Originally Posted by
JeffLewis2
Have booked my wife as my designated companion via my Companion Pass for holiday travel in Nov and Dec. 2014.
I spoke with a representative via the "A list" line and she told me (via her supervisor) that all future companion pass reservations in your wife's name will need to be cancelled" if you switch the designation of your companion to someone else for a trip booked in August."
A companion pass holder can change the designated companion three times, I believe. I would, of course, have been changing the designated companion back to my wife before the trips in Nov and December.
Basically I must cancel the future companion pass reservations in my wife's name, and then hope the seats are still available, after I take a trip with my son, whom I would designate for August.
Not a huge deal, but the SW agent did have to check on this with a supervisor and then went on to explain that "one of the reasons" for not allowing those future reservations to remain (even though I would have the ability to change the companion pass back to my wife before then) was because SW has had problems with people booking companion pass tickets and then "people have flown on tickets without the companion pass holder" and many apparently "try to" as well.
The agent, despite not knowing whether I could keep future companion bookings if I temporarily changed the designated companions, and thus needed to ask a supervisor about this, somehow suddenly recalled that SW "cancels" future "companion pass reservations" quite frequently, just like they do when the computer searches for "double bookings."
Okay...
Besides the fact that I think SW could devise a way to prevent fraud or confusion and provide a smart customer service benefit to Companion Pass holders (it is a bit ridiculous that a companion pass holder can't book future travel in this respect--it's not as if holiday travel requires much advanced planning anyway), it raises several questions.
Questions:
Have you run into this or a similar situation? Can someone actually fly on a companion pass ticket without a companion? Have you had your Companion Pass reservation cancelled? Since I didn't know about this and neither did the agent is this a published rule that most folks aren't aware of?
Originally Posted by
JeffLewis2
Can someone actually fly on a companion pass ticket without a companion?
Absolutely not. This is one are where Southwest's quirky IT works quite well. Although the Companion can check-in and/or board the flight prior to the CP holder, the CP Holder must be scanned/boarded prior to the Ops Agent closing out the flight, or the computer will cry foul and generate an error.
They will most definitely pull the Companion from the flight & leave them behind if the CP holder fails to board.
There's a thread or two around that covers this in detail, but it does happen....several of us regulars have witnessed it.
The usual suggested work-around is to book the further-in-the future flight (for the "new" companion) via points as a placeholder. Once the closer-in flight with the current or "old" companion is completed, change your companion in the system. You can then either DIY cancel the previously reserved points-reservation & then turn right around & book the same trip with your CP, -OR- call-in and ask them to do it for you.
Note that if you chose the DIY option, you need to take a quick look & make certain there is seat-for-sale capacity of that flight such that somebody else/the system won't swallow the last remaining seat held by your to-be companion. It's rare but it happens.
If you call in to make this change, the nice reservation folks have the ability to put your companion seat into suspended animation momentarily while they do the swap. You won't loose the seat that way & the points previously used as a place holder go right back into your bucket.