Southwest Allowing Customers To Change All Flights For Free (Including Cost Difference Between Flights)

Update 7/2/21: Available again for flights from Sept – Nov. Hat tip to Ivan Y

Update 6/10/21: Available again.

Update 5/27/21: Available again. Seems to be on a weekly schedule now, unsure on dates.

Update 5/20/21: Available again, unsure on dates.

Update 5/13/21: Available again, not sure on the dates but at least 6/7-6/13.

Update 5/4/21: Available again, dates seem to be 7/11-8/14.

Update 4/28/21: Available again, date range seems to be 6/9-7/10.

Update 4/23/21: Available again, unsure on the date range.

Update 4/14/21: available again, don’t know date range. Hat tip to Deanna

Update 4/8/21: Available again, this time for flights 5/9-6/5 (+/- 30 days). Hat tip to 213xburner

Update 3/22/21: Available again, this time for at least may 11th-15th but probably other dates as well.

Update 3/18/21: Available again.

Update 3/12/21: Available again

Update 2/24/21: Available again, not sure on the exact dates.

Update 1/28/21: Available again, this time on flights 2/9-5/11. Hat tip to Dans Deals

Update 1/15/21: Available again, possibly only on Hawaii flights around spring break. Hat tip to mikep4

Update 12/17/20: Available again, dates seem to be Feb 11 – Mar 5. Hat tip to mikep4

Update 12/10/20: Available again.

Update 11/13/20: Available again.

Update 11/5/20: Available again. Date window seems to be 12/5 – 3/8, but might be larger (share your DP in the comments below)

Earlier this month Southwest allowed customers flying 737 MAX8 to change their flights for free, including any cost difference between flights. Normally you can change flights for free, but you have to pay any difference in the fare. For example if your original flight cost $80 and the new flight costs $100 then you would be charged $20. Now that the 737 MAX8 has been grounded Southwest is offering an even more generous change policy for the rest of March (this is now probably due to COVID). The rules are as follows:

• Original flight needs to be in March
• Flight can be changed to any flight within 14 days either side of original flight
• Flight your changing to must be the same route (although metro area changes are allowed)

Dans Deals goes into some additional details about this policy here. Honestly this seems overly generous and I’m not 100% sure why Southwest is doing this given they aren’t flying the 737 MAX8 anymore. I can’t see this lasting personally as you’re effectively able to purchase a super cheap flight during an off peak time and then change it into a more expensive peak time flight.

Post history:

• Update 10/22/20: Available again.
• Update 10/14/20: Available again.
• Update 10/7/20: Available again.
• Update 9/29/20: Available again. Hat tip to camaro2ss
• Update 7/20/20: Available again. Hat tip to mikep4
• Update 6/24/20: Had previously stopped working for a few days, working again. Hat tip to reader Carly M
• Update 6/21/20: Working for flights through September 10th, 2020. Hat tip to SEA of Churn.
• Update 6/10/20: This is working again, not sure on exact dates it’ll work for. Hat tip to hornet1212
• Update 5/20/20: This had stopped working for a few days, but is now working again for flights through August. Hat tip to ChurnCat
• Update 4/5/20: Available again, cutoff June 5th or 6th. Hat tip to reader Matt A
• Update 3/18/20: Available again, not sure on the specific flights.
• Update 2/13/2020: Available again, this time from 6/10/2020 to 7/10/2020.
• Update 1/15/2020: Looks like this is active again, this time on flights from  4/14 through 6/6. Hat tip to mikep4