What is a Southwest Wanna Get Away Fare? (Cancellation & Refunds) [2019]

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Southwest Wanna Get Away fares are some of the most popular types of airfare . The main reason is that the prices for these type of tickets can be extremely cheap — sometimes even under $40! However, there are some important considerations that you want to know about before purchasing a Wanna Get Away fare like what the cancellation/refund policy is and how cheap the fares can be. 

What is a Southwest Wanna Get Away ticket?

Southwest Wanna Get Away tickets are the cheapest type of tickets that you can purchase with Southwest.

These cheaper fares are great to save you money (especially during flash sales) but they have the least flexible cancellation policy out of any of the other type of ticket. Basically, these are nonrefundable tickets although there are ways to still make changes and cancellations and get your money back in the form of credits.

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Southwest fares

Here are the different type of Southwest fares that you can book:

  • Business Select
  • Anytime
  • Wanna Get Away 
  • (also Senior fares)

Business Select and Anytime fares are different than Wanna Get Away fares because you can receive a full cash refund when you cancel your ticket. However, both of these tickets types are usually much more expensive than Wanna Get Away fares. 

Business Select also comes with some additional perks:

  • Guaranteed A1-A15 boarding
  • Fly By lane access
  • Free premium drink
  • 12 Rapid Rewards per dollar spent
  • Fully refundable fare
  • Standby

You can read more about the Business Select perks here. 

While Business Select and Anytime fares are much more expensive they also allow you to earn more Rapid Rewards with your ticket purchase. 

Typically, You will earn Southwest Rapid Rewards at the following rates

  • 6X per dollar for Wanna Get Away fares
  • 10X per dollar for Anytime fares
  • 12X per dollar for Business Select 

Once you have taken enough flights for earned enough Rapid Rewards, You can earn A-list, which will allow you to earn even more Rapid Rewards. Here are the earning rates for A-List. 

  • 7.5X per dollar for Wanna Get Away fares
  • 12.5X per dollar for Anytime fares
  • 15X per dollar for Business Select

And here are the rates for A-List Preferred

  • 12X per dollar for Wanna Get Away fares
  • 20X per dollar for Anytime fares
  • 24X per dollar for Business Select

You can read more about here you can read more about Southwest A-List here.

Wanna Get Away pricing 

Wanna Get Away fares can be very cheap, especially compared to competing airlines. Sometimes you can catch special flash deals where one-way fares can be very cheap, like between $39 to $69. 

These flash sales can offer a tremendous amount of value but typically they do come with certain types of limitations or restrictions which require you to purchase tickets on specific dates for specific routes. Sometimes the applicable dates are not very ideal like requiring you to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday. But if the timing is right for you these flash deals can be a steal.  

You can also search for low fares with this calendar. 

One thing to watch out for is that Wanna Get Away fares can actually be very pricey if purchased last minute. Many times you will find cheaper rates with other legacy carriers like United or Delta when looking to purchase last-minute flights. So just be mindful of that.

Wanna Get Away changes and cancellation

As mentioned above as mentioned above, Wanna Get Away fares are not refundable. Thus, you should only book them when you are highly confident of your travel dates and times.

The good news is that Southwest has a very generous change policy. Basically, you can change your flights for free as long as you make those changes one hour prior to departure. This is great whenever the price of your airfare drops because you can simply change your flight and get a credit for the difference, whether you booked with cash or points.

If you miss the change deadline you’ll need to cancel your flight.

If you cancel your  Wanna Get Away fare You won’t receive a refund but you can get a credit (travel funds) applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines for the originally ticketed passenger only. This means that you can’t cancel and then do a name change and expect to use those travel funds for the new passengers.

However, there is a way to convert your travel funds into something called a LUV Voucher, which can be used for others. That method does require you to pay a fee but you can read more about that here. 

10 minutes prior to departure

You also need to make sure that you cancel your ticket at least 10 minutes prior to departure. If you fail to do this then you will lose ALL of your funds.

The terms and conditions state:

Customers who fail to cancel reservations for a Wanna Get Away fare segment at least ten (10) minutes prior to travel and who do not board the flight will be considered a no show, and all remaining unused Wanna Get Away funds will be forfeited

However, if you made a points booking and you failed to cancel, then the points will be redeposited to the purchaser’s Rapid Rewards account.

You can read more about the Southwest cancellation and change policy here.

24 hour exception

If you call or cancel online at Southwest.com within 24 hours of booking, Southwest will offer you the option of refunding the airfare back to the original form of payment, or retaining the credit to be used toward future travel.

This actually a requirement from the Department of Transportation’s consumer rule “Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections” (14 CFR 259.5(b)(4), which requires carriers to hold a reservation at the quoted fare for 24 hours without payment or allow a reservation to be cancelled within 24 hours without penalty.

Baggage policy

In case you did not know, Southwest allows you to check two bags in for free. They are one of the only airlines that has such a generous baggage policy and it applies even whenever you book a cheap Wanna Get Away fare.

Boarding

Purchasing a does not affect your boarding position. While you won’t to be issued one of the Business Select boarding positions, Southwest has a unique boarding policy that allows you to choose your seat based on the time that you check-in.

Check-in opens at 24 hours prior to take off and once you check in you are given a boarding position and then once you enter the plane you simply find an open seat and that is where you sit.

If you are worried about not checking in on time and securing a high boarding position, then what you can do is purchase something called Southwest Earlybird. That will automatically check you in 24 hours prior to departure which typically allows you a good boarding position in a high A group or a lower B group.

Upgrading Wanna Get Away fares

You might be wondering if it is possible to upgrade whenever you purchase a Wanna Get Away fare. The answer to this question is yes and this is something that we have done quite often.

When flying Southwest you can choose to upgrade to Business Select at the time of arrival at the airport. It’s not always available but for leisure routes it usually is available. The main reason for doing this is that you are able to board in one of the first positions and therefore you can secure a better seat on the plane. We like to choose the seats with extra leg room for growth with only two seats so we utilize this type of upgrading a lot.

The price for the upgrade will vary but you won’t generally be looking at anywhere from $30-$50 per segment. Whether or not that is worth it will just depend on your preference for a better seat. 

Standby

Although it is not an officially published benefit it is possible to get standby sometimes even whenever you have purchased a Wanna Get Away fare for some flights. You will need to inquire with an agent at the gate or at check-in in order to see about the possibilities for this.

Companion Pass

You might also want to look into getting the Southwest Companion Pass. This pass will allow someone to fly for free with you for up to two calendar years. It’s a pretty phenomenal deal and whenever you constantly fly on cheap Wanna Get Away fares, you can see a lot of the country without breaking your wallet. 

Final word

Overall, Wanna Get Away fares are great for allowing you to save money, especially when you can spot a good deal. The key is to be aware of the change in cancellation policies that apply to your ticket. If you are very sure of your travel dates then the cancellation policy should not be much of an issue but if you ever need to change your travel dates remember that you can still get a credit for the changes if there is a change in price. 

Cover photo by Tom Hart via Flickr.