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I recently forgot to cancel one part of a reservation. When I realized this oversight the next day, I logged on to cancel the return flight. I found that my return flight had also been cancelled and that I not only lost the fare for the outgoing flight, but also for the return flight, which was about 43 hours later. When I called to question this, I was told that this is the POLICY and that I will lose the entire amount for that reservation. This seems extreme to me, given that the rationale for forfeiting the first flight is that Southwest can't sell that seat to someone else within the remaining time. When Southwest has 2 days' notice, as in the case of the return flight, that reasoning should not apply. I am a frequest flier on Southwest, flying 3 or 4 times each month. I will be looking for other ways to reach my destination in the future.
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A tough way to learn the policy, but yes that is the policy. It seems to be fairly standard practice in the airline industry when flying with non-refundable tickets. A quick web search showed American, United, and Alaska/Virgin America all have the same policy. At least with Southwest you can cancel even a non-refundable ticket up until 10 mintues before scheduled departure and get credit to use towards a future flight. Other airlines charge massive fees that make changes more expensive than just booking a new reservation.
--TheMiddleSeat
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Also a good practice is to book one-way flights so that this doesn't accidentally happen, among other benefits and as near as I can tell no downside other than managing additional confirmation numbers.
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The only downside to one-way tickets is in the case of IROPS, your return flight may not be protected if you need to cancel/reschedule the outgoing one under a travel advisory. A call to Customer Relations will usually fix that, but it is a bit more complicated.
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@chgoflyer, I am not familiar with the acronym for IROPS. International reservations?
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IROPS stands for Irregular Operations, which basically means delays or cancellations, due to things like weather or mechanical issues.
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Good point, if you mentioned that before I forgot, but that is certainly one downside.
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Spot on. Now that 2 one-way flights are almost always the same price as a round trip flight, with SWA I've only been booking 1-way domestic flights for several years now and this is one of the reasons why -- especially since SWA doesn't charge a cancellation or change fee.