butterscotchsunday

I purchased a WGA fare for my boyfriend and myself back in March. My trip is falling apart. We no longer have a place to stay for our week vacation. Also, a week ago, I got into a Master's program in London that starts in September. I don't want to take this trip anymore. I don't want to shell out another $1000 on this trip for a hotel. That money would be better spent on moving to London.

I am aware that with a WGA fare your funds can be reused 100% towards another trip with Southwest. However, in a few months we will no longer be living in a country that Southwest flies to. These reusable funds will expire before we come back to the US.

If I exchange our flight to an Anytime fare, can I then receive a full refund?

Or, if I call/email customer service with my story, might they be kind?

lougord99

Unfortunately, it was a non-refundable fare and your only option to make use of that money is to fly somewhere. Also remember that you cannot combine those fares. The funds for each of you are tied to your names, so you cannot sell these funds to someone else.

butterscotchsunday

Can those funds be used toward a Vacation or Hotel through Southwest? Or do they have to be used on another flight?

flyventure

Air fare only.

tonei

You might be able to use them for a positioning flight, to get from where you live to a cheaper international gateway for when you fly to London. (If you try this just remember that southwest doesn't transfer bags to other carriers, so if you are connecting immediately to another flight be sure to give yourself several hours to reclaim and recheck your bags.)

Often1

Bottom line is that the fare conditions prohibit exactly what OP wants to do. Upfaring won't help because once a given dollar is non-refundable as cash, it never becomes refundable again.

nsx

The OP can let the funds expire and then pay $100 to have them re-issued as a LUV voucher which is usable by anyone. It would be possible to sell that voucher to a friend (but that's not allowed on FT!) at maybe a 20% discount.

Boraxo

What is so confusing about non-refundable? It's not like somebody died and the heirs can't use the tickets. You pay less for WGA you can't get a cash refund. This policy is about 10x more customer friendly than any other airline where you basically lose 100% of the value of your ticket or you pay some absurd fee (multiply $150x# of family members). Any other airline and your money is already flushed.

OP should cancel her trip and use TTF to visit relatives, fly to Vegas for the weekend, or just visit some place that she's always wanted to go. The money is gone, might as well make the best of it. You'll be thousands of miles away soon so it will be a lot more time consuming and expensive to go anywhere in the USA. Look at this as an opportunity rather than crying over spilled milk.

ursine1

I was about to suggest this. The assumptions being that this is still even a possibility when it expires in a year; that the voucher is still able to be used by anyone; and that the fee remains $100.

flyventure

I think many here forget that the $100 reissue is a courtesy and they can refuse to do it. It isn't a certainty and nor is it required they do it. So along the lines of what Ursine is alluding to, don't take anything for granted.

rsteinmetz70112

Has it ever been refused?

lougord99

I think there is a difference between a 'courtesy' and an 'unpublished rule'. This is clearly an unpublished rule. It can be changed any day. But so can a published rule.

rsteinmetz70112

I think this falls in to the same category of the "flat tire rule", an unpublished policy like the free standby for delayed flights. I would consider a courtesy a occasional deviation for the normal rules for a specific situation, like the discount extended to my wife for rescheduling her flight to attend a funeral.

I know it seem trivial difference in wording but it also seems that if Southwest is charging a fee for a "courtesy" and that fee is consistent over time then it seems more like an unpublished policy.

flyventure

I've heard of it being rejected several times. Of course the circumstances around it could have been the person getting snippy with the customer relations person and shooting themselves in the foot.

ursine1

Calling it a "courtesy" makes it easier to justify when it's ended suddenly, without warning.

Charging a fee has been consistent over time, but that fee has risen from $50 to $75 to $100 over the last couple of years.