"I'm looking at Southwest fares, but not finding what we'd like, currently they are about 170 per person per way. Sue, from your post, it sounds like you've exchanged previous tickets? Is that possible? I figured they would be non-refundable?"
They are nonrefundable for cash, though some people have been able to adjust their credit cards, but they will cancel and change any reservation and give you the credit to use on another trip.
I am planning two trips in 2006, March and June. I always use SW. I grabbed the first reasonable fares I could find knowing I would try to reduce them to help pay for my second trip.
The first one, March, I booked 4 people at $125 each way. One leg of the trip was reduced to $79. The hitch was only one $79 ticket became available each day. So I called each day, removed one person and made a new reservation getting a credit of $45 per person for a total of $180. Then I had made reservation for 5 at $84 in June. That went down to $79, so I cancelled, got the credit and rebooked at the $79 rate and got a credit of $25.
Hope this helps.