Comments on: Southwest’s Problematic Ticketing Logic

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:24:30 +0000

It’s nice that we live in the day and age when we can do things on line. Not that everything is perfect online, but things have a way of getting ironed out in the long run when you can bypass the frivolous human element.

By: CF

CF — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:55:01 +0000

nina wrote:

I am sorry for the expierence you had. I would like to let you know that Southwest has (shortly after your call) made changes to the system.

Very glad to hear it. Thanks for chiming in Nina.

By: nina

nina — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:00:01 +0000

I am sorry for the expierence you had. I would like to let you know that Southwest has (shortly after your call) made changes to the system. When you have a partial credit (rtf) and a full credit (eticket), the computers will take an Eticket first.
We now have a way to change the type from an Eticket to an RTF. It does not change the ammount of the credit or the expiration date.
When you are paying with all RTF’s in a reservation, the computer will take the soonest to expire ticket first.
Keep in mind, when you apply old funds to a new reservation, the new reservation takes the soonest exiration date. (you have funds expiring in may and one in june, your new ticket will expire in may)
Also, Asad, I have never seen a reservation that has a restriction to the number of changes to a reservation, but there are limits.
1- if you are changing online, after you fly your outbound flight, you can make one change to your return online, then all other changes to the same reservation have to be made over the phone.
2- if you make any changes over the phone, all future changes will have to be made there.
Yesterday, i changed a reservation for the 8th time. There were changes to the time, cities and dates of travel.
We are still getting the kinks out of our booking system, and sometimes we do run into errors. We are doing updates and working to make the necessary changes, but remember everything costs time and money so it will most certainly not be an over night process. The point is that we are working on it, and we are trying to make things better.

By: The Global Traveller

The Global Traveller — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:48:34 +0000

Every Asian, Pacific or European airline which I’ve had credits with (admittedly only small number of airlines) has had much more restrictive policies than you describe. Like a lot of things in air travel, it seems US-based airlines have a different set of rules & processes when it comes to credits.

By: PFR

PFR — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Yeah, Southwest’s online system is generally good, but I’ve run into a few annoying glitches. The one I’m up against now (and which mysteriously appeared within the last year) is that the SW site simply will NOT allow me to enter my FF# when I book tickets, even though I’m logged in under that account. Says the name doesn’t match that on the account. However, when I go to check-in online, it lets me add the FF# with no problem. Weird and annoying. Haven’t taken the time to deal with customer service phone calls, as I’ve discovered a work around.

By: asad

asad — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:17:04 +0000

CF I understand your point, I used to fly SW for the exact same reason when I lived in LA and covered the SW of the US. I used to change my flights multiple times a day but even that had limits, it turns out you can only change your flight over the phone 3 times, after that you had to go to the airport.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:55:03 +0000

As I wrote to Brett, even if all this had been lost, it is worth a little time on the phone and hassle to never have to be the exhorbitant $150 change fee!! Let us all give thanks for WN and their customer friendly policy while recognizing that no one is perfect, and some airlines are so far from perfect that it is scary. WN is not so scary.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:49:55 +0000

Southwest suffers from the fact that they actually try to be customer friendly, and so we actually expect them to have this sort of thing figured out. When they don’t; it’s surprising and frustrating. They are the best IMHO and are thus held to a higher standard. Can’t wait to hear their response.

By: CF

CF — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:41:52 +0000

Global Traveller – But the point is that you CAN do that on Southwest, so they should at least give it the proper logic to use the oldest credit first. If they want to go with a less customer-friendly policy that prohibits combining credits, then they’re welcome to do it, but they don’t do that.

By the way, who makes you lose your excess credit value if you use a cheaper fare? I’ve never seen that before. United sent me the difference in fare in a voucher most recently.

By: The Global Traveller

The Global Traveller — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:36:59 +0000

I don’t see what the issue is. How is this different to attempting to pay for the fare with a few $ each from several bank accounts or credit cards? I wouldn’t expect to be able to do that, and nor would I expect to combine multiple credits together.

Indeed, most airlines credits are non-combinable, any excess credit value gets lost if you use on a cheaper fare, and they may also have a fee on top just to use the credit.