southwest refund for ticket bought for someone else?
 

I'm a newbie to flyertalk forum and i don't know where to post this question, but it has something to do with Southwest airline anyway. First thing to say,I'm an international student so i did not know much about US's airline policies. So I bought the wanna get away ticket for my relative (with my own credit card), but he cancelled it and now i am desperately trying to find a way to get my money back. It sucks that even though i paid for the ticket, the only one who gets to use the fund is my relative, not me, and under some circumstances i cannot ask him to give the money back to me (><). Is there any way for me to use his travel credit? I asked SW's customer service and seems like the credit can ONLY be used to buy travel tickets under that passenger's name, not gift card or voucher. I think i read somewhere that you can buy plane ticket from someone else, but i'm not so sure if that can be applied to SW's strict policies over Passenger's name. Does anyone know what else can you do with Southwest credit? Has anyone been under the same situation and what did you do?

You can wait till it expires and ask Southwest to issue you a voucher. They're going to deduct part of it's value though. The deduction amount periodically increases. It's probably around $100 right now.

yup i just found out about the voucher after reading dozen of posts about this. Since the travel fund is around $240, i guess at least have $140 back is the best i can have (-_-""). But is that the only way ><? by the way, if i buy ticket for someone else will the rapid reward points will be rewarded to me or to the passenger? I just want to know if there's anything else i missed when buying ticket that is not for myself?
Thank you for the quick reply ^^

Rapid Rewards is a frequent flyer program, not a frequent buyer program. The points are awarded to the flyer, not the buyer.

Welcome to flyertalk, clover777!

My suggestion would start by saying that if I was ever in the same room with that relative, it would be a very tense few minutes, at least at the beginning.

You have found your worst case: you lose ~$100 in value. Actually that is a pretty cheap life lesson as they go. Some of mine have gone well into the thousands. In my house we call it paying the stupid tax. But, that is just us.

As I am old, I can offer the following advice, it is a perk of old man world. However, free advice is often worth exactly what you pay for it, but that will not stop me. When I give something to someone, I only do so if I do not want it to be mine anymore. Whether they use it or not may rile me, but I remind myself that I gave it away, and by doing such I transferred the right of use (or non-use) to the recipient. It keeps me from giving a lot of stuff away but it also frees me from worrying about it for one moment after it is gone.

Your relative can use the credit for up to a year from the date you bought it.

Be sure to actually cancel the ticket with Southwest before 10 minutes before the flight or you will loose all value on the ticket.

I have the same problem. Can you please share your experience and let me know whether you could get at least some part of your money back? Thanks.

The posts above yours answer your question.

clover777 and sebna: If both of you are new to travel and purchasing airfares, you should know that Southwest's policies about the re-usability of funds are relatively generous compared to other US airlines, most of which impose much heftier fees (e.g., typically $200) to make any changes. Even that might be considered generous compared to some international airlines, whose non-refundable tickets are often also non-changeable. In some cases, if you book a ticket to fly from City W to City X on Date Y on Flight Z, if your plans change, you can retrieve absolutely nothing of value from your existing ticket.

Caveat emptor.