This might be a YMMV thing. After reading
lougord's post I remembered that when I used a hidden city fare the extra fees from the unused second leg were accessible without a phone call. That earlier experience was probably why I kept checking for several days, waiting for the award to be released automatically instead of phoning. So I began to wonder whether awards and paid flights are different.
Today, however, I noticed again that the
relevant section of the FAQ states:
If you want to promptly re-use all the funds from a reservation, cancel the reservation before the day of travel. If you wait until less than one hour before departure (and especially if you have checked in and then not phoned to remove yourself from the flight), your funds may be locked unless you phone Southwest to cancel the reservation and release them.
With the award itinerary that I mentioned, the passenger was checked in via OLCI. Not knowing whether she was flying or not, I was unable to cancel the reservation before the flight departed. Obviously on my hidden city itinerary I was checked in for the second leg, and I never cancelled that leg. So I don't know what it is that determines whether a phone call is necessary or not. Perhaps Victor can let us know.