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REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

villybhakta
Explorer C

SWA needs to live up to their "Transfarency" model. After years of this same issue, it seems like they are intentionally making it difficult for flyers to manage unused travel funds by the small restrictions they have implemented (probably hoping they go unnoticed). 1) You can no longer call and have funds looked up by CC. 2) Reduced the number forms of payment during a booking. 3) Emails list "Residual funds applied" instead of showing the actual confirmation number. So on and so forth.

 

Let me be clear...applying the travel funds during a booking is easy, however knowing the confirmation numbers of the travel funds is extremely frustrating and seems to be setup in a way that unused travel funds remain unused, increasing profits.

 

They expect flyers to keep track of confirmation numbers and funds outside of the RR platform, in hopes that we just forget. Some will say "Just do a better job of keeping track" or "It's in your email". Well, that is fine if you fly once a year, but for a-listers flying 25+ times a year its not acceptable, nor is going through emails a real solution (Southwest knows that). Its mildy infuriating that the people that fly frequently with Southwest are the ones that are getting stiffed by Southwest and their intentional lack of implementing a "wallet" type solution in RR accounts to view the user's unused travel funds.

 

They setup these discussion forums for outreach purpsoses, so let's see if they really listen to what there customer's want.

7 REPLIES 7

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I agree it would be nice, but as I've said before I believe it is more probable that travel funds will go away entirely before a list of funds associated with your RR account is made available. I do disagree about it being too much to ask to track your own funds, as A-List and A-List Preferred flyers my spouse and I did just fine, one of us using old fashioned pen and paper and the other a spreadsheet.

 

I've forgotten what methods of tracking funds the other Community Champions use, but they all seem to do just fine. Yes, it would be nice, but nothing I see as justification for being upset about.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

dfwskier
Aviator A

I agree it would be nice, but until it happens you have no choice but to keep track of confirmation numbers.

 

You can find them in your e-mail Travel funds are included in e-mails with "Cancelled travel reservation" or "Updated travel reservation ( there may not be funds here is you used them all wth the updated resveration). When I getthese e-mails, I put them in a folder titled "travel funds available."

 

People seem to think a change of the type you suggest is easy. It may not be. The company needs to develop a database that auto populates when funds become available. The company needs to reprogram things so users can use it,etc. etc. etc.

 

Your options are to save Southwest confirmation numbers or fly airlines like American, Delta or United (or anybody else for that matter). They will take $200 or more off the top of every single individual travel fund you want to use. Travel funds of under $200 turn into zero.

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

villybhakta
Explorer C

I keep track using a spreadsheet and also know how to filter my inbox based on title, both of which are effective, but thats besides the point.

 

As customers we've all identified this as an area of improvement to the RR program from a customer's perspective. We all can agree a real solution would be a "wallet" section, however Southwest tells us the solution is to go through your email. If this is their solution, it leads me to speculate that they don't want to implement the real fix, cause it probably affects their bottom line.

 

If that's the case, I wish SWA just came out and said to keep fares low, bags free, no change fees, and all the other great things they do, they're unable to implement a "wallet" section in your RR account. Maybe even a compromise, where the wallet section is benefit of being an A-lister. If you fly 25+ times in year I assume you also cancel or change flights often. So it would be nice perk to be able to manage the travel funds through your RR account. 

 

Finally, I disagree about the ease of rolling out a wallet section. They already have the travel fund data on a server, thats why you are able to do a lookup online. Name, Confirmation, Exp date, and fund value is already in that data set. 

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

elijahbrantley
Aviator A

I also agree that it would be nice to have! But I always say that I am happy to do the work to have the benefit of changing and cancelling fee-free. 

 

We we can always hope!

-A List, Companion Pass holder

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

 

I've forgotten what methods of tracking funds the other Community Champions use, but they all seem to do just fine. Yes, it would be nice, but nothing I see as justification for being upset about.

 



E-mail search for me, I also have tended to have basic A-list quantity of flights per year so I can keep on top of using the most recent one first so that I don't have too many active funds at any one time.

 

 

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

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

dfwskier
Aviator A

@DancingDavidE wrote:

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

 

I've forgotten what methods of tracking funds the other Community Champions use, but they all seem to do just fine. Yes, it would be nice, but nothing I see as justification for being upset about.

 



E-mail search for me, I also have tended to have basic A-list quantity of flights per year so I can keep on top of using the most recent one first so that I don't have too many active funds at any one time.

 

 


I have a separate e-mail folder for unused travel funds. When I get an e-mail that refers to travel funds, I move it to that folder. After using funds listed in an e-mail, I move that e-mail to a different folder called "travel funds used"

Re: REQUEST: RR Account Needs to show unused Travel Funds

ParSWA
Adventurer B

I would be very interested in learning how many dollars in passenger airline credits go unused each year. The gift card industry has made a fortune off of unused and lost cards.

 

It would not be difficult for SWA to solve this issue and set up a wallet feature, like Alaska and many others have, since SWA already captures and owns all required data.

 

In the meantime, I’ll continue to treat SWA airline credits like any other form of currency I have but manually track SWA credits very closely.