Southwest Airlines has been the leader in air travel when it comes to not charging change or cancellation fees, and that’s been the case for both paid tickets as well as award travel.

For award travel, Rapid Rewards tickets can be changed or cancelled online up until departure time on Southwest’s site with a few clicks. In other words, if you book a Southwest Rapid Rewards ticket, you can get a refund in your points anytime the price drops.

To get started login int your Rapid Rewards flights and select your upcoming flight reservation you wish to change. You can choose the Change Flight option and then enter the new dates or city pairs should you need to make any changes.

Once selected, you’ll then be shown the new flight options for that day as well several days before and after. You can see the the fares will be priced based on your current reservation. In this case, if I wanted to changed to the 6:30am flight it would yield a refund on 4,446 points back into my account.

After selecting your new flight you can hit continue and you’ll be shown one last time a confirmation on the new price as well as how many points you can expect to get credited back to your Rapid Rewards account. The great thing is that once you complete the change, you’ll receive the points back instantly into you account.

Bottom Line

Southwest Airlines has a very generous policy when it comes to changing flights including award flights made with Rapid Rewards points. You can make changes officially up until 10 minutes prior to departure online with just a few clicks.

If the new flights are lower in price, you’ll receive an instant refund of your points back to your Rapid Rewards account. Regardless if you’re changing to an earlier flight the same day or trying to change to a different date or even another route, you’ll be able to receive a credit back to your account if the new flights are less Rapid Rewards points.

Pro Tip: Southwest Airlines typically offers fare sales every few months so it’s a great idea to check your existing reservations to see if your flights have dropped in price.

For instance, Southwest just had a Deal: 20% Off Southwest Rapid Rewards Redemptions, which would of been a great time to check your existing reservations to rebook at the lower redemptions.

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below about changing Rapid Rewards flights when the price drops.