Southwest Airlines has a very user friendly frequent flyer program. Making changes to reservation using money or points is easy to do. As an example I booked a one way flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale a few weeks ago.  This week the number of points needed for the same flight dropped from 8,520 to 7,680, which is 840 less Rapid Rewards points.

Here are the steps to get the difference in the Rapid Rewards points back:

1-From the Southwest home page log into the Rapid Rewards account from where the reservation was booked
2-At the top of the Southwest Airline website home page scroll over the “air” button with the picture of an airplane and click on “Change Reservation” the 3rd from the bottom on the list
3-Enter the confirmation number and the name of the person on the reservation and click “Continue”
4-Select the same flight with the new lower amount of points and click “Continue”
5-Click “Select New Flight”
6-Select the same flight that you originally booked and click “Continue”
7-You should see the change like this with the point difference in parenthesis and click “Continue”

New Ticket Total 7,680 pts $2.50
Fare Breakdown
Exchanged Ticket Total 8,520 pts $2.50
Difference (840) pts $0.00

8-Complete the form where required and click “I Want To Make These Changes”
9-The difference in the points should now be added back into the Rapid Rewards account

Since my flight is not until December, I plan to continue to check the amount of points needed for my flight and repeat this process each time the number of Rapid Rewards points drops. My flight is confirmed and if the number of points required drops after booking a flight, I benefit by having more points for another flight. This new system is a win-win system for Rapid Rewards members. Also at any time before your flight Southwest Airlines permits you to cancel your flight and have all the Rapid Rewards points returned to your account. All this and no change fees!