Southwest Airlines Just Made an Eye-Opening Change to Its Service That Passengers Will Love

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Southwest Airlines Just Made an Eye-Opening Change to Its Service That Passengers Will Love (and No One Noticed)
By Chris Matyszczyk/ Inc./ inc.com

"It's always quaint when an airline does something that seems to favor passengers.

It's tempting to think of Southwest Airlines as the People's Defender.

It does a pleasantly populist job of not charging change fees or baggage fees.

This doesn't mean, however, that Southwest is always, always people-friendly.

It is, indeed, touching that, unlike most other airlines, it doesn't charge you $200 for the few clicks it takes to change your flight.

There was still a catch involved, however.

As Deals We Like reports, it used to be, for example, that when you changed a refundable fare flight, the new flight would become non-refundable.

So if your plans changed again and you wanted to cancel, all you'd get would be travel vouchers, rather than your money back.

Last week, however, Southwest had a change of heart.

The airline decided that your changed refundable fare would stay refundable...."

CREDIT: Getty Images


Richard

 

[Luanne]

That's a nice change. We fly SW enough though that I have never purchased a non-refundable fare. I buy the cheapest one, and then if I need to cancel it (which luckily hasn't been often) I'll just take the points back, or the credit, which I can use within a year of the booking. Since, as I said, we do fly them a lot I haven't lost money on this.

 

[PigsDad]

Didn't know they had that restriction in the past. We have taken advantage of changing our flights, but never changing them twice. Good to know!

Just another reason Southwest is by far our favorite airline (and we will/do choose to pay more to fly SW sometimes even when there is a cheaper fare on another airline).

Kurt

 

[Blues]

Huh, did not know that. Similar to Luanne and Kurt, the only time I've ever purchased a refundable fare was a last minute purchase due to a death in the family. In any case, it's a nice change.

 

[silentg]

We fly Southwest more than other airlines. Mostly for trips to New England.