ATLflyer2017

I'm flying Southwest in June. I booked the flights using points. We were scheduled to fly into IAD 6/13 and out on 6/16. I got an email this morning saying there was a schedule change, and after looking at it, realized my 8:40 am flight had been changed to a 5 pm flight. We are meeting family at a resort in West Virginia and this clearly messes everything up.
I called the number they gave me, and ended up changing the flight to go into DCA, arriving around 12pm. Now, the cost of my rental car is doubled, and my travel time to West Virginia is 1 hour longer (plus fighting with DC traffic.
Do I have any recourse to get compensation for the rental car? Should I just change my return flight to depart from DCA as well? Thanks!

Often1

No, you do not.

You have the option of requesting that WN reroute you onto something more convenient or to cancel for a refund (which is not helpful as you could do that anyway).

Check your travel insurance carefully. It may provide some form of flat payment for travel disruption which could defray the car rental costs.

Also, check other car rental companies and pickup locations to determine whether there are better deals. Realize that having to take Metro/Uber to pickup a car adds even more time, but at least worth a check.

Nirvana91

When there is a schedule change that significant, you are entitled to switch your flight to something that better accommodates your schedule, without penalty. I'm not sure what the actual rules are but in my experience that also includes other airports that are in the same metro area (such as what you experienced with IAD/DCA). I've also had them be able to change my actual travel dates as well, in the event that would work better. If it is more convenient for you to fly into DCA and fly out of IAD, you should be able to do that (just beware of one-way car rental fees that might end up tacked on). Again, I am not 100% sure of the rules here but I do not believe you'd be entitled to anything related to your rental car. Given the large amount of notice you are receiving here, if none of the alternate WN options work you should cancel the whole thing, get your points back, and find better times on an alternate carrier.

bitterproffit

ATLflyer2017

I just got off the phone with Southwest and we changed the entire reservation so we fly in and out of DCA. A little less convenient but no ridiculously expensive rental car. They were going to make me pay a fare different because I already made the first change when I called around 7:30 this morning but they ended up waiving the points difference (which was about 5,000). So all in all it ended up ok, although I'm amazed that Southwest only has 2 flights to IAD, one at 5 pm and 10:55 pm?! I asked if this had anything to do with the 737MAX8 groundings and they said they couldn't answer that question. Hmmm...

NoStressHere

# 1 Rule with flight changes.

Do your own research of flight options BEFORE calling the airline. Never assume the agent on the other end is looking at everything available. You pick out the best options for you, then you tell/ask them what flights you want when you call.

Often1

+This.

OP got the "right" agent who made a second change without fee. That might not have been the case.

ATLflyer2017

Well my "research" was seeing that there were only 2 odd evening flights from ATL to IAD, looking at flights to Reagan and choosing one that I liked, calling the agent. I figured I'd deal with rental car logistics later. Well I did a quick search and saw that prices were much higher and realized my mistake. Obviously, if I couldn't change the flight I would have just eaten the cost of the rental car but I'm glad it worked out. I did have to do a good bit of pushing. It worked out well this time but there could have been a much less ideal outcome. I don't fly Southwest too often but they're not exactly on my happy list due to this. Oh well, hopefully the flights are smooth and they can redeem themselves.

PHXflier

Southwest has to make it work with a lot less planes than they planned on when they released the schedule, so some flights are cancelled or are now at a very different time. I commend them for giving people lots of time to make changes, rather than having last-minute cancellations.

TXWayne

I fly in and out of DCA from DAL on a regular basis and their primary presence is at DCA not IAD, it has nothing to do with the MAX issues. When I need to go to the Dulles area I simply fly into DCA and drive out there, do my time, and drive back and fly out of DCA when I am done. I hate IAD so not a problem with SW not having a lot of flights there. Not a fan of the SW area in Terminal A at DCA but then I spend as little time in there before my flight as possible so not so bad. Don't think I have ever had more than a couple folks in front of me at Pre so can come in pretty late relative to boarding and not worry.

Franklin7777

Their lack of IAD flights probably has little-to-nothing to do with the MAX grounding. SWA *barely* serves IAD as-is, they are significantly more focused at DCA and BWI.

freeflyin

I don't agree. I only found out about a flight cancellation for June when I checked my reservations online.
No email,no call and no indication on the website or app

NoStressHere

Not trying to defend WN - but maybe they opted to not send out change notices yet as they are still tweaking the system.

For what it is a worth, got emails for our June trip two days ago and was afraid it was a major change. Turns out we are leaving at 5:50am instead of 6am. I would guess there is ton of small changes as they make adjustments across the system to make it work with less planes.

Marcus Harper

737MAX8

I got an email that my 7:05am departure in June was changed to 7:10am. It took me like 15 minutes looking at my email to find the change