Southwest questions

[Liz]

When the new dates came out we booked (too hastily I guess). After looking around a bit we found a way to adjust our travel dates by approx. a week which will save our family of four $160. Is there any way to get the difference refunded to us or do we just have to take a credit?

If we have to take a credit we could use it for a trip to California in May 2006. But that's beyond the one year time limit to use a credit. Can you book something and then reschedule that one so our May trip would be within the one year time frame?

Last question. Can a credit be given to someone? For instance if we change our plans, four of us will each have a credit. But only three of us will be traveling to Calif. in May 2006 because DS will be going on the bus with the high school band. Can we use his credit towards our airline tickets?

What a mess.

Thanks for any help and/or ideas.

 

[goldcupmom]

I have made and changed/cancelled SW reservations several times in the last couple of years due to my son's gymnastics and injuries/illnesses that have kept us from going to meets at the last minute.

My experience has been that you can use all or part of your credit for new tickets for you or someone else, but you can only use the credit for travel up through the original booking date (travel must be COMPLETED by that date - I just called to confirm that prior to booking on Thurs).

Just this week I used funds from 3 tickets (Me, DS & DD) to purchase 2 tickets to Houston for DS and I in March. There were still some funds left which I then applied to the tickets I bought on Thurs for DS and DH to MCO in July.

There is a small part of each ticket - I think it's the fees/taxes - that is always refundable in cash. The rest is credit w/ SW.

HTH

 

[mareed]

I can answer a few of your questions. You can't get a refund when you change the flight. Some people have been able to get a refund when the exact same flight goes down in price, but not if you're changing date/time.

The amount of the difference will be in the form of a credit that has to be used (meaning the flight taken) within a year from the date you originally booked. That would mean you'd have to fly by Feb. 17, 2006, so you could not use it for you May 2006 flight. There's a possibility that they might extend the date of the credit if you call their Customer Service dept. (not the reservations #), but I can't vouch for that.

You can give your credit to someone else to use. They'd just need the confirmation # and the name of the person whose credit card was originally used to purchase the ticket. But again, the flight would need to be by Feb. 2006.

Hope this helps, even if it wasn't the exact answers you were hoping for.

 

[Liz]

Thank you both!

The only thing I wanted to clarify again is the one year thing. We booked our original flights February 17 so we should have till 2/17/06 to use the credit. If we use our credit and book a flight for 8/15/05 (just as an example) then if we cancel that does the year start over from 8/15/05 or will the credit still go back to 2/17/05? Sorry if that's way confusing!

 

[goldcupmom]

Thank you both!

The only thing I wanted to clarify again is the one year thing. We booked our original flights February 17 so we should have till 2/17/06 to use the credit. If we use our credit and book a flight for 8/15/05 (just as an example) then if we cancel that does the year start over from 8/15/05 or will the credit still go back to 2/17/05? Sorry if that's way confusing!

It is based on the ORIGINAL booking date, no matter how many times you use it to book and cancel.

For Example: I just booked Houston for March using all credit which expires 11/9/05. If I have to cancel houston, I'll still only have until 11/9/05 to use that amount of credit - or lose it. So, my plan is if Houston gets cancelled, I'll also cancel my Orlando tickets (booked 2/17/05), rebook MCO with the 11/9/05 credit, and then save the 2/17/05 credit until next gymnastics meet season. Confusing, but it works !