Unhappy Rapid Rewards member sues Southwest Airlines over the companion ... - Dallas Morning News (blog)

Okay, here’s the situation.

1. Southwest says that anyone who accumulates 110,000 Rapid Rewards points during a calendar year can earn a free companion pass good for the rest of the year and the following year.

2. Arizona resident Cory Couch sees in December that he has more than 100,000 points on his Southwest Airlines-branded Chase credit card.

3. Naturally, he spends enough money to get to 110,000 points in 2014.

The problem is that he didn’t get the pass, and now Couch has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Dallas demanding that Southwest give him what he says he deserved.

Couch, who is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, said Southwest didn’t credit any purchases made after Couch’s Dec. 8 billing date for the Chase credit card. That conflicts with Southwest’s literature that says all purchases made during a calendar year would be counted toward qualifying for a companion pass, Couch alleged.

If a customer accumulates at least 110,000 of Southwest’s “Rapid Rewards” points during a year, a companion can fly free with that customer, no matter how many flights the customer might take.

Couch, who said he had amassed more than 100,000 points by December, then spent more than $10,800 after his Dec. 8 billing date to put him over the 110,000 mark. He said he checked with Southwest. Representatives assured him that all purchases made in 2014 would count for 2014.

Only afterward did he find out that those purchases made post-Dec. 8 wouldn’t count in 2014.

“As a result of Southwest’s dishonoring of its terms promising to credit points earned during the calendar year, Couch and other members of the Class, defined below, were denied Companion Passes as they were promised,” Couch said in his lawsuit.

” Likewise, Couch and other class members made purchases he wouldn’t have otherwise made, enriching Southwest under conditions indicating it should not be allowed to keep such monies, which it receives as a revenue share in accordance with its contract(s) with Chase or Visa that govern Southwest Rapid Reward Credit Cards,” the suit added.

He asks that he and other Rapid Reward members get their companion passes, plus unspecified damages.

“Hundreds if not thousands of members have been wrongfully denied their Companion Passes despite spending the required sums on purchases,” Couch alleged.

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