Flight Refund Indian Giver--READ THIS DURING HOLIDAY FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS
 

SW cost our family $1,300. :mad:We can't afford $1,300! Buyer beware during the holidays. Our flight was canceled yesterday and after waiting 1 hr for customer service, the agent immediately said given how quickly flights are filling up let's move your family to Thursday's flight -- five days later!

I quickly asked if there were options including them putting us on another airline. I said we can't afford to stay through Thursday. The agent said yes, you can get a full refund and cancel your return for $1,300. Given the amount of money in hand, I asked for a supervisor to ensure we could go ahead and process the refund.

Once I had a supervisor, she said the agent made a mistake and that technically the only option given we were moved to Thursday is now a flight credit. She said given I was not informed properly, she would cancel the Thursday flight and process a full refund (the right thing to do). She said I should call customer service on Monday and ensure the refund has been processed -- given the circumstances she did not see an issue.

Acting on SW guidance and knowing how quickly seats were being booked, we purchased a $1,300 return to Denver on United airlines. To my surprise, customer service has now said, they can only process a credit and that they would not stand behind their employee.

This is not over, I asked for yet another supervisor to call me but buyer beware in listening to the first agent you get on the phone with SW.

Check for Southwest's "contract of carriage" information on their website. It's my belief that every airline must refund your ticket in full if the flight is cancelled.

also for future ref. southwest, like many budget airlines, do not have contracts with other airlines/codeshare that allow them to switch carriers or be placed on another airline if something happens.......so they won't refund any of the United Airlines ticket, but most likely will with the unused SW ticket since they canceled

UPDATE: SW has fully refunded the return portion of the flight. In the end, the manager called us and apologized for the confusion and did the right thing.:)

Congrats! A win for the consumer and a GREAT thread on this forum!

Airline sympathizers eat your hearts out!!!

Why? The only reason anyone gets the "Red Badge of Courage," is because they have the guts to sometimes tell the complainers when they were wrong. And sometimes, they ARE wrong. Not in this case, and I'm happy things worked out for the passenger.

Good news, but I find Southwest is one of the more passenger focussed airlines in the US. By the way... "indian-giver" is a racist stereotype, it is 2011 almost... time to move on...