What am I entitled to from Southwest, and how do I get it?

December 29, 2022 2:03 AM

On Friday 12/23 I booked a last minute one-stop Southwest flight for my sister to try to get her to my place for Christmas. One of the legs of that itinerary was cancelled. She went to the ticket desk and was rebooked on another one-stop flight the next morning. One of those legs was cancelled as well. She ended up getting up here another way (Alaska FTW) and we are VERY grateful. But I'd like my money back!

Possible complications:
- In both cases, one of the two flights in her itinerary did take off
- I paid for the flights but booked them in her name
- SWA sent her a "LUV voucher" today for $250; the ticket counter agent also gave her some paper vouchers. These don't quite add up to what I paid, but it's actually not far off. But I'd prefer actual money!

Is it even possible to get through on the phone right now? Is there a point after which they won't refund these cancelled flights? Did they intend that voucher to be in lieu of a refund?

posted by potrzebie to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

I don’t know if the law has changed, and you should look it up. It used to be that if the airline canceled the flight and it was not canceled due to weather that they did have to do a refund instead of a voucher. Given the state of things, I would attempt to deny getting a voucher and insist that if it shows one that must have gone to someone else. (Again, assuming vouchers are still pieces of paper.) If this is successful please do tear up the voucher. I would call and sit on hold. Again though, this is all pre-pandemic advice based on a family member who worked for SWA. Check out the laws around refunds and policies before sitting onhold for a day.
posted by Bottlecap at 5:01 AM on December 29, 2022

Best answer: Fellow survivor of the Great Southwest Debacle of 2022 here. This whole mess has affected hundreds of thousands of people and is going to put Southwest hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole. I have little faith that refunds and compensation are going to be processed in anything like a timely manner, even with the DOT riding Southwest's ass, but here's how you can put your requests in.

First, you can request a refund instead of a voucher for your cancelled flight here: https://www.southwest.com/traveldisruption

Next, if you have incurred additional expenses (hotels, rental cars, other flights), Southwest is promising to honor "reasonable" requests for reimbursement -- whatever that means. You can submit your receipts via their "email us" web form here and hope for the best: https://support.southwest.com/email-us/s/?clk=TRAVEL-DISRUPTION-LP

Southwest chief commercial officer Ryan Green also put out a 90-second video this morning detailing "ways to submit receipts for travel expenses incurred in disrupted travel, to request a refund for canceled or significantly delayed flights, and ... to help us deliver delayed bags free."
posted by fancypants at 5:47 AM on December 29, 2022 [8 favorites]

I was affected by a similar situation with Delta in June. It took months to resolve, but it was fully refunded and I also received a huge credit of Skymiles. Look on their website for the way to submit for reimbursement and follow the instructions. Keep track of any form submissions, emails, or phone calls. Be exceedingly polite and pleasant to anyone you speak with. Many of the other thousands of people affected won't be. But don't try to get anyone on the phone right now or expect this to be a fast process.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:11 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Per Southwest they should give you a full refund for an itinerary where one leg was cancelled. Including return flight. But you will have to call and sit on hold. If one of her flights that was cancelled was on 12/24 or later Southwest has said they will reimburse "reasonable travel costs" - there is an email address to submit receipts.

My understanding is that LUV vouchers are not travel credits or refunds and don't satisfy their legal obligation to refund for cancelled flights.
posted by muddgirl at 6:14 AM on December 29, 2022

There might end up being a class action suit; money/ lawsuits are how corporations learn. There are a lot of aviation websites and reference librarians; research the airline's legal obligation. Weather cancellations are treated differently, but this is bad management. Consider filing in small claims court.
posted by theora55 at 6:31 AM on December 29, 2022

My understanding is that LUV vouchers are not travel credits or refunds and don't satisfy their legal obligation to refund for cancelled flights.

I agree with this and that they should be refunding flights if they are the ones to cancel. "Should" is the issue here and I know someone who had their flights on another airline cancelled in late 2021 when the airlines stopped running their flights at all. She still had to get the FTA involved to get a refund.

Assuming you are unable to get a full refund before the expiration date of the voucher(s), I just read a solution to the voucher problem to convert it to a flight credit, the difference being that flight credits no longer expire but the vouchers do. Book a flight that costs a bit more than the voucher in value, not including tax. Pay the difference on a credit card and then cancel that flight within 24 hours. The extra you paid will be refunded to your card and the voucher amount will be saved on your account as a flight credit.
posted by soelo at 6:51 AM on December 29, 2022

flight credits no longer expire but the vouchers do

This is picking nits and doesn't negate your overall point by any means, but the voucher expiration is nominal only. It's trivially easy (in normal times, at least) to extend the expiration of a Southwest voucher. I've even done after the expiration date. This is why I think it's good that this happened to Southwest instead of another airline: Southwest still actually cares about customer service, and their customer service people do usually have some power to help customers. That may change given the scale of what's happened the past couple of weeks, but they at least have a history of working with you.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2022

Response by poster: Yeah, I'm not in urgent need of the cash (which is lucky since I definitely don't think I'll see it anytime soon), it's more the principle of the thing. I haven't called on the phone yet out of a recognition that lots of people truly need help from the airline urgently, and I'm not among them. But I definitely don't think SWA earned what I paid them and I don't want to wait so long on this that they don't think I want a refund, haha. Thanks for the links, fancypants - just what I was after. Now there is at least a record that I asked for this and I can hopefully reference that when I call after all this has settled down.
posted by potrzebie at 10:36 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ask Erika!
posted by tristeza at 5:50 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Update on our personal experience: My spouse just sat on hold for about 25 minutes and got a refund for our complete itinerary back to our credit card.
posted by muddgirl at 11:10 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]