What did i do? Southwest booking catastrophe

[ladynmom94]

I pulled the trigger & bought our flights last night. Booked thru Southwest (72 hour sale & used coke reward promo) YAY!!!!

Our return flight wasnt that great of a deal so....I continued to stalk SW today & sure enough our return flight dropped by $21 per ticket ($21 x 4 people =$84 travel credit) woohoo!!

But wait....ok I have to rebook to get credit, no problem! I love how easy this is,click,click,click uh huh. Why am I only refunded $41? *confused* let's call. Customer service says that i was only refunded the $41 because that was the difference in the price of ticket without the coke promo discount. Ohhhh okkkkk.

She said it would be best to cancel & rebook entire RT flight (since I'm in the 24 hour refund period) & start over from scratch. Then she mentions that because I used "travel funds" to originally book, the refunded money would be held as "travel funds". Yup that $10 gift card I used is considered "travel funds" and therefore my entire refund would be held as such. Whatttt?! No big deal because I'm going to rebook anyways!

Here we go again back to SW website. Check to make sure flights are still the same price, ok, Cancel,ok, search flights, add coke promo & ohhhh nooo can't use it because "it's already been used" *super sad face*

Bummer. So I proceed to rebook flight at lower price anyways at least I won't lose money, right? WRONG

4 of us traveling remember? I get to the part to "add travel funds" and for some reason it's adding 3 ticket refunds ($233 each) & 3 individual credits of $10 each (total of 6 credits max allowed). So now my balance due is $255 (which i have in travel funds but cant add) Think,think,think.

Ok let's do this. 2 separate reservations, me with kids & dad by himself. Yes that will work!
Modify AGAIN ladies first (mom & dd's), add travel funds, balance due $1.50. WHATEVER!!!! *

Dads turn, his balance due is a whopping $0.50. Omgoodess!!

So today, I spent about an hour & half rebooking my flights, paid an extra $2, lost a $41 credit, but managed to get dad his own confirmation. You mean to tell me I get to do online check-in twice!!! How lucky is that?!!!! Yup I'm awesome!!!

But....we're GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

In the end, that's what count, the rest is moments of life dedicated towards visiting the Mouse House.
Enjoy

 

[robinb]

I couldn't follow all that ... but I can say "bummer" for you . Sorry you lost your refund. Have you considered calling SWA? They might be able to do something for you since they suggested that you cancel and rebook.

 

[ladynmom94]

I couldn't follow all that ... but I can say "bummer" for you . Sorry you lost your refund. Have you considered calling SWA? They might be able to do something for you since they suggested that you cancel and rebook.

I can barely follow & I lived it TODAY! LOLing @ myself

I didn't call but did send SW an email. Ultimately it was my mistake for not reading the coke rewards promo fine print before canceling & rebooking. I don't think the agent that suggested I cancel & rebook thought that the promo code was for onetime use only, & neither did I. Lesson learned.

 

[marymaya]

Can I use Coke points for checked bags? Flight is paid For but we have to change planes and I don't want to carry a lot, so would rather check an extra bag...can I do that with Coke points by paying online? It's air Tran, not sw. Thanks!

 

[ladynmom94]

Can I use Coke points for checked bags? Flight is paid For but we have to change planes and I don't want to carry a lot, so would rather check an extra bag...can I do that with Coke points by paying online? It's air Tran, not sw. Thanks!

I don't believe so but I'm not 100% sure. I redeemed 100 points for a promo code that was only good for round trip flights. I'm not sure if there are any other promotions out there currently that would allow you to do so.

Also an update to my saga- I received a call today from SW and the agent I spoke with explained that the promo I used was one time use only & I shouldn't have been told to cancel & rebook.

Because I was misinformed, they issued my original credit of $41 plus the $40 credit I would have saved if I was able to use the promo. I thought this was extremely kind as,like I said before, it was mostly my fault for not reading the coke rewards fine print before canceling & rebooking.

All in all my experience was exhausting but I am more than pleasantly surprised at how SW handled my goof.

 

[JessM]

Can I use Coke points for checked bags? Flight is paid For but we have to change planes and I don't want to carry a lot, so would rather check an extra bag...can I do that with Coke points by paying online? It's air Tran, not sw. Thanks!

SW has free checked bags anyways, 2 per person.

 

[marymaya]

SW has free checked bags anyways, 2 per person.

Yes, but I was hoping to.change my airtran flight to a southwest through airtran since they canceled my flight. They wouldn't let me, but I got a better flight at least. Should have booked through sw to begin with.