annamom

Hi,
I've booked an one-way reservation for me and my two college-aged kids from southwest. I had a medical emergency and left early. My kid's friend wanted to use my ticket.
Therefore, is it possible for me to change my ticket to her name ? I suspect not.
If I can't transfer to her name, can I just cancel my reservation without cancelling my kids' reservation?
I will try to call southwest in the morning, but hope to know what to expect. TIA

rsteinmetz70112

You should be able to cancel one person on the reservation and get a refund in Travel Funds tied to your name usable within 1 year of date of purchase.

annamom

thanks. That means I can't use the points to book a ticket for my kid's friend.

rsteinmetz70112

If you booked with points and you cancel the points will be refunded to whatever account they came from and could be reused to purchase another ticket.

etna

Canceling and rebooking would be subject to current fares (points), not what they were when you originally booked.

roundtree

Call customer service and they will split the reservation in two, so your kid appears on a different PNR.

NoStressHere

As said, if booked with points, you just cancel it.

Then you book a new ticket.

Done

You can never change a name on airline reservations. (there is probably some situation somewhere that I am not aware of)

rsteinmetz70112

The best feature I've ever had was with an A@B account on Airtran. If a person was listed on your account you could change the name on a reservation pretty much up to departure.

I miss that feature.

Also most Group Travel allows name changes.

ursine1

Southwest Group Travel does allow name changes up to 72 hours prior to departure. I believe in this case those "reservations" aren't actually ticketed until after that time, meaning it's not technically a name-change on a ticket.

And Southwest, up until 2011, allowed full transferability on travel funds. (Again, not technically a ticket name change.)

Some carriers allow transferability along with refundability on their fully non-restricted tickets, usually for a fee.

FYI: Despite the common misconception, there is no FAA prohibition on ticket name changes. What's really happening is that airlines want to control their revenue. If tickets were fully transferable, scalpers would buy up the cheap ones and resell them, negating the airline's ability to adjust ticket prices to meet supply & demand.