Starting next month, flight credits, the travel funds customers receive when a flight is canceled or a fare is downgraded, will now have expiration dates. Previously, Southwest fliers didn't have a rush to use flight credits, but now that the airline is adopting policies similar to competitors, travelers will need to use up the credit in one year or less, depending on the fare purchased.
The policy switch is slated to go into effect for flight credits created from reservations booked or changed on or after May 28. But if you manage to secure flight credits by the day before, on May 27, Southwest will honor the former policy of never having those expire, according to the airline's help center.
And don’t expect to find a sneaky way around the new policy for yourself or a friend. Southwest notes that if you apply the flight credit toward a new reservation booked and ticketed or changed on or after May 28 and later cancel the reservation, any flight credit or transferable flight credit will have a specified expiration date.
When first announcing the move to expire flight credits, along with other changes, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said, "We have tremendous opportunity to meet current and future customer needs, attract new customer segments we don’t compete for today, and return to the levels of profitability that both we and our shareholders expect."
Still, some of Southwest's adjustments have been met with criticism that the airline is dropping policies that once made it stand out. Along with the more noticeable changes to baggage and flight credits, other alterations affecting smaller sectors of customers have been made. The latest involved the carrier’s loyalty program, known as Southwest Rapid Rewards, which introduced variable redemption rates last month. Under those rates, Southwest says flights with lower demand will have lower redemption rates than they did while flights with high peak demand may have higher redemption rates than they formerly did.
Of course, the biggest change for many happened last summer, when Southwest said it would end its open seating policy. At the time, Southwest cited a change in consumer preferences as its motive for the change, yet some loyalists signed petitions begging for open seating to remain. Still, Southwest is pushing ahead on it, with plans to begin offering booking for assigned and premium seating in the second half of this year and operating with assigned seating in 2026.
https://www.chron.com/author/andrea-guzman/
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