SWA Price Drop ?

[las3888]

Hi all,

I am sure this has been asked before, but I am wondering if SWA allows you to get a refund if you book a/f and the price drops further down the road? I see that the prices have dropped today for our trip in early June. It's still higher than we would like to pay, but we are thinking of going ahead and booking. If the a/f drops more, can we get refunded the difference? If so, how does it work and is it easy to do? Is it a cash refund or a credit for a future flight?

Would appreciate any info!

Thank you!

 

[iloveokw]

Everyone is paying more than thet want for airfare....so I would jump on it. Yes SWA will give you a credit for future travel. Must be used within one year of booking not travel dateand must be used by person who's name is on the ticket. Book your trip as two one ways, that way if the price goes down on only one of your trip you can rebook w the refund. Sometimes one leg will go down but the other goes up.

 

[Vivianne]

I also thought you needed to book each leg separately to take advantage
of the price credit if there is a drop in fare.

However, you can easily do it by going to Travel Tools and selecting
change reservation. You are allowed to change only one leg of your trip
and keeping the other intact. I did this for a co-worker 2 days ago.

When you're ready to book your next trip you'll see where you can
enter the confirmation number with your credit. The amount will be
deducted from the total trip.

 

[tlenzendorf]

Does the credit have to be used for flights only or can it be used for other services you can book thru Southwest, such as cars or hotels?

 

[las3888]

Please let me make sure I am getting this right:

book 2 one ways because you can only make changes once, but if you have 2 one ways, you can change outbound once and return once as well

To change it, do you request a change online and just rebook your exact flight for a lower price (if that happens)? Then they issue a credit?

TIA!

 

[Vivianne]

Please let me make sure I am getting this right:

book 2 one ways because you can only make changes once, but if you have 2 one ways, you can change outbound once and return once as well

To change it, do you request a change online and just rebook your exact flight for a lower price (if that happens)? Then they issue a credit?

TIA!

Simply you have a confirmation # once you book. You don't need to book
your flights separately.

If one or both prices drop for the exact same flight you go to Travel tools
Change reservation and you can select the change for EACH flight. You may
choose to do only 1 because the other is the same or higher. The credit will
be tied to your confirmation #. There will be a little box you check next to each leg of your current flights. You can select 1 box or 2 boxes.

When you decide to fly again, within a year,
you enter that particular confirmation # when you book the new flight. The
credit will be reflected on the final total of the reservation. You will see where to enter that confirmation number when you enter the details of your name, etc. As with anything dealing with flights look carefully as you're entering your reservation details. At the bottom you will see your credit applied.

 

[Vivianne]

Does the credit have to be used for flights only or can it be used for other services you can book thru Southwest, such as cars or hotels?

I'm not sure as I've only done it for flights. But I doubt it. Check FAQs.
Or probably someone will come along here to clarify.

 

[spd3483]

I believe credit must be used for flights.

 

[las3888]

Thanks for all the replies and info. I need to jump on this, but I have one more question - is there a limit to changes I can make on the tickets? If the outbound flight drops and I catch a refund, if it drops again can I get more refund, or more importantly, if the return flight changes later, can I change it yet again to get that portion refunded? Thanks!

 

[Jestocost]

Thanks for all the replies and info. I need to jump on this, but I have one more question - is there a limit to changes I can make on the tickets? If the outbound flight drops and I catch a refund, if it drops again can I get more refund, or more importantly, if the return flight changes later, can I change it yet again to get that portion refunded? Thanks!

Yes to all. However, you will get separate credits each time you make a change and I'm not sure how many credits you can use at any given time when booking future travel.

With regard to your earlier question about one-way booking vs. round trip, the issue is that if the price drops for one direction and you have it booked as a round trip you will need to rebook both directions to take advantage of the savings. In that case, if the fare for the other direction has gone up you will have to pay that higher fare and it could offset some/all of the savings for booking the other way.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Yes to all. However, you will get separate credits each time you make a change and I'm not sure how many credits you can use at any given time when booking future travel.

With regard to your earlier question about one-way booking vs. round trip, the issue is that if the price drops for one direction and you have it booked as a round trip you will need to rebook both directions to take advantage of the savings. In that case, if the fare for the other direction has gone up you will have to pay that higher fare and it could offset some/all of the savings for booking the other way.

Only with a DING fare would you have to cancel your existing reservation to make a new one. Even with a round trip ticket, you can get the lower fare for whichever leg has the fare decrease to get the credit. For normal fare reductions, you do not need to cancel any portion of your reservation to take advantage of the lower fare. Only with DING fares do you have to cancel and rebook.

 

[sb127]

I have just recently changed my flight 3 times to take advantage of lower fares. I also used the credits to book another flight later in the year. I had 6 separate amounts for credits for my husband and myself combined, so inorder to use all of the credit amounts I had to book one way fares to use them all. You are only allowed 4 forms of payment for each ticket. That means you can use 3 credit amounts and a credit card to pay for any remaining balance. If your credits cover the entire cost of the flight you can use 4 credit amounts. I did this several weeks ago and I am not sure if the new policy of using the credits only for the original person applies yet. It is a little difficult to plan out using all the credits if the fare has dropped several times. Hope you can find great fares for your trip!

 

[lovingthemouse]

When lower fares appeared 2 weeks ago, i booked them, got a SWA credit, but then was able to use my friend's credits and mine to book another ticket for myself for another trip. I had hers on my cc, since she does not have one.
It was a gamble after hearing that you could only use the name on the ticket as credit, but it did allow me to.