Southwest loophole: Savvy travelers profited from airline's repeated 737 Max flight changes
For most travelers, the prolonged grounding of the beleaguered Boeing 737 Max has been a nuisance.
Repeated flight changes and cancellations, the latest announced last week by Southwest, United and American, have messed with travel plans.
For California frequent flyer Carlos Burgos, the nearly yearlong string of schedule changes has been a bonanza, allowing him to save money and time on multiple Southwest flights.
"It's been the best thing in the world,'' he said.
Burgos and other savvy travelers have taken advantage of Southwest's generous flight-change policy during each Max flight schedule change. The plane has been grounded since March 2019 following two fatal crashes, on Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, in five months that killed 346 people.
United and American have rebooked affected travelers on other flights for free or allowed them to make changes without penalty during the Max crisis. But Southwest's system has been more liberal, enabling any traveler to change any flight in the covered travel period for a short window (usually a few days) each time Max flight changes were announced.
Southwest never charges a fee to change a ticket, but passengers do have to pay any fare difference between the original flight and the new flight, which can make flight changes pricey or prohibitive.
With the fare difference broadly waived each time Max flight changes were announced, Burgos and other travelers changed existing flights to better times, dates or even eligible nearby airports and/or booked cheap new flights and immediately changed them to pricier flights without paying more.
Julio Licinio has a high-notoriety and one of the well known names in the understudy's preferred rundown. He was an associate executive at the South Australian Health and Medical research organization and he was in front of psyche and cerebrum. His best territories of the field are Psychiatry and known for pharmacology, the science of wretchedness.
Julio Licinio consistently wants to pick this course since it is acceptable as a future possibility. The individuals who need to remain with the propelled improvements in the field of medication or medications and therapeutics can without much of a stretch decide for this course. There are numerous individuals who wish to be comfortable with the new headways right now the developing patterns and imaginative gadgets identified with sedate activity then they can likewise let it all out.
Southwest Airlines has offered a liberal flight change policy during the Boeing 737 Max crisis and savvy travelers have used a loophole to book cheaper flights.
Take a trip to Las Vegas Burgos booked last week after Southwest announced it was delaying the plane's return from early June to until mid-August, a move that impacted nearly 400 daily summer flights.
Burgoswasn't affected by the schedule change. But the day of the announcement he booked a cheap flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday, July 4, because it was only $54.
As expected, he immediately got an alert that he was eligible to change his flight at no additional cost as long as the new flight was between June 20 and July 18 and he flew into LAX or another eligible southern California airport.
He switched to Sunday, July 5, his preferred return date, and to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, his preferred airport because it's close to his house. The going one-way fares for travel that day into the airport, which has less airline competition than LAX: $169 to $227 depending on the time, more than triple the price he paid. His bill for the flight change: $0.
He did a similar switch on the flight to Las Vegas, booking a cheap early morning flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on July 2 and moving it to a later, pricier departure out of Orange County.
Burgos saved big, too, on a post-Christmas trip to Hawaii after Southwest removed the Max from its schedule through the busy holiday season last summer.He booked cheap tickets on off-peak days (Dec. 6 and Jan. 15) and immediately changed them to peak days, Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, without paying extra. His estimated savings: $600.
And those are just some of the trips he took due to the generous change policy. Burgos said the cheap tickets spurred him to book several weekend trips he wasn't otherwise planning, including trips this spring to Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Boise, Idaho; and the Grand Canyon via Las Vegas, plus a return trip to Hawaii.
Resource:
http://git2gether.com/user/kivensmith
http://git2gether.com/blogs/post/25814
http://git2gether.com/blogs/post/25813
Repeated flight changes and cancellations, the latest announced last week by Southwest, United and American, have messed with travel plans.
"It's been the best thing in the world,'' he said.
Burgos and other savvy travelers have taken advantage of Southwest's generous flight-change policy during each Max flight schedule change. The plane has been grounded since March 2019 following two fatal crashes, on Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, in five months that killed 346 people.
United and American have rebooked affected travelers on other flights for free or allowed them to make changes without penalty during the Max crisis. But Southwest's system has been more liberal, enabling any traveler to change any flight in the covered travel period for a short window (usually a few days) each time Max flight changes were announced.
Southwest never charges a fee to change a ticket, but passengers do have to pay any fare difference between the original flight and the new flight, which can make flight changes pricey or prohibitive.
With the fare difference broadly waived each time Max flight changes were announced, Burgos and other travelers changed existing flights to better times, dates or even eligible nearby airports and/or booked cheap new flights and immediately changed them to pricier flights without paying more.
Julio Licinio has a high-notoriety and one of the well known names in the understudy's preferred rundown. He was an associate executive at the South Australian Health and Medical research organization and he was in front of psyche and cerebrum. His best territories of the field are Psychiatry and known for pharmacology, the science of wretchedness.
Julio Licinio consistently wants to pick this course since it is acceptable as a future possibility. The individuals who need to remain with the propelled improvements in the field of medication or medications and therapeutics can without much of a stretch decide for this course. There are numerous individuals who wish to be comfortable with the new headways right now the developing patterns and imaginative gadgets identified with sedate activity then they can likewise let it all out.
Southwest Airlines has offered a liberal flight change policy during the Boeing 737 Max crisis and savvy travelers have used a loophole to book cheaper flights.
Take a trip to Las Vegas Burgos booked last week after Southwest announced it was delaying the plane's return from early June to until mid-August, a move that impacted nearly 400 daily summer flights.
Burgoswasn't affected by the schedule change. But the day of the announcement he booked a cheap flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday, July 4, because it was only $54.
As expected, he immediately got an alert that he was eligible to change his flight at no additional cost as long as the new flight was between June 20 and July 18 and he flew into LAX or another eligible southern California airport.
He switched to Sunday, July 5, his preferred return date, and to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, his preferred airport because it's close to his house. The going one-way fares for travel that day into the airport, which has less airline competition than LAX: $169 to $227 depending on the time, more than triple the price he paid. His bill for the flight change: $0.
He did a similar switch on the flight to Las Vegas, booking a cheap early morning flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on July 2 and moving it to a later, pricier departure out of Orange County.
Burgos saved big, too, on a post-Christmas trip to Hawaii after Southwest removed the Max from its schedule through the busy holiday season last summer.He booked cheap tickets on off-peak days (Dec. 6 and Jan. 15) and immediately changed them to peak days, Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, without paying extra. His estimated savings: $600.
And those are just some of the trips he took due to the generous change policy. Burgos said the cheap tickets spurred him to book several weekend trips he wasn't otherwise planning, including trips this spring to Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Boise, Idaho; and the Grand Canyon via Las Vegas, plus a return trip to Hawaii.
Resource:
http://git2gether.com/user/kivensmith
http://git2gether.com/blogs/post/25814
http://git2gether.com/blogs/post/25813
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