I was one of the thousands of folks who had their Southwest Airlines flights cancelled while I was over the river and through the woods at grandmother’s house for Christmas.
The earliest we could get on a flight back to Los Angeles was two days after our cancelled Southwest flight was supposed to get us home. This new flight two days later was on Delta Airlines. The only seats Delta had available were in first class. We had to get home. I had hoarded enough points to buy the tickets. So, I pulled the trigger.
How much were tickets? Oh, only $1,954.60 apiece. Two seats came to $3,909.20. That’s one way. No, we weren’t flying to Los Angeles from Paris. We were returning from Atlanta.
Filling out the Southwest reimbursement form, I was concerned that Southwest would give me the shiv since our Southwest seats were not in first class. I’m very happy to report they did no such shivving. Southwest reimbursed every penny. They also reimbursed us for one dinner we bought for family hosting us. Those were the only two receipts we submitted for reimbursement.
My point is this: If you have not submitted a Southwest reimbursement form, and have receipts, I suggest you do it.
Southwest’s email that accompanied reimbursement approval said:
“Reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel accommodations, and alternate transportation (e.g., rental cars and tickets on other airlines) were honored, as long as receipts were provided. Any other request such as lost wages, credit card interest, expenses requested with handwritten receipts, etc. were not honored.”
Kudos Southwest! They also gave us each 25,000 Rapid Rewards points.
I wanna put something else your radar. In the past two Februarys, Southwest offered a Companion Pass for one year if you got a Southwest card and spent a few grand on it. No having to earn 125,000 points. Just get the card and meet the spend. I dunno if they’ll do that again. But if they do, it is a great opportunity. Stay tuned!
I have always been a fan of Southwest and their Companion Pass. If you don’t know how glorious the Southwest Companion Pass is, read more here.
