N104UA

I appologize in advance for the long storey, This is the story about my recent trip from MCO-DEN that I had booked on WN, and the lack in flexibility WN provides in rebooking after flight cancellations.

I normally fly UA but on this flight was significantly cheaper to fly WN vs UA. The fare was $129 or 8358 points per person, as I don't usually fly WN, however I had enough WN points from prior travel in my account so I used them (16,716 for 2 one way tickets), although it brought my balance to under 1,000 points after booking. I had no issue with that as I like to use my WN points when I can as I don’t fly them often and my balance doesn’t grow quickly. Unfortunately this flight was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma, I do give WN credit for canceling the flight 4 days in advance and I was sent a text when it cancelled asking me to call in and rebook. The event that we were going to be in MCO for was rescheduled until October, assuming that rebooking in about a month was a reasonable time frame, I called into Southwest reservations and this is where the issues started.

For some background, I am one of the few people that actually read the Contract of Carriage and the Customer Service Commitment (which WN makes part of their CoC), which states the following (bolding mine):

"If, for any reason, your Southwest Airlines flight does not operate as scheduled, we will, at your request, refund the unused portion of your fare, or will assist you by arranging to transport you to your destination on another Southwest flight with available seats . If you elect to take an alternate Southwest flight, we will not charge you any more money even if your Ticket for the disrupted flight has usage limits or fare restrictions"

As there are no date restrictions in their Customer Service Commitment, I assumed that rebooking about a month later would be a reasonable time frame to rebook. I called in and requested the date in October when we wanted to rebook and the agent came back and said, okay that will be an additional 36,000 points for the ticket, which I don't have and would be ~$1000 if I were to buy from Southwest. I pointed out their policy and was told there was nothing he, as a front line agent, could do, which I believed, however he was very friendly and gave me the number for the Customer Relations department.

I then called the Customer Relations Department and the agent said that her hands were tied and their policy is their policy. After I pointed out their Customer Service Commitment language and that there is no time-frame associated with it, she stated that weather does not count in that policy, even though it says "for any reason." I even said that I would be willing to pay the fare difference for what it would be if I had book that flight 3 months ago when I booked the original flight, vs paying the amount that it would cost to book a flight 5 weeks out. I asked if I could be escalated, and she said she could have someone call me back.

Today, I received that call back, the agent, again, was extremely friendly, however it appears she, like the first 2, was not empowered to do anything to help my situation, just could listen and repeat the policy. I explained the situation to her, reread her WN’s Customer Service Commitment about Irregular Operations and pointed out that there is no timeframe listed in the policy, and that next month should be a reasonable timeframe to rebook. I then said I think that it is unreasonable, as I used points, for me to be required to pay ~$1000 to buy more points from WN directly in order to rebook this flight. She said that they will only rebook within 14 days without taking out additional points, she said if there were a "normal revenue ticket" she could cancel it and refund the money to my credit card, however because it was points all she could do is refund the taxes, but I could cancel the ticket, keep the points, and then pay cash for the new ticket as it would probably be cheaper than paying $1000 for more points. The new ticket would cost about $650 for both people and I explained that I have never seen fares from MCO-DEN that expensive, she said that due to the hurricane and the number of people rebooking the fares will go up because more people want to rebook their flights outside of that 14 day window and when a fare is gone the ticket price goes up.

So now, WN is asking that I pay at least $650 to rebook my ticket, due to high demand for the new flight due to the rebookings after the hurricane and the market can demand a price of $325pp, instead of allowing me to rebook a flight they cancelled that I booked with points was supposed to only cost me $11.20 out of pocket and will have to pay.

I ended up canceling my flight, as I don't want to loose the points for a flight that is cancelled, however now I have 16,000 points in my WN account that I need to find a future use for.

lougord99

I'm not sure, but I doubt that your preferred carrier (UA) would allow you to book a flight a month later at no extra charge. I doubt that any carrier would allow that.

Correct me if I am wrong.

NextTrip

It states on their Hurricane Irma Travel Advisory that you have a 14-day window to rebook a flight to the same city-pairs without a price increase. Unfortunately, this policy doesn't work for you because the event you are to attend was rescheduled outside of this 14-day policy.

You say you don't fly much on SWA, but it looks like in this case you will be finding another trip to use the points. Just watch that you don't wait so long that the points expire. But, that's another issue.

From the SWA website:

Travel Advisory
Hurricane Irma

Southwest Airlines is closely monitoring the projected track of Hurricane Irma and possible Stations that may experience operational disruptions (flights may be delayed, diverted, and/or cancelled) in the coming days. Before you head to the airport, please check the status of your flight for the most up-to-date information.

Customers who are holding reservations for the effective dates and cities listed below and want to alter their travel plans may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with our accommodation procedures) without paying any additional charge...(cont.)

sethb

Have you tried getting in touch with a consumer affairs reporter? They might be more likely to actually follow their policy when they realize your complaint will be on the evening news.

synergistic

I'm pretty torn about this post. I'm in a similar situation - I was supposed to be in Miami this weekend for a baptism. I booked with plenty of notice and got a great rate. The ceremony has been tentatively rescheduled for four weeks later - well outside the travel waiver rebooking period. The change will cost us more points for our rebooked flight than our original flight.

This was through no fault of our own, and indeed, the CoC makes it sound like they'll handle this for us. If we'd booked with cash, our trip insurance would have handled it. Because we booked with points, it's us that's on the hook. I don't love how this works - I think WN should change their EXTRA-IRROPS policy to treat points bookings a little differently than cash bookings. At the least, people in (y)our position should probably be given the option to choose a voucher equivalent to their points (perhaps even at the low-end 70 points to the dollar) so as to allow them to rebook with cash if so desired. Telling you to purchase points is ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm sorry you're in this boat. I hope you find a workable solution. I'm fortunate to have a ton of points and some amount of flexibility, so I'm not in nearly as uncomfortable a situation.

Often1

OP has no beef with WN. The COC provision is roughly equivalent to other carriers' such as UA, AA and DL. If your flight is cancelled, you may either have a full refund to your original form of payment or a rebooking to your destination.

OP is not asking for that. He wants a new itinerary sometime down the road.

He is free to call as many consumer affairs reports as he wants, but looking to be rerouted in October is just plain silly.

For what it's worth, the Irma waiver language is a different issue. Weather waivers exist when the flight has not yet been cancelled, but the carrier is willing to voluntarily rebook outside the requirements of its COC. That is not OP's situation.

I don't think that WN is going to do one-off resolutions in this situation.

sethb

"another Southwest flight with available seats". I don't see anything in that saying "within two weeks"; do you? I think a month later is quite reasonable, or even several. One event I intended to attend in mid September 2001 was rescheduled for December, and as far as I know most airlines were cooperative with rebooking passengers at no additional charge.

Tanic

Trouble is WN's SODA policy doesn't follow the language in their CoCs.

There's always a DOT complaint. But October will have come and gone by the time Elaine Chao decides to do nothing.

ursine1

How is a "rebooking to your destination" not "a new itinerary sometime down the road"?

Same destination. The travel waiver doesn't apply. There is no time limitation specified in the CoC.

One could assume that the only time limitation might be travel prior to the expiration of the ticket/funds, which, per policy, is one year from the date of purchase (but doesn't even apply to points bookings, as in this case).

Yes, I understand that's not how it's actually done in practice. That still doesn't make it right.

For what it's worth, I'd go ahead and file a DOT complaint. It may trigger a CR rep phone call with an offer of possible options. Or, more likely, a small voucher.

In the end, at least the OP will get their points back. Some customers are not so lucky in this situation (cancellation/rebooking due to hurricane). For example, if you used travel funds with a quickly approaching expiration to book, the "refund" retains the same expiration, meaning you could lose you funds before it's even possible to rebook.

justhere

Seems pretty clear that a flight a month later is not the next available flight.


9. Service Interruptions
Refer to Section 8 for conditions applicable to international travel.
a. Failure to Operate as Scheduled
(1) Canceled Flights or Irregular Operations. In the event Carrier cancels or fails to
operate any flight according to Carrier’s published schedule, or changes the schedule
of any flight, Carrier will, at the request of a Passenger with a confirmed Ticket on
such flight, take one of the following actions:
(i) Transport the Passenger at no additional charge on Carrier’s next flight(s) on which
space is available to the Passenger’s intended destination, in accordance with
Carrier’s established reaccommodation practices; or
(ii) Refund the unused portion of the Passenger’s fare in accordance with Section 4c.

joshua362

"(i) Transport the Passenger at no additional charge on Carrier’s next flight(s)" kinda brings back the ambiguity though.

justhere

That's only half the sentence. Of course it's ambiguous if you take it out of context.

toomanybooks

Why not 2 years? Or 5? Or 40?

ursine1

Because, as I mentioned earlier, one could assume that the only time limitation might be travel prior to the expiration of the ticket/funds -- which on Southwest is one year from the date of purchase.

The OP is literally looking for "about a month," so suggesting extremes is just silly.

Kacee

This is a really crappy waiver policy from WN. Much of Florida will still be a disaster zone two weeks from now.

UA is offering free rebooking to Florida, with no restrictions, through November 15:

UA Travel Waivers

See above