Southwest Airlines had a ‘big bang’ on May 28th. They started charging for checked bags. They started expiring travel credits. And there are all sorts of Easter Eggs in the negative changes the airline is making, like charging a fee for curbside check-in (a change the airline never announced) after firing all of their skycaps.
It’s unclear whether this is another unannounced negative change, or just that Southwest’s IT systems weren’t up for making their planned changes correctly, but you can no longer change the outbound portion of a ticket without affecting the return and this appears even to impact same day flight changes.
- Changing the outbound portion of a pre-May 28th ‘Wanna Get Away’ reservation will impose basic economy restrictions on the return.
- Even doing a same day flight change to the outbound portion of a trip causes the return to become basic economy, even though those restrictions aren’t supposed to apply to tickets purchased prior to May 28.
- Making a change, even a same day change, means that if you cancel the return your travel credit will have an expiration date instead of the promised credits not expiring that should apply to all pre-May 28th reservations.
- In fact, if you bought your tickets six months ago, and the change imposes basic economy restrictions, you may not get any travel credit at all – since basic economy credits are now valid for only six months from date of original ticket purchase (and not for six months from when the credit is issued).
- What’s more, making a same day change to the outbound of a pre-May 28 Wanna Get Away fare reservation even causes you to lose the ability to make a same day change the to the return portion of the ticket (since it becomes a basic economy ticket, and basic economy doesn’t permit same day changes).
This all hits Southwest Rapid Rewards elite A-List members the most. They’ll lose at least one free back on the return portion of their trip if they make a same day change to the outbound.
It’s a complete surprise to see Southwest treating the return half of a roundtrip ticket as having been changed when a change is made to the outbound. While that may be something other airlines have done in the past, it’s not been Southwest’s practice.
And they never announced that they would be changing this practice – so Southwest’s customers are getting caught by surprise when they learn they’ve lost free checked bags, the ability to make a same day change to their tickets and more just for exercising the options available to them on the tickets they bought.
Surely elite members being told that they could still make same day changes to the cheapest tickets, as long as they were purchased prior to May 28, meant that they would be able to make such changes to both halves of their roundtrip!
This sounds like an IT problem because when a change is made the ticket is being re-issued and the system probably doesn’t know how to distinguish between old tickets and new tickets.
PSA: don’t book round trips. Book return separately.
I have always booked most tickets as separate one-way reservations with separate record numbers. Especially WN, which prices round trip tickets as two separate flights when booking.
I always book one-ways. Easier to control use of credits and so forth. Same price, so better choice.
Southworst becoming more Southworst.
The bean counters have fucked Southwest – and it’s loyal long term customer base. Intelligent people are divesting themselves of ALL Southwest stock. Those of you waiting for things to get better are just fooling yourselves.
That “Everything’s Fine” sticker says it all. Nice find, Gary!
The only things missing are the board members from Elliott (mis)Management on the side with the can of gasoline and matches.
I’ve said “Let. Them. Fail.” lately, because I think management and their enablers are to blame for all this. Again, @American (since he/she/it complained to me last time), I don’t want regular folks to lose their jobs or for passengers to get screwed (that’ll happen anyway), yet I also recognize that this is an atrocious way to ruin a once great brand and company. These blunders will be taught as an MBA case-study.
@Craig Jones — The joke would have been, “They’ve gone from Southbest to Southworst…” unless you never liked them to begin with. I’d say they were a decent, like, actually ‘good’ airline, before they started trashing all their consumer-friendly policies.
@ Gary — The greedy folks over at Virginia Ave have been doing this for years.
Only a small percentage of Southwest passengers are affected but I have been one of the small number of people affected by tax law changes.
If there’s a class action lawsuit, the lawyers will get millions and passengers might get a 2 cent credit that expired in 6 months. Once I got a 2 cent check.
If anyone has discovered a workaround for this, please share in the comments! Clearly it’s not ok for them to do this, but unfortunately being in the right doesn’t necessarily mean you will get what you’re entitled to on the day of travel. Any help navigating this situation would be greatly appreciated!
It has been the industry norm for decades that, if you change the outbound segment on a ticket, it reprices the return even if the fares are one-way and new fare rules apply to all segments. Since WN now uses Amadeus, they are using industry pricing logic.
As others have noted, if you want to make sure your inbound and outbound stay independent, buy separate tickets.
@Tim Dunn,
I came here to say the same thing. This has been standard for a long time in the airline industry. Nothing shady; nothing that should not be expected.
As others have said – book one way trips to avoid this.
Cheers.
Industry standard for basic fares? Yes. But this is being applied to tickets that were not booked as Basic. Even tickets that were booked before anyone knew that Southwest would introduce Basic!
At which airport is paying to curb check your bag new? That’s ran by a different service and has been for years. Did another location add a set pay to curbside check fee?
I fly Southwest at least 4 times a month, but I’m non-rev so these restrictions only affect overhead bin space for me. I will continue to get 2 free checked bags, so it’s fine.
I feel like this IS the beginning of the end though. 🙁
Every Airline has rules/restrictions and every ticket has terms and conditions!!!!! Bottom line is no one reads them. So stop complaining and take accountability for what ticket you purchase. You buy cheap you get what you pay for-RESTRICTIONS
How soon do they write the Harvard Business case on how to destroy a company and brand loyalty? if Harvard has any funding left.
To those saying to book one way trips, that is not an option for anyone with a pre 5/28 ticket mentioned in the post. You’d obviously just get the same bad result.
Always one way tickets on SWA. Been doing this way before this unannounced change.
Bob is going to fix these systems issues once Southwest upgrades from a Commodore 64 to an Atari 800 with dual 5.25 inch floppy disk drives.
Someone in IT either overlooked waiving the changes for its Elites (for tickets purchased before 5-28), is incapable of loading an exception, or – most likely – SWA doesn’t care.
How to destroy good relationships with your customers.. .. just ask Southsucks airlines! My family and I will never be flying with them ever again after our next trip because we booked our tickets before the 28th and we will never booked tickets after that ever again. I hope that in the future Southwest goes bankrupt.
I thought booking a one way trip triggered a red flag and subjected you to additional screening.
Love Southwest. Hate the culture and profit driven mba changes. There’s no way to express our displeasure directly with SW as their website requires specific flight numbers and departure cities. You would think they’d learn from what’s happened to Tesla/ Musk.
@Tim Dunn it may have been industry norm for years, but that doesn’t make it a good norm, and since Southwest was bucking the norms it makes it just another bad change by Southwest.
Southwest was the anti-airline who put customers ahead of industry norms. Now they are just another airline.
At the beginning of the month I was mulling on getting a WGA+ fare given the price of a 6:25 AM flight was 1/3 the price of a 10:30 AM flight for an August trip I was planning (getting to this airport in time for a 6:25 AM flight *on public transit* is very complicated and not reasonably feasible unless leaving the night before), in that I’d gamble with a same-day change into the 10:30 one and hope there is room.
I called ahead to ask about exactly this and the agent said a same-day change in August would forfeit the bags because a new ticket is generated. Ditto with whether or not adding a companion also gets bags, for the same reason (my promo Companion Pass is valid from August to October; can’t actually add anyone until after the policy was changed, meanwhile I committed to earning it before the policy was even announced). So I stuck with the regular Wanna Get Away fare and sucked it up that I would not be able to make modifications after May 27 if I wanted to keep my bag allowance (and if my companion wants to go, we’ll share my bag allowance).
Got lucky and Southwest on May 22nd cancelled all scheduled early-morning flights between the two cities for the route on the days of travel I booked, so I was able to change to the 10:30 flight for the cost of the 6:25 flight, and keep my bag allowance anyway. I imagine if I get knocked again it still won’t count as a “voluntary” change and I’d keep the bags…but hard to say without rechecking again.
It’s such a mess. Even though I booked using points (flexible and refundable), that shouldn’t be expected to be safe forever since they’ve already announced adjustments to redemption rates (which I’ll expect to be a devaluation), and who knows, maybe they’ll reinstate points expiration.
Between burning my points now or trying to to hold onto them in case Southwest escapes Elliott, I’m choosing the former.
Assuming they’re still able to compete for my bookings; so far, Frontier has already won my next booking where the Elite Gold match fee pays for itself, and can continue to do so for the rest of the year.
I have used southwest exclusively since 1980s
I will be shopping for other flights in the future
Yes, it is the Elliot Investment group that are driving these changes, Elliot really controls the Board. Do NOT let the CEO off the hook he is doubling down on stupid trying to justify these changes – I think he is just a figure head puppet trying to justify stupid. I agree this is a marketing study on how to destroy a brand. I have flown SW for about 30 years because I felt they cared about us as customers. SW is now just another airline – but SW is now at the bottom of my choice list. BTW many of these years I held A- List and Preferred.
Yesterday, I attempted to change a Southwest one way ticket going from MSY to DAL. This is my first attempted change since before May 28. I had originally booked it for 4172 points for that flight and it dropped to 3500 points. In the past I could just make a change and rebook the very same flight for a points savings of 672 points. It would not allow me to do it. I could have changed to a different time and it would have given me the points savings. My other option would be to cancel for a full 4172 points refund and rebook that same flight for 3500 points, however I would loose the ability to carry 2 bags at no charge on this flight. I choose not to change.but
I too am disapointed with the changes with Southwest but time will tell what happens to their company. For me flying out of DAL and the companion pass is still very valuable.
Following the pack is the route to mediocrity and Southwest has collapsed like a cheap table to shareholder pressure. Shareholders come and go and all they are looking for is a quick buck. They will be gone and SW will be stuck with the mess!
@Kevin – the fix is choosing a different airline.
@Nun – not correct. In this case, changing one direction impacted the other. With one-way, only the changed direction is impacted, not the other.
@Scott -not that I’m aware of. We book almost exclusively one-way and this has never been the case. Sure, the occasional random beep (and not in a while). But nothing related to our tickets.
Cheers.
Whether you booked one way or round trip prior to 5/28 doesn’t matter. If you need to change your flight, you will still have to pay for your bags. I changed my one way flight on 5/29 and will have to pay for both my bags. $80. If you change both flights, that’s $160
Time for a travel freindly replacment now, again like AIR TRANS was,till SWA scooped them.up.
Southwest to SouthBest and now on its return to Southwurst . I have flown “Mostly” SWA since AirCal days, SWA inherited systems in place, no incredibly high infrastructure cost so IMo/ in my opinion, also hired cheaper younger staff…energized people/ funny ones too/ bought all new planes ✈️ and NOW they have caught up with real costs that the rest of the industry has paid for years
My suggestions/ it is now again from SouthBest to Southwurst… fly Alaska or Frontier and at least “ shop”
You will be as surprised as I am and the miles and points crap forget it/ it changes more often than Trumps loyalists
I used to put up with the SW Jesus flights* because they had free bags and lacked change fees. But with the recent slew of changes, I’ll never fly them again.
*SW flies Jesus flights where 30 people line up in wheel chairs to board early to get and save prime seats and are miraculously healed where they can stand and walk under their own power when the plane lands. The Jesus flights will likely vanish once SW adopts assigned seating.
I have flown Southwest for years because of no bag or seating fees. At one time U was Alist preferred but my travel with them is less. After I use what is left of my points I will no longer be flying Southwest! It’s ashame because it was my favorite airline. With all of their changes I no longer have any incentive to want to fly with them. They are now no longer any better than any other airline! Such a tragedy that they have allowed this!
I was a loyal SouthWest flyer since the early 90’s when I did a paper in college about their business model. I was impressed. But now they say they are not worried about all these changes because it is nothing that the other airlines are doing. With that mentality I say “now I will fly the other airlines!”. And I hope others will too.
@EC, I believe that one way versus roundtrip does matter. If you booked two one-way trips and changed one direction, you pay for bags for that direction only. If you booked roundtrip, even if you changed only one direction, my understanding from the above is that the *whole* reservation changes and you’d have to pay both ways. In this case, how you booked would make a difference in fees.
Cheers.
The experience of flying has gradually deteriorated over the past three decades. I’ve reached a point where I’d rather spend a few days on a train than endure the airport and airline experience.
The first “rats” to abandon the sinking ship will be the weasels using fake wheelchairs and saving seats. They will find another airline to destroy. And so much for Southwest’s heart logo and the “LUV” slogan.Now they just LUV to screw you over. Insert your peanuts/pretzels where the sun don’t shine.
They told us we would be “Grandfathered” in. Than they said “Oh make any change and it now becomes a new ticket.” I did buy two one ways. Price went down on the way down. Tried to get My points back. They said yes you can have the point difference back. But you now lose free bags and any other perk you thought you had under the Old conditions. Be very careful! Side note you cannot pre buy the bags online you might need. They expect you to pay for them at check in.
Southwest is like any business trying to make money …oops that’s wrong now. All airlines have rules and conditions know em and follow em and shop for best rates but do fly planes that have reclining seats. I’ll take southwest everyday over frontier or spirit just because seats are softer and have better layout and comfort. Southwest is easy to deal with no chat with 2 hour waits like frontier and spirit an actual person to call how 2025 in the 21st century. Southwest staff are all great other airlines my God – the flight attendants need Midol pills and distemper shots.
I keep seeing the excuse that Southwest is implementing policies that have been industry norms for a long time. The thing is, Southwest built it’s brand on going against the norm. It’s why they had such a good reputation and loyal customer base. Nobody flies Southwest because they want “the norm”. I don’t care if they don’t have an airport lounge, I want free checked bags and no hassle reservations. It seems like Southwest is on a mission to self-sabotage.
Pro-tip: We travel on SWA a lot, my hubby for business weekly. We’ve started booking every trip as separate itinerary one-ways – no more round-trips. And yeah, not booking Basic Economy. We still get 1 free bag due to A-List + SWA Visa card. BUT I just took a short inter-California flight and I can already tell you our push away was slightly delayed because half the C group had to bring their bags back to the front of the plane for gate check. ~\(*;*)/~
The investment group that bought this once wonderful airline is doing what all predatory investment groups do: Rip off & drive away the customers, milk it dry, strip it of its assets, chop-up what’s left, and sell the pieces to the highest bidders. They have no interest in running a business, just an avarice that knows no bounds. We need laws stop these cannibalistic practices.
Southwest has become a dumpster fire in too many ways to count….
Gary, I realize you don’t actually -“fact- check” anything you post, but SWA actually only had a handful of skycaps to begin with. Most SWA airports didn’t have any, and those that did were almost exclusively third party. But I suppose “fired all their skycaps!!” sounds so much more dramatic.
Also, it’s clear that Southwest DID announce that changing itineraries after May 28 would trigger the new rules. SWA had been making announcements about this very thing literally for months saying, “including voluntarily-changed reservations.” Do you even do ANY research before posting?
Fuck Southwest just don’t fly in that airline anymore
Im done with an airline I loved. Breaking up isn’t always hard to do.
@Sean: Why be so disrespectful? I have over 2000 flights with Southwest. I am as familiar with their rules as anyone. Southwest has never in my experience considered a change in half a round trip to be a change in the other half. This is new to Southwest. Southwest’s announcements could have highlighted this crucial fact, but the people writing the announcements were oblivious.
And for what it’s worth it’s being applied to reservations made before the public had any idea that Basic was coming or that WGA tickets would ever be transmuted into Basic tickets.
Southwest Airlines is the new Bud Light of 2025. Good luck with that!