Buzz
Every budget traveler is familiar with that specific kind of regret: the moment you find yourself in the security line at 5 a.m., wishing you hadn't picked the cheapest flight available.
But we all do it. We trade comfort and sleep for lower prices, sometimes saving hundreds of dollars. But what if there was a way to avoid the pain of those booking decisions before you even experience them?
Here’s a travel hack from Southwest Airlines that could save you from the misery of opting for the lowest-cost flight: free flight changes.
Southwest earns kudos for not charging change fees when you need to adjust your travel plans. However, this hack shared on SlickDeals lets you change your flight without paying the fare difference for the more expensive flight.
This isn’t a publicized deal, so results may vary. However, members of the SlickDeals forum have reported that this trick works for flights booked with either cash or points, for travel between June 7 and August 10, 2020. The new flight should be within 14 days of the original booking, and you must keep the same departure and arrival airports.
If you already have a ticket for those dates and wish to switch to a more convenient time or date, locate your ticket on the Southwest website and proceed with the process of changing your reservation.
You don’t have to confirm the change until after you see if there’s any price difference, so don’t worry about getting stuck with additional charges if the hack no longer works.
If you haven’t booked yet but want to try this trick, secure a ticket you're okay with (even if it’s at a less-than-ideal time). Then immediately attempt to change your flight to check if you can do so without extra costs.
Airlines are required to allow you to cancel your ticket purchase within 24 hours without penalty, as long as it's a week or more before your departure. So, if you try to plan a trip around this hack and it backfires, you can always reverse it.
It’s one of those travel tricks that seems almost too good to be true, I get it. But if you already have plans with Southwest this summer—or want to book a trip, like, immediately—it’s worth giving it a try.
