REFUND Policy
 

If a reservation has to be CANCELED due to death in family (happened in February) or documented Medical problems (happened today) - AND the seat can be filled (I have never seen an empty seat on South West - in fact have been involved in battling to get one in an emergency) - THEN A REFUND SHOULD BE ALLOWED! The airline will still get all of its money and experience NO LOSS AT ALL. The current policy REWARDS SW whenever a passenger experiences any major problems. I can see a demand for documentation - but there should be SOME WAY. The current policy is totally unfair.

this is why they are a low cost carrier. (cheap tickets).

Call Customer Relations.
 

If you have a death in the family or a documented medical concern (your MD says you cannot fly), you can simply call Southwest Customer Relations and ask for your refund. You will probably be asked for documentation. The seat does not have to be resold for you to receive your refund. Customer Relations phone is 214-792-4223. Southwest also has a contact us link that will get your request in their system and you can request a response.

RCRDOEVA

This is not a low cost issue.. all the carriers have horror stories in this forum where they try to exploit the death of family members to make money....

Yes, reading more and more of these stories, it gets clearer to me that they use death in a family (Yes, while it is too bad,) to just get more money, and no, its not just the low cost carriers either.