Update: DEAD!
Southwest currently has an insanely generous systemwide change policy for all March flights.
You can change any flight booked for travel in March to another flight within 14 days for free. Southwest never charges change fees, but currently they will also waive the fare difference.
Best of all you can make the changes online and this policy applies to paid flights and award flights.
With a 24 hour cancellation policy, I figured I’d see how exactly this worked when buying a new ticket today.
Going to Spring Training has always been on my bucket list. What if I wanted to catch the Tribe in Goodyear, AZ? A one-way flight this Sunday would set me back a whopping $583:
Thanks to Southwest’s Low-Fare Calendar, I saw that I could buy a ticket for later this month for as low as $134:
I wasn’t sure exactly how far Southwest’s waiver policy extended, so I bought a ticket for 3/27 and then immediately clicked on change flight. I said I could change for free to any flight 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the flight I booked:
And I had no problem switching to the $583 flight for this Sunday without paying any extra:
Once I made that change the 2 week window that I could change to became within 2 weeks of the new flight:
If you change a fight to 3/31 it opens up free changes from 3/17-4/14. Metro area changes are also allowed:
There is no limit to how many changes you can make.
One thing I learned is that while you can refund Southwest tickets within 24 hours online, once you make a change you’ll have to call for a refund.
Personally I won’t be taking advantage of this and refunded my ticket, but I found it to be incredibly generous of Southwest. Kudos to them for having this policy!
Have you made any changes with Southwest’s change policy for flights this month?
The Chase Southwest Business Premier card has a signup bonus of 60K Southwest points for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
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70 Comments On "WOW! Southwest Has The Most Generous Systemwide Free Change Policy For This Month That I’ve Ever Seen!"
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I can change a $100 flight for a $500 for free?
yes but this is not the point
the point is how generous Southwest is
Don’t mean to shine a light, but for what reason?
#GemaraKup
Kudos to you. We should support airlines like this and not take advantage of their generosity. A lesson I learned many times – specifically a few bad apples ruin it for everyone.
WOW Airlines?
Y u surprised, Southwest is always looking to make it better for the passenger
If only it was available for Pesach flights in April to Orlando
Just got tickets to Florida for the week before Pesach for $50 instead of $400. This is insane Dan!
You were able to do this for April flights?
I’d imagine March 31+ 14 days= April 13th or 14th latest changes
Its because of the 737 Max issues…
The policy applies to the older 737 flights as well.
i know, but this is highly likely due to no enough aircraft to operate after 737 Max issue
Sure, but Southwest could have limited this to people booked on those flights. They deserve kudos for allowing changes to all flights.
Generally I buy into most of the “shtick”, this one is downright dishonest.
Personally I wouldn’t book a ticket and do this, but Southwest deserves kudos for having such a generous free change policy.
I’m normally a fan of urs but you wouldn’t “book a ticket and do this” (presumably b/c its wrong) but yet you post this online for ur followers… where did our moral compass go??? dan can you please just post good deals – not teach people how to scam???
The point of the post was to give kudos to Southwest for allowing changes like this for this month.
Well said, who would of thought you meant otherwise! 😉
it is NOT dishonest they could have easily made this policy only for existing reservations only
Most airlines do have that restriction when they have waivers, though not all do.
which is exactly my point, they could have easily been like most other airlines yet chose not to, so it is not dishonest.
Dude thanks so much for this tip! You rule Dan! Just rebooked a PR flight for way less points…
Did southwest stop direct flight from Newark or lga to fll ?
EWR ends after 4/7: https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/airline-news/southwest-killing-service-2-major-east-coast-airports-fort-lauderdale/
They still fly Sunday from LGA-FLL and daily from PHL and ISP to FLL.
Uh oh. I was hoping bloggers wouldn’t notice this potential for abuse.
So, when are legacies going to consider being generous towards the customer? All I remember are the nickel and diming
Considering that Southwest still generously gives 2 free bags and everyone else is busy creating basic economy fares, probably never.
I guess in that case we, customers, should look for opportunities to fly SWA, within reason. I mean, sometimes, we just can’t deal with the additional time resulting from connecting flight (which SWA had many). Maybe, legacies will eventually see the light ?
They will only see the light if it hurts their bottom line due to Southwest gaining market share.
it works even though that fair class wasnt available on your first search because there is only anytime class on the one i want to book
Right, it will rebook it as “Wanna Get Away” even if there’s only Anytime on the flight you want to change to.
will the change period ever move past 4/14?
I didn’t try changing a flight past 3/31, so I’m not sure. If you try then let us know.
nope 🙁
Thanks tonz for the tip just changed a flight
Amazing! Saved $100
Worked for me!!! Thanks dan
can i switch a connecting flight to a direct flight ?
Try and report back.
Dan knows as much as you, if he never tried he wouldn’t know!(or maybe he would?!)
Thanks dan! Paid through the nose for tickets home after purim. Just rebooked for a later flight and saved 25k points!
You we’re always able to change flights for free and get a refund if the flight was cheaper. The thing is now you can change to a more expensive flight and and not have to pay the difference, so saving your points by switching to a later date is nothing new
Um no, travel for next Sunday was very expensive. I change to a flight later in the day thereby spending more time on vacation. And saved a ton of miles by switching from a weekday flight
You obviously aren’t familiar with swa
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.southwest.com/html/generated/help/faqs/no_change_fee_faq.html&ved=2ahUKEwjvq6zA6oThAhVDq1kKHcVGD7UQFjABegQIDxAE&usg=AOvVaw32t2PUMvry-F9qFyVMcaX7&cshid=1552676478186
Freecounty, I’m not sure what you are showing Yechiel. Unless I’m mistaken, the link you pasted says the following “At Southwest, you may pay a difference in air fare, but never a change fee.”
He said he paid through the nose for tickets and now he changed and saved points you could always do that
Not if the day he wanted to fly was $500 and then he moved it out two weeks and then pulled it back two weeks to the original day just to lower the fare of the ticket.(swap the $500 for x amount of points)
you did this change for ticket booked using points?
anyone get past the 4/14 date?
It’s not going to happen. If one originally had the financial means to get to FL for Pesach, then just enjoy your yomtov.
Does it work with flights reserved with miles? In other words, can I book a 5,000 point flight on one date and then change it to a flight on the same route within 2 weeks which would cost 10,000 points?
Read the post again.
Can you imagine if this occurred around late the “holiday season”. There would be anarchy to change to flights around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, being that the weeks surrounding outside of those holidays are among the cheapest of the year.
Can I use a companion pass as well
Sure why would you think not.
does it make a difference if i am trying to change 2 people on the same reservation
Why would one pax be allowed and two pax not? Dont see any difference whether the reservation had 10 people or one person.
March 31 is after Spring Training…just fyi..
Read the post again…
Are you sure there are no limits? When I did it once and tried to do it again I got an error message at the end, though it had still said I could change it. When I called in I was told it was one time only – though they did change it again for me.
I changed my test ticket several times online.
help me here pls .. does this policy applies to points ticket as well? Dan … I read the post multiple times but couldn’t figure that out …
Why dont you PUTPAC?
April 3, 1973
Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, his rival.
While Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876.
I love Southwest. They are my go to domestic airline.
It doesn’t include if your 1st flight was on the 31st it’s only until the 30th
Does this work during the month of April?
Thanks for the tip. Worked for me. Booked a trip for 6000 points then moved dates.
FYI – Southwest pulled the waiver early. Not able to change my flight for free anymore online and calling in an agent said the waiver has been pulled due to overuse.
I just tried to book another flight using the trick and the notice about it being free is indeed gone and now it shows price differences.Glad i got in while the gettin was good. I had a trip already planned tomorrow that was 22k points that i got reduced to 8k and then bought a trip back to the same place in 2 weeks for 6k. cha ching!