However, with American, Delta or United, you’ll need to pay a $200 change fee before the $30 is credited, resulting in an additional out-of-pocket charge of $170. With Southwest, you can rebook the exact same itinerary and have $30 to spend later when you need another Southwest flight. For example, let’s say that the price of your flight drops by $30. The first one in particular stands in sharp contrast to the legacy carriers. Award booking: You receive an immediate credit of the point differential to your Rapid Rewards account.Paid booking: You receive a credit back as a Southwest voucher to be used toward a new flight (valid for one year from the original purchase date).There are two possibilities for how this plays out: But things get interesting when your new flights are cheaper in price. If your new itinerary is priced the same as your old one, you don’t pay anything. If you move to a later one or switch to a completely different date, the only thing you have to pay is the difference in fare if the new ticket is more expensive. In short, the carrier never tacks on a fee when you change your flight. Let’s start with a quick overview of the carrier’s policy, which it touts in virtually all of its advertisements with the “Trans farency” moniker. Today I want to go through the process of rebooking an already confirmed Southwest ticket to get a refund of either points or money. However, there is one airline in the US that stands about the others when it comes to these awful fees: Southwest. The legacy carriers typically charge at least $200 when you need to modify your itinerary, and most others follow the same general approach.
If you’ve ever needed to adjust your travel plans, you’re probably familiar with the dreaded phenomenon of airline change fees.