How To Change or Cancel Your Southwest Airlines Flight

Southwest Airlines is a low-cost carrier in the United States that serves major destinations in the United States, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and Latin America.

It is a rare occasion where you decide to flight change, perhaps, even cancel your flight reservation. Be it just a few hours or a few days after spending a lot of money on the purchase of an airline ticket. Though this is a possibility, however, the reason pertaining to having your flight changed or cancelled could arise due to a necessity. Thus, no matter what your necessity is, we are here to guide you with the process.

In this travel guide prepared by Treknova, we will provide you the required steps to change or cancel your Southwest Airlines flight reservation.

Things to Know About Southwest Flight Change and Cancellation Policy

Passengers that have already booked reservations with Southwest Airlines, weeks and months prior to their flight departure, should also go through the carrier’s policy. This is important as their policy lays down certain regulations which cannot be avoided.

Southwest Airlines does include certain policies that are important with regard to Southwest Airlines flight change or cancellation prior to its scheduled departure from the airport. This also includes how refunds are managed and the procedure for changing or canceling your flight with the airline carrier. There are very good offers with Southwest airlines cancelation and refund.

The airline carrier has also made certain updates in their flight reservation change and cancellation policy due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The changes affect how flight change, cancellations and refunds are managed by the airline carrier. One of its policies states that passengers are given the option to easily rebook flight tickets with the carrier and at no additional cost or penalty amount. This is permitted only if passengers have already purchased flight tickets on or before the outbreak of COVID-19 global epidemic and have their flights scheduled for departure a few months in the near future.

The following are excerpts from the Southwest Airlines’ flight change policy and cancellation policy that are essential for travellers.

(a) Cancellation of flight reservation before 24 hours of its booking will not be charged a cancellation fee.

(b) There is no flight cancellation fee charged.

(c) There is no flight change fee charged.

(d) Passengers can change or cancel their flight quickly and easily on Southwest.com or using the Southwest mobile app

(e) If you cancel a flight with a non-refundable fare, you will receive Travel Funds (it is like a store credit). You can track your Travel Funds by logging into your Rapid Rewards account4 and/or search for unused Travel Funds on Southwest.com or via the Southwest app for smartphones.

When you are ready to use them, you can apply Travel Funds toward a new flight on Southwest.com or through Southwest app using the original confirmation number from your modified or cancelled flight(s).

Not all fares are refundable. Business Select and Anytime fares are refundable; Wanna Get Away fares are reusable but not refundable. Unused, refundable tickets that do not carry restrictions may be applied toward future travel or refunded within one year from the date of issue. All eligible refunds are provided according to your original form of payment.

Southwest’s Refunds Department will process an eligible refund to the original credit/debit card within seven business days from the date of receipt of your request. Your card-issuing bank may then take up to ten business days to post the credit to your account. Based on your individual billing cycle, you will see the refund on your statement within one to two statement mailings.

Step-by-Step Guide To Change or Cancel Your Southwest Airlines Flight Reservation

Below are the steps you can follow to quickly change or even completely cancel your Southwest flight.

A. Change or Cancel Your Flight by Contacting Southwest Customer Service Centre

You can contact Southwest Airlines’ customer service centre and have your flight changed or cancelled completely, following a simple procedure. The steps given below can help you achieve the task without any hassle.

Steps:

1. You can speak directly to one of Southwest’s customer support representatives using your mobile phone or a fixed line phone. Dial their toll free support phone number +1 800 435 9792. Their service is available 24 hours and on all days.

2. When you call Southwest customer service centre, you may be presented with several options to choose from. Here, choose your desired option, after which you should be directly connected to a live person who will provide you assistance.

3. You may be required to share details of your flight reservation with the person in order to carry out your request.

4. Once your details are verified, the customer service representative will initiate your flight change or cancellation request, which should take only a few minutes.

5. After your request is completed successfully, you will receive a confirmation from the representative. Also, an e-mail will be sent to you along with other information, if necessary.

B. Change or Cancel Your Flight Online via Southwest Airlines’ Website

You may also change or cancel your Southwest flight in no time by simply visiting the airline’s website and following the procedure. Thus, with just a few requirements at hand, you are all set to go with the flight change or cancellation procedure. The steps to achieve the task is given below.

You will need either a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone and an active internet connection. After that, simply follow the steps given below to change or cancel your Southwest Airlines flight without spending much time.

Steps:

1. On your device connected to the internet, visit Southwest Airlines’ official website https://www.southwest.com.

Note: If you have booked your flight ticket from the airport’s website or a third-party travel agency, then you are required to visit their website in order to have your ticket changed or canceled.

2. Now, at the top of the page, you will see the “Change Flight” and “Cancel Flight” options. If you want to change your flight, click the Change Flight button, or click the Cancel Flight button, this is shown as a bullets options you have select one of them.

3. Select your desired option after that you have to fill out the required fields in which you have to enter your confirmation number, which you get at the time of booking, then your name and the surname then click on the seek button.

Note: You may be required to log in to the airline carrier’s website before carrying out the flight change or cancellation operation. If you are asked, log in using your Southwest credentials to proceed.

4. If the details that you have provided have been verified, it should not take more than a minute to complete your request.

5. If you select to change your flight then you can see the option available related to your search and the price difference which you have to pay online by your payment card.

6. If you want to cancel your flight then according to your fare class. Auto-generated software of the Southwest shows you the amount on the screen which is going to refund and the cancellation fees if applied.

7. Once your flight is successfully changed or canceled, you will see a message on your screen. Also, an e-mail will be sent to you confirming the change or cancellation of your Southwest Airlines flight reservation.

Note: Depending on the type of flight ticket that you purchased, if there are any remaining points or rewards, you may also be informed about such a program that is offered to you.

Refunds on Flight Change or Cancellation

If you are canceling your flight, you will be asked if you would like a refund credited back to your card or if you would like a Southwest credit in the form of travel funds. If you have a refundable Southwest fare, which includes Business Select or Anytime fares, and want to change your flight, you should cancel the ticket first, then request a refund. You will be prompted to do it online or you can also do it by phone and book your new reservation. However, keep in mind that according to Southwest, changing your refundable reservation will convert your refundable fare into a non-refundable fare.

If you cancel a non-refundable ticket, you will not get a refund on your card. Instead, you will receive a credit in the form of Southwest travel funds. The travel funds expire one year after they are issued unless there are travel funds from an older ticket associated with this reservation. The new reservation inherits the earliest expiration date from any of those funds. The expiration date will be mentioned in the confirmation e-mail that you receive.

If you are changing your flight reservation, you will be able to search for alternate flights, review the new flights and prices and finally, purchase the ticket you want. You will get travel funds if you cancel a non-refundable reservation that you paid for in cash or credit. You will get travel funds for the $6 security fee portion of a canceled non-refundable ticket booked with Southwest points. These funds are great to use in the future on tickets booked with points to cover the cost of the security fee for the same person.

To redeem travel funds when booking a flight on Southwest, you will see an option for using them on the purchase page. You must have the confirmation number of the funds and the name of the person they are associated with. You can only redeem them for that same person. Again, they expire within one year of the date of issue, but you will receive an e-mail that clearly states the expiration date.

How to Cancel Your Southwest Flight and Check Eligibility for a Refund

If you can still see your itinerary on Southwest.com or in the Southwest app, follow the steps given below to check if you are eligible for a refund.

Steps:

1. Go to the Southwest.com website and click the Flight Cancel button, or open the Southwest app and select “Look Up Reservation” in the menu. Or, if you booked your trip using your Rapid Rewards account and are logged in, you can look it up in your account.

2. Enter your confirmation number and the passenger’s name on the reservation.

3. You will see any available Travel Funds or refundable balances attached to the confirmation number you entered. If you have a refundable value remaining, you can choose to receive a refund to the original form of payment or convert the fare into Travel Funds.

4. Tap or click “Cancel Flight” to cancel the flight for all passengers.

Note: Refunds to credit cards may take up to two billing cycles to appear on your bank statement.

Travel Funds are available for use immediately. If you used your Rapid Rewards number when booking, your Travel Funds will be automatically added to your Southwest account.

Get to know about Refundable and Reusable tickets

Southwest Airlines categorized their tickets into the refundable and reusable categories where customers have an option to reuse their ticket amount in the future if their ticket permits them. But there is some condition that will apply to the reusable tickets, If you want to cancel your reusable tickets then you will get the ticket value into your travel credits account and you have to cancel at least 30 minutes before its scheduled departure. The next condition is your reusable amount is valid only for the one year from the date of the purchasing your original ticket after that the amount expires and the whole amount will go into vain.

For the refundable ticket, there is no condition and the validity for the expiration. If you want to cancel your refundable ticket you will get the whole amount into the original form into the account from where you have paid for the booking. You have also an option to get your refund amount into the travel credit account but keep in mind that the travel credit account has a validity of one year.

For Non-refundable tickets, there is only one way to get a refund is that you have the option of 24 hours of cancellation where you have an option of canceling your ticket within 24 hours of booking.

Here we give the table format that will easily make you understand.

Conclusion

Changing or canceling your Southwest Airlines flight should be quick and easy if you follow the steps given above.