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Offering to give up seat?

mpthomas
Explorer C

Hi all, does anyone have any information on the process for volunteering to give up your seat? I was asked/volunteered to give up my seat and both the agent nor the supervisor knew the updated process for renumeration when using points. They told me I would get when I accepted the allowance voucher but apparently didnt know the SWA process. The supervisor said I would receive points back into my account, but it never happened. After many calls - most with the same answer of "you should get your points back into your account in a couple days" - I ended up speaking with "The Call In Customer Service Supervisor" who "spoke for the Executive level". He said "since there was nothing entered into the sytem by the agent or the supervisor he was not required to do anything". After a bit on hold, he offered an additional $150 + $50 voucher to cover the class farevfor the flight I was on. This was a far cry from the 24,xxx points the agent supervisor said I would get when I gave up my seat. This is where we ended the call.

 

Just trying to see if there are others struggling with the same issues ?

 

thanks

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Offering to give up seat?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

If $150+$50 covers your original points, plus you got some voucher on the spot at the time you gave up your seat then I think you are getting the going rate.

 

I'm not sure why they would provide additional points, that might be a miscommunication, but the equivalent in cash would be to get your original points back. At $0.02/point the offer on the phone would be for 10,000 points, is that around what you spent originally for the flight?

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Offering to give up seat?

mpthomas
Explorer C

Thanks so much for the response. I used 11,303 points for the flight from Tucson to Sacramento. My concern was that "I didn't really need to give up my seat" based on the need to get home to see family, soccer games, etc. I gave up my seat based on the value offered by the Gate Agent Supervisor at the time of 24,xxx points. For the amount of grief I got from my wife for missing the weekend, it would not have been worth the $150 additional amount.

 

My frustration really is with the miscommunication and misinformation SWA employees are sharing with their customers when making decisions. I have been an avid SWA proponent for myself and my company employees and I was really disappointed in the way this was handled. To have a SWA employee tell me "Honestly, I would have given you the 24,xxx points had the Gate Supervisor written it in our system" (basically saying he did not do his part in the process)  pushed me just a bit too far. 

 

Sounds like this was a fair market offer and I'm just gonna need to get past it. I just have a hard time partnering with a company that treats their travelers this way (A+ pref, comp pass member for many many years) 

 

thanks again 

Re: Offering to give up seat?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

It must be the points booking that threw things off so badly, it goes much more smoothly when its cash/voucher and you are all settled up the minute you walk away from the desk. 

 

Thanks for sharing, members on the board will know to avoid bumping from points fares in the future, or make sure that it gets recorded correctly.

 

Although I did have a funny one on a voluntary bump earlier this year from Raleigh where the gate agent forgot to check-in my wife while still giving her a boardings pass. The flight attendants went through the cabin row-by-row taking names to find out who was on the plane that hadn't checked-in. We were joking that it couldn't be us because there were two of us - they would be looking for two people right? I guess they had only checked me in. To make it worse we were sitting way towards the back.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.