WTH, Southwest?!
ARGH!!!!!
I’m already having a very stressful day, but it just got worse.
As you may know, Josh and I are jetting off on our first trip without kids next month. While we’re gone, we’re going to put our kids on a plane to San Diego to hang out with some awesome family friends. All good so far, right?
Not so fast. Today had more surprises up its sleeve.
As I was hanging out in the periodontist’s waiting room, I realized I hadn’t received any updates from Southwest about the kids’ trip (and they usually send a million), so I logged into my account to figure out what was going on. It turns out that NOTHING HAD BEEN BOOKED.
I have no idea how this happened, but it’s t-minus a handful of days, so it’s a bad situation.
I spent about an hour on the phone with Southwest about a month ago, finalizing details and figuring out if our kids were “unaccompanied minors” or not (answer: one yes, one no). After that, I’m CERTAIN that I booked flights over the phone. I know I did, because I transferred a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards points over to my Southwest account to pay for it. But…nothing actually got booked.
And now the flights are MUCH more expensive. !@$%&*!!!
It’s not the best time for me to make a new reservation, because I have had a nice glass of whiskey. But I am 110% certain that I already booked the flights…they just never ACTUALLY got booked. And I know that sounds questionable, but seriously…if you knew the full backstory, you’d know that this is not something I take lightly.
WTH? So frustrating!!!
Has this ever happened to you?
2 things…
Are all those Chase points you transferred still in the SW account?
Did you get a confirmation e-mail from SW when you made the reservations?
I usually get 2. One says the points are taken out of my account and the other is the flight info.
Patrick – I’m a mess over here. My computer occasionally eats my emails, so I’m not sure what I did and didn’t get. I just distinctly remember having the satisfied feeling of “okay, that’s done.” But then clearly it wasn’t. 🙁
Went through this a few years back with Amex Travel. Got great rates to Athens. Booked two tickets but then Delta made a schedule change. Amex rebooked me. But they didn’t. Rebooked me again, but they didn’t. Went through this five times where they failed to actually ticket the booking, not once, not twice, but five times. Had to loose two days of my schedule and got a horrible itinerary. I don’t normally use Amex Travel but it was a really good rate. Or maybe not…..
Now I check every booking later that day to confirm I’ve got tickets.
Pam – So glad I’m not going crazy! Sorry this happened to you, but I do feel a little validated…
🙁 Hang in there… I just want to send a big hug over the web.
Sandy – THANK YOU!!
Just send them to Antioch instead. 🙂 I just couldn’t resist….
Gene – OH MY GOD.
Never had a flight ticket, but not ticket, but have had a credit card payment made that was unmade. The payment got clobbered by a scheduled autopayment in a system that could not handle two payments in a day. BTW, been trying to use a SWA standard reward for a flight in 7 days and see how SWA has jacked fares in dollars, points and inability to redeem standard rewards for close in dates. My opinion of SWA is slowly sinking to the level of Delta. 🙁
ADK – First of all, now I feel like I’m in really good company, because if something like this could happen to you…
Second, agree about the caliber of SWA. Seriously, WTH?!?!
SW has ALWAYS been like that. Some close in dates are just not available at the “WEB” price. this is nothing new.
And I don’t think sinking to the level of Delta would be possible for any airline. Delta has to much of a head start.
But are the points you transferred from Chase sill there?
When is your trip? Is another airline a better (cheaper) option at this point?
Once I booked with Delta but didn’t receive a confirmation for the trip. Checked my bank account the next morning and the money was taken out as pending payment, so I breathed a quick sigh of relief. Two days later I still didn’t have a confirmation. I checked again and money was returned! Somehow I booked the reservation, but according to Delta those booking are not confirmations, only requests until later confirmed on their end. Delta messed up and apparently it bounced back. I had to rebook and I didn’t get the same fare. Ever since I check immediately and if I don’t have confirmation in 24 hrs I call like a crazy person and hound them until I do. American sends something 5 seconds after you hit payment button…I am not sure why other airlines do not do the same thing.