UPDATE: Thanks to reader JRG who confirmed that rebooking the same flight after a price drop worked for him online, and the credit shows no expiration. I checked a future domestic flight and this looks like it would work however a future international flight is still not showing up correctly. The prices are definitely cheaper even for Wanna Get Away Plus but are showing as more expensive on the change and I cannot change to a Basic fare.
Through multiple calls with Southwest along with some research on the website over the past few days (and almost making a mistake changing a flight booked for November), I now have a clearer picture on how to make sure you get all the benefits of your pre-May 28th booked flights. I’ll focus most on the old Wanna Get Away (now Basic) fare class, but some of these topics are relevant for all four fare classes.
Same day change (A-List member)
One of the sneaky changes that wasn’t clearly spelled out is now clear: A-List customers who buy Basic fares (or change a previously booked Wanna Get Away fare to Basic) will no longer get free same day change option. This is a major disappointment especially considering Basic fares did not drop in price based on the loss of checked bags and other restrictions being added. I personally have used that option several times over the past 2 years of earning A-List as we frequently know the return dates but not the specific times for our soccer trips, as game times are not known until a few weeks before at best. Booking a later in the day flight knowing I could easily call and change to an earlier flight at midnight the day-of was very convenient.
Going forward, to same day change a Wanna Get Away fare booked pre-May 29th, you must call, and have it manually adjusted because the system considers all of the previously booked Wanna Get Away fares to now be Basic. Hopefully that is a smooth process and doesn’t require IT intervention.
As an aside, this was the one last remaining value proposition for A-List in my opinion. Since the new seating benefits and checked bag options will be available to credit card holders (and are not stackable, i.e. A-List plus credit card still just gets 1 free bag, not 2), the only meaningful benefit is the faster phone service (more on that below). I don’t consider the 25% bonus on points earning a real benefit because recently that was slashed for Wanna Get Away and Wanna Get Away Plus fares. Earning a 25% bonus from 2 to 2.5 points per dollar when I recently was earning 6 points per dollar without the bonus is just not attractive.
Rebooking the same flight after a price drop
I covered this trick back in January and is something I have taken advantage of very frequently. The ease of doing that online made it worth the small effort, even to save $10-20 per person when a price dropped. Now that the website thinks the old Wanna Get Away fare bookings are Basic fares, you cannot rebook the same flight. I tested a flight for November and it appeared to let me book a higher fare class (upgrade essentially) but even that was worthless because it was asking for more money to move from Basic to Wanna Get Away Plus when the current Wanna Get Away Plus fare was still cheaper than what I booked a few weeks ago. Very frustrating!
The moral of this story is that you also must call to rebook a previously booked Wanna Get Away fare. According to the agents I talked to, for the first change the flight credit you will receive should not have expiration (same as if you cancelled) but if you make a second change it will have a 6 month (Basic fare) or 12 month (all other fares) expiration. Even worse, if you rebook into a Basic fare, you will also now have all the restrictions that come with Basic fares (no same day change for A-List as noted above, no free checked bags, etc).
If the fare drop is significant, consider rebooking into the Wanna Get Away Plus to have more flexibility. While I do have to give Southwest credit for always picking up the phone very quickly when I call and go through the A-List path, when I tested this a few days ago the agent could not do it themselves. After putting me on a long hold, they were able to force it through with the help of IT but be prepared for it to be a clunky process.
Flight credit if you cancel
If you need to cancel a pre-May 28th Wanna Get Away fare booking, the resulting flight credit should have no expiration. The agents I spoke with said this should be automatic if done online. I am skeptical since the website seems to think these are now Basic fares from the examples above and none of the other pre-may 28th benefits seem to be automated. If I need to cancel any of my active bookings, I will err on the side of calling to have it confirmed that the credit will not expire vs having to argue to change a potentially fix an expiring credit.
It is worth noting that one agent I spoke with said something about a 30 or 60 day extension on “expired credits” but a different agent said she knew nothing about it. It will be interesting to see if these are added as a courtesy option as people adjust to the new fare structure rules.
Free checked bags
They also claimed this would be automatic, even at the self-serve kiosks, but I am skeptical. I will test it out later this week on a flight where I am planning to check 1 bag and have a companion reservation attached. I will first try to check it at the kiosk under the companion reservation and see what happens. Fingers crossed you don’t have to pay and then request a credit; that would be very annoying.
Let me know in the comments what your experience has been with these topics if you have flown Southwest or made changes to existing bookings in the last week!
TL;DR: You should retain all benefits of fares, particularly the now extinct Wanna Get Away fares, for any flight booked before May 28th. However, many options like rebooking the same flight to save when a price drops or making a same day change as an A-List member will require calling in to customer service. Keep in mind changing to the new Basic fare class will come with all of the restrictions now in place for those tickets.
Not sure if what occurred to you is across the board. I have a booking to SEA for September (made in April), and changed it this am to the lower fare Wanna Get Away Plus w/o issue. I checked my new credit and it says no expiration date. Main point is I easily changed the same flight to a cheaper fare w/o any problems.
That’s good to hear! The one I was looking at was an international flight so perhaps that was my issue. I’ll try another one to see what happens.