Southwest has announced that customers with flights through 1/2/23 are able to rebook in the original class of service or travel standby without paying any additional charges or fees. Despite the 1/2/23 date, it’s actually working for flights later in January as well. This was also available in much of 2021 due to COVID.
In addition Southwest has announced that it will reimburse ‘reasonable expenses’ for people affected by the Southwest chaos.
Hat tip to Viking9919 & MtM
Is anybody still waiting for a response from Southwest on charges? Ours were submitted way back early January, but crickets since then.
….going to take that as “no”.
If fares we’re paid using a card with trip cancelation insurance, would they be able to double dip?
Some good news from Southwest!
My husband and I were supposed to fly back from Mexico to the States on December 26. Southwest cancelled our flight, and we had to book two last-minute one-ways to get us home. They each cost $350 (so $700 total). As a side note, flying Viva Aerobus was an interesting experience 😆
I submitted our flight receipts to Southwest a few days ago with very low expectations. They sent an email today saying they were going to send us a check for ~$400 (they had already refunded the $300 we originally paid for our Southwest flight). They also sent each of us a $200 Southwest voucher as an apology.
Some other background info: My husband was flying as my companion on the companion pass. We booked economy tickets on Viva Aeromexico (it’s a Mexican budget airline) and also paid for extra baggage. Southwest is refunding all of it.
Our experience on the 26th was definitely frustrating as hell, but refunding the alternate flight and sending $400 in apology vouchers so quickly was unexpected. Color me surprised!
Were you on my flight? I was on PVT to SNA on Dec 26. What link did you use to submit flight receipts? I have not filed yet. I also had someone on my companion pass so I haven’t tried thinking this would be too difficult
We probably were on the same flight 🙂 I wasn’t going to try it either, but then I saw Pete on the news saying he had pressured the Southwest CEO so figured it was worth a shot.
I submitted my expenses through this link: https://support.southwest.com/email-us/s/?clk=TRAVEL-DISRUPTION-LP_FAQ1
This is an age-old situation carriers have struggled with for decades, and because Southwest did this to itself, a big spotlight is being shone on it for the entire country to see. It’s about time. Airlines have this intrinsic idea that they should try their hardest to only be exposed/liable up to what the customer paid for transport from point A to point B when things go wrong. That’s why a lot of trash carriers (Spirit and Frontier) give up quickly, refund your ticket, and leave you stranded if you can’t wait days to be transported on their next flight.
Airlines created this pricing model we have today, and last minute tickets are prohibitively expensive (generally) for people to buy last minute. Which is why the industry has IROP ticket handling and interline agreements to waive such high costs and help each other out when they can (increasingly difficult these days with full planes). Southwest, despite its massive growth and increasing complexity, made the business decision to shun such traditional methods and channels. This is also despite being hosted on the most advanced reservation system backed by the largest GDS in the world for the past 6 years or so! This is just one area where they made a bad decision (P2P network, insufficient crew management software, staffing levels, etc) and it’s all compounded into the mess on everyone’s television screen and news feed. I’ve never seen anything to this degree of awful.
But as the saying goes, you get what you paid for. Hopefully people will do a little more research and think about what they are buying in the future (doubt it though)…
…..Dos bolsas gratis amigo
I have never seen the appeal of Southwest. It was often the only affordable option to get to a city in the southwest US I lived in from LAX or CA airports because I wouldn’t have to pay for the two bags I’d check.
My connecting flight always ran late, boarding was always a cluster, bags arrived late or not at all, not helped by the clown antics of the cabin staff who always thought it was best to put on a show rather than just fly the plane or do the safety presentation with some seriousness. I guess I got what I paid for, though.
Legacy carriers have always gotten the job done better, even at regional locations. I no longer live in that city but don’t miss Southwest one bit.
Southwest is literally in the garbage right now. Corporate greed has destroyed a great airline and Herb Kelleher is rolling over in his grave. What used to be an airline that pilots would stay at for their career (rather than go to AA, United, Delta, FedEx, or UPS) is now a stepping-stone as anyone who has not been there for 10+ years is jumping ship. Pilots and Flight Attendants are left stranded at airports for days with no hotels because the company loves to be cheap with an outdated scheduling system while their new CEO takes $9M a year.
Never doing business with these clowns until that CEO apologizes and steps down.
I was supposed to fly on a companion ticket on Dec. 22, and my flight was cancelled. Not sure if my ticket qualifies for compensation (cab fare, hotel cost, meal expenses, etc). I’ve sent an email anyway attaching the receipts requesting compensation.
Now: Southwest gives reimbursement
2023: Southwest devalues Rapid Rewards points
2024: Southwest ends Companion Pass
Seems like this will easily bankrupt the airline, paying out thousands per customer when they maybe had a $49 ticket to begin with.
Bankruptcy would imply Southwest can’t pay their debts. This will pinch SW financially and reputation wise in the short-term but they have $15B in cash on hand so they’re very far from bankruptcy.
Let the clown Jesse think that SW is going BK. Someone doesn’t know how to look up or comprehend basic financials. Just another example of why the rich get richer – society is full of idiots.
Lol because Congress would let that happen. The standards for airlines to meet are extremely low, I assume they wrote the rules themselves based on how easy they are to meet. Somehow failed to meet their own low standards due to their own ineptitude.
They should 100% pay for everyone’s inconvenience, plus they gotta make face now for the inevitable lawsuits and inquiries down the line.
I was stuck at Denver airport for 3 extra nights due to Southwest Cancellations. Ultimately booked United to get home on 12/28 but missed Christmas at home. I submitted the “email us”, so shall see what happens. I also submitted the forms for refunds for the flights cancelled. Haven’t received any communication on that. Here’s to hoping…
Why would you wait for 3 nights to finally switch to another carrier? Stories like this confuse me… people could have rented a car (even cross country would be less than 3 nights) or personally I would have purchased the next ticket out on a different carrier immediately and if you’re a reader on this sub you probably bought your original ticket with a cc that offers trip insurance of some sort.
Because 1/3 of DEN is Southwest. There were probably no flights available. United itself was behind at least a day at DEN. I would much rather sit on my butt for 3 days than drive non stop for 3 days…
Driving in the middle of a historic winter storm sounds like a smart idea!
Because ALL RENTAL CARS were SOLD OUT! And other carriers were over $1K a ticket or sold out… you think I have fun just making up a story here for the heck of it? We landed Xmas at Denver and was supposed to fly back out to CA… all flights cancelled, we checked rental cars, NOTHING available. Even if so, it would be extremely expensive and driving with a kid in a one day’s worth of driving in winter does not sound safe and fun. The only airline available from Denver is United and they were expensive. In addition, I waited another day to see if can fly Southwest Monday because at that time, no one knew Southwest was at a complete meltdown and that they would continue to keep cancelling almost all flights. After it was cancelled AGAIN on Monday, by then it was too late to even try United because tickets were over 1K for Tuesday. We want to be home, but not at an expense of $3K+ out of pocket.
Everyone always second guesses these things in hindsight, but at the time it makes perfect sense and is the logical course of action.
I have had flights cancelled. The airlines (usually United or American) have always gotten me on a flight by the next day. No one anticipates an airline stranding them for multiple days. Elana’s actions were quite normal.
Thank you Mike, really appreciate it! You are right, with hindsight, then of course I would have booked United as soon as possible and not trusted Southwest to be able to get me home the next day.
How did you find the form to fill it out.
https://www.southwest.com/traveldisruption/
They cancelled on me Monday morning, I cancelled and had to book a flight on another airline. I doubt they’ll compensate me for it, but we’ll see.
Based on the lawyer video I linked below, when THEY (the airline) cancel a flight, they MUST refund you – regardless of if your ticket was “nonrefundable”. Best of luck, please pursue. Make airlines pay when they fuck us over. Otherwise they will keep doing it.