A few things I've learned recently about booking flights with Southwest
– you can always cancel within 24 hours of booking for a full refund
– after that, reward flights reserved with points can still be cancelled for a full refund
– cancelling cash/standard fares after 24 hours of booking will result in a travel fund flight credit that expires in 1 year (from date of booking); if the fare class/type is Wanna Get Away, only you can use that credit
– however, you can use that credit to book a Wanna Get Away Plus (or higher class) fare, and if you cancel that new booking, the credit is now transferable to somebody else
– note that if you cancel a new booking that costs more than the original flight, the travel fund amount increases but the expiration date stays the same (original flight’s book date), so be careful there
– the trick here if you can’t use the credit but somebody else can is to cancel this new booking too immediately within 24 hours, as the additional costs will be refunded to credit card while the original amount becomes transferable (note you can only transfer once)
– the normal policy if you want to extend travel funds more than a year is that $100 is taken off of the credit and you get 6 more months, but for the rest of 2022 that $100 fee is waived
– if you want to get automatically checked in for a flight in the next two weeks, just text your confirmation and first/last names (middle name not required) in this format “A1B2C3 First Last” to [redacted by nsx]
– afterwards, you’ll get a reply back like: “A1B2C3 found for First Last departing Chicago (Midway), IL on Jun 19 09:50AM; waiting 58 hours, 55 minutes before checking in.”
– then when you get checked in: “Checked in First Last at A26! You’ve used this app 2 times, with an average position of A37”
– you can also have this bot check if your reservation’s fare price has gone down to get a refund (if rewards/points fare) or credit (if regular/cash fare) on the amount that’s decreased
– the bot will continuously check to see if your fare is now cheaper, and if so you’ll get a message like: “Hi First, your reservation A1B2C3 (PDX to SJC on Sep 19) has gone down in price! The Wanna Get Away fare is now $72, which is $27 cheaper than your previous price ($99).”
– finally, corner case of course, it seems like with Daylight Saving Time you can check-in an hour earlier the day before when clocks spring forward; not sure if that also affects fall back with check-in times an hour later or not though