Posted on 03/12/2015 4:57:11 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
so if you miss your flight and the airline cancels the return ticket, do you get any refund at all?
Ain't it the truth.....not defending Southwest in this situation, sounds like an off shoot of their not having assigned seats, and then a bungled response perhaps. But again, this is SOP for government agencies. Wonder if that TV station will do a feature on any of that.....
don’t just comment on the title... at least read the snippet
the agent at the gate scanned his boarding pass ... twice.
this is an error in their system and his funds should be immediately refunded as an oversight by southwest.
Absolutely,
customer service helps and in this case was a failure all around and why I think a full refund of all monies is the correct solution. Airlines have enough bad marks for other aspects of mistreating passengers, why add to that list?
In the drive for utter efficiency, the consumer has been ground down into just another pebble on one of the Great Lakes.
I probably have flown well over 500 flights on SW.
When I have a problem, I call them and politely explain the problem and they take care of it.
I often deal with gate agents at the time and it is usually handled promptly.
The difference is I am polite, explain the issue carefully and allow myself to understand what the person I am talking to can and cannot do.
I see people all the time that just get mad. There is often no chance of helping them.
You probably pay your lawyer to help with stuff
Really, I mean what if you get another flight and were planning on using the return? what bee ess.
Yes it happened to us on Delta.
I bought a one-way red-eye ticket on another airline that would arrive in Florida before the rebooked flight departed, and I hoped to cancel the outbound but keep the return by clearing it all up at the airport in Florida (the American counters were all closed by this time in California). Naturally, when I got to Florida I forgot all about it, being tired from the red-eye after a long day at work. The storm never came, and the cruise was fine.
A few days later I remembered and called American to check on my reservation. They said I was a no-show and they cancelled my itinerary, keeping my money. They said I could purchase a new ticket for my return. I told them that they created the situation in the first place by canceling the outbound flight and putting me on a flight that was too late for my needs. They said that it was weather related, and they are not responsible for "acts of God." I pointed out to them that the storm they feared never materialized, so it was really a business decision by American to cancel the flight in advance, based on sketchy forecasts.
So at that point, they reinstated my return reservation and credited me for the outbound. It could easily have gone the other way.
-PJ
“I don’t think it was the gate agent’s fault. She waved him through. The clerk who refused to honor the second portion of his ticket and refused explanation was the jerk.”
The second Agent can only go by what the computer tells them.
The fault lies with the first station.
If the count doesn’t match the boarding passes cleared, they have a problem. They have one boarding pass that didn’t register to match the count, so the flight goes.
The error lies in clearing the flight in the computer, before reconciling the extra boarding pass. This would be the fault of the gate agent, or the sup it was referred to.
In the old days, it would have been a fairly simple matter of reopening the PNR, assigning the segment to the original ticket number, and then making a written note of the transaction. Cleared tickets then match the departure count, problem solved.
He still has a boarding pass from the flight (maybe he tossed it). Maybe he has luggage tags from the flight.
As someone else said, there would be a head count.
Blaming it on the computer and denying the flight was wrong.
It's bullstalin to sell roundtrip tickets for less than a one way ticket anyhow.
“It’s bullstalin to sell roundtrip tickets for less than a one way ticket anyhow.”
Perhaps, but that’s the way it has been done for 30+ years now.
As I said, the fault lies with the original station. For a couple of decades, the agent or sup responsible would have been ME.
This is pretty simple. Somebody reconciled a flight incorrectly, be it the agent, or the supervisor, if it was referred to them.
In the old days, when you still used paper, settling this would be a simple matter of having someone check the flight packet for the boarding pass. In the computer age, where there is no longer a paper trail, it isn’t so easy.
Depends on if you bought a non-refundable ticket.
No Show Policy: If you are not planning to travel on any portion of your itinerary, please cancel your reservation at least 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure of the flight. For tickets purchased on or after May 10, 2013, for travel beginning September 13, 2013, Customers who fail to cancel or change a Wanna Get Away or DING! fare segment at least 10 minutes prior to travel and who do not board the flight, will be considered a no show, and all remaining funds on this reservation will be forfeited, including Business Select and Anytime funds.
I travel a lot and have never understood over-booking a flight or cancelling a return leg if you don’t make the outbound leg.
I paid the airlines for a seat on those flights at those specific dates/times. That seat is paid for. And no haggling was involved - I paid full asking price for that seat.
I should be able to use that seat for whatever purpose that does not disprupt the flight. I could put a guitar in it, or a teddy bear or my own patookus.
If they want to use that seat for something else, they can buy it back from me. At least, that’s the way it *should* be, but it sure ain’t the way it is...
“It’s bullstalin to sell roundtrip tickets for less than a one way ticket anyhow.”
Perhaps, but that’s the way it has been done for 30+ years now.
Southwest is one of the few airlines I’ve seen that DOESN’T charge more for one-way than round-trip. As for those that do, the solution is obvious: buy a round-trip ticket with the outbound leg coinciding with your desired direction of one-way travel; then fail to show up for the return flight that you never wanted to take anyway. Maybe if enough people did that, the airlines would change some of their more egregious pricing strategies.
“I travel a lot and have never understood over-booking a flight or cancelling a return leg if you don’t make the outbound leg.”
Overbooking makes perfect sense. The airlines know, from past experience, what share of people with reservations will fail to show up for any given flight. So if, say, 5 percent of the ticketed passengers will be no-shows, they can book 5 percent more passengers and gain 5 percent more revenue. If they didn’t overbook, they would have to charge everyone a higher fare to make up for the extra passengers (beyond the plane’s capacity) that they didn’t book.
And if they guessed wrong, and more people show up than the plane has seats for, the law requires that they seek volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for compensation. In my experience, they tend to get more volunteers than they need, because on most flights, there are always some people who aren’t in that big of a hurry and are willing to give up their seats.
One year, on Thanksgiving Eve, I earned THREE free round-trip tickets by giving up my seats on my original flight and the following two re-booked flights, all in the same afternoon. (The third rebook was the charm, and I got to my destination that same evening . . . about 6 hours later than planned, but 3 round-trip tickets richer.)
As for cancelling your return ticket if you don’t show up for your first one . . . well, you got me on that one. I have no idea why they do that.
I've flown over 1,000,000 miles on Southwest in the last 7 years.
The employees make mistakes, have bad days and sometimes are rude. And their IT dept seems to always be pushing that proverbial boulder uphill, and can create some embarrassing self-inflicted problems.
Have a problem? Call customer service in Dallas at 214-932-0333, be concise and polite and you will be properly served.
Why he called the media instead of Southwest makes no sense to me, except he must not know them well.
Not happy with Southwest? Feel free to fly Spirit Airlines.
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