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Rebooking a flight during A-List Promotion

banann454
Explorer C

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!

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Rebooking a flight during A-List Promotion

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

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. 

Re: Rebooking a flight during A-List Promotion

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@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.) 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Rebooking a flight during A-List Promotion

gototravelgal
Explorer A

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. Smiley Happy

Go to Travel Gal

Re: Rebooking a flight during A-List Promotion

chgoflyer
Aviator A

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."