You carefully book a flight for a trip. Weeks or months later, the dreaded email comes. Your flight times have changed. Maybe the airline has switched your non-stop itinerary to one with a connection, or maybe now you have to leave home before the crack of dawn when your previous itinerary had a humane departure time.
I feel your pain. Flight schedule changes can be disruptive.
But sometimes they have a silver lining, especially for travelers aboard Southwest Airlines. On Southwest, flight schedule changes can actually be a good thing.
Believe it or not, flight schedule changes have worked in my favor on Southwest over a half dozen times this past year alone (with only one change resulting in a more negative outcome). How can that be? I thought I'd share some of the secret, because it's probably not obvious to the average traveler.
Editor's Note (March 11, 2025): Southwest Airlines just announced some major unexpected changes to several of the airline's core policies and fares effective May 28, 2025. These changes will necessitate multiple changes to numerous blog posts on this site in the coming weeks. To read the most up-to-date news while we await more details, please see this article on Southwest Airlines changes in 2025.
How Flight Schedule Changes Work
Let's first start with how flight schedule changes work more generally. Airlines usually set their overall schedules close to a year in advance, opening flights up for sale to passengers at that time.
Lots of things can happen that necessitate an airline needing to make a change to these schedules at a later date. Maybe a route reveals itself to be unprofitable, and the airline decides to cancel it. Maybe an aircraft delivery is delayed (ahem, Boeing), and the airline doesn't have all the equipment it needs to fly the planned schedule overall. Maybe an airline is in deeper economic trouble and has to lay off crew and cut multiple routes. Whatever the cause, change is a constant in this business.
Schedule changes caused by these kinds of factors are almost never last minute (unlike weather delays). Usually they happen with several months of notice. In my experience, they only tend to occur when you book a trip more than about 4-5 months in advance, increasing in likelihood the closer you get to the one year mark.
What Can Passengers Do when They Get a Flight Schedule Change?
Under federal law, passengers have protections in the event their original flight times change. If a schedule change is "significant" (a term that unfortunately isn't specifically defined in the regulations), passengers are entitled to a full refund from the airline if they so choose. See the Department of Transportation's official site for all the fine print. Many airlines interpret that directive and implement a policy of giving refunds for flights with a schedule change 3+ hours domestically or 6+ hours internationally, if passengers request one.
But most passengers don't want a refund. They want to get where they want to go and at roughly the time they originally wanted to go there. U.S. airlines will usually offer to rebook you first before issuing a refund. Each airline has a slightly different policy and time rules for rebooking eligibility.
The only time an airline might not rebook is if the airline discontinues serving your origination or destination airport entirely and cannot find a way to transport you at all. (Legacy airlines with interline agreements might rebook you on a partner airline if that is possibility instead.)
Often the computers do an initial rebooking that is closest to what you originally booked. Or they just keep you on the same flights you have booked but that now fly at slightly adjusted times. You will usually receive an email alerting you to the change, assuming the technology gods are in a good mood.
If the new booking doesn't work for you, however, you usually have options too. Most U.S.-based airlines will let you move to another flight of your choice at no charge, even if the other flight is more expensive.
Some airlines require that the itinerary change must exceed a time minimum in order to allow you to switch to another flight. For example, American Airlines's official rules generally require that the new flight arrive or depart more than one hour from what was originally booked for customers to be permitted to switch to something else. American also allows customers with changes of 61 minutes or longer to rebook a flight on the same day or the day before or after the originally-booked flight.
Southwest's More Generous Flight Schedule Change Policies
Southwest Airlines, however, has an even more generous policy (available here). Even if a flight time changes by only a couple of minutes, you can rebook something else of your choice at no additional cost.
More significantly, you can rebook your flight not only on the day of original travel but up to 14 days earlier and 14 days later than your original travel date. And you get to to this not once - but twice!
Additionally, you usually have to be flying from the same originating airport to the same destination airport as your original booking. But Southwest treats some airports in a large metro area as the same one (these are known as co-terminals).
For example, if I booked an itinerary out of my home airport in Oakland, California (OAK) that had a schedule change, I could conceivably change to a flight that departs from nearby San Francisco International (SFO) or San José Mineta International Airport (SJC) if I so desired.
Related: Complete Guide to San Francisco Bay Area Airports
And if that flight were bound for Los Angeles International (LAX), I could conceivably change it to go into a number of alternate Southern California airports, including LGB, SNA, BUR, or ONT. You can view what airports Southwest treats as co-terminals by searching on the flight booking page of the Southwest website for a city and looking for grouped results like the following.
Southwest has been releasing flights for sale farther in advance than it used to in past years, so that means a lot more chances for its flight schedules to change. For example, as of the date this article is being published in early December 2024, Southwest is already selling flights as late as August 4, 2025.
How Can Southwest Schedule Changes Work in Your Favor?
So how might Southwest's flight schedule change policy work in a traveler's favor? Let me share how it has worked out for me in a few instances quite recently.
Take my family's upcoming 2024 holiday travel as an example. Back in April of 2024 when December flight schedules were released, I booked an itinerary to visit my parents in Charlotte, NC. The last couple of years, we've spent Christmas Day with them. So I originally booked a flight to travel a few days before Christmas, even though we hadn't finalized our overall plans for my kids' school break.
A few weeks later in mid-May, a schedule change email came from Southwest for both directions of travel. We still didn't know our holiday plans, so I sat on that change for awhile, doing nothing. A few months later, we decided that we wanted to spend Christmas Day at home. Instead, we planned to go visit my extended North Carolina family right after the holiday.
I was then able to call up Southwest and change our itinerary to one that left several days later at no charge -- all because of the original schedule change. I was even able to pick a flight time that departs a little later in the morning so we can sleep in a bit longer than our original itinerary would have allowed. We still have one more free change, so if (heaven forbid) a kid gets sick or an emergency happens later this month, we could actually rebook and travel on yet another day within a +/-14 day window.
Another positive use of Southwest's rules arose on our family's recent Thanksgiving travels to Texas for a Disney Cruise. We originally booked a connecting itinerary home to OAK from Houston-Hobby (HOU) after noon because we wanted to have some cushion in case our cruise ship was delayed by weather or customs took too long.
We got off the ship earlier than we expected, and we arrived at the airport in time to take an earlier morning non-stop flight home to nearby SJC. Southwest has free same day standby we could have used for a chance to take that flight, but that's only standby - not a confirmed change. Confirming a seat on the plane would have cost hundreds of dollars more.
Because we had a schedule change on our itinerary many months ago, however, we were allowed to make a confirmed change right there and then at the airport for all four of us to the earlier non-stop flight for free (we ultimately chose not to change because that flight had a mechanical delay). As you can see, Southwest's flight schedule change policy gave us additional same day travel flexibility.
Are there Still Potential Downsides of a Schedule Change? Yes.
Of course, there are always downsides to flight schedule changes to a certain extent. The flight we originally booked from North Carolina home after our Christmas travels is one of them. I initially booked an itinerary with one connection. But Southwest ultimately tweaked its overall schedule so that there is a no longer a one-stop connecting itinerary from CLT to OAK on the day we wanted to travel home (or in the couple of days around that).
The outcome? We canceled and booked on another airline so we could fly non-stop into SFO instead of taking two connections into OAK. But I'll take that one negative for the many positive uses of Southwest's policy my family has experienced this year!
Tips for Maximizing Southwest's Flight Schedule Change Rules
Given how advantageous flight schedule changes can sometimes be on Southwest, some of you may want to maximize your chances of getting one. I know I certainly have this possibility in mind when I book my own travel.
First, book early. The farther in advance you book, the more likely schedules will change by the time you are due to fly. Book something cheap that you can live with. If a schedule change happens, you can always change to something else - and perhaps that will be at a more desirable/expensive time of day.
Additionally, recognize that the more connections you have, the more likely one of the flights on your travel day will have a schedule change. So if you are being extra frugal, you may want to book a connecting itinerary (especially if is a much better deal than the non-stop flight) and increase the likelihood a schedule change will happen.
If no schedule change is forthcoming, the worst case scenario is that you travel on your original itinerary. In many cases, however, Southwest might release a sale 2-3 months before your travel dates (likely after the time a schedule change would happen if it was going to happen). You may be able to cancel your original less-than-optimal booking and change to something better, still at a reasonable price.
Related: Tips for Maximizing a Southwest Flight Sale
Remember, on Southwest there is no penalty for booking early because Southwest does not have change fees. If you book with points, and need to cancel (or make a change of your own accord), the points just go right back into your account. And if you book with cash and need to change or cancel, the cash turns into a flight credit that never expires.
Personally, I feel like it is better to book with Southwest Rapid Rewards points (if you have them) if you are making bookings more speculatively. While Southwest does have a generous no-expiration travel credit policy, it can get unwieldy juggling lots and lots of travel credits, especially for families booking for multiple people.
A Few Parting Notes & Tips
The bottom line? Hopefully, the next time a schedule change email from Southwest arrives in your inbox, many of you will now see it as an opportunity and not a hassle!
A few more tips and things to know I've picked up from my Southwest experience:
- When a flight schedule change happens, you'll get an email from Southwest with a link to rebook. Usually, that link only "works" for a couple of weeks. If too much time passes and the link doesn't show a free schedule change available any more, all hope is not lost! Just call. Southwest's phone agents will be able to make the free change for you even if you can't DIY it yourself on Southwest's website.
- Sometimes a flight schedule change can cause a little IT hiccup that Southwest travelers need to know. This happens in situations when you are just fine with the times of the rebooked flights Southwest offered but when that itinerary later drops in price. On Southwest, if the price of a flight drops after you've booked it, you can rebook and pocket the difference as a travel credit. If your itinerary has had a flight schedule change, however, the website rebooking tool to lock in a price drop on that flight won't work correctly for some period of time. It will think you are trying to make one of the free changes you get due to the schedule change and won't show the lower price. In that case, you may need to call to make the price adjustment. Alternatively, you can cancel entirely and rebook at the lower price on the website yourself (but that then forfeits the right to make your second free schedule change).
- Southwest is changing the way it does business in major ways later next year, most notably starting with assigned seats. Whether its flight schedule change policies will also change with such a big overhaul is not clear. In an abundance of caution, you may not want to count on things staying exactly the same for fall 2025 or later. Make hay while the sun shines, as they say.
- There are of course more advanced ways to get even more creative with Southwest's schedule change policies. So learn Southwest's rules and think hard about how they may best apply to your personal travel goals and situation. 😉
Get More Expert Tips for Flying Southwest:
- Complete guide to flying Southwest with kids
- 7 free things on Southwest (that other airlines charge for)
- Everything you need to know about flying Southwest to Hawaii
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