LeonS

Back in December I booked a ticket with rapid rewards to fly today. It was one of the super cheap tickets (2.3k Miles).

I forgot to cancel the ticket, so today I did a no-show that I was not aware of. About an hour ago, I received an e-mail from Southwest saying that my reservation had been canceled and the points redeposited. I also got the other e-mail saying that my balance had been adjusted. I checked on my account online, and the points have been credited to my account.

Is this normal? Has anyone had it happened before?

ursine1

Yes. Points bookings are exempt from the no-show policy.

maquez

Not really exempt from the policy, but rather that is the policy:
"If you no show your reward travel reservation, the points will be redeposited to the purchaser’s Rapid Rewards account. Any taxes and fees associated with your reward travel reservation will be held for future use in the form of reusable travel funds under the name of the traveler(s)."

joshua362

The $5.60 fee refund is not automatic however.

ursine1

Unfortunately, there is no refund of the fees, they are only held as travel funds in the event of a no-show on a points booking.

You can request a refund of the fees in some other circumstances after they've been held as travel funds (Southwest cancellation of flight, loss of refundability on BS/AT fare due to itinerary change, customer cancellation of points booking, etc.) by contacting Customer Relations.

LeonS

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I certainly won't complain about the $5.60 fee... tiny price to pay for my own mistake.

Why is this policy about no shows on reward travel reservations so overly generous?

joshua362

Don't be so hard on yourself, note the PNR and use for your next booking points or otherwise, got a year from date of original booking.

ursine1

The best guess is that it's due to a system limitation. Common wisdom is that it may end at some point, and points bookings will no longer be exempt from forfeiture of funds after no-show.

NoStressHere

I find that WN is overly generous in cancel policy - bordering on stupid.

No show on an award and get the points back.
Cancel at 10 minutes and get money back, or into your account for future use.

In either case, WN is unable to sell the seat.

I can not imagine anyone having a problem with a few hours, or even more. Hey, it is good for the customer, but not the company. But, we all pay in the long run for people that too damn lazy to take time to cancel a flight in a timely manner.

ursine1

WN's generous cancellation policy is one reason I continue to give them my business.

ryw

I no-showed for an award booking last week (first time this happened, I usually cancel, but I forgot to this time), and checked my account today and the points haven't returned yet, all I see is the point deduction from when I bought the ticket on the points activity page. The policies on the website still state that rewards points will be re-deposited if the passenger no-shows on reward travel.

Potentially related, I cancelled some future reward travel today, and while I got the email that points would be re-deposited, the point balance hasn't changed in my account. I'll chalk that one up to needing to wait a while, but in my past experience, point balances were updated relatively quickly. I'll plan to call in the next couple days to see what's going on if the points don't come back from both issues, but curious if this has happened to others recently?

synergistic

I also accidentally no showed an award flight recently, and also haven't received the points back I haven't chased them down just yet. I don't often forget to cancel so I don't know how frequently this happens or if this is just something new.