This was a horrifying experience I had the other day. Here I was, booking a fully refundable Southwest flight on miles to get a boarding pass to enter the Centurion Lounge after security at SFO, all is going well…and then I receive the mobile boarding pass by email, check, go to cancel the flight, and boom, I get hit with this:

Basically a nightmare. The end of an era – no more going to the Centurion Lounge at will, or being able to book multiple Southwest tickets and cancel anytime up to 10 minutes before the flight.

I was able to get this one resolved pretty easily by calling Southwest directly and telling them I had booked in the wrong name, and they canceled without any questions on the spot, but I’m worried this might be an overarching policy change for Southwest that will eventually hold true on phone calls as well as over the internet.

Here’s to hoping that’s not true, but for now, a warning for anyone who might be doing this little hack – YMMW, tread with caution.

I might try this again next week and try a few other things, like changing my flight first before canceling (suggestion from Tynan), so will see and keep y’all updated on the progress.