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05-02-2021
07:20 PM
Whenever Southwest cancels (or significantly changes) a flight, you are entitled to a full refund, back to the original form of payment. (One exception is that Southwest Gift Cards will be refunded as Travel Funds.) If the customer cancels a flight, they'll receive Travel Funds good towards future travel for the named passenger(s), generally valid for one year from the original date of purchase. All flights booked with Rapid Rewards Points can be cancelled by the customer at any time for a full refund -- the points just go back into the account they came from. (FYI: "Vouchers" are a specific thing on Southwest, different from Travel Funds.)
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ADA doesn't apply to air carrier's on-board services. I'm gonna go way, way out on a limb and suggest that Southwest's large, highly paid legal team was involved in crafting a policy that meets the Air Carrier Access Act requirements. If you think otherwise, find a lawyer willing to sue them. Good luck with that.
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@PetertheProphet wrote: Make sure you get the flight attendants' names. Sue them personally. Here in America, it is illegal to practice medicine without a license. Because face masks are MEDICAL DEVICES, they cannot be required on-board because neither pilots nor flight attendants are licensed to practice medicine. It's about time that flight attendants learn their place. Their job is to SERVE the customer...not harass us. The customer is always right. If they don't like it, don't work in customer service. As simple as that. I hate to feed a troll, but -- obviously -- this is 100% incorrect.
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05-01-2021
05:14 PM
05-01-2021
05:14 PM
tl;dr As noted above, masks are currently required for those age 2 and above by federal regulation. This information is communicated by Southwest on it's website, and in flight notification emails. Flight attendants are required to enforce this. You can request an exemption for a person with a disability ahead of your flights, the process is detailed here. As a general suggestion: If you're contacting customer service (for any company, not just airlines) your best odds for receiving a positive outcome are when you keep your message short and factual. Customer service representative receive literally hundreds of requests daily, so the quicker they can discern the issue the better. Hope this helps.
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05-01-2021
04:23 PM
2 Loves
@hallefiedler13 wrote: Gotcha! But I believe it had to do with me adding another person onto that new flight. It looks to me now that the [travel fund] will only pay for my flight since the original flight before it was cancelled was only for my flight in the first place. Could this be the reason? Yes. Travel Funds can only be used by the passenger(s) named on the original ticket. If you are using your travel funds to purchase a new ticket for you and someone else, your Travel Funds will only cover your portion of the new booking. (And the leftover funds amount will be held under the original conformation number for future use.)
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05-01-2021
12:34 AM
05-01-2021
12:34 AM
I believe in order to ship cargo on Southwest you have to be a known shipper with a commercial account, so that's unlikely to work for you. If you can find someone already flying that route you might be able to get them to carry it for you, but that's a longshot. Your best bet might be to find a friend to bring it to you and buy them a ticket. Good luck!
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04-30-2021
05:53 PM
3 Loves
Was the cancelled flight for 2 passengers? In that case, each passenger has their own Travel Fund, which would be about half each of the total amount.
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04-29-2021
07:27 PM
3 Loves
Everyone in the US who want's a vaccine (over age 16) can now get one. There's no reason to wait. You're not taking a spot from someone more deserved; those that "truly need it" should have already gotten it by now. While rare, covid can and does kill those who are "healthy and relatively young in their 30's." And those numbers are increasing, likely due to the rise in variants. That's what viruses do -- find ways to attack those who previously were more resistant. Look what's happening in India -- something like 10% of new deaths are among those 26-44 years of age. In addition to protecting yourself, getting vaccinated reduces your chances of spreading the virus around, which is why it benefits society as a whole for everyone to get vaccinated. This includes providing protection for those who legitimately cannot get vaccinated. I absolutely do not understand the hesitancy. The US will likely never make a covid vaccine mandatory. No one is making anyone do anything. If we truly want to get back to "normal" we need to reduce infection rates and associated deaths. That's happening -- and vaccines are the primary reason. If we keep it going, we can get there. If not, and variants rise here in the US, we won't see normal anytime soon.
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04-29-2021
05:49 PM
2 Loves
@BML45 wrote: My family and I are flying toward the end of July. Do we have to have the vaccination before we can fly? While travel in the covid era is always changing, it's highly unlikely a vaccination will be required to travel. Some destinations (Hawaii, for example) may accept proof via a vaccine passport to meet their standards to avoid quarantine, however a negative covid test would also suffice (just as it does now). Personally, I'm vaccinated, and am looking forward to the ease in meeting travel requirements it will provide, along with the relaxed peace of mind (compared to the past year). I don't understand why anyone (whose doctor approves) wouldn't get vaccinated. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Who should and shouldn't get vaccinated
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Check the terms and conditions of the offer you signed up for. Once you qualify you'll receive notification from Southwest of your status in your online Rapid Rewards account, and that you can pick your companion.
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04-28-2021
06:09 PM
Vaccine passports for Hawaii: Right now they're available for residents or anyone vaccinated in Hawaii. Soon (~1-2 months hopefully) they should be available for all US residents traveling to the state. By year's end the hope to have the option available for other countries as well.
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04-28-2021
06:06 PM
Just to be clear, given the language in your post: If I were you, my concern would be that ESA's are now no longer allowed on Southwest (or any domestic carrier), and not the cleanliness of bathrooms. (I can't say that I've ever experienced anything like you describe in an airport restroom, but to each his own.) If your dog is actually a Trained Service Animal you'll want to make sure you have all the documentation required.
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04-27-2021
06:54 PM
2 Loves
@lmcamp1974 wrote: Disappointed ! We had flights booked for Thanksgiving 2020 and sadly due to Covid we had to cancel as I am sure most of the country. I tried to use my travel credit and I was told I have to use before the booking date, Sept not the travel date. They will not allow us to travel in October ( 3 weeks out) and offer not help so we lose all the credit. Maybe the worse help during this past year out there ! Unfortunately, that's correct. In order to receive an extension, travel funds had to be created (flight cancelled) March 1 - September 6, 2020, and policy has always been that all travel must be taken prior to expiration -- usually one year from the date of purchase. Surely, since you booked well into the pandemic (September of 2020) you were aware of the possibility of flight disruptions? There's no need for you to lose your credit -- you have approx. 5 months in which you can still use it.
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04-25-2021
10:17 PM
2 Loves
Unfortunately, the only way to reach the Group Travel Department is by calling 1-800-433-5368 Monday through Friday, 5:00 a.m. to midnight Central time. Group travel on Southwest offers several benefits, but does involve dealing with the Group Travel Department's somewhat notoriously problematic customer service limitations. If you're working with a travel agent it's probably best for them to take care of this. FYI: Here's the Groups Travel FAQ for reference.
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Airlines aren't going to require vaccine passports. Vaccine passports are going to exist and become tools that make travel to specific destinations easier, for those who choose to use them. I really have to laugh at the "no one can make me get vaccinated!" people. First of all, no one is making you get vaccinated. It's not mandatory. All this anger over something that doesn't even exist, and likely never will in the US. Second, I've actually had to get multiple vaccinations in my life -- to enter school, to play sports, for the military, specific overseas travel visas. All were required. And no one went cray cray and screamed about OUR RIGHTS, we just got our vaccines and went about our lives. Oh, and in the process, eradicated measles. (And many other diseases. But sadly, only temporarily, due to people now refusing to get their kids vaccinated.) The vaccines we have now for covid are astonishingly effective, provide more immunity than even having had covid does, are turning out to be very safe in the general population, are free, and are becoming more and more easy to get. Get vaccinated.
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04-23-2021
04:18 PM
Points(dot) com is a 3rd party company, contracted by Southwest to manage point sales. They are in business to make money. I would suspect that many Rapid Rewards members are now sitting on a larger than normal cache of points, as earnings likely continued over the past year+, but redemptions drastically declined. Resulting in a lot less point purchases being made. That's why we're seeing multiple point sales offers now, including the subscription service. Southwest routinely devalues RR points every 2-3 years. This latest devaluation was actually overdue, likely held back until the pandemic showed signs of ending.
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@gsking wrote: "Normal"? SWA has been flying "normal" planes since December. Many of us have been flying "normally" all year, including the flight crew. And that was BEFORE the vaccine. Now, if you're vaccinated, why do you need someone to check your papers? Or the guy next to you? No offense, but it seems you haven't really been flying, or thought through this much at all. I wouldn't exactly consider everyone being masked and having only limited cabin service "normal." 😉 We'll only get back to "normal" when the virus can't spread quickly anymore. That will likely be when we've reached some sort of herd immunity, through a significantly large percentage of the population either having had covid and/or being immunized. Vaccine passports are problematic on some levels, but if they help us get there (by encouraging vaccination) I'm all for it. Want to visit Such and Such Place? Negative test or vaccine passport. I have no problem with this.
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@DET52272 wrote: If my wife has A List and companion pass will the companion still board with her if she adds the companion to her trip? A Companion reservation has it's own, separate confirmation number -- that's just how the system currently works. So for "A-List Boarding," officially the answer is no, since only those on the same confirmation as the A-Lister receive consecutive positions. BUT... there's potentially good news! Southwest hasn't announced it officially yet, but has been testing for the past several months a new benefit for Companion Pass holders: "Companion Boarding." This will give a consecutive boarding position to the Companion, even though they're on a different confirmation number. If the CP holder (or even the Companion) is an A-Lister, they'll both receive consecutive "A-List" positions. The full details aren't yet known, and there will likely be some limitations, such as not applying to Business Select fares, but this new benefit appears to already be working for many CP Holders and their Companions. YMMV. Please let us know how it works out for your wife!
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04-22-2021
04:22 PM
1 Love
@TheMiddleSeat wrote: @chgoflyer Don't know why I was getting this message off the same link earlier: "Due to circumstances resulting from COVID-19, we have temporarily paused the ability to redeem points in More Rewards. We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to resume normal operations soon. Thank you for your patience and grace during this time." The link you shared does seem to work. --TheMiddleSeat It can be iffy. It needs the data link from your RR account and that doesn't always translate over. Kind of like still receiving that annoying "Oops!" message (Oops! "Your session has expired. Click here to book travel or go back to the homepage"). I always make sure I log out and then log back in to the Southwest site every time I visit. It seems it *looks* like you're logged in, but it has actually timed out, and then when you try to do anything that requires you to be logged in, it generates an error. A fresh log in seems to avoid that problem.
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04-22-2021
04:13 PM
2 Loves
That's a bummer. But that can (and does) occur with any carrier. If you happen to be a high-level elite on a legacy airline, you may get a free room or other compensation, but it's less likely these days. Did Southwest offer you a room in Atlanta, or a discounted rate at least? Bottom line: These kind of things happen when you travel. Travel insurance *may* provide some relief, but in my experience the cost outweighs the value for "everyday" travel. (I definitely recommend travel insurance for things like overseas vacations, cruises, and packaged trips.)
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@jksobonya wrote: @chgoflyer wrote: The "cost" to me was only the annual fees, $99 and $125. This isn't even remotely comparable to purchasing points. Maybe I'm missing the forest for the trees, but I'd rather spend $600 vs $1000 to get the exact same amount of points, and not deal with having to manage a credit card. In this comparison, with the $600 spend you have points. With the $1,000 spend you have the same points PLUS $1,000 worth of other stuff. I mean, I can explain why getting points from credit card use is absolutely significantly monetarily better than buying them, which is almost always a bad idea, but I can't understand it for you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Another factor not yet mentioned here is that points earned from credit card use are Companion Pass Qualifying, while purchased points are not.) If your point is that some people just can't responsibly use credit cards and need to avoid them at all cost, that's certainly valid, but is really adjacent to the financial comparison we're discussing here. @gsking wrote: The coincidence of these two events is quite unlike the customer- friendly image I'd had of SWA. I suspect a new bean counter got hired, and is busy reworking the finances for short term gain with no regard for long term effects. Possibly. Since Southwest routinely devalues RR points, on schedule usually every 2-3 years, I suspect this is more likely part of a long term plan to reduce the overall burden of the loyalty program on their financials to as low as possible, before the point at which they lose too much revenue from point sales to Chase. Sadly, I fear they'll likely realize they've reached that point well after it happens, and the program has already lost much of it's value to customers. It's a race to the bottom, and there's not much joy in celebrating that Southwest at least isn't in the lead.
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04-21-2021
09:44 PM
04-21-2021
09:44 PM
@Tworkalot wrote: Thank you for the feedback. Unfortunately your option provided to book a flight and then cancel will do work. I asked that to the Customer Service agent and they said the “travel funds” will take on the same expiration date as the vouchers - which will be May 5th. Just to be clear: Yes, the expiration date would not change. (Bookings take on the earliest expiration date of any funds or vouchers applied.) My suggestion was to try again to have the newly resulting expired funds converted to a Voucher. (Which, again, may not be something Southwest would be willing to do.)
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@daniele1 wrote: It sucks so much because I pay extra to use southwest hoping that they would resolve an issue like this. My best friend already rebooked through United. $410 is a lot of money to be out. Any customers on here that read this please take it as a warning. I have never even once asked for my money back, I am just trying to book a flight and they keep saying sorry nothing we can do. I totally understand. Unfortunately, Southwest's covid accommodations were somewhat arbitrarily offered, leaving many customers like yourself disappointed. Those whose flights were canceled during the roughly 6-month covered period received a generous extension and the option to convert to points, but those customers whose flight cancellation or rebooking fell outside of that period -- those who in a good faith effort were actually hoping to still travel -- received nothing. It's unfortunate, and it's very disappointing. But with Southwest losing something like $12 million every day for many months as they just tried to keep their operations afloat, it's perhaps understandable from a bean-counter perspective. Not a justification, just an explanation.
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@Tworkalot wrote: In Nov 2020, wE received 2 Luv Vouchers ($352 each) from expired Travel Funds. When we reached out to Customer Service last Friday to see if we could extend them since I still have medical issues keeping me from getting my Covid vaccine, we were told no but the vouchers could be used by friends/family. Until Tuesday (when we heard back from Customer Service), we did not realize the Luv Vouchers could be used by anyone. We have never had vouchers before - only travel funds. So we have spent the past 2 days trying to find friends/family that could travel on short notice since the return trip needs to be done by 5/1. No luck so far. I hate to see the $353 each Luv Voucher go to waste. I read the vouchers cannot be sold, and I understand that. But can we give them away? Is there a place I could post them for a soldier to use them or another place to find someone who could use them? I know this is short notice. We honestly did not realize anyone could use the vouchers or we would have used them already for our kids -instead of cash. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated since timing is of the essence! Officially, Vouchers can't be sold, but you can absolutely give them to anyone. Perhaps post to your extended friends on social media and see if anyone is interested in a last-minute trip? If you're absolutely unable to get anyone to use them, there may be a possible solution, but I'm not positive it will work. Book a flight using the vouchers, then cancel that flight. Once the resulting Travel Funds expire, reach out to Customer Relations and ask if they can be reissued a Voucher (for a fee of $100). Again, I'm not even sure if Southwest would do this for you or not -- so this should only bee seen as a last resort. (If you do this, be aware that you have 6 months from expiration in which to make the request, and if granted the Voucher will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue.) Good luck!
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@daniele1 wrote: Had a vacation planned for April 2020. Thanks to Covid that didn't happen. Tried to rebook vacation, but had to cancel rebooking due to second wave and lockdown. Trying to rebook vacation for October 2021 and now I only have $50 in travel funds. All other credits have expired. I have not used any of the original $460. I am just trying to book a flight. My friends have already rebooked through United with no issues. Southwest said we would have until September 2021 to use the money from cancelled flights. Please someone help I am beyond frustrated and upset. I booked with Southwest because they advertise that they care about customer service and it seems like all my friends that booked on Spirit/United are getting much better customer service. Please help I am just trying not to lose this $410 its a lot of money. Can anyone help me book this flight? Anyone that reads this if you see no responses and just excuses it tells you everything you need to know about Southwest. $460 spent and no flight so far... As I mentioned in your previous post: We're all just customers like you here. (This is primarily a customer-to-customer forum.) You'll need to reach out to Southwest directly for any official reply or assistance. Our advice, as mentioned in that other thread, remains: If your funds are expired (sounds like that's the case) you can reach out to Customer Relations (not the regular phone line) and request that they be reissued as a Voucher. You have 6 months from expiration in which to make the request, and the Voucher will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue, usable by anyone, but only for the airfare portion of travel (not any taxes or fees). This would at least allow you to recover some of the value from your expired funds. Good luck! Contact Customer Relations (I recommend via Twitter or Facebook direct message)
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@TheMiddleSeat wrote: Yes, a traditional (non-promotional) Companion Pass earned the old fashioned way today would expire Dec 31, 2022. Pre-pandemic you could use the More Rewards program to redeem Southwest points for hotels, but that is not currently available. --TheMiddleSeat Actually this is incorrect. More Rewards is still available, but is now limited to only RR members who also have a Chase RR credit card. Getting to More Rewards is a bit hidden now. Here's how I do it: Make sure you're logged into your RR account on the Southwest website, then navigate to Rapid Rewards>Tier Benefits. On that Tiers & More page, click on the heading How To Redeem. Click on Redeem for More Rewards, then click on Explore Rewards. This link should also take you there -- just be sure that you're recently logged into your RR account on the Southwest site first. That said -- point redemptions through More Rewards are generally a very bad value, compared with redeeming for flights on Southwest.
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04-21-2021
05:19 PM
04-21-2021
05:19 PM
@SWFlyer007 wrote: Here is a new twist. Does anyone know about this, are what we are to do in regards to it? https://www.vuelaseguro.com/home Did you look at the link I posted? I mean, it really should have been your first stop. 😉
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04-21-2021
03:27 PM
04-21-2021
03:27 PM
First, keep in mind that we're other customers here, trying to help. None of us are Southwest employees. What is the expiration date of the $50 travel fund? Unfortunately, cancelling on September 17, 2020 would not have extended your funds through 2022. Was the booking for multiple people? If so, each person would have their portion of the fund as a credit in their individual account. I'd suggest that your best bet to get an explanation of what happened would be to reach out to Southwest Customer Relations. Hopefully they can explain it to you. Contact Customer Relations
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04-21-2021
02:49 PM
04-21-2021
02:49 PM
Once expired, Southwest may reissue travel funds as a voucher, but there's a fee of $100 per person/fund. Is that to what you're referring? If your flight was cancelled anytime between March 1 and September 7, 2020, your funds should have been extended through September 7, 2022. When did you cancel?
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