Simply put, there are no fees associated with changing or cancelling a Southwest flight Change. Southwest Airlines doesn't operate under the same business model as other airlines, which may charge you far over $100 to modify an already-booked itinerary. Additionally, Southwest Airlines flight credits are now perpetual.
Southwest has some of the most forgiving cancellation and refund policies available. So you're in luck if you need to alter or void a Southwest Airlines flight. What you need to know is as follows.
Cancelling a Southwest flight
Southwest makes cancelling a flight quite simple. Both paid reservations and award reservations follow a fairly similar procedure.
Cancelling a paid Southwest reservation
Southwest offers four different categories of fares: Business Select, Wanna Get Away, and Wanna Get Away Plus. For each of these fares, a different Southwest refund policy applies.
Since these are the least expensive fare choices, most travellers tend to buy Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away Plus flights. Both of these prices are non-refundable.
If you must cancel your Change Southwest flight, you will get a credit for the full amount paid as long as you do so more than 10 minutes before the flight's planned departure. The only method to transfer this fare credit to another Rapid Rewards member is if you purchased a Wanna Get Away Plus fare, as it no longer has an expiration date.
Additionally, you are entitled to a full refund (per Department of Transportation regulations) if you cancel a paid reservation within 24 hours of purchasing the flight. You won't need to worry about a flight credit because the money paid is returned to the credit card you used to make the flight reservation.
The entire refund applies to the Anytime and Business Select fares. You'll get your money refunded on the credit card you used to make the reservation if you have to cancel your flight.
How to cancel a Southwest flight
You can easily cancel your flight online if you made your reservation directly with Southwest. Even if you reserved a round-trip itinerary, you are still able to change just one way.
Southwest shows all of your upcoming reservations in your account. Click the "Cancel flight" link next to the appropriate flight to make changes to your flight.
Keep in mind that if the flight is cancelled, everyone on the schedule will also be cancelled. If you want to cancel only one traveller from a multi-person reservation, you'll need to contact Southwest Airlines Change Flight Policy for help.
The procedure is the same whether you purchased a paid price or used Southwest points to reserve an award ticket. Southwest will nonetheless ask you how you want the taxes and fees you paid to be returned if your reservation was made using points.
If you want to make sure that the money is returned to your credit card, choose "Refund to method of payment." You'll wind up with Southwest travel funds if you don't.
