Problem changing SWA reservation

[Manda]

I just logged in to attempt to modify my SWA reservation for October and got this message:

What happened?
Your reservation contains modifications that prevent you from changing it online.

What you need to do:
Please contact a Reservations Sales Agent at 1-800-435-9792 for assistance with your reservation.

So, I called and the agent claims that I can't make a change to my reservation because I've already made a change online to my reservation and the maximum online changes you can make is 1. What??? Does anyone know when this went into effect? She claims it's been like that for a "long time now". My last few flights were freebies, so I didn't mess with them much, but I know I changed my last August flight all the time. I'm a compulsive reservation changer and I've always changed my reservations frequently online. According to this person, I can only modify my reservation over the phone or by canceling and rebooking it - neither of which I want to do. I guess it's now impossible for me to get web only fares without canceling my original reservation though.

 

[ptrbryant]

I hope this isn't right...I, too, change SWA reservations a lot. Sometimes because plans change, sometimes because there's a lower fare.

Karla B.

 

[lundve]

It has been a while, but I know I have made many a change to my SWA flights in the past. Is this a new policy??

 

[Manda]

I called back because I really didn't quite trust the first answer. I'm not sure where that first agent came up with that answer - it seems totally made up. Talked to another person and the issue is that I called a few weeks ago and had the agent add my middle initial to the reservation (to match my ID - per that whole brouhaha a few weeks ago, LOL). Once an agent touches your reservation, you can never touch it online again. I really wish they would have mentioned that to me when I called because I wouldn't have bothered with it. If this locks me out of getting a cheaper fare, I'm going to be really angry. It's not an issue right now - but it could be.