pinniped

I had a booking out of LGA today. I've had three flights cancel, and a couple of times the system has auto-rebooked me.

The twist is this: I know, because it's La Guardia, everything is going to be jacked all day and probably half of tomorrow too. So I already went to Newark (which was surprisingly rather calm and mostly on-time), bought a United ticket, and flew home.

A few minutes ago, I get another cancel email from Southwest. I quickly logged into the app, with my flight in a canceled state and the app asking me to pick another flight. I went to cancel, hoping I could get a refund. However, I couldn't find any option to do so. I had to take flight credit instead.

Is there any way to get this credit refunded? Or will they say I gave up too soon? I was under the impression that if a flight fully canceled, for any reason, the passenger had the option to refund. I tried several different screens to try to get to a refund option, but I never found it.

ursine1

Contact Customer Relations (best is via Twitter).

Lost

Yes, call in. Ive had much better success calling than trying to cancel over the web/app.

pinniped

I'll just fly at some point and use the credit...not the end of the world. Calling and talking to a human is a nonstarter. I have no status...doubt I'm going to get directly through to anyone today anyway.

Just frustrating that this isn't an easy one-click option if your flight is canceled and you don't want any rebooking option at all.

Often1

As soon as the first flight was cancelled, all you needed to do was ask any WN agent to cancel and refund your ticket. You can still do that. Don't bother doing it today or tomorrow because you will just sit on hold. If you truly don't care about the credit because you know that you will use it, then let it sit.

WN's IT is rickety at best and barely performs the absolute necessities. Bells and whistles like auto-cancel for a refund are somewhere out there with F, seat assignments and hot meals.

ursine1

Requesting a refund immediately in IROPS will, of course, cause you to lose being protected on any rebooked flight.

A Twitter DM will avoid waiting on hold.

pinniped

I'm okay with everything about WN's operational model - I've never been one to whinge about F or assigned seats - but geez, having some basic 2005-level online capabilities would be nice.

It did cross my mind to go to the Southwest counter after arriving to ask for a full cancel/refund. But the credit is valid for 11 months and I'll probably consume it within 2, so I couldn't be bothered to walk over to a separate terminal to do that.

Indeed, I definitely wasn't going to completely cancel the ticket until *after* my United flight was over sunny skies in the Midwest.