I am familiar with Southwest's policy of allowing you to change flights at any time, as long as you pay the fare difference. Seems pretty transparent and fair to me. So, when I went to book a hotel + flight at the same time on Southwest's website, I thought the same policy would apply.

But I made a dumb mistake - booked the 9 PM flight instead of the 9 AM flight. I called Southwest and they said I had to call Southwest Vacations which is a completely separate company. I called Southwest Vacations; they said tough, no changes allowed since it is within 14 days, buy another ticket - no credits allowed. I called Southwest back - made it clear I was willing to pay the fare difference as per typical Southwest policy, but they said they couldn't do anything since this was done through SW Vacations.

Does anyone have any help they could provide? I don't expect anything free here; I'm willing to pay the difference like I would on any other Southwest flight, but am dumbfounded at the different policies just because I booked the "vacation" package at southwest.com's website.

Should I have known better and booked them separately? Is this standard procedure at other airline sites when booking a hotel + flight together?

Thanks!