Mr. Style

I recently received this email after having a 2-hour delay due to the computer meltdown last Wednesday. I am an A-Lister with CP. This came to my work e-mail which is used for work flights. I believe it's a unique code. It says its void if bartered or sold, so maybe it will work for flying in family or friends and not just for me.

Here's the wording in the email.
*******************
Let us begin to make it up to you!
As you know, we experienced a widespread technology outage on Wednesday, July 20th with the technical and operational issues persisting into the majority of the next day. I know you experienced long wait times, either on the phone or at the airport, particularly when our web site and mobile app were still under repair. Despite the best efforts of our Employees who worked very hard to support your needs, we were not able to keep up with the incredible demand for help and answers during that time. To be blunt, we failed you and that is simply not acceptable to me. For that, please accept my heartfelt apologies.

We pride ourselves on taking care of our Customers through Hospitality, Reliability, and Safety. On the rare occasion when things don't go as planned, and we didn't deliver on the Reliability, we certainly aim to deliver on the care and Hospitality to our Customers.

In a sincere effort to show you how much we would like another chance, we are offering you 50 percent off your next Southwest Airlines flight.

You can use it on any flight to any domestic destination (no blackout dates) when booked by October 31, 2016, for travel through January 31, 2017. I know we can do better, and there is nothing we would appreciate more than to prove that to you.

Use the code below to get 50% off your next flight on Southwest.com or Swabiz.com:

My name, XXXXXXXXX

Please accept my apology, and I sincerely hope you take us up on this offer so that we may thank you in person for flying Southwest Airlines.

Sincerely,
Gary
Gary Kelly
Southwest Airlines Chairman, President, & CEO

fine print at bottom:
Southwest AirlinesŪ Sale Offer Terms:
50 percent off promo code savings valid on one-way or roundtrip Wanna Get AwayŪ, AnytimeŪ, and Business SelectŪ Fares booked during the valid travel dates listed below and is applied before taxes and fees. Savings is reflected in the price when entering the single-use promo code in the Promo Code box on southwest.comŪ. Points bookings do not include September 11th Security Fee of $5.60 one-way. Purchase through October 31, 2016. Discount is valid on new reservations only and must be made prior to 11:59 p.m. for the respective time zone of the originating city on October 31, 2016 for travel July 22, 2016 through January 31, 2017. Valid for Southwest AirlinesŪ domestic and San Juan, Puerto Rico scheduled flights only. Discount will apply only on valid travel dates. If one direction of the trip is outside the valid travel dates and one is within the valid travel dates, only the portion of travel falling within the travel dates listed above will be discounted. Changes made to the itinerary after purchase will eliminate qualifications for this promotion. The discount is only valid with the provided Promotion Code and is not combinable with other Promotion Codes. Wanna Get Away Fares are nonrefundable, but may be applied toward future travel on Southwest AirlinesŪ, so long as you cancel your reservations at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled departure of your flight. Failure to cancel prior to departure will result in forfeiture of remaining funds on the reservation. Discount is not valid on Group Travel or Southwest VacationsŪ packages. Reservations can include up to eight people. These Fare Saver codes cannot be replaced. No cash value. Void if sold or bartered.
**************

So, what's the best way to use this?
My thoughts are:

1) save for last minute or expensive (where wanna get away tickets are not available) work flight.

2) purchase a business select flight at 50% off to get higher point multiplier on rapid rewards points instead of the usual wanna get away rate.

3) Anyone know if this will this give me 50% off on points too? or is it just for purchased with money tickets?

Anyone else get similar email?

rsteinmetz70112

4) High cost holiday travel.

rsteinmetz70112

This implies that flights after a certain point on Thursday won't get compensated.

We experienced a similar delay on afternoon/evening Thursday but no email yet.

Troopers

Code valid for cash and points.

Received the code as well.

MountainDewGuy

Good to know that a 2 hour delay gets the same 'make it up to you' attempt as a delayed then canceled flight, with no hotel or food reimbursement and sleeping at the airport.

Panther02

Cancellations and 2+ hr delays for Thursday, Friday and Saturday will get an email. Check the purchaser email, including spam folder.

rsteinmetz70112

So far nothing. I have all of the email from southwest.com for myself, mywife and our joint account shunted into a seperate folder. I'll check our server again tomorrow.

Toan

I wonder if you can book multiple people on the same itinerary?

Exiled in Express

Terms said up to 8 and a test search prices correctly at 8 adults. Interestingly openjaw roundtrips are also pricing with the discount.

betsifur

I used my discount as well as the $100 voucher I received to get tickets for my daughter and son in law for Thanksgiving, at less than what one ticket was going to cost me so far on the legacy airlines. SW hadn't even been in the running for those tickets, because they were even more. I wasn't thrilled to be delayed five hours last Friday, but I'm feeling pretty good about it now.

joshua362

Exactly what it was designed to do at the least possible cost to WN...

betsifur

Of course it was designed to do this. Am I supposed to just seethe in anger, throw my companion pass in the trash and start paying higher fares and baggage fees to United now? Or maybe they should go out of business as punishment for their system going down? They messed up, they offered something in return, in my case I'm happy with it. I was glad to see this thread yesterday, because it made me realize the perfect use for the voucher and discount code I had received. When I first got them I assumed I could only use them for myself, which would make almost useless to me.

Mr. Style

That's why I started this thread. I didn't even think about using it for multiple people. I might fly my folks in or someone that isn't me or my companion pass.

I got another email today with another apology stating that 10,000 points has been deposited to my account and that the points qualify for Tier for 2017!

I only had a 2 hour delay and I know a lot of people had it a lot rougher and were stuck places overnight, etc. I feel the compensation was great for me and I am very satisfied. I'm sure that because of this, the Southwest IT department is probably doing a triple-redundancy on everything now so we'll hopefully never have computer issues ever again.

********************Here's the email:
We want to see you back onboard.
I'm reaching out to express how sorry we are to have inconvenienced you during the recent technology outage that affected our operations. Our President and CEO, Gary Kelly, noted in his message to you last week that it's always our intent as a Company to take great care of our Customers through Hospitality, Safety, and Reliability. I couldn't agree more. On this occasion, we simply failed to deliver you a reliable experience and we will do everything we can so that it does not happen again.
As tangible appreciation for your loyalty to Southwest AirlinesŪ, we have deposited 10,000 Rapid RewardsŪ points into your account that can be redeemed toward your next reward flight. This 10,000 point deposit will also serve as 10,000 Tier Qualifying Points toward your 2017 tier qualification balance.
We are ready to prove to you that we can do better and look forward to seeing you onboard soon. Thank you in advance for that opportunity.
Sincerely,

Bob Jordan
Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

ursine1

I've not received the points offer... I wonder if everyone affected is getting that? (My flight was cancelled Wednesday after 7 hours at the airport; I booked on AA the next morning. I received the 50% off code and when i pushed I received a $200 voucher.)

For the 50% code, be aware (in case it's not apparent) that you can use this only once. If you need to cancer or change/rebook that itinerary, you lose the discount and it cannot be applied again to a future booking.

Troopers

No 10k points for me.

Trying to sell my 50% discount codes (I know it says void if sold).