Unfortunately, my understanding is that Southwest isn't breaking with policy in this situation, so they continue to not reimburse for alternate travel or lodging costs. Their position is that the grounding was out of their control, similar to a weather incident. I do have to wonder if they themselves will be seeking compensation from Boeing at some point. Reports are that some affected customers are being given vouchers towards future travel as a goodwill gesture ($100 to $200, depending on circumstances). If you are initially denied (as many are reporting) it may be worth following up with a written letter. It remains unclear how the decision to offer a voucher is being decided. It appears that the MAX aircraft will be grounded for quite some time. Southwest is now trying to rebook passengers thru June 1, so hopefully that will reduce the damage done by last-minute cancellations.
... View more
04-03-2019
10:04 AM
04-03-2019
10:04 AM
@Wnt2Fly wrote: Only after 2+ hours of a phone call did SWA cave in and allow me to re-book on a flight of my choosing; prior to that decision, they wanted me to pay the fare difference to upgrade from Wanna Get Away to an Anytime or Business fare if i wanted to move my flight from the one they automatically put me on (which was starting 4 hours before my original flight time and getting in 30 min after). It sounds like you are set now, but the issue is strange. After being at airports "live" when a cancelation has happened there has never been an issue for me prior to this in rebooking to any flight, and same thing using the online re-accomodation. I'm not sure why this one would be different when you called, unless there was a "same day" or next day rule in effect for making the free changes and your discussion took place after several days? I've never seen that written, just trying to speculate what might be the difference from what I've experienced before.
... View more