Two confirmation numbers on same day. One got cancelled?

[FlyAmi]

For the last few months, my partner and I have been enjoying the rewards of a companion pass (we just got back from Mexico!). Since my partner lives in another city, I have to book one roundtrip to/from her and then the roundtrip from her city to our destination. This worked flawlessly the last few months, but we recently ran into a snag and want to know if this has happened to others. 

I booked a Thursday to Sunday roundtrip (to get to my companion). Then booked a Friday to Sunday for us roundtrip (with companion). There are several hours between the two flights on Sunday, but SWA customer service said that the new system is forcing the more expensive one to be cancelled because you can't leave from two different places in one day?

I can see where needing to have book two different departure cities in one day could happen for people having to book both business and personal travel, or sales people, so restricting only one confirmation number per day is troublesome. 

Anyone have this happen to them?

[chgoflyer]

Ugh.

Unfortunately, you are falling victim to Southwest's new policy (and ability) to detect "duplicate" bookings (or any they feel are made "without the intent to fly"), and automatically cancel one of them.

The system is a bit overzealous.

Did they offer you any advice?

I'm not sure if it would work, but your best bet might be to book your "getting to her city" flights as one way.

Good luck.

[DancingDavidE]

I see this often referred to as "nesting" which Southwest hasn't objected to in the past - they don't price their fares the way other airlines do, so there isn't generally a benefit to booking round trip instead of two one-ways, or including minimum stays which nesting could be used to avoid on other airlines.

I agree with the suggestion for one-way flights for maximum flexibility, and which would show a clear path from A-B-C-B-A. instead of the two RT flights showing you going A-B-A and B-C-B during the same time.

Particularly since Southwest doesn't price separate one-way trips differently than round-trip flights for the same city pairs, at least that I have seen.

David

[chgoflyer]

Unfortunately, Southwest does object to this now.

Prohibition of Multiple/Conflicting Reservations: To promote seat availability for our Customers, Southwest prohibits multiple reservations for the same Passenger departing from the same city on the same date, or any multiple reservations containing conflicting or overlapping itineraries (such as departures for the same Customer from multiple cities at the same time). Furthermore, without advance notice to the Passenger or purchaser, Southwest may cancel such reservations, or any other reservations that it believes, in its sole discretion, were made without intent to travel. With the exception of Southwest gift cards, funds from proactively cancelled reservations by Southwest will be returned to the original form of payment. Reservations paid for with a Southwest gift card will have the amount applied from the gift card held as travel funds for use by the Customer on a future Southwest Airlines flight.

From a reading of the policy, it's not clear that even booking one-ways will help.

Please let us know how this works out.

[Haipham2017]

Someone who works for Southwest should let the company know the real issues for honest customers.

Again in my case:

Book 2 one way non-stop BWI - DTW on 7/8 and DTW - BWI 7/10 with the price is very low. My friend will go with me as companion for a wedding of a friend and both of us live in Philadelphia but we have to go to BWI for non-stop fly and we don't have limited time.

Some thing may happen I have to go to LA area before 7/8 so I may need to fly back BWI to meet my friend there and fly back with him to BWI then I may fly back to LA.

Look like only option for me is buying airline tickets from Southwest competitions for a trip to BWI and return. 

[FlyAmi]

So it took 2 hours on the phone, but we got it resolved! I was eventually directed to customer relations, who helped me rebook. (On top of everything we booked this during the June super sale, so I was extra bummed I was going to miss out on a deal, but we didn't!!)

So we got rebooked, with the full roundtrip and nested second round trip. I think we may do the one ways in the future if this doesn't get resolved. To make sure this didn't get cancelled, the customer relations rep added notes to the reservation that these were valid and not to be cancelled. 

For event more context, she said that in the past someone maybe in sales didn't know if they would be going to DC, NYC or Dallas (for example), so they book three flights way out to make sure they get a good price, but forget to cancel the other flights when they check in for the one they end up taking, so now they have new rules in their system. I'm not exactly sure how that triggered for us, but I hope this is just a kink in a system that will be smoothed out soon 🙂 

[chgoflyer]

I'm not confident that Southwest, never known for having robust IT, will be able to make any adjustments to the system that automatically cancels what it sees as duplicate reservations.

Please come back and let us know if you book these again in the future and continue to have any issues.

[Haipham2017]

Last time I got cancel since I booked 2 one way in the same day: DAY to CHS and CMH to BWI, I believe the DAY to CHS was cancelled without notice or refund. Fortunately, I checked it frequently so I called customer service and she explained to me the reason is "double booking". I explained to her the reason why. My wife was working for a consulting company and she was "sit on bench" waiting for the next job so if she gets a new assignment we have to fly back from CMH to BWI. If she does not we will fly to CHS for one week vacation. She said she will put note for us and put us on hold. Later, she came back and said nothing she can do since the system will automaticly cancel one of them. Finally, I had to book CMH to BWI and my wife booked DAY to CHS and a week before the trip she still did not get the job so we cancel CMH to BWI. In our case, both of us have companion pass so it is kind of easier.

In summary, I am not sure how the note will take care the "double booking" since computer does not understand unless SW has a good system but based on what I read SW did not.

[FlyAmi]

Situations like that are exactly why they need a better system in place. Call or ask before cancelling. Super frustrating. I figured this might hit consultants hard. 

I have ANOTHER update. So Southwest called to tell me they were going to stop flying to Veradero two weeks before our travel date, so I had to go through the process again to move the trip up two weeks haha. Everyone on the phone has been really nice, so it makes it a lot easier, but I hope SWA adjusts the system. I had to book the roundtrip (add companion) which took 40 min, then figure out how to make sure the roundtrip I booked to get to companion gets linked appropriately so neither gets cancelled. What an adventure! (And probably a hassle for customer service.)