Southwest Flight help...:(

[lovin diz]

We are a family of 5 going from New Orleans to New York in July. I paid for 4 tickets with my rapid rewards points. (Three of these I scheduled on 1/26/2015) The 4th, I scheduled on 2/24/2015.

Then I scheduled a flight with a credit card for my dad on 2/24/2015.

Today I get an email saying that my dad had a flight change. He will not fly with us.

I called today, and the lady said there is no more seats. I then tried to put us all on an earlier flight. My dads was $12 more, but I don't have enough points for the other 4, so I cant do that.

I am stuck, and I am angry that they threw my dad on a different flight a month after I scheduled it.

I don't know anything about flying. This is my first time flying. Is there anything I can do? Does this happen often?

 

[Mizzoufan]

We are a family of 5 going from New Orleans to New York in July. I paid for 4 tickets with my rapid rewards points. (Three of these I scheduled on 1/26/2015) The 4th, I scheduled on 2/24/2015.

Then I scheduled a flight with a credit card for my dad on 2/24/2015.

Today I get an email saying that my dad had a flight change. He will not fly with us.

I called today, and the lady said there is no more seats. I then tried to put us all on an earlier flight. My dads was $12 more, but I don't have enough points for the other 4, so I cant do that.

I am stuck, and I am angry that they threw my dad on a different flight a month after I scheduled it.

I don't know anything about flying. This is my first time flying. Is there anything I can do? Does this happen often?

Do they do standby? If someone cancels

 

[bcla]

Do you mean scheduled or booked? Just a clarification since it sounds like you means those dates are when you booked them.

Sounds rather interesting that you've enough points for four flights but you've never flown before. Might be possible with the Southwest credit card or other credit cards.

Your dad was probably "overbooked", where they allow a purchase on a flight even though there are more passengers booked than seats available. It's a "revenue management" thing where they normally have passengers change plans. However, they may have some model that tells them that your dad is unlikely to be allowed on this flight. So yeah it's possible that they overbooked and now bumped your dad off the flight.

Standby was mentioned as a way to get him on your flight. Southwest's policy is that once you check in you won't be denied a seat. There may be those sold a ticket who aren't allowed to check in because all available seats have been taken. They will then ask people if they will voluntarily take another flight, and might offer compensation, like a travel voucher and/or meal credit. However, you'd be taking a chance that your dad could get on your flight and not forced to take an even later one. I'm pretty sure that the preference will be given to those confirmed for the flight but who weren't able to check in.

https://www.southwest.com/html/generated/help/faqs/overbooking_faq.html

Do you absolutely need to travel with your dad? When you buy a ticket, the contract of carriage only states that they will get the passenger from one place to another, and they don't really guarantee a flight that could be oversold, delayed, or cancelled. I know it's frustrating if you're not used to it, but this is one of the odd things about the airline industry. They try to remain profitable my maximizing aircraft use, and try to calculate what they can do given that some passengers do change their flight plans.

Is it that big a deal for your dad to take that earlier flight and wait for your group? That may be the least troublesome way if he has no difficulties spending time at an airport. If you try for standby on your already oversold flight, you're then taking a risk that he may then need to take an even later flight if he can't get on yours.

 

[bcla]

Do you mean scheduled or booked? Just a clarification since it sounds like you means those dates are when you booked them.

Just as a clarification, I know "scheduled" has a meaning in common language, but in travel terms "scheduled" generally refers to the time that a specific form of travel is supposed to occur (i.e. "flight schedule", "scheduled departure", "scheduled arrival"). I had a relative who was a travel agent, and the industry term is "booked". I didn't mean to be condescending, but if you're on the phone with travel professionals you might get the runaround because they think in their own language.

 

[lovin diz]

I really don't know. I will have to find out about standby. My daughter is graduating this year and has always wanted to go to New york. I promised when she graduated, i would take her. My parents decided they wanted to go. So, I got the rapid rewards credit card (with 50000 bonus points) and bought all tickets except one.

Sorry for my scheduling/booking terminology. lol. The flight is scheduled on July 11th, but I bought and paid for the tickets in January and February. I guess it really isn't a big deal, but I didn't know this could happen. What if I would have scheduled something? Its been a month since I bought the ticket. What if it happens again?

 

[sharona]

What is the different flight they gave your dad? Can you move someone else to fly with him so he isn't alone? I'm surprised they would be taking this action so early. SW has so many people cancelling and rebooking due to the no change fees that I would think they would wait to see where they stand a little closer to the date of travel.

 

[lovin diz]

4 of us have flight 1510 from N.O to Atlanta. Then flight 3444 from Atlanta to N.Y. We will arrive at 4pm.
My dads was changed to flight 1510 and then flight 2037 from Atlanta to N.Y. He will arrive at 6:05.

I asked about all of us, changing to his flight and she told me that they only had room for 2 passengers.

btw: don't know if this matters, but I booked using "wanna get away".

 

[Tozzie]

About a year ago there was a thread about the same issue on the Transportation board, there were some differing opinions but many people stated that since they allowed the flight to be booked it is the same as involuntarily denied boarding. I don't remember the outcome but I know it was in favor of the poster. Try posting this over on the transportation board they might be more helpful

 

[akcire]

OP. I too had this same situation happen last year. However, in my case the person who's ticket was changed was my then 2 year old daughter. It was a very long phone call, with many levels of supervisors but they got it worked out so we were all flying together. I basically told them I'd be glad to utilize their babysitting service.......once they confirmed her age they understood.

 

[bcla]

4 of us have flight 1510 from N.O to Atlanta. Then flight 3444 from Atlanta to N.Y. We will arrive at 4pm.
My dads was changed to flight 1510 and then flight 2037 from Atlanta to N.Y. He will arrive at 6:05.

I asked about all of us, changing to his flight and she told me that they only had room for 2 passengers.

btw: don't know if this matters, but I booked using "wanna get away".

Oh - that may explain some missing details. "Wanna Get Away" represents their absolute cheapest advanced purchase "leisure travel" fares and they'll sell a limited number of seats and possibly have tiered pricing as fewer seats are available. Often "Wanna Get Away" will be all gone but you can still purchase seats at their regular or business fare prices. I'm cheap, so I don't think I've ever flown on Southwest with my own money/points on anything other than one of their heavily discounted fares. Now I'm thinking they weren't absolutely sold out, but may have just overbooked their discount fares.

Their points system is also rather generous. Most credit cards I would consider one point to be worth a penny. If you consider that, then there's maybe a 30% discount for booking with points. The only caveat is that they then charge a $2.50 per ticket booking fee, which is generally peanuts. The cheapest "Wanna Get Away" flight I ever booked on Southwest was 2680 points for Las Vegas to Oakland.

Can your dad handle flying himself? Right now it sounds like it would be more trouble than it's worth (or at least more expense) to try and get the entire family on the same flight.

You can try arguing with Southwest customer service, but they're used to saying no.

 

[maccagerl]

So his flight is only getting in 2 hours later? If he can't fly by himself, why don't you have one other person in your party fly with him?

 

[elaine amj]

Personally I would call back and argue some more. I fly Southwest often and have never had that happen and would consider it a huge hassle.

 

[Happy Snowman]

What is the plan to get to the hotel in NY? If you were all taking a cab, him getting in 2 hours later isn't a big deal unless he has mobility issues or something. Have everyone go to the airport early, check in, get your Dad on the stand-by list for your flight. If he gets on, great, if not, you can either wait for him in NY or go to the hotel and he can catch a cab and meet you at the hotel. I'm assuming he is fit enough to travel alone.

 

[lovin diz]

I want to thank everyone for their replies. This is my first time flying, so i had no idea what to expect.

I called SW last night and got a woman who wouldn’t budge. She wanted to charge my dad $12 more dollars (which is no big deal), and us, 1000 more points per ticket (which I don’t have)
This morning I called again. I got a wonderful lady. She said they took over another airline, and there were changes mainly on their flights to and from Atlanta?? She asked me to choose any flight on the 11th and there would be no charge. I chose for all of us to go 1 hour earlier (we all wake up early anyway) so we are on the 7:30 am flight but we arrive 1:45 minutes earlier in New York….So more time to “play”.

I guess it all depends on who you speak with....

Thanks again!!!

 

[sharona]

So glad it worked out for you! Definitely with any Customer Service reps if you don't get the answer you want, always HUCA (hang up, call again). Technically, I think the PP who said it was an Involuntary Denied Boarding was correct and if they hadn't accommodated you, your dad would have been entitled to IDB compensation.

 

[bcla]

Cool. Customer service can be hit or miss. Nice to see a hit.

 

[bcla]

Thanks again!!!

It's not over yet. If you want to make sure you get on the flight, you'll want to check in early. Most people these days check in online and then print their boarding passes. I don't recall if Southwest allows "mobile boarding passes" on mobile phones. I've got the Southwest iPhone app, but I haven't flown SW a while, and the last time they didn't have such an option. They allow one to check in 24 hours before the scheduled departure time. Since you have a connecting flight, I don't know if you'll be able to check in for that at the same time (anyone can chime in on that) or if you need to wait until 24 hours from that scheduled departure time. I heard they will allow for the connecting flight, but I'm not sure. You can also check in but get the boarding pass printed at the airport. You'll need the confirmation code and the names of all passengers.

You'll also want to do this for the return flight. Many hotels will provide computers/printers to do this, but you could also do this on your own computer/phone with internet access. I remember checking in with my phone of the Southwest website while we were in a buffet line in Las Vegas. I didn't have a way to print up the boarding passes, but did so at the airport (actually at the rental car center which has the same machines that are used in the airport).

 

[sharona]

I'm pretty sure check in covers the connecting flight. I usually buy the early bird check in so I don't have to worry about it.

OP - definitely check in at T-24 (take off minus 24 hours) and don't wait even a few minutes. You'll get boarding numbers according to what time you check in and with no reserved seats, you'll need to be in the front of that pack to get seats together. Although, if your flights are on AirTran (you mentioned something about another airline bought by SW) then you may have already chosen seats?

 

[Mommee]

yes. you get checked in to the connecting flight at the same time and get assigned boarding positions for both.

 

[elgerber]

Yes, when you check in, it applies to the connecting flight also. And yes, SW does have mobile boarding passes.