Check your Southwest flights for this fall - ours was cancelled

[LisaS]

If you are flying Southwest this fall you might want to check your flights. Yesterday I noticed one of the flights I booked two months ago for our F&W trip was cancelled. We did not receive any notification from Southwest. SW Customer Service said we were slated to be moved to a different flight but it hadn't happened yet. She offered to complete the reservation change for us.

I asked if EBCI would carry over but the rep said she had to refund it and then have us purchase it again. Since I purchased EBCI the day the flight schedule was extended, repurchasing it now would put us 2 months further back in the EBCI queue. I asked again if there was any way to have it carry over as it does when I do a "Change Reservation" online. She stated again that in this situation that was not an option. I couldn't make the change online because we weren't able to access our reservation (got a message to call southwest), plus the price has gone up and doing it myself would have meant paying more for the tickets.

Has anyone else been in this situation and did the rep keep your original EBCI purchase in place or did you have to go the refund/repurchase route as well? I just find it odd because our reservation confirmation number did not change when she moved us to the new flight and since EBCI is attached to that, it seems like there should have been some way to keep EBCI in place.

 

[keishashadow]

I know not re the EBCI question but do think this is ridiculously unfair. Not sure if they have the capability to go back & insert you into the appropriate time/date on new flight. At the very least they should refund the fee(s) and give you EBCI free imo.

scratching head that SWA didn't assign you to another flight automatically! Were they waiting for you to call to give approval to book a replacement flight? I certainly hope you didn't have to pay any additional amount for increased rates on different flights.

When AT was still running & this sort of thing happened, they would assign a flight. Once you received an email it could become a 'buying' opportunity to upgrade to a more expensive flight even a day or so prior or later.

 

[rdevine10]

Not saying any of this is fair, but just wanted to reassure you I often dont buy my EBCI until a month to a week before my flight. I have ALWAYS been in the A zone (all 4 of us) . I will say thats not during a holiday travel time. So sorry that happened.

 

[DebbieB]

The EBCI priority has always been a mystery. There have been cases where someone on the same flight bought their EBCI after another passenger and they ended up with a better boarding position. I wouldn't worry about it, you are still ahead of people checking in at 24 hours.

 

[LisaS]

I'm not too worried about losing my place in the queue. Annoyed, yes (because I was online at 6am eastern time to book the flight and purchase EBCI!) but not worried about getting decent seats.

My main reasons for posting this thread are to make others aware that Southwest is tinkering with their flight schedule, and to see if anyone else who had a flight cancelled also had to repurchase EBCI. I would like to know whether it really is not possible to keep EBCI intact or if perhaps this particular customer service rep did not know how to preserve EBCI during the flight switch.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Well, yet another way SW has become just like the old mainline airlines.

 

[Carrie Gruber]

Thanks for the info, just checked my flights, they're still on. Just makes me nervous now as I also purchased EBCI and would hate to have to change everything. Can't believe they didn't alert you to the cancellation.

 

[gwynne]

Thanks for the info, just checked my flights, they're still on. Just makes me nervous now as I also purchased EBCI and would hate to have to change everything. Can't believe they didn't alert you to the cancellation.

Waiting to be "alerted" is an option, but consider this. If a passenger makes a quick check on their reservations every week or so, they are way ahead of the game. The folks who spot a problem early can call the airline right away and have a better selection of flights and times.
If Southwest told me they had to refund EBCI, not much to do about that. I would go ahead and re-purchase EBCI if I needed to.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I understand why having a flight canceled was very annoying. However, if Southwest refunded your EBCI fees, repurchasing it for the new flight is not a big deal.

By the way, it's your responsibility to keep an eye on your airline reservations. Never depend on the airline to notify you of changes.

 

[LisaS]

Thanks for the info, just checked my flights, they're still on. Just makes me nervous now as I also purchased EBCI and would hate to have to change everything. Can't believe they didn't alert you to the cancellation.

The lack of notification is baffling. DH travels on SW fairly often for work and usually gets notified if something changes on the day (flight delays for example) so they know how to contact us. Fortunately I check our vacation flights fairly often (checking for price drops!) so I noticed something was up. I could see that there were two possible flights they could choose when rebooking us and I had a strong preference for one over the other so I called right away to make sure we got the flight we preferred.

 

[threeboysmom]

Happened to me too! Although I received a late night phone call (grrrr!) as well as email notification. Southwest cancelled my leg home and rebooked me on a different flight automatically. Not happy. They just took away an hour and a half of my "Disney" time. Too late to book on a different flight myself because the prices have all gone up.

Regarding the EBCI, I had no idea you were placed in a queue. I was going to wait until the week before our flight before purchasing. I guess it's better to book right away? I've never purchased it before but have always been in the A group (as long as I remember to do it at exactly 24 hours, lol) so not sure if it's even needed...

 

[emilymad]

Our flight for September had the time change by about 20 minutes. Not a big deal but we didn't receive any notice from SW. It does remind me of the AT days.

 

[keishashadow]

Happened to me too! Although I received a late night phone call (grrrr!) as well as email notification. Southwest cancelled my leg home and rebooked me on a different flight automatically. Not happy. They just took away an hour and a half of my "Disney" time. Too late to book on a different flight myself because the prices have all gone up.

Regarding the EBCI, I had no idea you were placed in a queue. I was going to wait until the week before our flight before purchasing. I guess it's better to book right away? I've never purchased it before but have always been in the A group (as long as I remember to do it at exactly 24 hours, lol) so not sure if it's even needed...

if they changed your flight IMO you'd have an argument to request any flight that, even up to a day prior/later. Did you ask for another flight?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

......
Regarding the EBCI, I had no idea you were placed in a queue. I was going to wait until the week before our flight before purchasing. I guess it's better to book right away? I've never purchased it before but have always been in the A group (as long as I remember to do it at exactly 24 hours, lol) so not sure if it's even needed...

EBCI check-in order is based on your fare class, then the time it was purchased. This is explained on Southwest's web site.

 

[bumbershoot]

scratching head that SWA didn't assign you to another flight automatically!

This hasn't happened on SW but on other airlines; sometimes you catch it before their computers have gotten to it. It's not that it wasn't going to happen, but it hadn't happened yet. If the OP had gotten online an hour later they might have just seen the new flight.

NO airline is perfect with notifications about flight changes and cancellations. NEVER expect them to get it to you. ALWAYS check and recheck your flights on your own.

They just took away an hour and a half of my "Disney" time. Too late to book on a different flight myself because the prices have all gone up.

Call them. You don't have to accept it. And they can put you on another flight without charging you the extra.

 

[softballmom3]

We were called yestersay regarding a flight time change. They offered us any flight we wanted that day. I kept my original as it was only a 25 minute difference and they transferred our EBCI.

 

[LisaS]

This hasn't happened on SW but on other airlines; sometimes you catch it before their computers have gotten to it. It's not that it wasn't going to happen, but it hadn't happened yet. If the OP had gotten online an hour later they might have just seen the new flight.

I suspect that is what happened. When we called, the SW rep said that my reservation was showing two flights, the cancelled one plus a new one. Perhaps my reservation was in the process of being changed and we would have been notified once the update had finished.

 

[keishashadow]

We were called yestersay regarding a flight time change. They offered us any flight we wanted that day. I kept my original as it was only a 25 minute difference and they transferred our EBCI.

thanks for posting! as I had thought they should continue handling this situation.

 

[keishashadow]

This hasn't happened on SW but on other airlines; sometimes you catch it before their computers have gotten to it. It's not that it wasn't going to happen, but it hadn't happened yet. If the OP had gotten online an hour later they might have just seen the new flight.

NO airline is perfect with notifications about flight changes and cancellations. NEVER expect them to get it to you. ALWAYS check and recheck your flights on your own.



Call them. You don't have to accept it. And they can put you on another flight without charging you the extra.

true, and I'm sure most of us here check our SWA flights often if only for price drops.

however, while I don't expect perfection, I do think an airline needs to make a good faith attempt to notify customers of flight changes/cancellations within a 24 - 48 hour window.

 

[hsmamato2]

While I am a SWA fan..... their notification process is sometimes a mess,I;ve had multiple confusing phone calls and emails over a simple minute time change on a flight,and then again I've had flights canceled due to weather and no notification at all.... I agree that it is not too much to expect notifications in a timely manner.