to accomplish this regardless of the travel funds' expiration date, as long as the travel fund isn't already expired (which it shouldn't be in this case if you just cancelled the flight).

 

--TheMiddleSeat


@TheMiddleSeat

The expiration date must be September 7th 2022 to be eligible for the travel funds to points conversion 


Thanks, I (obviously) missed that detail.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TrojanFan
Explorer C

Yes, this was my original belief too. It turns out the travel fund had to be "CREATED" by September 7th. A travel fund isn't created until you cancel a flight apparently. I was under the assumption that any travel funds with a date before September 7th, would automatically be extended to Sept 7, 2022, but that appears to (frustratingly) not be the case. 

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

chgoflyer
Aviator A

And now, unfortunately, unless Southwest announces an additional accommodation, it is impossible to create a travel fund which would qualify for conversion to points.

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TrojanFan
Explorer C

Here was Southwest's response to my inquiry to Customer Care:

 

Thank you for contacting us in regards to your cancelled reservation with Southwest. I appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.

 

I truly regret if there was any misunderstanding with the times that your reservations were cancelled, and the exception qualifications. Upon research, I see that these reservations were cancelled at 12:39 am and 12:40 am, Central time on September 8. While we do understand what you are asking, we are unable to extend these funds, as they were cancelled outside the time limit for that exception.

 

However, I do show that you have full access to your funds until September 5, 2021. We do hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you onboard in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Amy
Southwest Airlines

 

This is the first time I've been disappointed in Southwest's customer service. Figures it would occur in 2020, the way this year has gone. Is there a corporate office I can write to, or some other regulatory body I can appeal to for help? Crazy to think that because I was 40 minutes late to cancel these (and not really, since it was still Sept 7 where I live), I lost an entire year on the expiration date of the funds as well as the ability to convert them to Southwest points. 

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

dfwskier
Aviator A

There's no regulatory authority  to appeal to as Southwest is doing what it said it would do.

 

Yeah you missed by 40 minutes . You miss the Income Tax filing date and you'll pay the price.

You run a   red light that   turned red a second before you hit the intersection and you'll pay the price. In this world, it's pretty binary: you either made the deadline or you didn't.

 

You could write to Southwest's CEO

 

Gary Kelly

CEO

Southwest Airlines

P.O. Box 36647 
Dallas, Texas 75235

 

 

Re: Travel Fund Problem - No Sept 7, 2022 Date

TrojanFan
Explorer C

Can't say I follow this logic. How would you feel if you booked a ticket you thought was set to depart at 9am only to arrive at the airport and have them tell you, "Sorry, even though you booked this ticket and it departs in a Pacific Standard time zone, the 9am flight time we told you was really in Central Standard Time and departed two hours ago." Would you find that fair?

Put another way, if Southwest was abundantly clear on the pages describing these policies that the deadline was 12:00pm CST it would be one thing, and I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. But they did not, they said Sept 7 was the deadline and I cancelled on Sept 7 (my Gmail cancellation email even says Sept 7 on it!). But whatever... life goes on. Just surprised in this weird situation that customer care wasn't willing to make an exception. Then again, the airline is under a lot of financial pressure, so perhaps it's not surprising they aren't spreading LUV as much as they used to.