OT Southwest and postponed flights

[micky]

OT but not politics

Last year I made a plane reservation to see my brother in Florida.

Southwest.

After I canceled it they said I had a year to use the money.

IIRC, not all the airlines make it that simple, but what do I know.

It's getting on to a year, so today I looked it up on their website, and they had extended the expiration from March 10 to September 10, without my doing anything. A friend had the same thing happen to her. Because of Corona, I'm sure.

So that's good.

What's not so good is that last night I looked all over the SW website and couldn't find a trace. It took me a long time even to find Travel Funds, but there, without the ticket confirmation number, it's just blankness. No indication there is anything in the fund.

It's not that hard for an organized person to find his email reservation from a year ago, but it also wouldn't be hard for SW to just tell me what's in my travel fund. Anyone know why they don't?

It didn't just want my password, which it already required to log in, but the confirmation number from a particular ticket. So I had to not just remember what airline it was, but actually find the ticket or other correspondence to know the confirmation number, from a year ago, more or less. What would have happened if I'd had a crash and no backup? Or I was quarantined out of town or unable to re-enter with only my laptop and the ticket was on the PC at home? Why don't they just tell me what's in the Travel Fund?

What would have been if I had two or three canceled tickets, I don't know, but I think you need every confirmation number. And I think they show each ticket on a separate page, though how you get separate pages, I don't know. For someone who goes on more than one trip in a month or has children coming from different directions, etc., very easy to forget one of your flights and that you have money on deposit and let the year expire. Or next fall, let the 18 months expire.

And don't forget, they have your money interest-free to use as they choose, so it's not like they're getting nothing for this.

[gfretwell]

Did you look at your "points" account? I never screwed with Southwest, they don't have 1st class but Delta and NW before them used points like chips in a casino. Everything was just points with them. If they owe you a flight they may have just given you enough points to get that cost of ticket. You can always throw more money at it for an upgrade (buying more points) if you decide to go somewhere out of that fare corridor. Like I say I don't do SW but I bet that is how they work.

[micky]

I have a few points. Not many. If the price of the flight goes up since a year ago, I'll try to use the points, or I'll use money. I think it was $157 rt Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale last year.

[trader_4]

Prices had plummeted due to Covid. I was seeing $50 fares NY to FL, or even cross country. IDK where they are now, but they aren't going to stay low forever and everybody is looking forward to a vaccinated economy.

[gfretwell]

I suppose you could Email customer support and see what they did.

[micky]

The points are correct. My only complaint is they make it so hard to find out how much is in a travel fund. I don't see any good reason for requiring the ticket confirmation number. The only reason I can imagine is hoping customers will forget they have such credits.

[micky]

Yes, prices aer low, but I wouldn't want to go now either.

Yes, by the time I'm ready to go, everyone else will be, and the price will go up, even higher than it used to be. C'est la vie.

I'm scheduled to get my first shot tomorrow, but I don't know when the people I would visit gets theirs.

[gfretwell]

That 6 digit alphanumeric number assigned to each flight is how they reference it in the computer. It is the key to the castle, don't lose it.

[micky]

I was a computer programmmer for years. Any good system lets you find records using any field, such as, let's think about this, My Name.

I didn't, I want to enter the castle, but I'm going to write them. They'll probably say what you said, so maybe I'll include my answer to that in advance.

[invalid unparseable]

[trader_4]

I agree. That you have a credit should show up in your account, without needing to enter anything.

[gfretwell]

I am just saying, things go a lot faster with that number. That puts them right down on who you are, which flight we are talking about and any concessions they made. The next best thing is your frequent flyer number. Otherwise they have to figure out which "Micky" you are and which flight you are talking about. I guess that is OK if you like hearing people grumble while they type.

[micky]

I'm either too poor for first class, or I think I am. Can't tell which.

The coach-class flight to Florida or Texas was easy. Going to Europe

1st class would be nice but iirc it's 2000 more dollars for 12 hours. Back when I was working that would be about $165/hour after taxes, so I'd have to be making what, 200/hour? AND to break even financially, I'd have to work for 12 more hours in addition to the time on the plane. I'd rather suffer for 12 hours, and relax at home for the 12 hours I would have been working. And suffering builds character.

I suspect if you had a strong opinion you would have already said it, Trader, but... What do you think their reason is? I can think of 3 possible ones:

1) They really do want some percentage of people to loose track so they can just keep the money. (their rules probably say, If not used or maybe if the customer does no business with Southwest in 5 years, or even one year, the credit expires.) 2) Someone has an over-bureaucratic mind, or is almost neurotically bound to inapplicable or impractical rules, 3) One guy was in charge of programming that part, and no one or an incompetent was in charge of integrating that part with the rest of their system. Maybe it was linked in at the last minute. (This is not unbelievable. I had a short job at International Paper, where I was given very specific specs and I wrote a program that did just that. Later after I left, I talked to someone who had, or knew who had, to rewrite parts of it so it would run not on the expected date. (I'd taken precautions to prevent it from running when it shouldn't.) Hmm. What she said sounded like even bigger changes, things they must have known they would need and I would have included if they'd told me to. AFAIK they weren't mad at me, though they let me go when the contract was up (which of course is the way contractors should be used, not as permanent employees but to fill temporarily high needs). I hated to go, good cafeteria.

Another better story. At Beth Steel they wanted me to write a simulator. I only went to school for 14 weeks for this stuff and didn't know what a simulator was (other than the NASA simulator, which is something they sit in**), but I speak English and I thought about it overnight and figued it out. They gave me specs, and I wrote it. The girl whose program was calling the simulator complained to me that I returned the temperature in Celsius or the weight in KG or something, and annoyedly insisted I change it to F or pounds. so I did. When there was system testing, or maybe even production use, they complained that the value wasnt' being reported right. Just the report, not the steel. So I was right in the first place, but I didn't know enough about the system to be sure I was right.

I didn't throw it up to her that she was wrong, but I think if a guy were in her shoes, he would have asked me nicely to change it instead her being annoyed with me. And maybe he would have figured out even without talking to me that I was right.

**After one of the early space flights, one of the famous astronauts said of the experience, "It was similar to the simulator." He didn't sound like he was trying to be funny, but maybe he was.

[gfretwell]

I hate flying and 1st class makes it more tolerable. You get through security faster, board and get out faster, Your bags show up faster, if there is a problem they treat you better, no bullshit about your luggage and the flight itself is more comfortable.

[micky]

That would make a big difference. I don't hate it, don't even dislike it. I like to look out the window at the start and end and sometimes in the middle. I brought maps and traced the Mississippi once and I saw the snowy Alps once. But coach is definitely crowded. There's not a lot of room to move, but I just sit there. I used to carry a flight bag, which really is designed for a plane, because it's small but tall.

Now I have to carry a computer bag which is not a good choice for a plane -- hard to get things in an out in the cramped Coach seat, but once when I changed planes in Philly, when no one but me had green suitcases, I looked out the window of the terminal and saw them throwing my bags about 10 feet and landing on a pile. I didn't use a computer in those days, but lesson learned.

I don't use the computer on the plane, I just carry it.

[micky]

I don't mind there being a confirmation number or using it to discuss the flight.

But the computer had alraady found my account because I gave it my userid and password. It would be disinguous or lying to say they need the confirmation number to find my "travel fund". It's the only travel fund associated with my user id and password.

I did find this note in my own records:

Southwest Travel Funds Confirmation number L 2 M U L 3 Confirmation # L2MUL3 Expiration: 03/11/21 Note: Your Travel Funds will be associated with your confirmation # above, you will need to keep track of it to access these funds in the future. 157.96 Dollars $157.96 Held for future

However I didn't realize how stupid this was a year ago. Well the warning is not stupid. It's their defense when I forget I have the money and it expires. I think it's reason number 1 of the 3 I suggested.

The question is a) if I can complain anonymously? Probably not**. b) if I use my name to complain will they label me a trouble-maker and give me a hard time in some way? c) same as b, but add that I insult them, call them crooks basically, when I suggest to them they are requiring the conf. number in order to get free money from careless customers.

**Today Governor Hogan gave what might be weekly announcements and q&A about Corona, and there was no mike for those asking questions, he didn't repeat them, I couldn't hear them with my volume all the way up, and sometimes his answer seemed petty, maybe because I coudln't hear the questions.

So I said all this but I didn't use my real name or address***, no phone number, but a real email address. ***3000 Privacy Drive.

When they sent me a totally irrelevant**** form letter back, it was addressed to me by my first name (I hate that), my real first name. How did they know that? The reply was only a few minutes after I wrote. Surely they don't use my email address to learn my real name, without a warrant, for every one who writes?

****It was their standard spiel about Corona, not a word about press conferences, or hearing the question. It did include a URL for directly writing the Dept. of Health. I'll try again. (When I write by form, I save a copy.)

That's good too.

[gfretwell]

That number certainly seems to be the key to this part of the kingdom ;-)