SWA: No Refund on Change in Funeral Plans...

My sister in Texas died suddenly on Oct. 23. I knew I would not be able to go to San Diego, so I called the airline and spoke to a Southwest rep. She gave me the wrong information, saying that she would put a note on my confirmation that I had a death in the family and the funeral was the same day as the flight. She said that when I got back from the funeral, I should call the airline.
I returned home on Nov. 3 and called, but I was told that I was a “no-show” and had lost my entire ticket. They said I could try for a refund, so I sent the funeral program, my original itinerary to San Diego and my itinerary for the funeral trip – but I still got denied.
I am a senior citizen on Social Security. I have to pay the person who funded my trip to Texas. Southwest didn’t even offer me a voucher for another flight. Dorothy Thompson, Mountain View, Calif..



Dear Dorothy: First, please accept our condolences on the loss of your sister. Losing a loved one is always hard, and having a hassle on top of that makes it even harder.
The ironic part about this problem is Southwest has a much more liberal policy than many other airlines when it comes to changing tickets.
We agree that it didn’t seem fair for you to lose everything just because a customer service rep gave you incorrect information. The good news is after we explained to Southwest what happened, they fixed it right away.

But Wait...After ABC ran the story...
Besides offering their sympathy and apologies, they issued a full refund for the $166.20 you had spent on the plane ticket to San Diego.

For a second there, I thought that this happened to you D2 until the senior citizen on fixed income bit. Glad WN did the right thing but Dorothy shouldn't have had to gone to the media to get WN to make things right.

Only thing is, WN has no service fees so her "they didn't even give me a voucher" thing is ludicrous. All she had to do is cancel before flight time - which could have been done online and by the person who booked the ticket for her - and she would have had to money to use later. Sounds more like someone who failed to call before the flight, panicked and then got mad when they advised her of the rules. I hate when news outlets runs these types of stories because they go for the "feel sorry for me because I have such a heartrending situation" instead of actually finding out what the customer could have done to mitigate their losses. I have news for the people who run these stories - no one books their low fare, nonrefundable tickets with the idea they they will change it later. It is always something unexpected or even tragic and that is why there are insurance options during purchase.

After something like this becomes public, people dump on the airline rather than the person who made the choice to handle things poorly and the airline has no option but to cave or they lose a lot of business. It isn't right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MRSDS1DONNA

I hate when news outlets runs these types of stories because they go for the "feel sorry for me because I have such a heartrending situation" instead of actually finding out what the customer could have done to mitigate their losses.

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Maybe not this particular case, but there are many stories out there where the company really does need to be shamed in order to get something done. I've seen many stories with Comcast doing some sketchy stuff, and their service is simply awful!