Miss First Flight of Round Trip - Is Second Flight Cancelled?
 

Hi All, Every week I make my commute flights in one-way segments so that if something changes with one leg, nothing will happen to the others. For some reason, however, I book this weekend's tickets as a round trip.

I have to miss my outgoing flight tomorrow, but need to use my incoming flight on Wednesday. If I miss the first flight, is the second cancelled?

I am trying to call SW with this question, but their hold like is 40 minutes right now!

It is not canceled. I have done this several times. You could ask reservations to cancel only your outbound, but it's safer simply to no-show the outbound.

Did you have a coupon code that required RT purchase, such as the recent Visa Signature 15% off promo?
Did you use the RR priority number? It is in the Wiki, the web site, and on the back of the RR Visa.

As nsx said, you'll be fine if you no show. If you want to be considerate, however, or want to reuse the funds without waiting for them to become available several days after the return, there is another option. Have CS&S split the reservation. They'll give you the new PNR; you'll also receive an Email confirmation with the new PNR. Then cancel or change the new unwanted outbound reservation.

multiple pax res can be split with each divided pax assigned a new pnr but a round trip single pax pnr cannot be split this way. individual segments may be cancelled by cs&s, which is what will be done for the op's situation.

:o Oops!

Thanks for the correction, wuds! I was thinking I had done this sort of split recently, but now that you mention it...it probably was splitting of two pax. It was a two pax RT reservation (because of a coupon code), and when it became clear only one pax would take that trip I needed to free up the other funds.

ETA: Of course if the return flight is available at the same fare as was booked, the entire reservation could be canceled and some of the funds used to rebook the return as a OW.

no problem-o and you are welcome sir!

This is one reason that I like to book two one way tickets rather than one round trip ticket (except when there is a discount for booking the round trip ticket, such as the VISA 15% off thing mentioned above or the recent Denver 25% off sale).

If you don't have a r/t discount, book two one ways. If you don't show for your outbound one way, it goes back as TTF funds. Cancel before the flight just to be polite. You can do that 1-2 hours before the flight (you obviously are not at the airport, so why not cancel?). You free up space for someone else and your TTF is available immediately instead of waiting 3-4 hours. You can cancel it from your cell phone. If you are in the middle of a meeting or something, you can just be a no show and the money will be available shortly.

Meanwhile, because the return flight is on a separate PNR, there is no way that your cancellation or no-show will have any effect on your return flight. Further, you do not have to call and have the PNR split and you don't have to worry that being a no-show will have any effect on your return flight.

Yes, I generally make two one-way reservations, but in this case was using a $10 off (of $58 fare) each way from the Southwest Santa coupon around Christmas (photo with Santa, $20 off roundtrip flight).

So, will I have to pay up to the full Anytime fare if I call and cancel or if I miss the first flight since I used a promo code in the original purchase?

Your return reservation is not affected by using or not using the outbound. If you can get through on the phone, they can cancel the outbound only. That will allow you to use those ticketless funds to buy an Anytime outbound if that's what you need.

Remember that the flat tire rule gives you 2 hours beyond your departure time to get to the airport and standby for free on a WGA fare.

Possible to cancel on the outbound of a Round Trip
 

I have a flight scheduled to Salt Lake City tomorrow with a return on March 22. I need to canel the outbound tomorrow and still plan on travelling to Salt Lake within the next couple of days and rerturn on my scheduled flight. Is there any way to canel just one way of a round trip ticket. I don't yet know when I will be travelling, so I don't want to reschedule now and have to cancel again.

Quickest way to find out would be just to call them on their 800 number and ask the agent if you can split the ticket to 2 x one-ways, then just cancel your outbound leaving the return intact.

Easier said than done. Call Southwest at 1 800 248-4377. Redial 20 times until you get through. Wait 30 minutes on hold. Ask to cancel the outbound only. Hope the CSR does not also cancel your return.

What I would do: Just no-show the outbound. Your return will NOT be canceled. Southwest is different from other airlines in this respect.

Does that mean there will be no points until the outbound funds are used? :confused:

Yes.

I have tried calling and can't get thru.