Travel funds bought from a third party leaves flyers up in the air

TAMPA - You can find almost anything on Craigslist.

Daniel Goldberg spotted a great deal on airfare. “They make cash, I get a cheaper flight.”

It works that way by buying someone's unused travel money, banked in a Southwest Airlines account.

Goldberg e-mailed the seller, agreeing to pay $490 for $700 worth of credits.  They planned to meet at a local convenience store.

He said he handed over nearly 500 dollars in cash after receiving a code to be used online.

Then he went to the internet. “Went to Southwest, used the code, put it in, bought my flight.”

Knowing it's not the usual way to by tickets, Daniel called Southwest to make sure everything was fine. They had bad news.

"'This has been pulled. There are no more funds in here. You don't have a flight,'" they told him. "It was honestly one of the worst moments ever, because you know you've been swindled.”

Daniel had a confirmation number -- even an itinerary of his travel plans. He never guessed he would be left empty-handed.

The same thing happened to Kim Stevenson.

She needed to fly to see her relatives. “My stepmother had fell, broke her neck, was on life support.”

She thought she found a compassionate helper on craigslist. The seller booked flights for Kim and her son using awards tickets.

Like Daniel, Kim had a confirmation number and she printed her boarding passes after wiring money to the seller.

But the morning of her flight, Kim learned her boarding pass was no good. "He said 'well, you'll have to pay for a ticket if you want to fly.'”

She paid $900 on the spot to be with family.

Southwest Airlines refused an on-camera interview, but says "offering to buy or sell" awards tickets is against their rules.

The policy is buried in their website, under rapid rewards, then rules, number 14 of 42.

Both Kim and Daniel blame the scammers and themselves.

But Kim thinks more should be done. “They're allowing them to sell them and to use them.”

They both wonder how Southwest could provide confirmation and even boarding passes that turned out to be no good.

In a statement, Southwest would only say they couldn’t comment on "specific customers' inquiries," but that they "regularly work with law enforcement to ensure illegal activities are prosecuted."

The airline is set to change it's travel fund policy, but not until late January of 2011. Not in time for your holiday travel.

Southwest Airlines did vow to investigate these two cases.