SW vouchers don't cover taxes??? Do gift cards?
 

I have never agreed to get bumped on a Southwest flight in the past before due to their compensation offer being so low. Last month on a short MDW to DTW flight I decided to do it since the next flight was only about an hour away (turned out that flight ended up being 2 1/2 hours late then).

I tried booking a ticket from DTW to Chgo. $89.70 fare and was told after applying the voucher (which was for almost $300) there is a balance due of $10.70 I calkled southwest and was told the customer is responsible for all taxes.

Is this something all airlines are doing now or is it just Southwest? this is my first experience with Southwest and a voucher (It also won't let you use it to pay the security fee on a RR ticket or early bird check and you can't use gift cards as well for those). Delta has never required me to pay the taxes on a ticket if the voucher was for more than the airfare.

I know gift cards won't cover the early bird check in or the security fee on RR tickets as well. If I give someone a gift card for $100 and they book a flight for under $100 will SW also require them to pay the taxes or can they use the gift card towards the taxes.

I look at it like I did southwest a favor by agreeing to get bumped (they were having trouble finding one volunteer) and was under the impression this could be used the same way a voucher on Delta can be used.

I don't know about other airlines, but the WN website has this to say about vouchers and gift cards:

-- http://www.southwest.com/luv_voucher...onditions.html (emphasis added)

-- http://www.southwest.com/gift_cards/gift_card_faq.html (emphasis added)

I guess it realy isn't that big of a deal since I will use the funds anyway for me, but I think when they ask for volunteers to get bumped they should tell them upfront that they are responsible for all taxes. Especially seeing WN is stingy when it comes to compensation on a voluntary bump compared to other airlines.

It is interesting about what they say about gift cards. I wasn't able to use it in on a RR ticket to pay the $10 security fee. I also wanted to fly standby one time on an earlier flight (what had happened was they had delays from other airports and my flight was going to be a couple hours late and I was already at the airport and the earlier flight was delayed as well so I could have gotten on it) and was told I would have to pay to upgrade to a full fare and it wasn't too much more and I wanted to get out but they wouldn't let me use a gift card to pay it. If you can use it for over the limit baggage fees, obviously the airport counters have the technology to accept gift cards so not sure why they won't accept them to fly earlier standby.

I reaslize they made no revenue off a voucher, but a gift card should be honored for ANY southwest purchases sinc eit's revenue WN actually received.

SWA has long (always?) limited the use of gift cards and LUV vouchers to non-group airfare purchases. Other than that, however, until recently the only additional restriction was that LUV vouchers could not be used to pay the security fees ($2.50/segment) on award and companion bookings. (ETA: there was no problem using a LUV voucher to pay those fees on paid fares.) This can be verified by viewing the T&C pages (see links upthread) in the Wayback Machine. Also, I have previously quoted the LUV voucher restriction verbatim.

Clearly (because the revised T&C actually agree with web site behaviour!), SWA has consciously chosen to significantly expand the LUV voucher restrictions. [ETA2: rant deleted; misread something]

Fortunately for the OP and others there is a workaround. (Note I haven't tested this; it should work but there are a lot of weird new rules that could come into play.) Here is how to do it (with props to the Wiki FAQ's inclusion of Beckles' refundable ticket TTF rollup strategy):

1. Purchase a ticket (refundable or not) that is more than the gift card or LUV voucher balance;
2. Cancel the ticket (within no more than 24 hours, if the purchased fare is not refundable), requesting a refund of the refundable portion;
   Note: The amount paid with the voucher or gift card will not be refunded; it will be left as reusable funds associated with the canceled PNR.
3. Begin the reservation process for the desired itinerary;
4. On the payment page apply the funds from the canceled PNR.

Thanks for alerting us to this new issue, jamesteroh and EricJay! ^