jcarwash
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2008
This is such a petty issue and I am not going to pursue it further, but I need you all to either validate or correct me. If wrong, I will try to take it like a big girl.
I booked a flight for August using a Luv voucher with $71. on it. The flight was a total of $92.98, with $14.60 being the 911 security/passenger facility charge. Later on I got a red banner and changed it to another time for the same day at no extra cost. A few days later I cancelled the reservation, but my travel funds are for the entire amount of the fare ($92.98) and has been like that for over a month. Yesterday, I sent an email nicely requesting refund of the $14.60 in taxes back to the credit card used for payment. Instead, I was told:
We recognize that events and plans have been changed or canceled, and that recent travel restrictions have caused many of our Customers to postpone or cancel their travel. In this case, because you purchased a nonrefundable ticket, we are unable to honor your request for a refund a portion of the fare cost.
Again, I am very pleased with SW during these crazy times, but is this correct? I thought they always had to refund taxes/fees to the form of payment - which in this case was my credit card.
I see on the Travel Funds page (https://www.southwest.com/flight/travel-funds-search.html) that they consider all those components (base fare + taxes + fees) part of the fund creation: "If you cancel your reservation at least 10 minutes prior to departure, the fare paid for the unused ticket (inducing taxes, security fees, and Passenger Facility Charges) will be applied as travel funds toward the purchase of future travel on Southwest."
So, I don't think it matters whether the payment was all "real money" or voucher + credit card; they consider the "fare paid" to include all those pieces.
That said, I can also see why you asked about it -- in my experience, Southwest may go ahead and give you some kind of recourse anyway. So it makes sense to ask.