We had quite the experience traveling out to the east coast last week flying Southwest from St Louis to Baltimore to RIchmond, Virginia. Here are a few tidbits from that trip.
Wednesday weather wreaked havoc
The storms on the east coast caused all kinds of problems and ultimately cancelled our connecting flight. We were not allowed to collect our bags which was unfortunate since we ultimately had to drive the last leg to get to Richmond.
Since we could not be reaccommodated for over 24 hours and were just 2.5 hours away by car, of course we cancelled the new booking that was made for us. What was interesting (but not surprising) was that once I cancelled that new booking, we only received a credit for $20.05. That was frustrating because while we only got part of the way to our destination, we only recovered a small percentage of the original fare paid. When calling to cancel that new leg that was added I did ask to lodge a complaint that we were not allowed to collect our bags in Baltimore even though there was no chance to continue on with our trip.
On the bright side…
Because all of the delays and cancellations were due to “weather” I didn’t expect any compensation. Much to my surprise, a few days later we received two $200 vouchers for our troubles. While LUV vouchers have to be consumed within 12 months, they are flexible in that you can use them to book travel for anyone. And we were able to recover our bags at the Richmond airport by noon the next day so even though they couldn’t have got us there, being without our bags for only about 13 hours wasn’t the end of the world.
On the downside…
Once I finally made it home and checked my account, I was surprised to see an odd number of flights towards A-List requalification. With all of the changes happening at Southwest, I don’t plan on continuing to pursue A-List status after next year, particularly because most of the benefits are given to credit card holders already. However, I am pretty close to requalifying so I might as well push it across the finish line this year. Apparently, because I didn’t complete my full flight (that they cancelled), flying from St Louis to Baltimore doesn’t count as a one-way segment. I argue that it should count, since I paid about 90% of my original connecting fare to get that far in my trip.
Quick tip about fare classes
This is a small thing, but I was surprised to hear someone we were traveling with miss it, so I thought I would share. One family we were traveling with who always seems to end up in the C boarding group magically had A1-15 boarding positions. I asked if they did anything different with the booking and they said “no” but upon checking their boarding pass and seeing the free drink coupon it was clear they booked a Business Select fare. Their confusion stemmed from the change made on the Southwest site which forever shows their most expensive fares to cheapest left to right but with the May 28th changes also flipped the order so now the most expensive Business Select fares show up on the right where the cheapest Wanna Get Away used to be listed. Interestingly, if you try to change an existing flight, the fare classes are flipped back, with the Basic fares on the left. I have no idea why they are inconsistent, but I wanted to share this in case others were confused and may book a Business Select fare accidentally.
The Club lounge at Chicago Midway looks nice (from a distance)
Our return trip had us connect through Chicago Midway, and while that flight was only slightly delayed, I was excited to check out the relatively new The Club lounge to review it as part of my series of lounges you can access when flying Southwest. Much to my chagrin, there was a waitlist of 130 people!! At 9:30pm. When the lounge closed at 10:00. On a Sunday night. Unless you have a very long layover, I can’t imagine there will be a time when it would be easy to walk right in which is really disappointing given that the lounge does look very nice. Maybe I will have better luck next time.
