With only 4 more days before Southwest implements their new, customer-unfriendly policies on May 28th, now is the time to take action if you have booked or planned travel on Southwest between May 28th and the end of the schedule, January 26th, 2026. Taking action now will preserve free checked bags and flight credits that don’t expire for all bookings made or changed until May 28th. Here are three things I will be doing over the next few days to prepare:
Check existing bookings for lower fares
This is something I do regularly anyway, but the timing is more important now. I wrote previously about how to save on your Southwest flight after you booked it by changing your flight to the same flight already booked. I often will save $10, $20 or sometimes more on existing bookings. While it will still make sense to use this trick in the future, those small credits will need to be consumed within 6 months of the original booking date if you booked a Wanna Get Away fare (soon to called Basic fares) or 12 months if you book a higher fare class. Making any changes now will preserve those credits with no expiration.
Book likely future travel now
If you have a trip that you are pretty likely to actually need, you should consider booking it now. If you ultimately need to cancel, those flight credits will not expire even for travel AFTER May 28th as long as you book BEFORE May 28th. This makes Wanna Get Away fares more attractive for the next few days since they will also include free checked bags. Booking after May 28th, or changing a previous booking will result in the new policies being applied. If you highly value the free checked bags and are not an A-List member or credit card holder, then it makes even more sense to buy future travel now if the price is reasonable.
Consolidate or transfer travel credits
Existing flight credits that will maintain no expiration date become more valuable on May 28th so position them for maximum benefit now. If you have some stray credits for yourself or from different family members that don’t fly as often, consider consolidating them into larger values and/or transferring them to the family member who travels the most. I walked through the steps to make a non-transferrable credit (from a Wanna Get Away fare) transferrable here.
I also wonder what will happen after May 28th if you have Basic fare credits that expire in 6 months from the time of booking with this approach. If those credits are used to book a higher fare class and then that new flight is subsequently cancelled if plans change, will the new credit be good for 12 months? I suspect it will, and I plan to test it. The other open question is what date is used as the start date for the expiration clock when a credit is used to book a new flight? If that date resets with a new booking, then in theory it would be possible to extend the expiration. Time will tell.
To consolidate your own existing credits, find a flight you may want to take between any two cities that will just barely consume up to 3 credits (the maximum allowable forms of payment), pay with those credits, and then later cancel the new booking if your plans change. The resulting credit will be the total as in the below example where I turned three small credits into one, more useful credit of $75.48 once the new booking was later cancelled. I always look for one-way flights to make this easier.
TL;DR: With the start of Southwest’s new policies coming in just a few days, now is the time to take action and lock in existing benefits of no expiration on flight credits and free checked bags for any potential future travel. Consider booking future Southwest travel now, rebooking any existing flights where the fares have dropped, and consolidating existing travel credits. Doing this before May 28th will maximize their usefulness.
Expect chaos at boarding with people trying to carry on too many bags to avoid paying to have them checked and gate agents having to sort out the mess. Hopefully it will get better as people get used to the new system with Southwest.
I agree. Then layer in the confusion with boarding groups changing and seating assignments next year which I predict will cause even more confusion and challenges both for the gate agents and for the flight attendants trying to police no one sitting in the extra leg room seats. Perhaps one silver lining is that should ultimately cut down on the people abusing the wheelchair preboard option.