The shit the travel industry expects us to put up with in bad weather is galling

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/28/2019 at 12:53 • Filed to: None

My wife is in Wisconsin visiting with her mom who had a health scare over Christmas. She was supposed to fly back today, but they’re getting 7 to 10 inches of snow in Wisconsin right now. Southwest has a waiver to re-book flights at no cost, BUT....

The soonest any available Southwest flights other than today (Monday) are on Friday.

I called Southwest to try and figure out what to do. Because my wife is already dealing with a bunch of shit looking after her mom. Long & short of it is, Southwest has a generous waiver policy, and if my wife wanted to book a $365 “Business” fare on Friday she could do that at no cost, but if she wanted to get home on a Southwest flight sooner than Friday, her only option would be to bring her rental car back to the airport, turn it in, and camp out at the airport all day on standby hoping to get a flight if someone no-shows.

CAN’T YOU GET HER ON ANOTHER AIRLINE SO SHE CAN COME HOME SOONER THAN FRIDAY? SHE’S TAKING CARE OF HER SICK OLD MOM AND IT’S WINTER IN WISCONSIN, HAVE A HEART!

Nope.

I said United had flights available as soon as Tuesday and can’t they just refund us the return leg of the reservation with them? The customer service lady actually wanted to argue with me that was no better than doing standby with Southwest because that United flight could still be canceled. That’s not the point lady, her name is at least on a seat for that day!

As for Southwest giving a refund, yes...and no.

If the flight is fully and totally cancelled, then she would get a refund. But if the flight actually flew, even if she couldn’t make it back to the airport thru 7-10" of snow between her mom’s house and the airport, she would have to call to cancel at least 20 mins before the flight, so then the funds could be credited back as Southwest Travel Funds usable for 12 months. Ideally it’d be credited right back so we’d be out of pocket less for the United flight but whatever. We’ll be going back to Milwaukee on Southwest soon enough so that’ll get used.

So I said whatever, she’s not going to wait til Friday or camp out at the Milwaukee airport on standby, and those are the only options that Southwest is providing at no charge, at all. I booked her on a United flight on Tuesday that connects through O’Hare. I’ll pick her up at the airport here in DC. Fine. We just have to see if Southwest cancels her flight or otherwise call them within 20 minutes of the flight departing so she gets the credit.

Then I went to extend the rental car. There was an automated BEEP BOP BOOP system to extend an existing rental car, but it didn’t say the price, and I wanted to try and see if Budget had any kind of weather exemption thing like Southwest. When I first said “REPRESENTATIVE” to the BEEP BOP BOOP system, it said, “I think you want to talk to a representative. If you’ll just answer a couple questions, I can help you with your reservation.”

“REPRESENTATIVE!”

Talking with a person was not any more helpful with getting a weather exemption because Budget has no weather exemptions. When I tried to ask the representative if there was a weather exemption that might lower the $63+taxes price for extending her rental car from 4:30 pm today to 12 pm tomorrow, he said, “we’re not charging you for the extra time, we’re charging you an extension fee,” as if that was supposed to mean something to me.

I went around in circles with him a couple times saying I didn’t care how they were coming up with $63*, it’s snowing 7 to 10 inches in Wisconsin and if that’s the reason for extending the rental car can it be anything less than $63*, and then I ended up agreeing to the $63* to extend the rental.

Hopefully Southwest officially cancels the flight! Maybe the air traffic control problems will help this out.

DISCUSSION (8)

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Textured Soy Protein
01/28/2019 at 13:07

I’m surprised you are getting a refund for a weather delay at all. I would just rebook on a different airline and beg SWA for a credit.

Textured Soy Protein > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
01/28/2019 at 13:09

She’ll be getting the credit at the very least. Their policy would be more than fine if they had any available flights. I just wish that Southwest said, well, we don’t have any flights for you for DAYS so here’s a refund you can use towards a ticket on another airline. Instead of a credit that is all well and good but doesn't get her home any more quickly.

someassemblyrequired > Textured Soy Protein
01/28/2019 at 13:15

Can you switch to a flight out of Midway? More flights and it’s only like a 2hr drive...

Textured Soy Protein > someassemblyrequired
01/28/2019 at 14:03

The way Southwest does their weather waiver, she can fly in to any of the 3 DC-area airports but she has to fly out of Milwaukee. MDW is too far.

I re-booked her on a United flight connecting thru O’Hare on Tuesday and we’re rolling the dice on whether we get the money as a refund or credit towards future Southwest travel (which we do frequently enough that it’ll at least get used) .

It would actually cost more to get only the O’Hare-DC leg of the flight and changing the rental car to a different drop off location would cost more.

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > Textured Soy Protein
01/28/2019 at 14:16

I’ve waited outside a terminal in the snow for an hour while United was trying to figure out if they’d directed us to board the right plane. No apologies either.

someassemblyrequired > Textured Soy Protein
01/28/2019 at 14:54

Ah got it, since SWA doesn’t have change fees, sometimes it can make sense to just cancel the original travel and use the credit for a new ticket from a different airport , as long as the original fare was in a more expensive bucket.

If you’ll use the credit, it’s a wash. One-waying a car can be inexpensive but it depends on the company (usually Avis and Hertz are reasonable, but it depends on the renting location). A hack is to return the car at the original time, then do a second rental for the one-way leg...

In any case t he math is a little different when you’re not traveling on an expense account.

Textured Soy Protein > someassemblyrequired
01/28/2019 at 15:29

T here were no earlier Southwest flights out of Midway anyway. So the only reason for her to drive to Chicago instead of Milwaukee would be to get a direct and/or cheaper flight. But the direct flights out of Chicago were like $120 more than Milwaukee.

All I wanted was for my wife to be on the next flight out of town once normal service resumes . But since Southwest’s flights were all booked up and Southwest is all nice and lenient as long as you re-book with Southwest, that meant Southwest’s policy didn’t really help at all in this instance.

So either she would’ve had to spend the whole rest of the week in Wisconsin and pay for extending the rental car thru then, or we would’ve had to pay out of pocket for that earlier flight home on a different airline.

I deally, Southwest would give a full refund rather than credit for future travel when there’s no remedy in their policy for getting home the next day. But, they don’t give that particular shit.

someassemblyrequired > Textured Soy Protein
01/28/2019 at 15:35

yeah unless you are on a fully refundable ticket that’s an annoying Southwest quirk in its travel waiver