Southwest Rapid Rewards - Noob question on credit for missed/ canceled flights

I'll be arriving back in LAX from an international trip and will be taking a Southwest flight back home to Tucson. They have a 7:10 and a 10:55 flight. The 7:10 is going to be a pretty tight connection after going through customs, changing terminals, etc.

What's the best way to go about this? Should I just book both flights? Do I need to officially cancel one of the flights to get credit, or does that happen automatically if I miss it? Thanks for the help.

Happens automatically.

Many people in your situation do book both flights. So far as I know, Southwest doesn't prohibit this practice, or frown on it.

It would be polite to cancel one as soon as you know which flight you can make, so that Southwest can plan better.

Happens automatically.

So far as I know, Southwest doesn't prohibit this practice, or frown on it.


http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/terms_and_con.html

You may not use Southwest’s Sites to make any speculative, fraudulent, or false reservation or any reservation in anticipation of demand. If you have made multiple reservations to one or more destinations on or about the same date, Southwest reserves the right to cancel all such reservations without notice.

Hmmm....that's not a very friendly policy and the wording is quite vague.

If you have made multiple reservations to one or more destinations on or about the same date, Southwest reserves the right to cancel all such reservations without notice.
So does it qualify if I book a reservation for MDW to DEN and then a separate reservation for DEN to LAX on the same day? What about if I book MDW to DEN on Monday and then DEN to LAX on Tuesday? Regardless of whether or not I plan to take these trips. I guess it might apply and my reservations may be cancelled without notice. :p

I would then suggest to think about booking the earlier flight and then using the flat tire rule if you don't make it? I wouldn't rely upon this if the later flight is looking like it's close to full.

http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/terms_and_con.html

You may not use Southwest’s Sites to make any speculative, fraudulent, or false reservation or any reservation in anticipation of demand. If you have made multiple reservations to one or more destinations on or about the same date, Southwest reserves the right to cancel all such reservations without notice.

Victor, you might want to ask the powers that be why speculative reservations are only prohibited if you book them online, not if you book them by phone. :confused:

http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/terms_and_con.html

You may not use Southwest’s Sites to make any speculative, fraudulent, or false reservation or any reservation in anticipation of demand. If you have made multiple reservations to one or more destinations on or about the same date, Southwest reserves the right to cancel all such reservations without notice.

OK, well then WN does frown on/disallow this practice officially. Sorry.

But in reality, do they cancel duplicates? Or all of them?

And what do these bits mean, exactly?:

"You may not use Southwest’s Sites to make any speculative, fraudulent, or false reservation or any reservation in anticipation of demand."

If I anticipate maybe/probably/possibly taking a trip, but am not sure about it, am I in violation of this? This stuff needs to be written more clearly.

Victor, you might want to ask the powers that be why speculative reservations are only prohibited if you book them online, not if you book them by phone. :confused:

What I quoted was from the Terms and Conditions of use of our website . . .however, the same rule applies offline.

If you were to call the reservations line and ask to be booked on both the 2:00PM from DAL to HOU and the 3:00PM from DAL to HOU on the same travel date. . . the representative would not book them both for you.

Could you call a second time, and get a rep that doesn't know about the first booking? - sure. Could you do the same thing online? - sure.

I didn't say that this rule is widely enforced - I was simply responding to the comment that we don't prohibit or frown upon. However, if it came down to an oversell . .and you were booked on 2 different flights on the same day . .you might just be the one that gets denied boarding.

Customers never understand why airlines overbook . . . even as they are holding seats on 2 or 3 different flights, knowing that they will only take one.

Booking a MDW to DEN and then a seperate DEN to LAX on the same day would be fine and makes perfect sense. Booking both a MDW to DEN and a MDW to LAX on the same day (and around the same time) would indicate that you really only plan to fly one of the two, thus you are holding up a seat that we could possibly sell to someone else.

I'll be arriving back in LAX from an international trip and will be taking a Southwest flight back home to Tucson. They have a 7:10 and a 10:55 flight. The 7:10 is going to be a pretty tight connection after going through customs, changing terminals, etc.

What's the best way to go about this? Should I just book both flights? Do I need to officially cancel one of the flights to get credit, or does that happen automatically if I miss it? Thanks for the help.

All the talk about the speculative booking aside, book the first one and only the first one. Southwest's "flat tire rule" is fairly generous. If you miss your flight by a short amount of time, you're generally allowed to take the next available flight at no additional cost.

If you were to call the reservations line and ask to be booked on both the 2:00PM from DAL to HOU and the 3:00PM from DAL to HOU on the same travel date. . . the representative would not book them both for you.


Hmm... that's odd, because I recently had a JAX-ORF trip where I was unsure as to how early I would make it to the airport, so the phone agent not only obliged, but actually suggested that I book both and cancel one for TLT credit.

She booked both, gave me two PNR's, and simply requested that I call and cancel as soon as possible.

Question: If on a roundtrip from A-> B -> A; one somehow does not take the A->B flight but still needs to take the B->A flight, can one cancel only the OUTBOUND leg and still use the reservation for the inbound leg? I know one can cancel the return and get credit, but what about this vice-versa?
Thanks!

I'll be arriving back in LAX from an international trip and will be taking a Southwest flight back home to Tucson. They have a 7:10 and a 10:55 flight. The 7:10 is going to be a pretty tight connection after going through customs, changing terminals, etc.

What's the best way to go about this? Should I just book both flights? Do I need to officially cancel one of the flights to get credit, or does that happen automatically if I miss it? Thanks for the help.

Assuming the 10:55 has a seat on it, I'd book the 7:10 flight. You will be allowed to standby for the 10:55 if you miss the 7:10.

What connection time are we talking about?

Hmm... that's odd, because I recently had a JAX-ORF trip where I was unsure as to how early I would make it to the airport, so the phone agent not only obliged, but actually suggested that I book both and cancel one for TLT credit.

She booked both, gave me two PNR's, and simply requested that I call and cancel as soon as possible.

Yes, I've heard multiple stories like this, which is why I'd always assumed that WN was OK with booking more than one almost-concurrent flight from A to B.

Question: If on a roundtrip from A-> B -> A; one somehow does not take the A->B flight but still needs to take the B->A flight, can one cancel only the OUTBOUND leg and still use the reservation for the inbound leg? I know one can cancel the return and get credit, but what about this vice-versa?
Thanks!

Yes. You can cancel the outbound by phone, or you can just no-show it. Personally, I'd no-show rather than risk an erroneous cancellation of the return. It'll never happen to me because I always book one-ways, though.

Coming from the perspective of a mid to top level elite on the legacy carriers I would be inclined to book more than 1 return if I thought I was unsure which one to take especially if I had a $39 fare and would haqve to pay say $75 if I took a 5PM rather than 11AM flight.

More flexible same day change options would be a good benefit for the rumored RR 2.0 elite program. Another negative about same day changes is you would almost certainly get a B or probably more like a C boarding pass if you made a change at the last minute on the day of travel. But booking two flights you would not have this "issue" either.

I would say though that only people on Flyertalk would think of booking 2 returns, its not something your "average" person would do, like someone in my office or my mother or brother it would never occur to them to do something like that :).

I am also curious how uniformly WN's gate agents really don't allow standby. People have posted they are rather strict with this but I have to believe that they largely do what they want or feel. I mean as I said being a legacy elite I probably get unlucky and have to pay their $150 date change fee maybe once a year and the other times I am able to get it waivd as an unofficial exception to policy on nearly all the legacy carriers....its largely just a matter of if someone says no go talk to someone else who might say yes. However, I have not yet had the need to try to change a restricted ticket on WN to a different time of day.

I think as far as RR 2.0 elite if they allowed elites to confirm same day changes with no fees this would give them an advantage over the way the legacy carriers do it where typically they only allow elites to make such changes 2with in 3-4 hours of departure or at the airport. Or even say if your an elite member they give you a certain number of complimentary changes along with your elite membership. Of course unlimited changes would be better but a sufficient number of free anytime same day changes would be a competetive advantage. Of course you've got to keep in mind typical legacy elites are used to upgrades and seat assignments and rule 120.20 reissues to other carriers even for weather so WN needs to be innovative with its elite benefits.

All the talk about the speculative booking aside, book the first one and only the first one. Southwest's "flat tire rule" is fairly generous. If you miss your flight by a short amount of time, you're generally allowed to take the next available flight at no additional cost.

Assuming the second flight is not booked full, this is a good strategy. If both flights are full, then two bookings will be the safest plan.