Well, it is the holiday season. A time to spend with friends and family. Sadly, I will not be able to because Southwest Airlines will not allow me!
Back in February, I had purchased a ticket to visit my best friend in Chicago. A month later, I got a job and had to cancel the flight. I booked it again, for early November but had to cancel because my GF’s job took away her vacation because they were under staffed. Now, I am trying to use my credit to fy my GF to CA in December because I am not able to travel and my credits are about to expire.
Southwest says it is not possible to transfer my credits to another passenger, but once they expire, I can pay another $50 to have them extended for another 6 months. Why would I pay them $50, so I can use my money? I thought giftcards were no longer able to charge to do that, so why should Southwest be allowed to? Is it the Holiday spirit to ROB your customers out of their money?
Besides, I am not asking for anything for free. Just want to use the money I already spent for someone to visit me, instead of me visiting them. I was not upset when they told me the credits would expire in February because it seemed like a long ways away. I figured I would be able to reschedule my flight and not have a problem. However, the Universe and now, Southwest are working against me seeing my best bud by not allowing me to use my credit to bring her to see me.
I understand the flight itself was non-transferable, but I cancelled it and just want to use the funds on my account. When I spoke to Customer Care, they stated they no longer allow credits to be transferred, which means that they did at one time. When I cancelled the flight originally, I asked if it could be used by someone else and was told that I could. However, it seems that the policy changed without me being informed. This is HUGELY disappointing!
My GF and I have been trying for almost a year to see each other. What difference does it really make to Southwest Airlines who uses the credits, they already got my money? Unless they were bargaining on the fact that I may not be able to use the credits and they would just get to keep the funds without have to fly me anywhere. This is not how you should treat your customers. Before this, SWA was always the airline I looked to first because I thought their policies and prices were more customer focused. Now, I feel that stealing my money is more important to them, than taking care of their customers.
I hope you will support me in my efforts to get Southwest Airlines to take better care of their customers, by re-posting this on your blog, Facebook or Twitter. Thank you in advance for your assistance in bringing my best friend and I together for the Holidays!
Have you asked your credit card that you used to purchase the flight to help you/advocate for you? especially since the credit will expire. and you were verbally promised that it could be transferred to someone else.