In thirst for profits, Southwest enforces drink-coupon expirations

Southwest Airlines says it needs to “operate smarter,” so yesterday it began enforcing expiration dates on Business Select drink coupons.

The new policy, announced in the Nuts About Southwest blog, means Business Select coupons for free drinks will only be honored on the flight for which it was issued and can’t be used on subsequent flights.

For years, expiration dates on all kinds of drink coupons have been ignored, Southwest says.

“However, in an industry where the competition is always knocking (or banging) on the door and where watching the bottom-line is more important than ever , we owe it to our Employees, Customers, and Shareholders to find ways to operate smarter,” writes Mike Hafner, vice president of cabin services, on the Southwest blog. “We’ve reached a point where being so flexible with drink coupons has put us in a position of having far too many in circulation. To help purge the system of these excess coupons, we will start enforcing expiration dates on coupons over the course of the next year.”

In addition, Southwest says, Rapid Rewards drink coupons will soon have a “new look” with an expiration date one year from the date of issue. But, the current-look Rapid Rewards drink coupons will be good through Aug. 31, 2011.

Although Southwest is tightening up its free-drinks rules, the airline points out that unlike many other airlines it doesn’t charge for snacks — and, of course, first and second bags “fly free.”