Some Southwest Airlines Customers Charged Multiple Times for Reservation

Saturday morning, many Southwest Airlines customers who took advantage of the the airline’s one-day, 50% off sale Friday are finding their credit cards maxed or their bank accounts dry.

According to a post on the company’s Twitter feed, a system glitch apparently charged customers multiple times.  One customer on Twitter says he was charged for the same reservation 11 times.

Southwest’s customer service hotline is closed on Saturday, leaving its 1-800-I-FLY-SWA reservation number unreachable, apparently due to customers’ complaints.

Southwest’s Twitter feed says the airline is aware of the problem and is working to cancel duplicate transactions.

UPDATE:  From Southwest Airlines spokesman Brad Hawkins:

Our Customers were extremely excited to take advantage of the limited-time offer we shared yesterday in celebration of reaching three million Fans on Facebook. Due to the overwhelming response, we experienced some site performance issues at various times throughout the day. We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience and are proactively cancelling any duplicate itineraries that may have occurred.

Hawkins says customer service agents worked through the night and continue to work Saturday morning to cancel duplicate reservations.

UPDATE:  Saturday afternoon, Southwest posted on its website a promise to refund any overdraft fees caused by the error.  From Southwest.com:

For those Customers who used debit cards and have received overdraft fees as a result of the additional charges, we will process a reimbursement for all overdraft fees that were caused by duplicate charges from Southwest for a single purchase. If you incurred overdraft fees, please fax documentation of those fees via a letter from your bank or a copy of your account showing the fees to 877-506-0154.