On behalf of Daniel Watkins of Watkins Firm, A Professional Corporation posted on Monday, December 17, 2012.

A settlement has been reached in the federal class action lawsuit brought against Southwest Airlines by travelers with unused vouchers for free drinks they had received from the airline for purchasing “Business Select” tickets. The vouchers listed no expiration date, but Southwest voided the unused vouchers in 2010, and the class action ensured.

Southwest sold as many as 11.6 million “Business Select” plane tickets between Oct. 2007 and Aug. 2010. The tickets were apparently sold as an upgrade to a standard business-class ticket in that a voucher for a free alcoholic drink worth up to $5 was included in the fare. It is estimated that 5.8 million such vouchers went unredeemed.

The airline has settled the class action, promising to provide replacement free-drink coupons to any customer who fills out a claim form and attests to the number of coupons they were unable to use.

The class action was filed after the company unilaterally revoked the free-drink coupons in an Aug. 2010 blog post. The airline evidently still had unredeemed vouchers that were issued in the 1980s, but unused vouchers from the 2007-2010 period were also canceled.

Because the free-drink coupons did not have expiration dates, the consumers claimed that Southwest was breached its contract. The case was in litigation for 13 months before settling, as the parties argued about whether customers would need to present the physical coupon in order to receive a replacement.

“We fought for a claims process where you don’t have to have an actual copy of the old vouchers,” says the plaintiffs’ attorney. “All you have to do is fill out the claim form and attest to the fact that you had ‘X’ number of vouchers that you never had a chance to redeem.”

Not all consumers will seek the replacement vouchers, and the financial cost to Southwest depends upon the number of new vouchers it is ultimately required to issue. The settlement estimates that total as between $29 million and $58 million.

“For those people … who were deprived of something that had value to them … they have a chance to get 100 cents on the dollar,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer told reporters.

Source: Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, “Southwest resolves drink suit,” Roy Strom, Dec. 10, 2012