FlyingBoat

I am cancelling a res for 3/3 to 3/5. It was made with points.

It doesn't give me the option to get the $11.20 back instead of holding for future use.

Refundable $0.00 N/A Not Applicable
Nonrefundable $11.20 These funds will be held for future use.
Points 4,252 Points will be returned to xxxxx's Rapid Rewards account.

I thought the tax money comes back. I used a SW GC for this $11.20, if that is the issue. Have a call back coming from SW.

Tanic

That's the problem. WN gift cards do not refund, rather turn into TTF.

FlyingBoat

Got it. Never see this brought up in the blogs. Lesson learned.

flightfulbird

It doesn't seem to be just with a gift card - I did a forum search just last night to see if the $5.60 is now nonrefundable when booking with points.

I had made a points reservation and had paid the $5.60 with credit card - decided to switch and pay $$ for the flight instead of using points.

When I canceled the flight reserved with points after booking the new one, it gave me the same situation as the OP -

Refundable $0.00 N/A Not Applicable
Nonrefundable $5.60 These funds will be held for future use.
Points XXXXX Points will be returned to xxxxx's Rapid Rewards account.

If anyone else has seen this, it would really help to know the situation. I am also wondering now about the taxes/fees for international flights booked with points - those were always refundable in the past - are they still?

kpott

With the new system if you change a points booking the 5.60 becomes non refundable. If you cancel it is refundable but if you change and then cancel its non refundable.

I questioned the rep "aren't taxes and fees legally required to be refundable?" She kindly told me to call Dallas customer relations...

Swens6

Speaking of, where can I find my Travel Funds?

I recently cancelled a few flights in which those fees along with some other things were credited towards Travel Funds, but I have no clue where to find that exact amount in order to use. I think its like $30, so nothing major, but I still wanna know where it is.

dmbolp

You have to keep track of them yourself

toomanybooks

Search your emails for "Ticketless Travel Funds". At least that's what I used to do.

dburns

Wow - wish I knew this before I recently made a change. I could have easily canceled and re-booked my points reservation versus changed to maintain refundability. Thanks for the heads-up!

Swens6

I did and I can't find anything from Southwest... hmmm

May have to give them a call and see what the deal is

flightfulbird

In my initial post on this thread, I wrote that I had a points reservation that I canceled and wasn't given the option to get the 5.60 back as a refund (which was no problem anyway because I used it for another points flight).

What I had forgotten was that I had CHANGED that original points reservation once already - and it looks like that change was what then made it nonrefundable.

So yeah - it seems if you want to change to a different flight for a points ticket (or think you might cancel it altogether) - and you want to get the 5.60 as a refund and not as a travel funds credit - then don't make any changes from the initial booking - and be sure to cancel the flight and rebook, not use the "change" option.

Unless of course you are going to turn around and make another points booking right away. . .


Yeah, you have to be sure to keep the original confirmation number to find the travel fund credits because the travel funds are tied to that number and Southwest doesn't keep track !

flightfulbird

On Southwest website -

https://www.southwest.com/flight/tra...ds-search.html

This will let you enter your confirmation numbers from canceled flights one at a time to see if there are any funds tied to them !

One hint - the name must be exactly as it was on the reservation. I KNEW I had some funds tied to a certain confirmation number once - a decent amount of funds - but the system would not allow me to apply them to a ticket purchase.

I called customer service and the agent enlightened me that the name in the search has to be an exact match to the ticket - as well as the confirmation number.

Given the confirmation number, she was able to tell me how my name had been entered on the ticket - which was different than usual - somehow, my middle initial had been included in the "first name" field on the initial reservation - so "first name" (without the initial) - "last name" didn't work.

Once the name matched, the funds showed up (like magic. . . )

ursine1

Seems like this is caused by the new booking system, similar to how "Refundable" fares no longer remain refundable after any change. More discussion here:

CoC changes 12-6-2016: New no-show, BS refundability effective 5-9-2017

Swens6

God, that was a pain in the .... Why doesn't SW have it built in for those credits to just appear in your account?

Luckily, I remembered what flight I had cancelled/changed. If I hadn't, it would have taken me forever to dig through and figure out what confirmation number I needed.

chuckworth

Just as an FYI, a phone CSR can search for lost TTFs by credit card number as well. If you can't remember the PRN or have issues with the name matching, you can try this route to sweep everything available by credit card used for bookings.