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I'm enrolled in a Southwest A-List promotion, in which I have status through April. I need to fly three more flights before April in order to retain my A-List status through the year. Unrelatedly, I had to cancel an existing flight (which was made prior to enrollment in the promotion) but now need to re-book it. By re-booking it now, it would count towards my three-flight requirement.
The fine print of the promotion discourages this type of action in a vague way (something along the lines of "trying to cheat the system may result in being banned from future promotions"), but does anyone have any experience in this? How can I "prove" that my trip was canceled and rescheduled for legitimate reasons? I would hate to be punished simply because my client changed their mind about my trip.
Any insight would be much appreciated!
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Rebooking one flight shouldn't be a problem and bet that's just the standard legal text they need to include. I have rebooked to take advantage of other offers and never had a problem.
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@banann454wrote:I'm enrolled in a Southwest A-List promotion, in which I have status through April. I need to fly three more flights before April in order to retain my A-List status through the year. Unrelatedly, I had to cancel an existing flight (which was made prior to enrollment in the promotion) but now need to re-book it. By re-booking it now, it would count towards my three-flight requirement.
The fine print of the promotion discourages this type of action in a vague way (something along the lines of "trying to cheat the system may result in being banned from future promotions"), but does anyone have any experience in this? How can I "prove" that my trip was canceled and rescheduled for legitimate reasons? I would hate to be punished simply because my client changed their mind about my trip.
Any insight would be much appreciated!
As a lawyer, I'm a pretty good engineer. So with that caveat, I feel like the intention of this promotion would be to keep people from canceling a trip that was scheduled within the window and then re-booking the same trip to have it count. That's obviously not included.
Canceling a trip, and then rescheduling for a different date/time (maybe city?) might be a partial flag since you have already deposited the money and will use travel credit with an existing confirmation number. Might be allowed.
To make it cleaner, if you fly Southwest a lot (you are A-list?) I would hold onto the credit if you can carry it and make a new booking. Then use the flight credit later in the year. That would show new money coming into the reservation system as a result of a promotion. Not sure if this is better or not.
Last resort - sale right now for some $59 routes - make a "points run" to a nearby location over a weekend and get it in the bag, for instance MDW - MSP and back. (Don't know if this is feasible at your home airport.)
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I can't imagine them penalizing you for legitimately cancelling and re-booking a trip. Because Southwest has no cancellation fees, people to this ALL the time when they find a better deal than what they originally paid. As long as you are making this standard practice, I think you should be fine.
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Cancelling a flight and rebooking to take advantage of a promotion is pretty standard procedure, and there is no regulation against it.
I've never seen anything ever mentioned in any Southwest disclosure about not "gaming the system."