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Trying to send a message to customer care/support team

Rkaygi
Explorer C

Hello -- I'm hoping this is a way to get a message to customer care. I have called reservations three times now and I've sent two messages to the customer care email address and I have not been able to get in touch with anyone who can help me figure out if there are any options given my situation. My husband, two kiddos, and I were planning a trip to Costa Rica Dec 21st for my mother's 70th birthday. A few days before we were scheduled to leave, my father-in-law drowned while vacationing in Aruba. It was very tragic and as you can imagine our family has been through a lot. We canceled our trip to Costa Rica and headed to the east coast instead to be there for my mother-in-law when she arrived home from Aruba two days later. I canceled the SW Costa Rica flight a few days before it was scheduled to leave. As you can also imagine it was a nightmare dealing with cancelations and trying to get refunds in the midst of all of this. Turns out we received a credit, but it's only good for a year from the time of purchase. We purchased the tickets in June of 2021. As you can imagine, we don't have any trips planned between now and June 2022. We do however have a trip planned to go back to the east coast in August to be with my mother in law and I would like to use this credit for that, but it's short 2 months on the expiration. I've called reservations and emailed customer relations to see if they can extend the credit by 2 months given the situation or even turn it into the voucher now and take off $100 a ticket. I'd be better off losing $400 than $2000. I do have travelers insurance (3rd party) and would submit for this, but the receipt I received after the cancelation says I was refunded so I'm not sure if insurance will refund that. I did receive one email back from customer care but it was clear that they did not read my email - the email said sorry for trip delays due to weather, here's a $150 Luv voucher. If anyone sees this, I'd really appreciate your help. Thank you. 

2 REPLIES 2

Re: Trying to send a message to customer care/support team

dfwskier
Aviator A

SW does have  an "unofficial" policy on the matter. It'snot is writing, but I am unaware of the airline ever refusing to do what I am about to describe.

 

SW allows travelers to convert travel funds to vouchers. The voucher is valid for 6 months. The fee is $100 per travel fund. It cannot be done until after the travel fund has  expired, and it must be done no later than 6 months after the expiration date.

 

If you have more than 1 travel fund per traveler, you may combine them to buy a ticket and then cancel that ticket. Thus reducing multiple $100 fees to one.

Re: Trying to send a message to customer care/support team

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Sorry about your situation. Like it was said, it is highly unlikely (you might say zero chance) you will receive an extension, but you can offset some of the fee to convert your expired travel funds into vouchers with the $150 voucher they sent you. Be aware converting an expired travel fund to a voucher does take some time so I recommend messaging Southwest the day after the funds expire. Use the contact us link at the bottom of this and every other page and use the send a message option. Include your confirmation number(s)and passenger names for the expired travel funds, request they be converted to a LUV voucher, and acknowledge that the value of each travel fund will be reduced by $100. You should get a response acknowledging the request in a few days.

 

And BTW, you will not get a response from Southwest posting here. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat