Southwest Airlines Class Action Says Money Credits Cancelled Without Notice

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Southwest Airlines has been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming the airline unfairly imposed a one-year redemption period on money credits issued to travelers who cancelled their non-refundable tickets.

Plaintiffs Paul Stewart and Michel Hicks say they purchased non-refundable “Wanna Get Away” round-trip tickets from Southwest Airlines in August 2013, intending to travel from Tulsa, Okla. to Phoenix and back. They planned to depart Tulsa on Nov. 14, 2013 and come back on Nov. 18, 2013.

According to the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit, the price for both round-trip tickets was $695.

Although Stewart and Hicks fully intended to take the trip to Phoenix they planned, they realized that they would have to cancel the trip, according to the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. They say they followed the procedures on Southwest’s website and cancelled their flight reservations on Oct. 22, 2013.

Stewart and Hicks acknowledge that the tickets they purchased were non-refundable, so they were not expecting to get a refund for their cancelled reservations. However, Southwest did provide them with a credit they could use toward future tickets on other Southwest flights, the Southwest class action lawsuit says.

“[The plaintiffs] were completely satisfied having money-credits to use in the future, and had good experiences in the past using other money-credits they had with SWA,” Stewart and Hicks assert in the Southwest class action lawsuit.

When they attempted to use their travel funds, however, Stewart and Hicks were “shocked” to find out that Southwest would only allow them to redeem their money credits within one year from the date they originally purchased the reservation that they subsequently cancelled.

According to the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit, Stewart required significant medical treatment in 2014 and most of 2015, making non-emergency travel nearly impossible for him. By August 2015, Stewart says he and Hicks were ready to travel again and attempted to use their Southwest money credits to purchase tickets.

“To their surprise and chagrin,” Southwest representatives allegedly informed the plaintiffs that they could not use their money-credits to purchase airline tickets. According to the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit, they were given several excuses, including that the funds had expired, the funds were no longer available, and that the funds were lost.

The Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit asserts that Stewart and Hicks “attempted to resolve their dispute with SWA over their expired, unavailable, and lost money, but SWA simply stonewalled them and stopped responding.”

“The only logical conclusion is SWA confiscated [the plaintiffs’] money, and has kept it as free, unearned profits since August 2013,” the plaintiffs claim in the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit. Stewart and Hicks say that this money includes not only the amount they paid for airfare, but also they paid for federal transportation taxes, 9/11 security fees and passenger facility charges.

“Unbelievably, SWA has provided nothing in return to [Stewart and Hicks] for the money they paid to SWA,” the Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit says. The plaintiffs claim that, since Southwest’s policy is to oversell the number of available seats on its flights, the airline likely received double the money for the seats the plaintiffs reserved and cancelled because they were likely resold to other travelers.

The Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit asserts claims for breach of contract, fraud and tortious breach of the covenant of good faith.

Stewart and Hicks are represented by Jeffrey Martin of Jeff Martin & Associates PC.

The Southwest Airlines Money Credits Class Action Lawsuit is Paul Stewart, et al. v. Southwest Airlines Co., Case No. 5:17-cv-00429-F, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.