Change and Cancel Errors for My October Flights

[LuvFlyingSW]

I am trying to explore changes for a flight in October, but, when I click change, I get the below error message. I get the error message below that when I try to cancel. The same is true for two other October flights. There's no obvious reason for this to be happening, as I never changed these by calling Southwest or for free due to a Southwest change nor were they purchased through a promo. All other flights (I have flights in November and January booked) do not show these errors when I press change or cancel to test them. Has anyone else encountered this issue recently? I'm wondering if this is a system issue that will resolve itself soon or whether I should call Southwest. This has been going on since at least yesterday.

[dfwskier]

You might not have changed the flights, but did Southwest change them?

[LuvFlyingSW]

It doesn't appear that Southwest made any changes to the one I want to change. The times of the flights (it's a one-way with one stop) and flight numbers are the same. Southwest has always emailed me when it made changes and all that did is give me the option to change without paying an increase in fare. It never blocked me from changing online.

[dfwskier]

I vaguely recall running into this several times in the past.

If I recall details correctly (not guaranteed), it happened as a result of Southwest changing my reservation such that the new flight numbers were different than the originals.

[LuvFlyingSW]

Unfortunately, that wouldn't explain it since I verified the flight numbers remained the same. But I appreciate the idea.

[jksobonya]

You posted 2 different errors here, but I am especially curious about the first one which states to contact your "TMC/Travel Agency." Normal reservations booked online don't have anything to do with a travel agency. I'm not sure who booked the ticket, but if it was some sort of agency, you would have to go through them and not the typical "change/cancel" process on Southwest.com.

--Jessica

[dfwskier]

Nice catch Jessica!

I was using my phone to view Southwests error message and never enlarged it to actually read the thing.

I bet there is a rule that tickets created thru corporate travel can only be changed by corporate travel.

[LuvFlyingSW]

The flights were purchased with points directly through Southwest, so that is definitely not the problem. I should have noted that in my OP given the error message language which I too noticed falsely indicates otherwise. The inability to change/cancel online is why I will probably never buy a Southwest flight through a third party. I made that mistake in 2019 when I used Southwest Vacations not realizing that it was another company.