lougord99

That is correct. They raised the price $4.11. That doesn't make it illegal

MHTbased

CNN just reported that Delta is issuing refunds for the tax during the lapse. No word on how you get it, but its an interesting tactic for such a large carrier. Would be nice if Southwest would follow suit.

nsx

Yeah, the web implementers need something useful to do to deflect them from enhancing the website any further.

0073735963

Should I contact SW or maybe one of the rep can also chime in on this one? I apologize if I have my understanding wrong of this situation.

I had an August trip booked back in June for my wife and I. I was happy to see that SW had a sale on Sunday and I was able to refare for less even though the flights started in 6 days. Anyways, it appears that the taxes and segment fee are lumped in with the lower base fare credit as TTF's (as they normally were when you canceled/refare). However, with the tax gone and according to that IRS link, shouldn't SW treat the tax as "refundable" and refund me those portions and not put them on TTF's? Didn't know if my situation would be different than those with active bookings with the tax charged (awaiting word from SW if they will refund people or not).

Original Base fare: 405.60
Excise: $30.40
Segment: $14.80

Rebooked on Sunday:
Base fare: 344

So it's currently $106.80 in TTF's with $45.20 as tax/segment fee. Thank you all.

ursine1

Update: Language on the Southwest website would make it appear that they are eventually going to process refunds:

Expiration of U.S. Aviation Taxes
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On July 23, at 12:01 a.m. PDT, several U.S. aviation taxes expired. We do not have a timeframe for the date Congress will reinstate these taxes, which previously appeared as part of a Customer's ticket price. The federal ticket taxes that expired on July 23, 2011, at 12:01 a.m. PDT were:

7.5% tax on domestic transportation
$3.70 domestic segment tax (paid on per flight segment basis)
$16.30 international arrival/departure tax (for international flights only)
Customers who purchase a reservation on or after July 23, 2011, 12:01 a.m. PDT, are not currently being charged for the expired taxes. Customers who purchased a ticket prior to July 23, 2011, 12:01 a.m. PDT, and whose travel dates fall during the time the taxes are expired, may be eligible to receive a refund for the expired taxes after travel has been completed.

The airlines are currently working with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine which taxes, if any, will be eligible for a refund. In the meantime, Southwest is working to establish procedures that will allow us to refund the eligible taxes.

As we receive additional information and guidance, we will provide Customer updates on southwest.com.

We appreciate your patronage!

http://www.southwest.com/html/custom...1AGOVFEE110802

nsx

I expect Congress to impose the tax (at the old rates) retroactively on all travel purchased before August 1. Problem solved.

Note that Southwest's "if any" language is fully consistent with this expectation.

nsx

I am seeing some $3.70 savings available for rebooking my short-haul autumn flights today. At least the ones I didn't get on the $40 sale. I also pocketed $12 here and $13 there on some connecting flights.

Check your flights for possible reversal of the recent fare increase!

Aitchly

After an inquiry Sunday, I received this (note my bolding):

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Thanks for contacting us. We appreciate the opportunity to respond.

We received your request for a refund of the Federal Excise Tax and Segment Fees associated with the Southwest reservation(s) you purchased. Customers who purchased a reservation on or after July 23, 2011, 12:01 a.m. PDT, are not currently being charged for the expired taxes. However, Customers who purchased a ticket prior to July 23, 2011, 12:01 a.m. PDT, and whose travel dates fall during the time the taxes are expired, may be eligible to receive a refund for the expired taxes after travel has been completed.

Although we do not have a timeframe for the date Congress will reinstate these taxes, which previously appeared as part of a Customer's ticket price, the airlines are currently working with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine which taxes, if any, will be eligible for a refund. In the meantime, Southwest is working to establish procedures that will allow us to refund the eligible taxes.

Once we've determined what taxes will be refunded, if the reservation you purchased qualifies for a tax refund, we will proactively contact you to provide details regarding the refund procedure. We appreciate your patronage of Southwest Airlines, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

jimmychang

Tax is coming back. People should buy tickets now. It would be interesting to see if airlines will lower base fares to keep the gross fares the same or make them more expensive. Of course, Alaska is the only major that airline didn't raise base fares.

Congress reaches deal on FAA shutdown

nsx

Refunds to customers for travel during the tax holiday would appear to be completely out of the question. The legislation carries an effective date of July 23.

ScroogeMcFlyer

Now it makes sense that WN was not providing refunds, when they were probably not given clear instructions on how the process would work. Then Congress changes the rules and disallowed them. Sounds like they made the right decision without jumping the gun.

expert7700

at 10pm PST booking with points went from 8484 to 13,954. I booked a few on a credit card so I know it wasn't a sell out situation. A+ list hotline took an hour to book and charged 8520 (?) points each way.

11:45pm PST, a few credit card bookings done, a couple left to go: down went the site. no more bookings, "this portion fo southwest is currently unavailable.

12:10am PST: WN added gov't taxes/segment fees back WITHOUT reversing the 7.5% base fare increase from July. Thus, for me every fare is pricing out higher than last night.

ftnoob

Yup, it appears they are trying to now maintain the 7.5% fare hike post-tax reinstatement. Example: fare that was quoted as $125 before the tax expiration (thus meant $116.28 revenue to SWA) is now $134. While the tax was not being collected, SWA was receiving the full $125 of the quoted airfare (the total cost to the customer being $132 after PFCs and 9/11 theatre fee). Utter coincidence, no doubt, but the new $134 stated airfare amounts to $125 (rounded from $124.65) for SWA, and $9 (rounded from $9.35) for the FAA. Now with the segment fee reinstated the all-in price is $144.70; thus the total cost increase to the customer is $12.70.

Of course this is all due to fuel costs! The price of oil is now, ummm, down 10%, so SWA must increase fares to cover that headwind, right?

SWA should retitle the CEO position the BEOF (Blame Everything On Fuel) position.

tusphotog

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Delta is doing the same thing...We'll see if it sticks tomorrow.

iahphx

Farecompare now says WN has not raised fares.

http://www.farecompare.com/news/airl...-and-airfares/

But I don't think that is correct. The fare hikes are there in the markets that I'm watching. What about yours?