Southwest Question

[Genie1953]

Requesting help from all you experts...
My husband and I are flying Southwest and purchased our round trip tickets with the early bird option flying down and coming back. Prices have dropped considerably for the return trip home. I know I can get credit but not a refund but since I purchased round trip tickets I don't know if asking for the lower price on the return trip will affect my ticket flying down which has increased just slightly. I also noticed that prices for flying back a day later at the same departure time is drastically lower. If we ask for the lower price now and then do decide to extend for another day is this possible...to make more than one change after purchasing? As you can tell we do not fly very often.....in fact it has been at least 7 years since we have flown. Any help will be much appreciated.

[WishingStar2006]

You can very easliy change your flight when flying Southwest. You can just go on their website, call up your reservation and just change the return flight for the cheaper fare. Then you will have a credit to use on future travel. The wonderful thing about Southwest there aren't any penalties for these changes and I do it all the time. Note: you can only make one change on your own via the website. If you later decide to add that extra day you can still do so with no penalty but you have to call Southwest to do it.

I recently used the Early Bird option and it is wonderful. No stress about being able to login to Southwest to check in 24 hours ahead to get a good loading position. Well worth the $10 extra dollars!!!

[BigRedDad]

You are caught up in the issue with SW on buying round trip tickets vs two 1-way tickets. Unfortunately, you cannot change the return flight because you purchased a round trip ticket. The credit would apply to the entire round trip. You would need to rebook the flight down and the return flight. This is why it is best to purchase 1-way tickets with SW. If one of the legs goes down in price, you do not lose the price of the other leg.

Look at both legs and see if it is worth canceling the old reservation and rebooking two 1-way tickets. If you save money, that is the best route.

[Genie1953]

Thanks for the info. I went online to make the changes but it would not let me and gave me a number to call. I called and found out that the fare on the website was a web-only special and the person I was talking to said that because it was web-only he could not help me but I should be able to make the changes myself. I told him that it would not let me. He put me on hold for about 10 minutes and then came back on and said they were able to secure the lower fare for me. He also told me to be aware for future reference that sometimes when you make changes your early bird feature will drop off of the reservation. He told me that happened when they made the changes to my reservation this evening but they were able to add it back on for me and just wanted me to be aware. He was extremely nice. Made me realize why my daughter and son in law like Southwest so much. I am very glad I decided to fly Southwest. Now I have $150 credit to use sometime in the next year.

[Fangorn]

Just a couple of reminders about Southwest credits:
1) the one year clock starts from the date you ORIGINALLY purchased your tickets, not from the date you made the the change and received the credit. So if you originally purchased your tickets on 9/15/09 (for example) and then changed them on 12/5/09, your $150 credit will expire on 9/15/10 NOT 12/5/10.

2) you MUST complete your travel before the credit expires, not merely make a reservation by that date. In the above example, you will need to actually take another flight by 9/15/10.

As you discovered, Southwest has a justified superior reputation in customer service and helping people out. There are only a couple of things they are really adamant about - using flight credits within that one year window is one of them.

Have a great trip!

Steve
:mickey:

[Donald's Girl]

Just a note regarding Southwest:
I keep seeing posts stating that when you buy a round trip ticket you can't change only one leg of the trip to get the price adjustment. This is not true!!
Whenever I go to change reservation, it brings up each flight separately and you are prompted to check the box of the one you wish to change.
I have gotten price adjustments on only one way of the round trip reservation many, many times.

[Genie1953]

That is true....I have to use my credit by 10/23/10. Also I did have round trip tickets and was able to make the change to only the return ticket. I mentioned to the ticket agent that the fare going down had increased by about 5 or 6 dollars and that would probably affect my tickets too but he said no that they would just change the return fares and leave the fares going down alone.

[BigRedDad]

Just a note regarding Southwest:
I keep seeing posts stating that when you buy a round trip ticket you can't change only one leg of the trip to get the price adjustment. This is not true!!
Whenever I go to change reservation, it brings up each flight separately and you are prompted to check the box of the one you wish to change.
I have gotten price adjustments on only one way of the round trip reservation many, many times.

That is good to know for many people. I never knew that or it is something they never offered a while ago. For me it is easier to manage 2 one-way tickets.

[tyandskyesmom]

Note: you can only make one change on your own via the website. If you later decide to add that extra day you can still do so with no penalty but you have to call Southwest to do it.



Also, not true...I change mine online as often as fares go down or as often as we want to change travel dates...I have always done this...one of the many reasons I love SWA!!!