I recently wrote about how simple it was to update my name on my Southwest Rapid Rewards account after getting married. One thing I didn’t think about before making the change was the money I had in a Southwest Travel Fund. Travel Funds are issued when you cancel a ticket and can be used to book future flights. Here’s the issue, the reusable funds can only be used by the originally ticketed passenger. Since my last name is now different, the system cannot accept travel funds under my maiden name.
I called Southwest to see how I could get my money back and they were stumped. First, they told me to book tickets in my maiden name as a workaround. This won’t work because I don’t have a usable ID in my maiden name. Also, I’m my husband’s companion on the Companion Pass (under my new last name) so I wanted to use the funds to pay for taxes on Companion Pass tickets. The customer service rep when to speak to her manager for more information.
So what was the ultimate solution? Southwest has no way of re-issuing the money so next time I want to use the travel funds, I need to call Southwest to make the reservation and they should be able to apply them on their end. This wasn’t really the solution I was hoping for so let’s just hope it works!
