Southwest Airlines Community

@chgoflyer wrote: Southwest is basically reinventing itself. It's really no longer a no-frills, low fare carrier -- that role has been taken over by carriers like Spirit and Frontier, etc. Now the focus is on offering the best "overall travel value." Interesting . That strategy seems to be working. I regularly follow another airline related blog. There's a discussion about Jet blue planning to add a deep discount  fare(Spirit like service) to it's portfolio. There's discussion about whether or not Southwest will need to do so to remain competitive ( since it seems everyone else is adding the "low" level of service option).   Another blog follower chimed in an basically confirmed what chgoflyer said:   "  I just did a cross country rt this week and chose WN with a connection over AA nonstop. And I'm a lifetime AA gold.  I had really exemplary WN crews on all 4 flights. Really service-oriented FAs. I get points that actually can be redeemed. I had a long connection and walked over to a random WN gate and asked the agent for a standby on an earlier flight and within 10 seconds I got an earlier flight boarding pass with a smile. I like to reward service instead of nickel-and-diming."   " ... View more

@fmb007xx wrote: The legislation you mention for DAL was changed recently, and lifted from what I remember.  They were flying direct to MKE all of last year.     https://www.southwest.com/flight/routemap_dyn.html   Even the site map says DAL to MKE is a direct flight.  Last year I also flew direct to SJD. No longer an option.   DFW, the AA hub, is a joke compared to Love Field. I'd rather go to the DMV than DFW!  But the legislation I believe was imposed to help DFW flourish. It's full now, been runing for years, and I THINK the legislation was lifted.   Maybe instead of calling our Reps, who are currently managing a media storm (this is the new norm sadly) we could just ask POTUS for an Exec. Order.   Actually I think the last date the legislation changed was 2006 or 2008.  Before that date the only places you could fly from DAL were states that geographically touch the state of Texas plus Kansas, Missouri and Alabama, and the latter states were only possible because their US Senators inserted that possibility into other pieces of federal legislation. You couldn't even legally  connect in those places to other places. The change allowed connections, but the limit of where the outbound flight landed went unchanged until 2014 -- when nonstop flights out of DAL to anywhere in the lower 48 were alloweed.   I'd be willing to bet Southwest would love to nonstop DAL to MKE, and have more than one nonstop o BOS etc, etc, etc. It just does not have the gate space to do so. That then forces Southwest to determine which routes provide the best returns. After all Southwest is accountable to it's stockholders. That situation apparently leaves a DAL/MKE (and lots of others, too) out of the picture for now.   Trump signing an executive order wouldn't do the job. The DAL restrictions are enshrined in federal legislation, and a president alone cannot undo that.   ... View more

@fmb007xx wrote: I've been a SW member for many years now, and am a frequent flyer (2 x a month recently).   But I've noticed that "supply and demand" is causing the vanishing of direct flights.  For example Dallas (DAL) to Milwaukee (MKE) used to be at least one direct flight a day (usually the early am one).  Now, every flight makes inconvenient stops in either Kansas City (not a nice airport) or St. Louis. .....       But like DAL to MKE (where every flight I ever took was 100% booked) and many other Direct Flights, the "Supply and Demand" factor is that having a connecting flight allows them to hustle more people on a per share $EPS basis at the cost of customer satisfaction.     Sorry SW, but until more direct flights are available, I won't be stopping over in KC and STL anymore.       In your post you mentioned one key thing that explains a lot: DAL.   I'm absolutely sure Southwest would want to add two whole handfuls of flight to a bunch of places -- but can't. There's a piece of federal legislation the limits the size of Love Field to 20 gates -- with no hope of expansion. So Southwest is limited to about 191 flights a day starting 2019 (it's flying about 180 now) out of the 18 gates it controls. The legislation even prevents Southwest from flying from DFW or McKinney by requiring Southwest to give up a Love Field gate for evey other gate it uses in the metroplex. The gate swap restiction expires in 2024, but the 20 gate limit does not.   So, you can help Southwest do what you want them to do. Get hold of your US Senator & Congressman and complain about the Love Field situation. Tell them you want them to suppiort legislstion to change it.    It just might do a bit of good. ... View more

@JAYS-1971 wrote: Accesing to your website in Europe and Mexico is denied.   Is this normal?   I am not the only one, and sincerely speaking SOUTHWEST is loosing the opportunity with international clients. I will not proceed with your suggestion (external IP address) as I have been advised by our IT Deparment not to do so. Please solve the problem from its origin. Please inform us if you are interested in having international customers like my self.   Best regards   JORGE ALBERTO YARTE SADA Yes, Jorge. This is a well documented issue. You won't get it resolved here becasue this is a customer to customer forum.        I'd suggest sending the company a complaint via e-mail Details about how to do that are on the top left of the contact us webpage:   https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US   Something that has worked for a few others is using the cell phone app -- IN CELL DATA MODE and NOT WI-FI.   Hope that works for you.   ... View more

well chgoflyer, I agree with what you said. The significantly higher WGA fares started becoming much more prevalent about 2 months ago. Now for the first time in a while, it makes sense to book hidden city travel. My next flight is a hidden city flight.   I noticed that Sotuhwest "skipped" the second of the two normal "real" fare sales this year. Normally one in June covers August to December, and one a bit later covers that period plus about te first 6-8weeks of the next year. The one in June sorta happened, but the later one never did. I say sorta becuse the sales are normally mileage based (trips under 500 miles cost x, 500 - 749 cost y, etc) This year the sale did not do that.     I have to wonder how long it will take the travelling public catch on. Load factors moving forward should be interesting to watch. ... View more

as Blake said, be sure to compare all facets of your flight -- seat fees, change fees, leg room, etc before you make a flight decision.   That beng said, sometimes Southwest is cheaper than the competition, and somtimes it is not. If the difference is big enough, pick the other guy.   Comparison shopping is always smart.     ... View more

@chgoflyer wrote: Keep in mind that "weather" is more disruptive to a point-to-point system such as Southwest's than it is to a "spoke-and-hub" one like most other carriers. The weather issue affecting your flight could literally be anywhere in the Southwest system that your plane was/is scheduled to be today -- it's not just limited to your departure or arrival city. I don't believe MDW has more actual weather delays on average than any other airport -- in my experience it's actually less prone to weather delays than O'Hare, for example     As mentioned above. weather could be affecting your flight at  places other than Midway. Right now there is rain stretching from Houston to Atlanta and then up the east coast to NYC. Also it apoears that a  front just rolled thru Minneapolis. Weather in any of those places is going to affect flights to/from those places (on Southwest and everyone else..  You've heard the downside of a point to point system above. There is an upside when bad weather strikes. If you are flying a connection from say Salt Lake City to St Louis on lets say United and there's weather in Denver, you are basically outta luck. On Southwest on the other hand, a Southwest connection could be routed thru 5 or more other cities to get you to St Louis   Hope you are on your way soon.   ... View more

The feds mandate that your luggage must be on the same flight you are. Now if the airline mishandles your luggage, the airline can put it on another flight so that it will catch up with you. So to answer your question: no you cannot send your  luggage on a different flight.   Now you could ship it as cargo. That would require visitng the cargo location and the payment of a seperate fee.   Southwest does a pretty good job of getting luggage to where it is supposed to be - even with a short connectime time. How soon after getting to Norfolk do you want to use your clubs? Worst case is Southwest puts them on the next flight.  ... View more

Sorry    to hear that this has happened to you.   Finding lost stuff is a large complicated process due to the volume of claims.  If just 1 in 1000 people loses something this year, that means that Southwest has to try to find 160,000 items. I'm sure there is a process involving a database where lost items are input into the databae and then found items are also added, and then the airline tries to match the two. The airline really does try, but probably does not have the resources to personally search for 160,000 items.   That being said, you do seem to have an advantage. You seem to know that your iPad is in Birmingham (you said Alabama so I made a presumption). So if I were you, I'd call the Birmingham airport, and ask for Southwest baggage claim. Explain your story and ask if there is someone who handles lost items that you can talk with. I don't know if it will work or not. It's worth a try. Other than that your only other option is to let the lost item process evolve. The phone number is   (205) 595-0533  Good luck. ... View more

Southwest employs a rolling update when it updates it's schedule -- it's not all at once. The process takes several hours.   Now two hour after your post, it is likely to have been completed. So you should be able to look at flights to the west coast. ... View more

as Blakke mentioned   1) Southwest says it will assign your boarding position 36 hours before Flight time 2) Southwest says you will get a better boarding position than those that check in a minimun of 24 hours before flight time (not counting people who cancel late and thus give up their boarding positions)   Southwest acutally does what it says it will do -- therefore no fraud. ... View more

I'm afraid not, Lorrie. Sorry.   Here's the wording from the Southwest website  (CAPS are mine):   "A Southwest gift card may be used for Passenger travel on Southwest Airlines. A Southwest gift card may only be redeemed at southwest.com, by calling Southwest Airlines at 1-800-435-9792 (1-800 I FLY SWA), and at Southwest Airlines ticket counter locations. Please note that a Southwest gift card is not valid for the purchase of Southwest Airlines Vacation Packages, cargo, hotel, rental car, Southwest Airlines Merchandise, EarlyBird Check-In, additional Southwest gift cards, OR INFLIGHT  PURCHASES." ... View more

I agree with you. It is not acceptable to have the airline "spring" the change on you at the airport and then deny you and your ESA boarding. That is truly unfortunate.   As the other poster said, perhaps  you can contact customer relations to discuss the matter. If you feel very strongly about the matter a letter to the president, Gary Kelly, might be appropriate. Kelly will probably not see the letter, but his administrative assistant probably will. It will get the appropriate attention it deserves.   Again, sorry this happened to you.. ... View more

Hello.    The problem seems to be that Chase was offering two DIFFERENT promotions at the same time.   One offered 10000 points and a $200 statement credit, while the other offered 40000 points.   You are not the first person to be confused by the situation.    Maybe Chase should only offer one deal at a time in the future...    That being said, since it is a Chase promotion, only Chase can fix the problem.  Hope the company treats you right. Good luck   Edit ad: Since Chase is trying to find a way to get you the 30000 points, it would seem that it would also try to get the $200 back from you, since the 40000 point offer does not provide cash back as part of that deal.  And yes, 30000 points is worth more than $200. ... View more

Every airline offers this type of buy miles get some miles free offer. In some rare occasions they make sense. Here's one of them,   I'm lifetime United 1K ( yeah that is possible - it's a long story), and United just sent me an offer to buy miles and get up to 70%  free (also 35% and 50% for lower levels), so I could purchase 30k miles and get 21K miles as a bonus for $1050.   Because United does not base rewards based flights on acutal fare, that purchase might make sense on United.  Economy RT's (to anywhere in the lower 48) cost 25k miles.   So, a RT Dallas/Chicago departing tomorrow points cost is 25k points - $ cost is about $800. So one could buy 51,000 points and get $1600 in flight value for $1050. Becasue I'm 1k, my only cost for a RT beginning tomorrow would be something like $11,50 for the TSA fee. Someone with no FF status would pay $160 in fees.   It might not make sense  for most advance purchase fares, but it sure would for unexpected no notice departures ... View more

This topic came up in a previous thread:   https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/International-Travel/confused-on-international-flight-schedules/m-p/79603#M1062       There are lots of moving parts involved in setting the systemwide schedule. I can only guess that the return from PVR had to be set to allow connections to other cities, but left DTW a victim. ... View more

Hi.   I am aware of the program, but have not used it.   I'm sure there is some time delay between asking for points and the time the points are actually awarded. Normally the program T&Cs specify that time period. I looked and could not find that information. How long ago did you make your submission?   Here's a link to the program terms and conditions.   https://www.mdmgames.com/flymorebuymore/register.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 ... View more

@davidjamesz wrote: After talking to customer service, I was informed that a person who checks in later can get a better boarding number this way if someone booked on the same flight cancels a their ticket, forfeiting their boarding position. This still seems fishy to me. That means that this person who cancelled their ticket would have had to CHECK IN to their flight and THEN cancel. Meaning in all actuality, someone could even purchase a flight the day of travel and still be given a better boarding posititon than someone who checked in ON TIME or even using the early bird check in. This just makes both checking in on time, and the early bird check in, unfair to those who either pay for the “convenience” or those who are diligent because they are forced to be. If you’re not an A Lister you don’t matter?  @     Hi David.   Actually the explanatin you received is plausible because both A List travellers and EBCI holders are assigned boarding positons 36 hours in advance of flight time. They just don't see those positions until they do check in.   So if someone in those those two groups of people  has been assigned position A26 cancels the reservtion 10 hours before flight time, then the first person who checks in (who does not already have an assigned boarding position) after that happens gets boarding posiiton A26.   So theortically, someone checking in 45 minutes before flight time could get spot A16    if the holder of A16 cancels 46 minutes before flight time.   It's no different than the situation on an airline with assigned seats. Someone checking in  late without an assigned seat could get a prime seat, if the holder of that prime seat cancels the reservation shortly before flight time - -even tough there were no "prime" seats avaialble the day before ... View more

Thanks for the heads up.   Your comment confirms what I was thinking when I send my invitation to my trash folder. ... View more

@DancingDavidE wrote: The link worked for me, but only in the same way that the usual RT functionality lets you book a different destination at the end.   I haven't had a need for this myself, If I'm stringing multiple cities together they are usually separate reimbursements and I would be choosing to make them all one-ways regardless.       You are right, David. Southwest would need to allow a 4 city option for the multi city option to be truly functional: A to B to C to A. It doesn't seem to do that. Absent that functionality, it still requires the purchase of two tickets: one to go from A to B to C, and a second ticket to go from C to A.   Tht being said, the multi city option does allow one to go from A to B to C  and back to A  with two tickets instead of three. ... View more

@jlh12 wrote: I am also upset about the new SW app.  I am getting ready to fly out to help with Hurricane Florence disaster, and I suddenly get a message that my SW is retired and I need to download a new one.  The new one is incompatible with my Moto X phone, and I am not going to buy a new phone to use one new app.  It still works with my other airline apps.  I specifically ask for SW when I get deployed because of the ease of the boarding process, but I will reconsider in the future.  This is just one less stressor that I do not need.  Please reconsider, since it looks like the majority of people in the community have an issue with this. Regretably, yours is a common complaint.   The problem is that with Android, as with Windows, software that worked with previous versions of the operating system do not work with newer versions. That's because the OS has changed. That in turn requires  software companies (in this case Southwest)  to redsign apps to work with the newer versions of the OS.   This situation forces Southwest  to choose between supporting the newer OS (which likely has more users), or the older OS (which likely has far fewer users). Auto update of cell phone apps means that if the old app is out there for download, then Android  9.0 users (he most current version) would auto download the "old" app, and then they would complain that their expensive brand new phones can't get the Southwest  app to work.   So the currect operating system situation forces Southwest to choose between supporting a larger group of users or a much smaller group. I'm sure Southwest would  prefer to continue to support Android versions up to 5.0, but it seems that is not possible in the current operating system environment.   Sorry.  ... View more

Sorry to hear that your laptop was stolen.    I suspect that video of the area is controlled by airport police/security, and not Southwest. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to contact them. I guess I'd call Midway's general number and ask for airport police: (773) 838-0600 ... View more

@Foundrel wrote: I just had an experience where I did not get a receipt email after making a reservation (I only got the itinerary email). I was shocked that you couldn't just log in to your account and get a receipt for an upcoming trip. Currently on hold...this stinks. And it is a waste of their internal resources to have service reps handle something that should be self-service online.  Hello.   One does not get two e-mails (receipt and itinerary) upon booking a flight. The itinerary e-mail contains all of the information one would expect to see on a receipt. ... View more

In addition to what the other poster said   1) Try to activate the phone's find me feature. 2) Call the number to see if someone answers. 3)Be aware the Southwest does try to reunite lost items with their owners. Sometimes it takes a while for that to happen. There's a post somewhere on the forums from a person who lost some photographs. They were finally found three weeks later. ... View more

Hi.   As Elijah said, being rebooked is never fun. There are a limited number of A boarding positions on every flight, and it is likely that people scheduled for the flight already have all of them.   It would have been no different on an airline with assigned seats as all the "good"  seats would have been reserved by people scheduled to take the flight.   Hopefully it won't happen to you again in the future. ... View more

@wjrobins wrote: I have been a FF member with SWA for several years and, after reading the posts regarding this issue, am now convinced that the SWA organization has absolutely no intention of introducing this trivial feature to its customer-facing web application.  I have also personally complained about this several times to SWA customer service representatives.    Given the fact that SWA's inaction is in their financial best interest - this seems to rise to the level of an unscrupulous business practice.  I will personally be filing a consumer complaint with the State of TX Attoney General's Office.  This is unfortunate given that I am a huge fan of SWA otherwise.  But - over the past few years - I know that I've inadvertently forfeited hundreds of dollars to this "travel funds black hole".    If interested - you can also file a complaint here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.  /consumer-protection/file-consumer-complaint.   I understand you are upset, but  you also  seem to understand a limitation in Southwest's capabilities to do what you want done. There is no unscrupulous business practice when the airline  TELLS YOU via e-mail that you have travel funds available.  You choose whether or not you want to save and use the information or not. ... View more

@trisatu1 wrote: This topic is shown as SOLVED.  As has been repeatedly noted, it is NOT solved ... the problem is with Southwest's system, not TSA.  Had it happen to me AGAIN, today.  And had the ditzy  agent tell me that it's (a) a TSA problem (it's not ... have verified with TSA, once again, that it's a problem with SWA's system, not TSA), or (b) "it's a TSA issue because you're not guaranteed to get precheck ... it says so on the TSA site ... " (that's a non-starter, BECAUSE, according to TSA, that only happens if there's a reason for heightened alert OR it's at an airport where pre-check isn't offered ... )"   The other non-sensical statement was that I only get pre-check because I'm randomly selected to get it.  If that's the case, and I do get it 98+% of the time (100% of the time with other airlines), why the heck would I even worry about entering my KTN ... ?     Calling SWA to get it rectified (as suggested in the FAQs) doesn't help, BECAUSE ... you'll get the same ditz that I got (or her equivalent ... who stayed on the line and starting laughing about my stupidity with a fellow agent ...).     People, where's the LUV?????  LET'S GET THIS WEE PROBLEM FIXED!!!!!!!! Hello. It's a bit difficult to understand your specific complaint.   Are you saying that you have a known traveller number, and that the number is listed in your Southwest profile? Are you also saying that despite the above that the number is not populating a reservation you've bought and thus your TSA number is not showing up on your boarding pass? ... View more

Aftrernoon.   Many flyers experience anxiety. Many have ended up here asking for advice. Here'sd a link to previous discussions with people like you. There are many good suggestions listed. Take a deep breath. Chances are very good that you'll do fine. Enjoy your trip!   https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/In-the-Air/Extremely-Nervous-Flyer-Flight-on-Thursday/m-p/80154#M956 ... View more