Everything went wrong

[retrograde13]

I'm getting nowhere with customer service regarding my disaster reservation from 7/9. Started with my original flights needing to be changed - no issue here, but was told that the early bird check in I paid for would be applied to the new flights (SW cancelled a leg on the original flight so I needed to find a new departing flight). Check in day comes and I'm not checked in with my early bird and have C boarding group on a full flight. Called customer service and was told there was nothing they can do except refund me the early bird cost. I said fine - they didn't refund me. On travel day we were going from Detroit to Las Vegas - layover in Denver. We get to Denver to be told our flight to Las Vegas is cancelled - and not just ours, but ALL flights into Vegas due to weather. However, the people I spoke to in Vegas said flights were continuing in and out all day and that Southwest had been cancelling flights for weeks - that they were overwhelmed. We had $600 concert tickets for that night - and no way to get there. We were open to driving but too far and too late in the day to make it. All flights to closer cities were sold out. Went down to baggage to try and get our bags and were told they were going to be on the next flight to Vegas for tomorrow. We asked that our bags be pulled because we were no longer going to Vegas as the event we were flying in for was going to be missed. Was told our bags would be on our flight back to Detroit later that evening. This was noon - our flight back home was 7:20pm. Stuck at the Denver airport for over 8 hours - it was filthy and overcrowded - horrible experience! Get back to Detroit around midnight to discover our bags are not there. They were still on the plane for Vegas that morning. Finally got our stuff back a day and a half later. Called customer service on Saturday to ensure our return flight for that Tuesday was cancelled and to request a refund. Was told the return flight was cancelled and I would be receiving two refunds - one for the original fare and one for my early birds. Tuesday comes and I get an email that states that because I failed to cancel or change my flight my fare would be forfeited. What?! So I call customer service again and I'm told that I need to call customer relations in Texas and/or submit a 'contact us' form online to ensure everything is processed as expected. I call the number they gave me and waited on hold for 3 1/2 hours! No answer at all. I filled out the contact form with everything in my complaint and get the automatic reply notice stating I would be personally contacted by a representative. A couple days later I receive a LUV voucher email with a very small partial amount. No explanation - no response to my inquiry complaint. Just a voucher. I made it clear I have no plans for traveling with Southwest again - even though they have been my airline of choice for over 10 years! Losing out on my trip was devastating for multiple reasons - not to mention the money I've lost. And now the way this is being handled by SW is inexcusable. I've spent hours and hours on this at this point - who to contact to get this resolved?!!

[jksobonya]

I am starting to feel luckier and luckier that I didn't have any problems on my Vegas trip from 7/7 - 7/10. It sounds like people who flew on 7/9 had to deal with a lot of cancellations. You can't blame Southwest - Las Vegas literally broke a heat wave record that weekend because it was so hot.

It sounds like you contacted everyone you were supposed to and you even got a voucher - technically since Southwest cancelled your connecting flight (and you did not) you are entitled to a refund, although I'm not sure how that works when only the connection is cancelled and you flew half way to your destination. Are you entitled to a full or partial refund of that flight segment? Unsure. Also not sure how the return flight was not cancelled by Southwest since you did not make the connecting flight or arrive to your final destination. 

--Jessica

[keasbey]

Southwest at Denver is the worst. 

Get stuck travelling to or from there all the time 

Everytime. Dont expect anything to go smooth through Denver with this company. Pick any other one and lo and behold you might reach your destination