On Saturday, February 17 I was booked on an 8:00PM flight from Orlando to Providence, RI. There was due to be a large snowstorm in Providence at the time the flight was due to land. Figuring there was a good chance that the flight would be cancelled, I called Southwest on Friday and changed my flight to an earlier flight that day, paying 6,014 Rapid Rewards points as the difference.
The flight was indeed cancelled about four hours before scheduled departure.
I called Southwest Customer Relations to ask that the points be restored to my account as my original flight was cancelled. They refused because, as the woman I spoke with put it "you were ahead of the curve."
Moral of the story: Southwest penalizes you for showing foresight.
