Southwest Airlines Community

  My family and I had booked a trip with Southwest at the end of 2019, only to realize moments later that we had booked it for the wrong date. After contacting Southwest, they explained though we had just booked it, they could not issue us a refund. Their policy was to send us LUV vouchers instead. For whatever reason, we had thought these worked like "gift cards" -- funds that could be applied to future travel. But, I have since learned that they have their own conditions and restrictions. Not too long after we were issued our funds, the Pandemic started and our state was in lockdown. I saw that Southwest would be automatically extending the expirations dates of travel funds and was relieved since there was no way we could travel by October 2020 --At the heart of the pandemic. Not only was our state prohibiting out-of-state travel, but as students, our universities were also enforcing restrictions. To top it off, we had all lost our jobs, and we had absolutely no means of traveling even if we could.   In mid-November (2020) I decided to login and check out our account info online. When I couldn't find any information on our travel funds, credits, or vouchers, I reached out to Southwest to inquire. It was then that I found out that our vouchers had not been extended after all. Apparently they only applied the extensions to flights bought starting March 2020. At that time, Southwest heard me out and extended our vouchers for an additional 6 months. Yet for some reason, they penalized $100 from each of us. I still don't understand this.   Unfortunately, due to the same reasons stated above, we have still not been able to travel. But being mindful of the expiration date coming up (today) I was told that our entire travel has to be *completed* by the designated date, when all along I was convinced it had to be purchased by the date! There was no way we could travel by then, so I reached out to costumer service in a desperate plea to ask for help.    After countless hours on hold and even submitting a message via the website, I was still getting no response. When I finally spoke to someone, the kind woman was very empathetic but unable to help me within her role. I could only get help from a specific costumer relations department and tried for over a week to reach them. I tried to be understanding since the high volume was due to other people needing help given the Pandemic and such.   Nevertheless, I persisted and finally got through to someone after 1.5 hours today. However, I was extremely disappointed. I was just told there is nothing more they can do for me, and there was no one else I could talk to that would give me a different answer. My struggling family and I have just had over thousand dollars taken by Southwest and they are simply okay with that. There is absolutely nothing they can do about not 1, not 2, but 3 people's frustrations. This was a complete and utter disregard for their costumers. I don't think I have ever been so disrespected. And I am still in complete disbelief. $1,015.05 that you took from us for nothing in return. There is a name for this and it's called stealing, Southwest! I feel cheated; I feel disgusted; I am beyond disappointed. It's unbelievable.  If this is the way that Southwest treats their costumers, then rest assured neither me, nor my family, nor my friends, nor their friends and so on, will be flying Southwest.  ... View more