Your "non-transferable" ticket policy doesn't make any sense!

[sleeper692]

Why is that, if *I* pay for a ticket for my son to travel with me and he cannot make the trip, that I cannot cancel that ticket and have the funds go into my travel funds?  He did not pay for that ticket, I did.

It also doesn't make much sense that I can't simply transfer the ticket to another person.  It's not like SWA is losing any money on this.  To the contrary, you are gaining money that will never be used by anyone.  I'd even be happy to pay a modest change fee for something like this.  I'd rather pay, say $35 to simply change the person travelling, rather than be out $400 for one ticket and have to buy another ticket at what is now $600,  

So essentially, SWA has taken *my* money and locked it up so that I can no longer lay claim to the funds if I need to cancel the flight.  That absolutely makes no sense at all unless its just a money grab.

I've been a loyal SWA customer for years.  If this is the best you can do, I will never fly with SWA again.

[chgoflyer]

Southwest used to allow travel funds to be used by anyone, but they stopped that in 2011. Unfortunately, this makes them consistent with most every other carrier, who have the same "non-transferrable" policy.

[sleeper692]

Well, whatever their policy is, I call it total bull**bleep**.  I'm done with Southwest Airlines.  They basically stole $400 that I will never recover.  The person that has the credit on their account won't use it.  IT sounds like legal theivery.  I'll take my 10 flights a year to someone else.  

[chgoflyer]

Keep in mind that it will be no better -- and possibly worse -- on "someone else." No carrier allows transferability on regular tickets. In fact, many charge fees to even re-use funds from a ticket by the original passenger.

In the future, you can either buy a fully-refundable fare (and make no changes to the itinerary, just cancel for a full refund) or book flights for others using Rapid Reward points, which will be redeposited into your account upon cancellation, regardless of passenger name.

There is a way you can recover some of your lost funds. Once those funds expire (one year from date of purchase), contact Customer Relations and request reissue as a voucher. The fee for this is $100. You have six months from the date of expiration in which to make the request, and the voucher will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue. The voucher is usable by anyone, but only for air travel (not any taxes or fees). Note that everything about this "unpublished policy" is subject to change at any time, including the amount of the fee. Good luck.