What Do I Do If My Southwest Airlines Flight Was Cancelled?

You booked your flight with Southwest Airlines and received your confirmation, everything's good, right? Not so fast, there are times when an airline like Southwest cancels flights and it's more than an inconvenience when it happens. The question remains, what do you do when this unlikely event happens to you? First, it's recommended to set up alerts ahead of time.

Rapid Rewards Customers can set up flight update alerts

1. Go to southwest.com and log into your account.
2. Click on My Account, then to My Preferences, then to Communications. Switch from subscriptions to account alerts, which should be buttons to the right.
3. Click on Set up Flight updates and you should be able to choose between text, email or voice call from the drop down menu.
4. Type in the information and click on save.

Current Policy Industry-wide

If the airline cancels your flight before you do, you are owed a refund and that is policy from the Department of Transportation itself. The best time to call them directly is about 3 days before your flight would've taken place, this normally cuts down on the length of time you are on hold.

Southwest's main customer service line can be reached here.

Of course, if you are a member of Rapid Rewards, then it might be better to call the dedicated line for your reward tier. Bear in mind that airlines will try to resolve the problem by rebooking you first because they want to keep you as a customer, so trying to obtain a refund can be a battle in itself. You may need to decide if it's worth it to get it back or if you will allow Southwest to rebook you.

Rebooking as an option

Some airlines will also try to automatically rebook you for a new flight but keep in mind that this new procedure was implemented sometime in 2018 for Southwest. There have been some reports of passengers trying to check on their previous booking, only to have it disappear from the system and then later, the computer located a new flight to book. Signing up for flight alerts could be helpful in checking the status of your flight and if you need to find your own way to where you need to go, or if Southwest can help you see this through. Waiting a day might also help give the system time to do what it needs to do, which can be hard if you're upset. It's always a good idea to call customer service and just ask them, what is the normal procedure when the airline cancels a flight, and how long does it take to add the updated flight to a passenger's account? If they have an estimated time, they will tell you if you ask.