Southwest Airlines Community

Refund requests can take 6-8 weeks, sometimes even longer.   Was your flight cancelled by Southwest, or did you cancel it? If the latter, it's likely your request may be denied, as tickets are non-refundable.   You would, however, have travel funds good for the original passenger(s), valid for one year from the original date of purchase. ... View more

@franktravel wrote:   Number three could have been a Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred or A-List Member.  Southwest automatically reserve their boarding position, allowing them the flexibility to print their boarding pass any time prior to their departure. While possible, I'd assume that, "Normal registration but didn't do it until 4 hours before flight time," would mean that person was not an A-Lister. 😉     ... View more

Not a bug. A "feature."   Unfortunately, Southwest re-issues the boarding positions of passengers who have been checked in, but then cancel or change their flight. Those positions go to the next person to check in online. This is how someone without A-List status or who hasn't paid for EarlyBird Check-In can leapfrog over those who do/did. These re-used positions are often those of A-Listers, meaning they are very good low A ones that were assigned automatically at t-36. It's an unfair practice, and it's been complained about many times, but Southwest has said they have no plans to change anything.   😞 ... View more

Explaining the scenario won't help, as tickets are non-transferrable, so no adjustment would be made.   Once expired, they can request the funds be reissued as a voucher, minus a fee of $100. ... View more

The refund request is a waste of time, it will be denied. Those are only (sometimes) granted in the case of death or major medical issues, with documentation. Non-refundable means non-refundable.   Your best bet to recover at least some of your funds, is to wait until they are expired, and then contact Customer Relations, and request the expired funds be reissued as a voucher. The fee for this is $100, which is deducted from the balance. You have 6 months from expiration in which to make the request, and the voucher, usable by anyone, will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue. These requests are granted on a case-by-case basis, and everything about this non-published policy, including the amount of the fee, is subject to change at any time.   Hope this helps -- good luck! ... View more

Not after booking. With each schedule release. 😉 ... View more

Reports are that it will take many months, possibly even years, for any effects from the announced limitations to be put in place. Any flights currently booked should operate as planned, and without any changes in policy that affect the flyer. ... View more

The Rapid Rewards program terms and conditions do not list a minimum age requirement. So I suspect bad programming. I'd contact Customer Relations. Your best bet is via Twitter. ... View more

Standby isn't the same as rebooking. 😉   Experiences vary, likely because the situations vary as well. If there are many open seats, an agent may be willing to rebook both onto the new flight.   If there aren't many open seats, the A-Lister is put on standby, and it remains unclear what priority is given to -- for example -- the last two remaining seats. Should another A-Lister be given the last seat, over an unpaid companion?   If a seat is available, the companion gets it. But that may be only after all the standbys are cleared.     ... View more

That information, while available online, is pretty much useless. It's based on the flight number, and Southwest changes flight numbers frequently, meaning that information is often not available, or info posted is for a short period of time (since the latest flight number change).   ... View more

From the discussion at Flyertalk, it appears that this is very much up to the discretion/abilities of the gate agent. Some flyers have had luck getting their companion on with them, other have been denied.   It's unclear if a written policy covers the situation, although the A-List standby on appears to dissalow companion travel when the A-Lister is traveling standby.   Are A-List and A-List Preferred Members eligible for same-day standby?   Free same-day standby is not available at Southwest® kiosks. Please see a Customer Service Agent at the airport for this benefit. Free same-day standby will be provided for A-List and A-List Preferred Members traveling prior to the original scheduled departure, between the same city pairs, on the original date of travel, where a seat is available. On flights that do not meet these qualifications, A-List and A-List Preferred Members will receive priority standby and will be required to pay the difference in fare if a seat becomes available. A-List Preferred Members will be prioritized ahead of A-List Members. If an A-List or A-List Preferred Member is traveling on a multiple-Passenger reservation, free same-day standby and priority standby will not be provided for non-A-List or non-A-List Preferred Members in the same reservation.  For A-List and A-List Preferred Members who have also qualified for a Companion Pass, A-List and A-List Preferred benefits are not available to the Companion unless the Companion is also an A-List and A-List Preferred Member. A-List and A-List Preferred Members can still make confirmed same-day changes for another flight to their destination, if seats are available, and will only pay the difference in fare.   ... View more

Sadly, I'm finding Southwest to be the most expensive on many of my routes now. The days of Southwest always being a discount carrier are over. 😞 ... View more

@mattrang12 wrote: "To qualify for A-List status, you will need to fly 25 Southwest Airlines one-way qualifying flights or earn 35,000 Tier Qualifying points per calendar year.  To qualify for A-List Preferred status, you will need to fly 50 Southwest Airlines one-way qualifying flights or earn 70,000 Tier Qualifying points per calendar year.  A one-way qualifying flight is defined as a one-way revenue trip on Southwest Airlines from an origin city to a destination city, including any intermediate stops and/or connections on Southwest Airlines.  Tier Qualifying points are earned from revenue flights or through the Rapid Rewards Premier Card from Chase.  Points earned via Rapid Rewards Partners, with the exception of the Rapid Rewards Premier Card from Chase, purchased points, bonus points, or points earned via a promotion are not Tier Qualifying points and do not count toward A-List and A-List Preferred qualification." You can earn A-List Tier Qualifying Points from the Southwest Visa Premier Card by Chase.   That info posted even says, "Tier Qualifying points are earned from revenue flights or through the Rapid Rewards Premier Card from Chase."   Here is the relevant information:   A Member who has a Rapid Rewards Premier Card from Chase will earn 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points for every $10,000 in eligible net purchases on that card, up to 15,000 Tier Qualifying Points per year.   These Tier Qualifying Points show up about a week after the regular points have posted to your RR account (which is generally a few days after your Visa card account closing date). They will show up in Recent Activity under "Point type" All as a zero-point line item:     If you change the "Point type" to "Tier Qualifying Points" you'll see the 1,500 accounted there.     If you're not seeing this, and you're sure you have the Premier card, contact Chase.   Hope this helps! ... View more

You need to contact Customer Relations at 1-855-234-4654.   Also, I'd recomend keeping your statements to the facts, and being as clear and concise as you can.   Good luck. ... View more

@PhillipSmith wrote: Great news! ??? ... View more

You can't, but you should be able to request a refund due to the circumstances. And then book her a flight separately.   Good luck, best wishes with everything. ... View more

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. ... View more

A-List tier qualifying points are very limited. Essentially, they are only those earned through actual flying ("butt in seat"), plus the small amount earned specifically by the Premier Southwest Visa card.   "A Member who has a Rapid Rewards Premier Card from Chase will earn 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points for every $10,000 in eligible net purchases on that card, up to 15,000 Tier Qualifying Points per year." ... View more

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.     ... View more

No. ... View more

Sadly, very long hold times due to "higher than expected call volume" are pretty much the norm these days.   ... View more

Publicized or not, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen Southwest do.   (Also, that message appears on every change -- refundable or not. Which makes it even more nonsensical.)   Refundable fares, that become non-refundable if you make any change to the itinerary?!   Absurd.   Yes, the solution is to simply cancel and rebook all refundable fares. But if, as Southwest says, this is caused by a limitation in the new "next generation operating system," then why not fix that limitation? Or make it so that any "change" to a refundable fare is processed behind the scene as a "cancel and rebook"?   I think we know the answer.   This is going to burn many people. Especially those Business Travelers that Southwest has tried so hard  -- with varying success -- to get.   Say your company requires the purchase of a refundable fare, so they book Anytime. Then the flyer pays out of pocket to upgrade to Business Select. Then they need to cancel. The ticket is no longer refundable to the company, but is now locked in use to the flyer.   What might be the effect on companies using Southwest going forward?   Stupid, short-sighted decision, Southwest. 😞 ... View more