Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

klrhinelander
Explorer C

I purchased 48 flights totaling $14,000 for events that my business was hosting in various parts of the country. All of my events were cancelled due to COVID 19 stay at home orders, including bans on large gatherings over 10 people and non essential travel. In turn, I cancelled the tickets because of the mandated stay at home orders as these events could not take place or we would be breaking the law. As I understand it, if I had waited until SW cancelled the flights, we would have received a refund but this wasn't known at the time. My events were early/mid March and everything was happening so fast we didn't want to risk losing the ticket all together so we cancelled rather than let the date come to pass. I would like a refund but I was only offered credits in the passengers name. I have no idea if we will have the same staff next year as some have already moved on to other opportunities. The very least SW could do is to put all of the funds in a business account for future use for any passenger I wish to book for. How do I protect these unused tickets if the passengers have the confirmation numbers? Allowing credits in the passengers name for a business like mine is worthless and quite frankly unfair. This is a world wide pandemic and my business should not be punished or suffer financial loss because of "SW policy". If SW truly wants to SERVE their customers and their community, they would consider a policy for small businesses so we can all survive this pandemic. My business is completely shut down yet SW is still operating, generating revenue and receiving a government bailout. It's incredibly frustrating to a small business like ours that a large corporation like SW would take such a stand.

6 REPLIES 6

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

bec102896
Aviator A

Yeah unfortunately as of now none of the major airlines are issuing cash refunds because the customer cancels due to the pandemic. You could try to reach out to customer relations at 855-234-4654 or reach out to Southwest on Twitter in a DM to see if they could help in any way but as many have reported Southwest has been standing it's ground on the no refund policy unless southwest cancels the flight because if they issued everyone a refund they could go broke. 

 

-Blake

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Early Christmas bonus, I'm sure your staff will be very appreciative. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

You gambled with buying the nonrefundable tickets. They are much cheaper than the refundable tickets. You get cheaper tickets, but it comes with some downsides. That was your choice.

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Dashgupta
Adventurer A

Very Logical and Moral Issue. I agree w you that at minimum you should get $ back in gen fund. I don’t understand how the airline could go broke if they were honerable and refunded everyone. How about your Small Business ? You are probably struggling due to the virus . You cant afford to throw away all those airfares when most small businesses are either laying off or Furloughing workersThe politicians always bale the Airlines out. If SW was honorble and showed they did their part to help their Small Business Customers I’m sure the Gov would reimburse them for doing their part to help struggling American Businesses.

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@klrhinelander wrote:

I purchased 48 flights totaling $14,000 for events that my business was hosting in various parts of the country. All of my events were cancelled due to COVID 19 stay at home orders, including bans on large gatherings over 10 people and non essential travel. In turn, I cancelled the tickets because of the mandated stay at home orders as these events could not take place or we would be breaking the law. As I understand it, if I had waited until SW cancelled the flights, we would have received a refund but this wasn't known at the time. My events were early/mid March and everything was happening so fast we didn't want to risk losing the ticket all together so we cancelled rather than let the date come to pass. I would like a refund but I was only offered credits in the passengers name. I have no idea if we will have the same staff next year as some have already moved on to other opportunities. The very least SW could do is to put all of the funds in a business account for future use for any passenger I wish to book for. How do I protect these unused tickets if the passengers have the confirmation numbers? Allowing credits in the passengers name for a business like mine is worthless and quite frankly unfair. This is a world wide pandemic and my business should not be punished or suffer financial loss because of "SW policy". If SW truly wants to SERVE their customers and their community, they would consider a policy for small businesses so we can all survive this pandemic. My business is completely shut down yet SW is still operating, generating revenue and receiving a government bailout. It's incredibly frustrating to a small business like ours that a large corporation like SW would take such a stand.


Did you have any progress on this? This is definitely a Contact Customer Relations issue.

 

EDIT: I forgot about the potential to convert travel funds to RR points - not sure how this will work spread across multiple RR accounts, but maybe this will be an option for you to collect the value of the funds.

 

These are probably all in the window for the long-term extension as well, so there ironically won't be a chance to let them expire and then get back (Travel Fund - $100) as a voucher for over a year. 

 

You may be including these Travel Funds in severance packages as necessary, and the others that remain on staff will have them available for future travel through the extended expiration date.

 

Otherwise you'd need to be reimbursed for anyone using these for personal travel later.

 

Try Contact Customer Relations again though, and if you get a "no" answer it is worth trying a couple more times over an amount that large.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: REFUNDS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@Anani wrote:

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. We must do everything we can to support them during this difficult time. That's why I'm committed to ensuring they receive the refunds they are owed.


New information on this thread going forward: now there is Wanna Get Away Plus fare option, where people traveling for business if they don't end up flying the travel funds can be re-assigned (one time!) to someone else at the company.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.