Unused Travel Funds

[jpswongg]

Hi, 

I bought an airline ticket for my boyfriend at the time but we had to cancel our flights due to unforeseen circumstances. Now my boyfriend and I are no longer together. I still have flight credits under his name that I can't seem to use. Is there a solution to this or will I have to accept the loss to this ticket amount? I purchased these tickets and it was my money! Southwest please help me out!

[DancingDavidE]

This forum is user-to-user, but we'll have a few suggestions.

• You can let them expire, and then call to request they be re-issued as vouchers which is an unadvertised case-by-case exception. There is a fee for this, also unadvertised and subject to change, but reported to be $100 per ticket. The vouchers would be usable for your own tickets as opposed to flight credit which is in the name of the passenger only.
• I don't think anything in Southwest's procedures keeps your ex-bf from using them at-will if he has the confirmation number - depending on your terms he could pay you some amount of money and keep the travel funds for his own use if he's flying anywhere. If he's unaware of the situation you might not want to remind him though.
• You could try calling customer service with the information and ask to get them converted to vouchers earlier, but I don't think Southwest can do this since they don't know what private agreements might be made, they should be really hesitant to cancel/refund the funds before they expire, but you could call and try and ask for a re-issue as vouchers earlier.

[LindseyD]

That's a tough situation, @jpswongg, but you came to the right place. Our Members will be happy to share their suggestions with you. One thing to be mindful of is that the funds on the ticket can only be used by the person who's name is on the ticket. 

[kylet]

"One thing to be mindful of is that the funds on the ticket can only be used by the person who's name is on the ticket."

A ludacris practice Lindsay. I think is SW really wanted to be a LUVing example of a customer focused airline, they would allow unused travel funds to be applied towards the purchase of tickets completed by the same person that originally booked/paid.  I spent close to $800 on tickets to CUN last year, the event we were scheduled to attend was cancelled, so we cancelled the flight and have a credit (key word here is "I" paid). Just because the tickets need to reflect each passenger's name, does not mean the person purchasing the tickets, in this case me, cannot have full availability and use of the funds for a future flight, regardless of who is traveling (wife, kids, brother, etc). So now rather than having close to $800 in travel funds, I have half that amount simply because I cannot have 2 tickets in my name.  This is ridiculous. I paid SW, therefore I'm entitled to use those (my) funds as I see fit by the expiration date. 

[TheMiddleSeat]

@kylet Keep in mind that other airlines wouldn't let you cancel the reservation and get any credit  or would charge you a few hundred dollars to make some sort of change. Southwest's policy may not be perfect, but it's vastly superior than most of the other airlines. 

[LindseyD]

@kylet,

It may seem like a very strict policy, but we've worked hard to give our Customers the best options for using all their travel funds. Most airlines don't allow any portion of a ticket to be applied toward future travel.