jmw

The federal court already ruled in favor of Southwest on a similar case and dismissed the plaintiff's class action lawsuit. So no, the credit card disputes and DOT complaints won't do crap especially given the funds expiration extension, the clear language in the CoC and on your ticket, and the court throwing out the class action lawsuit.

Here is the plaintiff's appeal on video with the arguments from both sides. . Look up the case number on Google to get the decision.

jmastron

I’m pretty sure in that case it was the *customer* who cancelled their reservation (as opposed to Southwest cancelling the flight). Until now it’s always been very clear that an *airline* that cancels a flight (or significantly reschedules it) owes a cash refund, regardless of why they had to cancel. “Force Majeure” can eliminate other obligations (additional compensation, duty of care, obligation to rebook on same or other carriers, etc), but shouldn’t change the customer’s option to say “never mind” and walk away without paying. A limited time credit on a particular airline simply isn’t the same as giving a refund. Leaving a customer who has no use for a credit holding the bag just isn't nice, in my opinion.

But if everyone else understands the implications and is okay with this, I will withdraw my objection. Personally I will take this into account when considering whether and who to book tickets with, but I don’t have any current travel booked so I don’t have skin in the game right now.

AsiaTraveler

Having just canceled a spring break trip where the funds would otherwise expire in September, I'm very thankful to see that they are extending travel fund expiration to June 2021. Given the current situation, I'm not sure we would have been able to reschedule the trip by September, even if schedules otherwise allowed.

OzzyOzzie

Dang, a second chance! Much appreciated WN

ursine1

It now appears that Southwest has deleted the section referring specifically to disallowing refunds when the cancellation is due to an airport closure or travel ban. Presumably this means that they will now grant them in these cases, but with things changing so rapidly, who knows?

Edited to add: On second look, it appears they've deleted multiple sections, all of which referred to refunds. I suppose this could be read two ways: 1) It's in their interest to have messaging that promotes travel funds, with no mention of refunds (although nothing internally has changed, policy-wise), or 2) In these unique times, they've stopped all refunds of non-refundable cash fares in an act of self-preservation.

If you're affected by the current situation, I'd recommend documenting everything.

Policy Update & Clarification: Extending Travel Credit

pinniped

I just canceled a trip planned for mid-May. (It was for a college graduation which has been canceled.) However, my TTFs are still January 2021 expiration.

I'm not that worried about it - I'll fly plenty when this is over and easily consume ~$300-ish in funds before January. But the announcement is a bit misleading if it's saying that "all newly created TTFs between March and May" will get the June 2021 expiration. Mine did not.

I still have a late April trip on the books that I hope to fly.

mile ho

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure you will), I believe one of the missives said the IT department was working on extending them, so it wouldn't happen automatically.

If anyone has any current data points where the TTFs were extended to the June 2021 date, please share.

NoStressHere

To clarify, they are working on it. So, yes it may not happen today, but it will happen - AUTOMATICALLY.

(did not want anyone to think they should have to call in)

hansolo2019

I purchased, in August 2019, travel for January 2020. Price dropped, received TTF for use before August.

in December used portion of those funds ($60) towards a new flight that was to occur in April (paid another $180 out of pocket).

last week canceled flight (in March 2020). Even though ticket purchase didn’t occur until December, ticket value expires August.

i *think* I’ll be fine since the purchase was for a flight in April and was cancelled in the time frame laid out in the notice, but not optimistic given the screwy previous TTF issue

GreenPlastic

Very happy with this. I’m sure many businesses will make similar concessions, but it doesn’t surprise me that SWA has already announced this.

nsx

I had a small amount of funds expiring June 1. Today I merged them with another small amount of funds expiring in May, hoping that all will be extended to 2021.

ursine1

With some thought it should be easy to figure out how anyone with travel funds expiring prior to June 30, 2021 can now extend those funds through June 30, 2021.

Bearbear

I hope it works. I already implemented a strategy for June 2020 expirations. I had never worried about expirations or contamination but got bit pretty bad.

ymx

It would seem to me they would continue extending on a month to month basis as this crisis continues, e.g., funds expiring June 2020 would be extended to July 2021, funds expiring July 2020 would be extended to August 2021.

Bearbear

My wife took a call yesterday from a live agent saying a flight three days out was cancelled. The flight was paid with travel funds expiring June 2020. The agent assured her the travel funds would be adjusted to expire June 2021 but it wouldn't show that way in her account for a while. (And it doesn't now) Very hopeful.