Change the name with Southwest
 

I had purchased 4 tickets from Southwest to a FL on huge sale for $150 and I need to change the name on one due to the change of the traveler.
I want to take my dd's friend and since I will lost the ticket anyway I wanted to ask her mom to pay for the name change only(I figured $75 is affordable for anyone.)
I had called Southwest and they said I will have to pay $300 to exchange the ticket.
I am shocked. Is there way to change the name for less? I can not tell her mom to pay $300. I know it is probably the way it will have to be. But I am still hopefull.

How did you lose the ticket?

Do airlines even issue paper tickets any longer?

You bought the tickets during a huge sale. Huge sale=Highly Restricted Ticket.

Probably no way around the $300 unless you find a sympathetic reservation agent.

Keep calling and asking.

I think it is not that are charging you per se to change the name. what you are really doing is canceling the original ticket, getting a credit for the $150 you paid and are trying to get a new ticket, which is probably at a much higher cost since all of the cheaper seats on that flight are gone.

To be sure, I would go to southwest.com, and plug in the dates of the flight and find the same flight number and see what seats & prices are available. I am pretty sure you won't find anything less.

They were good helping me recently with an issue, but it did not involve name change.

Hope this helps [or at least gives you insight]
Debi

I had not lost tickets. I have them.
It is $450 now. So like I said I need to change the name wich you right involving cancelling and buying the one for the higher price. But I do not feel it is fair. I had paid for 4 tickets.
What name change is actually changing for airline? How do they suffering from it? I will try few weeks later maybe.

Was it a "DING" fare.
These can get confusing because the booking agent really has no control over DING fares.
On an up note, if you just book a new ticket, Southwest allows you to keep the money you paid and apply it to a future flight...so you havent really lost the money. Just remember to keep your confirmation #.

Just wondering Fedora, are you someone zainy we know under a different name? Just call it serendipity or looney of me to think this if I am wrong.

Fedora, I think you are asking for something ("name change") that the airlines just do not do.

Tickets are issued for specific travelers; when one decides not to travel, that ticket may (if the ticket terms permit) be redeemed for credit toward another ticket, for the same traveler on a different flight or for a different person on the same flight. The airline then sells a new ticket at whatever price is available at that time.

OMG!!

Good call Debi!

It is LoonyZiana! I remember when she bought the tickets cheaply then yelled at us because she couldn't find reasonable accommodations during peak season in South Florida!

The reason you can't change the name is to prevent "scalping" of tickets.

If you could change the name on a ticket then brokers would buy up all the fares as soon as they were offered. They then could sell the tickets to whoever they wanted at inflated fares.

How about:

- The person changing his/her name to travel, and then change back?

- Fake ID?

;)

Yeah, fake ID is a great idea; all the kids know where to get one.

You can't change a name on a ticket. It has more to do with security than "scalping".

Gretchen please explain because I don't see how security has anything to do with this issue.

The name on the ticket must match the name on the official identification.

It is just as easy to create a fake document for John Doe as it is for Jane Doe.

Fedora (i.e. Looney/Ziana) is not saying she plans to just show up at the airport with the old ticket and the new ID. She is trying to get the airline to change the name on the ticket.

I don't see how security is impacted at all by this.

If I were you, I'd call their customer service line and explain the situation. They have helped me numerous times. # 214-792-4223, Monday - Friday 8-5??

saps has given a very logical reason why airlines don't allow name changes on tickets. Listen to him/her!

I don't know why this can't have to do with "scalping", or basically just reselling tickets. After all, if they have a rule that you can buy a ticket at a cheap price and then just change the name to anyone for a minimal cost (even a nonrelative, in this case), that would seem to allow any agency to do that. Fedora is basically selling the ticket to someone else that she bought in a different name because she decided she couldn't use it. So Southwest can't encourage this by making it easy or cheap for other people to be selling Southwest tickets.

I don't know about the security issues, but I have read that (although don't know if it's true, as they are basically allowing it but charge a lot more). I could see that might pertain if the airline has to send lists of passengers with info way ahead of time and have it checked. I didn't think they did that until very close to departure, though. Maybe it's just a suspicious thing to be doing, buying tickets and changing names, as if you can buy one for someone else to begin with (some name other than your own), I don't see the security issue, either, but it's also possible it is a govt-imposed security rule that doesn't really make sense (would that be a first), but it does make it more expensive or difficult to do such a thing, anyway.

Christina,
I am not selling a ticket. I am giving it away if they agree to pay for name changing. I think it use to be $75 with USAirways.
Thanks

That's why I book with initials instead of names. Just in case my husband can't go, I switch it to another family member. I have my own way of making duplicate names. Either making a double last name so when they show id it's Jones Smith, so it can go for Jones or Smith. hehe.

What I am saying is that the stringent rules on changing names on tickets occurred after security measures were tightened years ago. I can't and don't want to bother to go through some scenario.
But the rule is the rule. That is why before I hit "buy" on an intenet ticket site I carefully check all the names on the tickets.

Fedora,

It doesn't matter that YOU are not selling the ticket; the point is that if they make it cheap/easy for you to transfer a ticket, they also have to make it cheap/easy for anyone else (ie, scalpers) to transfer a ticket. There's no way to prove your intentions. Like several people have said, that's unfortunately what comes with buying a restricted sale fare.

Trust me, it seems unfair, but think about how expensive it is to get tickets to a sold-out concert. It is not uncommon to pay 1000% (10x) above face value. Now imagine ticket scalpers had the means to buy an already-pricey airline ticket and transfer it easily. It would limit the travel industry to a) those who have time to watch for sales and buy tickets the *instant* they go up, and b) the extremely wealthy.

"Security" may just be the official line on this. Like others have said, you can make a fake ID for any name, so it prevents little. It's more of an economical concern, not only for the airlines, but for the travelers.