How does Southwest avoid cancellation/change fees.

[DCal430]

I notice every other airline charges $50-$100 each way when you make any changes or cancel your flight, but Southwest seems to get away with charging nothing. I lost $200 bucks once because of this from JetBlue, no refund or credit at all when I needed to cancel my flight.

 

[Nik]

Who were you before you were banned?

What do you mean get away with? It's their choice to charge or not. It's common knowledge that airline fees are 100% profit for companies. They don't need fees to operate. Irrelevant question.

 

[coxmaster]

Obviously they save money in other places.

One of the biggest places Southwest saves money is their fleet. By flying just 1 basic airplane (737) the maintenance and upkeep costs are reduced.

 

[DCal430]

Who were you before you were banned?

What do you mean get away with? It's their choice to charge or not. It's common knowledge that airline fees are 100% profit for companies. They don't need fees to operate. Irrelevant question.

Long time reader, first time poster.

 

[blinblue]

That's one of the things that makes them different. And in this case, different is good, therefore more customers.

You pay the difference in fare cost though. So if switching flights at the last minute will probably cost you (as the fares will have very likely increased since you first got them).

But its a great policy and makes traveling all that much nicer. You can't go wrong with Southwest for doing cheap flying the way it should be.

 

[DCal430]

The stupid thing was, what was the point in me telling them to cancel my ticket if they wouldn't give me credit for it. I should just never told told them and just not flew. At least then they wouldn't have been able to resell my ticket.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Funny, I gave up flying SouthWest when they tried to screw me with a major fee for a flight change.

 

[DCal430]

Funny, I gave up flying SouthWest when they tried to screw me with a major fee for a flight change.

They were probably just charging you the difference between your ticket price and the current price. Other airlines do that too plus they charge you an extra $50 to $100 each way. I have cancelled and done flight changes multiple times with Southwest and never was charged any fee.

 

[thepd7]

The stupid thing was, what was the point in me telling them to cancel my ticket if they wouldn't give me credit for it. I should just never told told them and just not flew. At least then they wouldn't have been able to resell my ticket.

They give credit from what I've seen, just charge a fee plus difference in the flight cost.

Funny, I gave up flying SouthWest when they tried to screw me with a major fee for a flight change.

Do you mean the difference in fare? Other companies charge the difference plus $150 (at least that was Continental).

 

[DCal430]

They give credit from what I've seen, just charge a fee plus difference in the flight cost.




Do you mean the difference in fare? Other companies charge the difference plus $150 (at least that was Continental).

The fee is $100, my ticket was $100. So no refund.

 

[Bignate603]

Obviously they save money in other places.

One of the biggest places Southwest saves money is their fleet. By flying just 1 basic airplane (737) the maintenance and upkeep costs are reduced.

They also only choose to fly to destinations where they can keep their margins high. It's harder to make money flying smaller planes into and out of smaller airports. Flying consistently full midsize jets into and out of popular destinations helps their profits but it means that there are quite a few places that they don't fly.

It's a different business model, and has its advantages.

 

[coxmaster]

The stupid thing was, what was the point in me telling them to cancel my ticket if they wouldn't give me credit for it. I should just never told told them and just not flew. At least then they wouldn't have been able to resell my ticket.

Lol. They can and will resell your ticket 5 minutes before the flight.

Ever wonder why flights are always overbooked? It is because they know a certain % of people will not show up

 

[DCal430]

They also only choose to fly to destinations where they can keep their margins high. It's harder to make money flying smaller planes into and out of smaller airports. Flying consistently full midsize jets into and out of popular destinations helps their profits but it means that there are quite a few places that they don't fly.

It's a different business model, and has its advantages.

I have notice when I fly southwest the flights always seem to be full or near full.

 

[zerocool84]

I have notice when I fly southwest the flights always seem to be full or near full.

Yup, I have yet to fly on a Southwest flight that wasn't packed to the gills.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

They were probably just charging you the difference between your ticket price and the current price. Other airlines do that too plus they charge you an extra $50 to $100 each way. I have cancelled and done flight changes multiple times with Southwest and never was charged any fee.

Nope. My trip was a Tuesday to the following Thursday. I wanted to cut it one day short and make it Tuesday to the following Wednesday. I checked, the Tuesday-Thursday round trip was EXACTLY the same as the Tuesday to Wednesday round trip. Same times, same airports, same price, even the same flight numbers. Seats were available and STILL they wanted a $300 fee to switch.

 

[Farang]

Yup, I have yet to fly on a Southwest flight that wasn't packed to the gills.

I found the opposite. I just did a RT on Southwest and both flights were the only ones I've been on in the past 10 years that were not packed. If I had to ballpark I'd say 2/3 full.

 

[DCal430]

Nope. My trip was a Tuesday to the following Thursday. I wanted to cut it one day short and make it Tuesday to the following Wednesday. I checked, the Tuesday-Thursday round trip was EXACTLY the same as the Tuesday to Wednesday round trip. Same times, same airports, same price, even the same flight numbers. Seats were available and STILL they wanted a $300 fee to switch.

You could have cancelled online, got credit and used that credit to buy a new ticket for the new time them. I have done that all the time, without any problem.