FCfree

I have to say, that when combined with Allegiant's TripFlex for $8 per segment, I am thinking about Allegiant for Colorado--> Las Vegas. While Allegiant has a lot of fees, they also have lower raw fare prices than Southwest. Thus, when you do all the math, including what costs me $31 to get to the DEN airport compared to the FNL airport with Allegiant, the lack of an FF award program on Allegiant, bag fees on Allegiant, etc., they start to look more comparible than before this change.

The only downside on Allegiant is reliability. Since they one fly one flight per day, four days per week, Southwest offers more backup in case of a mechanical.

Before Allegiant TripFlex and this change on Southwest, there was no comparison. With this change and TripFlex, a much harder decision.

I can also see outbound, when reliability is key, on SWA and return on Allegiant, when reliability isn't as critical.

Allegiant is a one-off exception because they only go one place (LAS), but that is a critical location to me. For other trips, like vacations other than LAS, it will still be Southwest, since Southwest's modified TTF is still a lot better than UA or F9. But, what if UA or F9 start offering something like G4's TripFlex? They like nothing better than adding another fee.

OAKtoSAN

Bad form, Southwest. Your prices are not as competitive as they once were and now you are chipping away at the policies that give you an edge. It's getting warm in here and this frog is not dumb enough to stay until the water boils. Be careful, WN.

73G

I would expect that LUV Vouchers would still be usable towards tickets for any person, in the same way that Gift Cards can also be used towards tickets for any person. But when reservations are paid for using LUV Vouchers then those funds would no longer be transferable if the reservation was later cancelled.

I still have trouble believing that resale of credits is a major driver for this change. Ebay has nothing, and Craigslist has a couple listings a day in one of the biggest metros (SF Bay Area) for travel funds (there are actually more listings for Rapid Rewards vouchers, in clear violation of the T&Cs for the awards). As is clear from responses in this thread, the impact of the January 2011 funds change will be much wider than the axing of a handful of Craigslist funds sales.

I'd like to see SWA explain how this makes them more competitive and more profitable. I would be easily convinced by a good business case explanation.

ftnoob

I think that's an exaggeration; I don't know any families that book the tickets for their once-a-year trip the day before departure. Do you? November/December holiday travel is frequently booked at schedule opening in June. So the maximum rebooking window will often be more like six months. Add six more months for the $50/ticket funds extension fee, if that policy remains intact.You are not the first person to mention having to revise your spreadsheet, but I don't understand that. Does your spreadsheet not already have a column for the passenger name?Of course, but the point is that if I have a $400 Unused Ticket that I cannot use before the funds expire, I can convert it to a $350 LUV voucher that a friend or family member could use (within six months), if the funds extension policy remains intact and LUV vouchers remain transferable.

ftnoob

So what happens when you attempt to board a WN flight with a BP that lacks the marks applied by the TSA ID checkers?

73G

Thank you for clarifying; I was unaware that extended TTFs were reincarnated as LUV Vouchers. I'm surprised the $50 TTF extension policy even exists given the new January 2011 rule. So I'm even more surprised that the new January 2011 rule has been laid down given the currently Customer friendly TTF extension policy. Be interesting to see how this is resolved...

lougord99

I have never understood why the TSA marks are applied. The GA has no idea ( I think ) whether you are originating or transferring from another flight.

ftnoob

Good point!

ftnoob

Before SWA fell in love with fees, they would convert expired TTF to a LUV Voucher for free. That was customer-friendly. AFAIK, neither then nor now was/is this policy laid out in the CoC. So we have no clue what will happen with expired TTF come January.

tusphotog

Transfer BPs say "O-TRANS" or "TRANSFER" on them. Of course, if you book ABC-DEF on one PNR and DEF-XYZ on another and reprint inside security, they won't have the super secure TSA squiggly marks.

curbcrusher

A discussion about this should be broken out into a separate thread, but the short answer is nothing. Passengers get and use boarding passes from gate CSAs all the time.

lewisc

I'm sure the current policy was based on the assumption a certain percentage of the credits would expire unused. I think we can, partially blame, passengers who sold the credits.

The current policy, indirectly, gave passengers cash for TTF (via ebay) at a discount.

Beckles

If I read some of the comments on here before I read what the comments were about you'd think Southwest had announced something much more draconian.

The reusability of funds by anyone has a few inherent disadvantages for WN, and the biggest one I see is that it that it facilitates fraud using TTF's. I actually wouldn't be surprised to find out if some of WN's largest (corporate) customers asked for this change because it made fraud by its employees so easy.

I have no doubt there are WN customers who do the following:

1) Purchase BS fare for business travel, get reimbursed for that fare.
2) Change ticket to chepest available WGA fare, get TTF back.
3) Sell excess TTF.

And if anyone thinks such ideas are far-fetched, I would just point to the NBA referees who were busted for tax evasion for a similar scheme a few years ago.I never found the re-use of ticketless funds all that complicated and I certainly never found it annoying.Mine does since I seem to recall the website asked for passenger name to reuse the funds anyway.
Nothing, people get boarding passes after security all the time.

nsx

If you are buying tickets for friends and family, you should try to use funds that expire by January 2011. If they expire later, you will need to use the funds to book a dummy reservation in the desired traveler name before the change occurs.

nsx

If Southwest has to eat any of the fraud cost, then I understand the change. However the scenario you described still allows an employee to re-use funds for his own personal travel.

Here's an example of the problem I have with the new policy. Some of my family members are elderly. Any given trip might be their last, because they might become too frail or they might develop a medical problem or they might die unexpectedly. Ability to re-use the funds across the family means that I don't need to consider the unpleasant possibilities when I book the reservation. This is a big advantage of Southwest over its competitors, and Southwest is throwing it away.