- Southwest Airways is ending one other coverage fashionable with vacationers.
- The brand new guidelines will apply to the airline’s flight credit and go into impact Might 28.
- Some vacationers are saying they’ll not fly with Southwest because of the new restrictions.
Southwest Airlines has undergone main adjustments in latest months—2025 has thus far included a brand new assigned seating coverage and the tip of the free checked bags coverage that had been in place for greater than 50 years. Now, one other controversial change is coming, which is already upsetting loyal Southwest passengers who really feel that the insurance policies that drew them to the airline are quickly disappearing.
So what’s this subsequent huge change? Beginning on Might 28, flight credit issued by Southwest could have an expiration date. Any flight credit issued on Might 27, 2025 or earlier won’t expire. Southwest flight credit created from reservations “booked or modified on or after Might 28, 2025 could have a specified expiration date.” You may learn the wonderful print on the coverage change on the Southwest web site at support.southwest.com.
A flight credit score from Southwest is outlined as “a credit score from both a canceled flight or a downgrade in fare that can be utilized to purchase a future flight.” Relying on the kind of flight you buy, any flight credit issued will expire in six or 12 months. Based on View from The Wing, common fares could have flight credit legitimate for 12 months, whereas primary financial system fares, referred to as Wanna Get Away, could have flight credit for six months.
One other necessary differentiation? The essential Wanna Get Away ticket gained’t permit for transferable credit, however all other fares, together with Enterprise Choose, Anytime, and Wanna Get Away Plus tickets will permit for transferable credit. Which means the flight credit score will be transferred as soon as between two Southwest Speedy Rewards members.
To this point, this transformation doesn’t appear fashionable with present Southwest passengers. “If I wait till I do know my journey plans with absolute certainty earlier than I ebook, I now haven’t any cause to stay with Southwest as a lot and can simply ebook no matter airline is most cost-effective or most handy,” one Reddit person wrote in a thread discussing the changes. One other Redditor wrote, “Effectively, by no means flying with them once more.”
In a statement from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan discussing the deliberate adjustments for the airline in 2025, he acknowledged that the main shifts in fashionable insurance policies might not be properly acquired by long-time loyalists. “It’s not going to alter who we’re, or the values that we stand for,” Jordan mentioned. “It adjustments the product that we provide our clients that they need considerably.”
For these planning to journey with Southwest this yr, simply preserve the date Might 28 in thoughts. That would be the day that the two free checked bags policy and the no-expiration flight credit will turn into a factor of the previous.
