More on topic for this thread: I have a flight booked for October that is currently scheduled to be on a 737-MAX. If I try to change the flight the system charges me the fare difference.[/QUOTE]

sane here I have a flight from PVR to Baltimore booked for first week of September. Just noticed that the Houston to BWI leg is on a Max 8. Not worried about flying on a Max 8 more worried that it will get Cancelled/ schedule changed out due to max 8 grounding . There is limited flights getting back to BWI the same day as there is only 1 other flight combo that came up. . My trip is all booked. Wonder when Southwest will Cancel their schedule through Sept like American did.

How are you checking to see what type of aircraft you are on this far in advance? Seatguru.com or is there a more reliable way to check?

Go to the flight booking page. In small letters just above the times in blue is the flight number. Click on the flight number. It gives you all the info about the flight.

Southwest is now allowing a 1X rebooking of August thru early October flights, at no additional cost over original booking. Some of those flights flagged for rebooking are MAX 8, but some are not.

Yep, not only that but I was rebooked for flights that didn't fit my schedule at all and had to rebook them back to where I was. Seems they were optimistic in hoping that the 737-8 would be flying by August and it's not looking good.

My October flight is unaffected. Looks like Southwest is matching the September 2nd date American is using.

Free changes are working through September 30. This is a great opportunity to improve your flight date and time.

FWIW yesterday I booked a MAX8 flight in August but today that same flight uses an -800.

Thanks for the bump on this. I was able to rebook an Aug flight to a more convenient time for the family.

If you need to book any travel between August 6 thru September 2 (possibly as late as September 30, I'm unable to verify), now's the time. This "secret sale" can get your desired flight for the cheapest fare within 14 days of departure, and may work across sister cities as well.

I just had an amusing mental image of Southwest employees beating the crap out of people in the terminal and physically dragging them down the jetway onto the airplane. :D

Yes, I agree, this would result in a less than positive PR cycle.

I can rebook under this policy as far out as an Oct 1 flight, but not Oct 3.

Several hours ago I received a notice for August 19 flight, changing from AUS-DAL-LIT to AUS-LAS-LIT at a considerable increase in trip time. We are currently trying to change to a much more obvious and more direct choice. Changing on-line, we get the "banner" advising free change, but then when we try to select a new flight, get an error message that change cannot be booked on line, call SWA. Hopefully that means that SWA's website is just overburdened, but in any event, no go thus far on the "online to avoid a 1-800-cluster-mess.

If your flight is covered (in the protected period of August 6 thru October 2) the system is allowing changes for +/- a full 30 days, not the 14 days stated in the reacommodation policy.

It took a few tries for me earlier to make necessary changes online, but I was ultimately successful.

Phone hold times are nuts. I'd recommend the chat function within the app. They can make flight changes, and there should be nearly no wait.

Just to clarify, I am getting the message for optional rebooking as far out as my Oct 1 flight, but not for any flights just a few days later.